A Short History of
Witchcraft
From the Coven of the Fyrie Skies
The Craft, or alternatively, Wicca,
Witchcraft, or Paganism, has been traced
successfully through
a 25,000 year history, by Dr. Margaret Murry.
The Craft originated in the ancient past, and
has
maintained a more or less unbroken line to
the present. The Craft was born out of the
ancient
Animistic cults of prehistory, where a God
controlled the wind, rain, hunt, waters,
etc... It was in
this time that Magic first mixed with the
beginnings of religion. This early Magic was
likely of the
sympathetic variety.
Together with the God, the Goddess evolved,
and Fertility was her domain. The Fertility
of the
animals and the peoples that hunted them was
important to the continuance of the race. The
God
has changed little over the intervening
millennia, while the Goddess changed
dramatically with the
advent of the agricultural society, and the
Goddess expanded to cover the Fertility of
the crops.
The year then fell into two halves, the
Summer, when the Goddess and the crops
predominated,
and the Winter, when the people had to revert
to hunting and the God predominated. With the
Goddess and the God of hunting growing in
power in the society, as the chiefs among the
deities,
the other Gods fell into secondary roles, and
were then, finally, forgotten. As the race
spread
across Europe, the Goddess and God were
carried with them, and as the nations rose,
and
languages changed, the Names of the deities
changed, but the essential force of the
deities
remained the same. The Celts, Heathens,
Nordic, Greek, Latin's, and all the other
races have the
same Goddess and God at the center of their
religions.
With the development of civilization and the
the learning of the ability to store food,
hunting
became less important, and the God took the
role of God of Nature and the Wild Places in
general. The Goddess grew into both the
Goddess of Fertility and the Goddess of
Rebirth, as life
after death and reincarnation had evolved in
the religion. As time progressed, and the
Rituals
became more involved, a Priest class
developed to insure the Rituals were carried
out properly
and the knowledge was carried on. These
people became known as the Wicca, the "Wise
Ones."
The power of the Wicca was such that it
infused the entire religious and political
structure of the
nations. The Kings of Anglo-Saxon England
would never make any important decision
without
consulting the Witan, the Council of Wise
Ones.
With the coming of christianity, there never
was the mass conversions that the christians
claim.
While whole nations were classified as
christian due to the fact that the leaders
had converted, the
populace, in general, kept the old ways. The
most important attempt at mass conversion was
imposed on the Wicca by pope Gregory the
Great. He ordered the construction of new
churches
on the sites of the old temples and the
creation of new holy days on the Wicca
Sabbats.
In reality,
the attempt was only partially successful,
for the only available craftsmen to build
these temples
were the Wiccan, and these craftsmen very
cleverly hid their own Goddess and their God
in the
decorations of these churches. That way, when
the Wicca were forced to worship here, their
Goddess and God images were also present. It
was at this time that Lucifer, became the
Horned
Satan, the new christianized image of the
Horned God, and the Virgin Mary, Mother of
God, was
Sainted, a new christianized Image of the
Goddess. The charge of Devil Worship is
therefore a
contrivance of the christian church in an
attempt to eradicate it's rival for the
attentions of the
populace.
The contrived god of the new religions is
the god of a complex civilization, developed
to control a rebellious people, rather than
the loving embrace of the people, as they
are, that the
more Human Old Gods offer. As the influence
of the new religion grew, through force of
arms, the
Old Ways only survived in the outlying
districts and counties.
These people became known as
Pagans, from the Latin Pagani meaning people
who live in the country and the Heathens,
which
means one who dwells on the heath. The
derogatory connotations are again undeserved
and a
contrivance of the new religion.
The persecution of the Old Way continued and
grew with the advent of the Papal Bull
against
Witches of pope Innocent the VIII, in 1484.
Two years later, two infamous German Monks,
Hienric Isnstitoris Krammer and Jacob
Sprenger, produced the most baleful
contrivance of of
anti-Witchery ever produced, the Malleus
Maleficarum (the Witch Hammer).
In this book they
provided definite instruction for the
persecution of Witches. Although this book
was never
accepted by the appointed church censor, the
approval was forged by the authors, and then
the
hysteria spread like wildfire throughout all
of Europe. The forgery was not discovered
until 1898.
Throughout all of Europe, the new religion
used Witchcraft as an excuse to murder any
people
they felt were an enemy of the church. The
old, invalid, mentally ill, women, healers,
and of
course, the true Witches.
Since the Witches held fertility as an
object of great importance, the
christian Judges gave these sexual rites
unnecessary prominence and seemed to delight
in the
prying, often through torture, the details
concerning them from those accused of
participating in
them.
The religion of Wicca is an extremely happy
and joyous religion that was totally
incomprehensible to the dour and repressed
inquisitors and reformers.
The total estimated number
of people burned, hung, or tortured to death
on the charge of Witchcraft is nine million.
It was during these times, the burning times,
that the Craft began to go underground, for
safety.
Also the members of the Craft realized that
the Craft was in danger of losing it's
knowledge, as
the Craft was being so mercilessly hunted and
killed.
The High Priestesses and High Priests began
to keep records of the Rites, Rituals, and
esoteric knowledge. These books of the Craft
were
kept hidden from the enemies of the Craft,
they were kept "in the shadows" and it was
thus that
gave rise to the term for the Witch's Book as
the "Book of Shadows".
It the Burning Times there
was but one such book in a Coven, and all
were contributors, but with the resurgence of
above
ground Witchcraft in these modern times, it
has become accepted for each individual
member of
the Craft to have their own personal Book of
Shadows, which is, in the view of the Coven
of the
Fiery Skies, a very good thing, as this will
help ensure the dissemination of reclaimed
knowledge,
and thereby help insure that it is not lost
again.
Modern Witches still use this as the title
for their
book to Honor our lost Sisters and Brothers.
The Coven of the Fyrie Skies encourages each
of
it's Witches to both maintain their own
personal Book as well as contribute to the
Coven's Book
of Shadows.
By the late seventeenth century, the Craft
was well underground, as it was also illegal
to be a
Witch, as well as against the Cannons of the
church. In 1951, the last of these laws was
repealed,
and the first Witch to speak up in defense of
his religion was Gardner, and through him,
all of
Witchcraft was able to resurface, in its many
forms.
Now there are many Covens out in the open,
and many many more still in hiding, fearing a
resurgence of the persecutions.
In America the first
Witch to come forward was Raymond Buckland.
Sybil Leek and Gavin and Yvonne Frost
followed in his footsteps, then a rush as
more and more Covens came out into the open.
Now,
even the US Army, with the publication of
Army pamphlet 165-13, A Handbook for
Chaplin's,
recognizes Witchcraft as a Religion!!!!
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