The History of Witchcraft is a much disputed issue. Although the facts of witchcraft’s ancient history seems to be vastly agreed upon by most witches, as well as scholars, the modern history is very garbled. Here, I present the indisputable facts. It is indisputable that witchcraft is the world’s oldest religion, and it lives in many forms all around the world, from the tribes of Africa to the modern Pagansim found in the Americas and Europe. With the vast majority of these religions, the principles remain the same; 25,000 years ago, Paleolithic primitives hunted for their livelihood. At that early time to these people, all nature was scary and unexplainable. So what they did was they made a god for everything; a god for the wind, a god for thunder and one for the sun, etc. Since hunting was the most important thing, the god of the hunt was born. Most of the animals hunted were horned animals such as the bison, gazelle and the stag. Therefore, the god of the hunt was soon depicted with horns. The people at this time chose to identify phenomenon and events that seemed to have a cycle with different gods. This was man’s first realization that there exists energies around us that can be manipulated and controlled, as well as appeased. This is why we worship our deities, we feel their energy and call on them to help us apply it, whether in meditations or in prayer or in spells. The Pagan or “heathen” religions seem to focus upon attunement, that is, making oneself one with the deity in order to prosper, while the Judeo-Christian religions seem to rely upon appeasement, serving a deity with the fear of being punished for doing otherwise. With the god there was also a goddess, for the primitive men saw in nature both male and female. The goddess was depicted as a female with large, swollen breasts and ripe, fertile, and pregnant stomachs. Consequently, these became their symbols of fertility. The goddess of fertility. Later with the knowledge of farming, the goddess also became the goddess of fertility over the crops. In time, primitive man learned how to store food for the winter. The horned god then became a god of nature, as well as the god of death. Primitive man had now developed a belief in life after death, and to follow their beliefs of life after death, had also developed a belief in rebirth. So the goddess became the goddess of fertility and rebirth. For the primitive man knew that life came from the womb of the woman. This early beginning of religo-magic came to be, and so a priesthood was born. These few where known as Wicca or "Wise Ones". They were everything to the people; from lawyer, to healer, to mid-wife to priest. These few were better able to lead the rituals of fertility, of the hunt and of the seasonal days that were being marked to be later known as the Wheel of the Year. Then Christianity arose, but not as fast as some would say. Christianity, a man-made religion that was not created over thousands of years but in only a few years, began to spread throughout the world. Slowly at first then gaining in power; and with power came greed and destruction. Except for the first thousand years or so since Christianity's birth, Paganism was still the prominent religion. Later, Pope Gregory the Great tried to mass convert pagans by building churches on pagan worshipping sites. At that time, most people were still pagan - so who do you think where building those churches? What the pagans did, was carve pictures of their gods and goddesses and other symbols upon the walls of the newly built churches. Such is evident today, as many churches still carry the ancient symbol of the Green Man. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII lashed out at Paganism and Witchcraft with the help of two German monks, Henrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger. This caused mass hysteria for almost 400 years. With the creation of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer) a textbook on how to interrogate a witch, they began their reign of terror. It is estimated by some that throughout this infamous period - which is termed by witches today as the "Burning Times" - that over 9 Million people were murdered. In the early 1950s, in England, Gerald Gardner was initiated into one of the last surviving covens of Wicca of that time. In 1950, mind you, England had very strong laws against witchcraft, and people who were self-proclaimed witches faced discrimination, the risk of being fired from their job, and being ostracized from their friends and family. Gardner did not want to see such a beautiful religion die out because of ignorance, so he proclaimed himself as a witch and wrote several book showing witchcraft for what it really is: a beautiful, nature-oriented religion based upon kindness and the cycles of nature. In 1951 the last law against Witchcraft was repealed. With his modern interpretations of an ancient tradition, Gerald Gardner took the helm and lead Witchcraft, or Wicca back from the shadow and into the light. Without him coming forward, who is to say where Witchcraft would be today? He was one of the forefathers of the Wiccan revival. Today Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions. How, you say? Well, since Wiccans don't convert I am asking myself the same question. But, I guess people are starting to break the bonds of ignorance and materialism and are looking for more, looking for their spirit and the growth of their spirituality.
