Witches, What Are They?
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Witches, what are they? By: S.L. Drupsteen Profile and subject: E/M, history School and class: O.S.G. De Meergronden, H5T Monitor: Bart ten Dam Date: 15.02.2017 Witches, what are they? Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1. Witchcraft ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2 1.1 Short: What exactly is witchcraft? 2 1.2 What is the origin of witchcraft? 2 1.3 What was witchcraft like in the Middle Ages? 3 2. Witch-hunt ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4 2.1 What is the Hammer of Witches? 4 2.2 How did the witch-hunt start? 4 2.3 How were people accused? 5 2.4 What were the different tests? 5 2.5 How did the witch-hunt end? 6 2.6 What happened in Salem? 6 3. Magic ---------------------------------------------------------------- 8 3.1 In general: What is magic? 8 3.2 What are magical rituals? 8 3.3 What is the history of magic? 8 3.4 What is the connection between religion and magic? 9 3.5 What is white magic? 10 3.6 What is black magic? 10 3.7 What is animal magic? 11 4. Modern witchcraft ---------------------------------------------------------------- 12 4.1 What is Wicca? 12 4.2 What is the history of Wicca? 12 4.3 What is the connection between Wicca and Satanism? 12 4.4 What is Wiccan magic? 13 4.5 What are the rituals and celebrations of Wiccans? 14 Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------- 16 Introduction The topic of my PWS is witchcraft. I chose this topic because I think it is very interesting. I did not know that much about witchcraft or magic before, but I was always fascinated. Many people believe witchcraft is something dark and scary, including me. I wanted to find out if this was really the case. Something that interested me as well was the witch-hunt. In school we only learned that it was there in the Middle Ages. I wanted to learn more about this, why it happened and how they ‘tested’ the suspects. The subject I chose is history because witchcraft has been around since the dawn of time and changed during the course of history. The question I will be answering is: “Witches, what are they?” I will find information about witchcraft, magic, the witch-hunt and modern witchcraft and this will give me a broad picture of witches and witchcraft throughout history. My PWS is divided into four subtopics mentioned above. These subtopics will be divided into paragraphs to make it uncluttered. A mideaval picture of witches 1 1. Witchcraft 1.1 Short: What exactly is witchcraft? The dictionary states that witchcraft is sorcery and magic. This means that witchcraft is about using magical or supernatural powers. These powers were used to either help or hurt others. These powers included spells, making potions, but also specific rituals. 1.2 What is the origin of witchcraft? The first evidence of witchcraft dates back to the Stone Ages. On petroglyphs you can find weird human-like figures. These are medicine men or shamans performing magical rituals, mostly for successful hunting but also Zeus, a Greek god offering for helpful spirits. On other petroglyphs, people were depicted Human-like figures on a petroglyph performing religious rituals involving dancing in animal costumes. This belief in the supernatural was due to many natural phenomena that couldn’t be explained by science yet, so people turned to the belief in supernatural causes. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans also included magic in their faith. Instead of believing in one god, they worshiped multiple gods. The people living in this time needed the help of witches and wizards when they were sick or traveling, they would use spells and rituals in order to obtain the protection of the gods. Witches in ancient Egypt used their knowledge of witchcraft-rituals to bend the powers to their will. The Greeks had an entirely different form of magic, almost a religion, called worship. This was the practice of rituals Zeus, a Greek god performed with the intention of getting the blessing from the gods. Christianity soon spread across the Roman Empire, changing the daily life radically. The Dark Ages came around the corner, lasting 600 years. A lot of things fell apart, like the Roman Empire, and the only thing still standing was the Christian Church. People still went to witches and wizards for love potions or medicine, but not 2 for the protection of gods. In the Middle Ages (500-1500) the church wanted to ban this superstition called witchcraft. The people who still practiced witchcraft were called heretic, mostly because their beliefs and religion weren’t the same as Christianity. This is where the witch-hunt began. People started accusing others, mostly women, of practicing this craft. There were many ways to prove if someone was a witch, I will discuss these in chapter 2.3. 1.3 What was witchcraft like in the Middle Ages? Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Roman Empire and other catastrophes like the plague and famine, the Christian Church became a strong pillar in society so the role of witches and wizards became less important. But who were these witches and wizards? They were medicine men and shamans, men and women. They were often seen as very wise people. In the Middle Ages the witch-hunt started, caused by the Christian church. They banned witchcraft and a brutal murder spree started. A painting from the Middle Ages, picturing a magical ritual 3 2. Witch-hunt 2.1 What is the Hammer of Witches? The Hammer of Witches is the title of a book published in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. The book is originally called Mallevs Maleficarvm, which is the Latin name for Hammer of Witches. It was the first book about witchcraft, or as these two German monks called it: Demonology. The book described what witches were, what they did and how to recognize them. It was also described how to make a witch confess and how to punish them. The writers believed that if all witches were either killed or banished, it would put an end to all deadly diseases and wars. There is a list in the book of everything that witches could do, according to the monks. Here are a few examples: witches make people infertile, they kidnapped children and gave them to the The cover from the book 'Hammer of Witches' Devil, and they could hurt people and animals without even touching them, and so on. It is clear that these two monks disliked women, as they wrote: "Without women, the world would be in less danger. The most dangerous thing is that, nowadays, most of the women are witches." Inquisitors in later eras did not believe everything that was stated in this horrible book, but they did hang on to the idea that only women practiced witchcraft. They also held on to the gruesome methods to test and kill witches, for example by using the cauldron. 2.2 How did the witch-hunt start? In the early Middle Ages, poverty and famine were major problems. There were different epidemics, like leprosy and the plaque. People didn’t know what to think about it, because they had little to no medical knowledge those days. Subsequently there was a need for a scapegoat: the Devil, who was believed to be the cause of people’s suffering. As told in the previous chapter, after the fall of the Roman Empire the Christian church was thriving. Even though Christianity became the main religion, many pagan traditions continued to be practiced by the people. The Christian church did not have much knowledge of magic and its rituals, so they ruled that all of these traditions were the work of the devil. As a consequence the Christian church forbade the practice of magic; and ruled that anyone who practiced these pagan traditions, 4 magic and other forms of witchcraft was to be declared a heretic. They started a witch-hunt, which lasted from the 15th Century until well into the 18th Century. Hundreds of thousands of people who were suspected of practicing magic were tried, sentenced and killed, mostly due to false accusations and false proof. 2.3 How were people being accused? It is a big misunderstanding that the most brutal witch-hunt took place in the Middle Ages. It actually took place during the Renaissance. There are two periods where most of the witch-hunts were held: 1520 - 1560 and 1580 - 1650. In the Middle Ages the inquisitors were devout members of the church, whereas during the Renaissance any man could be appointed as a professional witch-hunter. These inquisitors received substantial fees by the proceeds of the suspect's possessions. This easy way of earning good money caused the inquisitors to as far as accusing even the innocent people. When someone was accused of being heretic, an inquiry would follow. There were many different tests to see if someone was a witch. After these tests were completed, if the suspect happened to survive the tortures, she would then be sentenced to death by using one of the brutal ways of execution listed in the next paragraph. 2.4 What were the different tests? First of all you had the infamous Heksenwaag, which was an enormous weighing scale made for women. When a woman was accused of being a witch, she was forced to undress and step on the scale. If this woman weighed less than 50 kilograms it was a proven fact she was a witch, because a witch could not be too heavy in order to fly her broomstick.