A Secret History: Witches & Witchcraft Part 2: The Burning Times.

     Hello! Welcome back to my blog. Today in Part two of my research on witches and witchcraft, I bring to you a small sampling of what these poor people went through while being hunted and persecuted for hundreds of years. Now, remember their only real crime they ever committed was being a witch, someone who up until the spreading of Christianity had been a highly respected member of society. Banished to live in solitude or on the run, these women (and Men) continued to practice their beliefs even with the threat of torture and death. Of course, when captured they usually always capitulated to the whims of their torturers, telling the inquisitors everything they wanted to hear, thus fanning the flames of the Burning times. Torture is unreliable and not a good way to get real information but the again in those times, that didn’t matter, it actually worked in the Church’s’ favor, of course these witches didn’t consort with the devil or have orgies with demons (well some of them may have but the majority were just faith healers, midwife’s and shaman) but when the torturer got a hold of them they would break and say whatever was necessary to stop the pain. The sad fact was the vast majority of these people who confessed under torture we still executed. I will now share with you what the Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft has to say about The Burning Times:

Burning Times: A term used by contemporary Witches and Pagans to refer to the period in Western History of intense witch hunting and executions, generally the mid-15^th century to the mid-18^th centuries.

Burning, one of the most extreme forms of execution, was urged by St. Augustine (354-430), who said that pagans, Jews and heretics would burn forever in eternal fire with the Devil unless saved by the Catholic Church. During the Inquisition, charges of witchcraft were used against heretics, social outcasts and enemies of the church. Such individuals were declared to have renounced God and formed a pact with the Devil.

Since fire is the element of purification, nothing less than fire could negate the evil of witchcraft. Jean Bodin, a 16^th century demonologist, stated in De la demonanie de sorciers:

Even if the witch has never killed or done evil to man, or beast, or fruits, and even if he has always cured bewitched people, or driven away tempests, it is because he has renounced God and treated with Satan that he deserves to be burned alive….Even if there is no more than the obligation to the Devil, having denied God, this deserves the most cruel death that can be imagined.

     Not all witches were burned at the stake: hanging was the preferred means of execution in England and the American colonies. In France, Scotland and Germany, it was customary to strangle condemned witches first, as an act of mercy, by either hanging or garroting, and then burn them to ashes. Nonetheless, many were burned alive, especially if they recanted their confession at the last moment or were unrepentant for their “crimes”. The expenses of the burning, along with all the expenses of the trial, were billed to the deceased’s relatives or estate. Witch lynching’s and burnings continued sporadically until the late 19^th century in England, Europe and Latin America. There are no reliable figures of the numbers of persons burned or otherwise executed for witchcraft. Estimates by historians range from a few thousand to 200,000 or more. Wiccan and Pagan authors have cited 9 million as the number of victims, but this is a grossly inflated figure without evidence of support.

The burning of a witch was usually a great public occasion. The execution took place shortly after the sentencing, just long enough to hire an executioner, construct the execution site and gather the fuel. In Scotland, a witch burning was preceded by days of fasting and solemn preaching. The witch was strangled first, and then her corpse, or sometimes her unconscious or semiconscious body, was tied to a stake or dumped in a tar barrel and set afire. If the witch was not dead and managed to get out of the flames, onlookers shoved her back in. Records of trials in Scotland report that burning a witch consumed 16 loads of peat plus wood and coal.

The term burning times also refers to any threatened prejudice against or persecution of Witches and Pagans by other religious groups, law enforcement agencies, employers, politicians and others. (Taken from The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft, 2^nd edition, Rosemary Ellen Guiley)

     I apologize for the lengthy entry, but it was necessary. So in just a few hundred years upwards of 200,000, possibly up to two million people were killed by the Catholic Church or its representatives for practicing a religion other than their own! The other thing is that it was common knowledge that any enemy of the State or Church could be accused of being a witch. Just being accused was a death sentence and it was an easy way to get rid of political enemies or just someone people didn’t like. Those in charge used fear and misinformation to cause wide spread panic and to legally kill hundreds of thousands of people. The last time a group of people were subjected to that sort of treatment were given an entire country (Jewish people after WWII) and are still given reparations to this day. Why is it okay for a church or a government to get away with killing so many innocent people? I know the Church was frightened of those wise men and women who held onto the old ways and refused to convert, and they did everything in their power to destroy them and all knowledge of the old ways. I am glad they failed but you need to keep thinking of how much control and power the Church and their allies truly had during those times. As I have stated in my last post, it has been established or at least strong evidence exists that the Salem witch trials in America was all about the local vicar wanting some land owned by a widow who refused to give it up. The entire witch thing was a cover up for an ultimate land grab by the Vicar and his church! He ended up getting a little greedy and numerous innocent people lost their lives. There are still cultures in Africa and a few in Europe who are still convinced that witches are evil and still persecute those who practice the old ways.

This is what angers me so much, how can one institute run by a group of power hungry leaders influence the affairs of people so easily? It is still happening today. As I have mentioned in prior blogs, witchcraft was illegal in Britain until the 1950’s and Canada until the 1980’s! How can anyone think they can ban a belief? The real problem is that people are afraid of the unknown and instead of taking the time to research the facts for themselves they cling to every word a peer or someone in power tells them. If the church says witches are bad, then witches are bad, no question asked. What if Emperor Constantine had not converted the Roman Empire to Catholicism? Would Catholics still be around? They were persecuted for their beliefs, thrown to lions and crucified. Hundreds of thousands to millions of people were killed just because they believed in something older than a brand-new religion created by man.

     In conclusion, there is still prejudice against Wiccans and Pagans or anyone who doesn’t believe in a “mainstream” religion. The truth is their beliefs have been around for thousands of years before the Catholic Church, Christianity or even Islam was invented. Modern religion is nothing but a crutch and an instrument of the elite to keep people in control. How can anyone put their faith in a book written by men thousands of years ago, the Bible is just a brainwashing tool created to further the cause of the Christian community. I don’t care who or what you believe in but keep it to yourself, don’t push your beliefs or religious thoughts upon others and for God’s (if he exists) sake don’t persecute or kill people just because they believe in something different! I try to put myself in the place of someone back then who practiced or believed in witchcraft, would I still do it? Would I be afraid? Could I have stayed true to my beliefs after being tortured? I am going to end this with this thought, would you still practice your beliefs if they could get you killed? Would you be able to keep your faith after torture and persecution? Could you just convert to a new idea and forget the old ways? The spread of organized religion is a true litmus test of how awful and evil humans can be just to get and keep their power. I feel very badly for all of my brethren who were killed for their beliefs, they are the true martyrs of this world. You don’t need a guy with shiny robes and a fancy book to tell you how to live and how to pray, there is only one rule all humans should follow and that is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would do unto them. Did you know the Wiccan creed is : Do no harm and do as ye will. Or variations similar to that. It isn’t hard, just leave people alone and they will leave you alone. Pray to your God and let me pray to my Goddess. We are all the same species from the same Family tree we should be helping each other not hunting them down and burning them to death because they don’t believe in the same thing as you. I am a proud Wiccan/Pagan and I do admire anyone who isn’t afraid to stand up for what they believe in and I do feel very badly for those people who are still being brainwashed into believing what the church tells them. If the Pope really cared about people he wouldn’t sit on a golden thrown and admonish the common people for being greedy. He would live in poverty and be happy helping others. Just like all these tele-evangelists who preach the word of God while they fly around million dollar jets and live in mansions. Who do these people really work for?

Have a great day and I hope I haven’t offended too many people today. See you soon for another great chapter of Witches and Witchcraft.

above image: I'm not sure who this lady is but this is the kind of ignorant crap I am talking about. I would invite this woman to attempt to burn me at the stake. horrible people like this are everywhere and they are the reason there are things like the burning times, the holocaust, etc...