#witchcraft elements
The religion of Wicca began in the 20th century. It has no roots in paganism, but is notably known for having been inspired by a myriad of different practices, specifically honing in on putting a modern twist on traditional practices.
It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.
To understand the origins of Wicca and how it became so widespread, we need to understand the Feminist movements that inspired its growth, such as The Goddess Movement.
(Gerald Gardner)
The Goddess Movement was one of the many ways in which witchcraft would begin to separate itself from the devil and its negative associations, and “Although the belief systems and practices of modern witches vary widely from group to group, there are generally consistent qualities: a female principle is deified, equal to or greater than a male principle; body and soul are interdependent; nature is sacred; individual will is sacred and powerful; time is cyclical; sexuality, spontaneity, imagination, and play are sacred and often incorporated into ritual; and the experience of pleasure is sacred–a positive life force. Worship can be monotheistic, polytheistic, or pantheistic.” (Dumpert, 1999), This is formally known as The Goddess Movement, and is a particularly modern view on witchcraft and Wicca in relation to its reclaiming into today’s world.
This movement describes the spiritual beliefs or practices (mainly in neopaganism) that grew as a reaction to perceptions of predominant organized religion as male dominated, and makes use of goddess worship and focus on gender and femininity. It is widespread and non-centralized and the practices vary widely. The Goddess Movement is also referred to by some as being a form of cultural religiosity that is increasingly diverse, graphically widespread, eclectic and more dynamic in process.
The goddess in this context is the same goddess worshipped in Wicca, which was explained in the article, however the goddess movement is not entirely Wiccan-based, nor is it bound to any other religion worshiping a female God. Instead it is a conglomeration of multiple religions and practices of worshipping femininity and female gods with the intent of redefining religion as something that is not male dominated.
Some, such as dianic-wiccans, exclusively worship female deities while others do not. It is shown that “In some parts of Europe, women believed that they participated in nighttime spiritual journeys led by the goddess Diana or by other supernatural female figures. These nighttime spiritual assemblies would dance, feast, and occasionally enter the homes of neighbors, rewarding the hospitable and punishing the slovenly. The wild ride with Diana was a form of folk belief in the “wild hunt,” a troop of spirits led by a female or male deity that rode out at night, striking terror in those who encountered it. During the Middle Ages, the Christian view of these beliefs changed. Early in the period they were seen as merely superstitious and mistaken, but towards the tenth and eleventh centuries they began to be considered heretical. The Canon Episcopi, a legal document of the Frankish kingdom issued about 900 CE, condemns “wicked women… who believe that they ride out at night on beasts with Diana, the pagan goddess.…Such fantasies are thrust into the minds of faithless people not by God but by the Devil.” Gradually, the folk concept of the wild hunt, with its feasting, music, and dancing, was transformed into the diabolical sabbat, a nocturnal assembly of witches under the direction of the devil where horrible acts took place.” (Russell, 2005).
Belief systems range from monotheistic to polytheistic to pantheistic, encompassing a range of theological variety similar to that in the broader neopagan community. Wicca has huge impacts on witchcraft because witchcraft directly derives many of the topics, ideas, and even practices of wicca despite not being religiously tied down to anything. Today, there are witches of many religions who still come together to worship and celebrate wiccan holidays as a part of their craft
Sources:
Dumpert, J. (1999). Witchcraft: Contemporary Witchcraft Movement. In S. Young (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion. Macmillan Reference USA.
Burton, J., & Magliocco, S. (2005). Witchcraft: Concepts of Witchcraft (L.Jones, Ed.). Gale In Context: World History. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from vol. 14, Macmillan Reference USA,2005, pp. 9768-9776
Picture of flying witches - https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-witches
Picture of Gardner - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gardner_(Wiccan)
Picture of nature and pentagram - https://www.history.com/topics/religion/wicca
Blasting it’s an all the term that was mainly used to describe which is who caused disruption in new crops, animals, and humans. as per usual, witches and Witchcraft were the scapegoat for anything that went wrong, are go they were fast 4 blasting despite the fact that, in reality, witches Heavenly support and worship fertility, nature, animals, and humans alike.
It is called blasting because its aim is to blast the witch’s power to certain place, the most typically the intense to destroy whatever it may be, however it all depends on intentions. More often than not, a Blasting rod is used to do this.
Here is a blasting rod from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in the Cornwall:
https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/object/wand-rod/
Here I will link a more detailed post by @barberwitch about blasting rods in particular: https://barberwitch.tumblr.com/post/182250716431/witch-tip-wednesday-12319
“In Paganism and Wicca, blasting and all other acts of harmful magic are considered unethical, a violation of the law, “An’ it harm none, do what ye will.” According to tenets of the Craft, Witches must use their powers for good, to help others and work in harmony with nature (see Wiccan Rede). In many tribal cultures, however, such ethical distinctions are not made, and blasting continues to be among the acts of Sorcery carried out against people, animals, crops and possessions.” - Blasting By Occult World
(Image: https://www.saatchiart.com/print/Collage-Skyclad-Witch-with-Familiars/469908/1659650/view)
Skyclad is the option of nudity during rituals in Wicca and Modern Paganism. This ritual dates back to the Roman Empire and was even done in the Middle Ages by some branches of Christianity.
https://www.mystiqamber.com/blogs/crystal-wisdom/things-you-should-absolutely-know-about-wicca
(Image:https://www.newcastleghostwalks.co.uk/single-post/witch-pricking-newcastle-witches)
In order to determine if a person was a witch and therefore a servant of the devil, persecutors would attempt to find an insensitive spot that wouldn’t bleed when pricked by a needle. Supposedly, the spot indicates the devil’s touch that occurs within which is supposed initiation. A pricker would be used to jab at the person’s body repeatedly until said spot was found.
Working mainly occurred in the height of the witch trials in the 16th and 17th centuries. The most commonly used instruments were dagger like tools typically used for drawing ribbons through hems or punching holes in cloth. Some other tools used however were needles and daggers. Very often those accused would feel pain and bleed when pricked on their witch marks, however the witch prickers would not stop at this and use their occupation as an excuse to torture the accused by repeatedly pricking the victims until they had no choice but to confess. Others still would alter the results by using prickers with a retractable ends or blunt points, creating the illusion of having found a witch’s mark.
(Image:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricking)
There are some which prickers who ended up being quite famous for their deeds, such as a Scottish witch pricker named Christian Caddell. A witch pricker was always male, which made Christian Caddell’s case a very Interesting one. This was because Caddell was secretly a woman posing as a man in order to terrorize communities by pricking, accusing, and sending to death many women and being paid very well throughout it all.
In fact, many prickers were paid extremely generously for their jobs, which unfortunately promoted even more deceit.
“The concept was that when a witch made a pact with the devil, a mark was left on the skin to show allegiance to the Dark Master. This mark could be large or small and could be found almost anywhere on the accused’s body. Often the mark was in a hidden area such as the armpits, under the eyelids, or in private areas and cavities. But how was it possible to tell the difference between a devils mark and a benign mole or freckle? To be able to ascertain the nefarious deeds of the alleged witch, a test was done whereby a skin blemish was pricked by a small and sharp instrument. If the spot did not bleed and did not cause any pain to the suspected witch, it was taken as proof of allegiance to the devil.” - Witch Prickers Were Paid Generously for Finding Witches By Doug Macgowan
https://www.tainmuseum.org.uk/article.php?id=4
https://www.realmarykingsclose.com/blog/scotland-witch-prickers/
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-20315106
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/014107689709000914
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25519442
https://www.historicmysteries.com/witch-prickers-inquisition/
Image: https://www.deviantart.com/vincent-engelmann/art/Witch-Boy-796388985
Warlocks are witches who betray other witches, however in media they are thought to be the male equivalent. This is untrue, as all genders are simply referred to as witches. Warlocks has a traditionally negative connotation of betrayal and negativity towards fellow witches, and it defined as an outcasted witch because of this.
There’s a certain perception of the word warlock claiming it as being a translation of a Saxon word meaning oath breaker. This word, wǣrloga, Also means traitor, liar, devil, and other equivalents. There have been attempts by some pagans to reclaim the word warlock, which brought about the popularity of a theory that the word may have roots in Norse mythology.
“In one of the poetic eddas, in The Saga of Eirik the Red, a sacred song called the Vardlokkur is sung, to ward off evil spirits during a religious ceremony. The idea is that the Vardlokkur, as applied to a person, is a “spell singer,” rather than a liar or oath-breaker. Included as part of the practice of seidhr, the Vardlokkur was chanted not only to keep evil spirits at bay, but also to take the singer into a trance-like state for the purpose of prophesying.” - Meanings and Use of the Word “Warlock”
In this case, the word warlock would instead see the name for a specific type of magic involving music (specifically singing). These attempts, however, are not entirely widely known, so those who call themselves warlocks are still debated against by other witches. But all in all, the reality of the situation is that words such as this are extremely hard to trace back to their core roots, so it has become much more widely accepted that warlocks is simply a negative term instead of a positive one. This is especially the case seeing as music which is already exists and call themselves just that or they call themselves art witches.
“Though some may go by “Wizard” or “Warlock,” the majority of men involved in magick, Paganism and Wicca are happy to be known by one familiar term: witch… As for the whole wizard/warlock differentiation, there’s some debate. By Wicca Daily’s definitions, most witch-related terms are gender-neutral, but they do indicate skill, seniority and ethics. A wizard could be any witch of advanced skill, while sorcerers are the most advanced, elite of the wizards. Warlocks, however, are distinctly male –– but not male witches. Instead, warlocks are evil male practitioners of magick, traitors of the art. The female version of a warlock might be called a wicked witch, says MysticInvestigations.com.” - Just What is a Male Witch, Anyway?
http://wiccadaily.com/witch-wizard-or-warlock/
https://www.learnreligions.com/warlock-word-meaning-and-uses-2561729
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/just-what-is-a-male-witch-anyway
The Würzburg witch trials of 1625–1631, which took place in the self-governing Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg in the Holy Roman Empire in present-day Germany, is one of the biggest mass trials and mass executions ever seen in Europe, and one of the biggest witch trials in history.
The 15th and 16th century had prominent witch hunts, but no one in America talks about them nearly as much as they talk about Salem. Salem, evidently, has become a sort of attraction. There is nothing wrong with bringing up topics as this for educational purposes and getting people interested and excited about learning of history, however it is undeniable that America, specifically the United States, widely ignored the Germanic witch trials. It even barely acknowledges the trials done in England, which were small in comparison to the atrocities committed in Germany during those witch hunts.
“ The height of the German witch frenzy was marked by the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”), a book that became the handbook for witch hunters and Inquisitors. Written in 1486 by Dominicans Heinricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenge, and first published in Germany in 1487, the main purpose of the Malleus was to systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft did not exist, to refute those who expressed skepticism about its reality, to prove that witches were more often women than men, and to educate magistrates on the procedures that could find them out and convict them. The main body of the Malleus text is divided into three parts; part one demonstrates the theoretical reality of sorcery; part two is divided into two distinct sections, or “questions,” which detail the practice of sorcery and its cures; part three describes the legal procedure to be used in the prosecution of witches.“ - Witch Trials in Early Modern Europe and New England
https://streetsofsalem.com/2011/10/24/german-witches/
“… [The] clerical/political leaders of territories like Eichstätt, Bamberg, Würzburg, Mainz, or Cologne harshly hunted witches, often by violating civil rights of the accused. Torture could be carried out on hearsay evidence from as few as two witnesses, and contrary evidence by equally valid eyewitnesses could be ignored. Although imperial legal codes were supposed to prohibit repeated torture, professors and lawyers argued that further bouts of torture were a mere continuation of the first application. Tortured victims produced fantastic stories and accusations that fed the frenzy of the hunts. By about 1630 this wave of persecutions petered out. Many critics had raised voices against the entire practice of hunting witches. Friends of the persecuted had appealed to the emperor and institutions of imperial government like the Imperial court in Speyer or the Diet which in turn called for a halt. And many of the biggest foes of witches simply died. Witch hunts throughout the empire would continue to sporadically break out until the witch laws were revoked in the eighteenth century. Authorities legally executed the last witch in the empire, Anna Maria Schwägelin, in 1775.” - A Witchy Hunt: Germany 1628
Here is an educational game about the Germanic witch hunts: https://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/hunt/index.html
It goes into detail into what the torture was like and what the logic of the time was. Here is an example of some of what it tells in the story you partake in.
“The judge in the middle says, “We need to be more sure about your connection to witchcraft. You will be examined for the devil’s mark.” The armed men take you to a small room. They take off all your clothing. You are too frightened to protest. An official takes a long needle and begins pricking you.He pokes it into your skin. You are too afraid to say something wrong. You barely flinch, even when he sticks it into unmentionable parts. Blood spots your skin.
The man with the pricker says to the guards, “I have incontrovertibly found the devil’s mark on this person!"They allow you to put your clothing back on. Then they escort you into the courtroom again. You stand before the judges. The judge in the middle says, "We now have serious and certain evidence that you are a witch. Further questioning on the matter will be done by our appointed magistrate. Guards, take the prisoner to a cell."The armed men take you by the arms and lead you out of the courtroom, through the courthouse, to stairs that lead down.“
https://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/hunt/whbg.html
