Hi. I'm currently writing my dissertation for uni and my chosen topic is witch hunts and the reasons behing them and how they have evolved in modern society so i was wandering if anyone has had any negitive experiences due to being an 'out' witch. if you have it would help me greatly if you could either detail them here or if you dont want them publicly known then feel free to pm me instead.
thanks in advance to anyone who helps me.
well, I know that during the middle ages witch hunts were mostly due to Church officials (the Catholic church, obviously) mistakenly believeing that witches gained their power from selling their soul to the devil.
yeah that is true, also it was a way of rooting out the seeds of the supposedly 'untrue' religions that it is thought the catholic church of the time was scared of taking hold. some people even belive that is was nothing but a way for the self professed witch hunters to gain power!
My intrest is if there is still a fear of witchcraft in a modern society as there was in the times of wide scale witch hunts of if that fear has moved on to other groups such as homosexuals or terrists.
I believe there is still a fear of Wicca and Paganism. I got to see it first hand in high school. I knew a pair of Wiccan twins in high school (who honestly weren't well liked) that would use their religion to their advantage. If anyone started being mean to them they would threaten them with a hideous rash that the person would never be able to get rid of. Did most people believe them? Yes. I don't remember them getting picked on much after this. They were mostly ignored in fact. I'm sure them worshiping Satan was in there somewhere (I wasn't popular either so the rumors never came around to me).
I notice some fear towards me as well. It doesn't happen all the time but it is there. I got to see it just recently. I had been sitting in my college's student lounge quietly enjoying my lunch and studying. I had been wearing my pentacle that day and I am sure that people were easily able to see it even with my scrub top on. After awhile I felt like I was being stared at. I looked up and caught eyes with a young woman that looked as if she had been starring at me for awhile. She quickly grabbed a copy of the school newspaper and ran off like I was going to eat her head if she stayed there for long. If it was still legal I'm sure she would have called someone to come and do their own little witch hunt on campus.
I get the feeling these kinds of things are far from uncommon and happen to a lot more people than me.
ignorance leads to fear, fear to anger, and so the witch hunts of the past began, and so have all such persecutions of any peoples in the past, and so shall it always be
over 9 million people were killed as witches during the Inquisiton and 20 were killed in the Salem Witch trials while over 100 were inprisoned. 19 were hung and one stoned to death. The Salem with trials started when a i believe carribean ( i may be wrong) slave named Titchuba (totally spelled wrong) who showed a local minister's daughters egg white diviation. When the father found out he asked his daughters what was going on and they said, for fear of being beaten, that the slave was a witch and had bewitched them both. The minister questioned the slave and she admitted to selling her soul to the devil, a lie to save her from torture. The girls began to have fits of tremors and seizures, often barking and screaming, saying that their were still witches in town. For the first time, the two girls had power so they picked off the disliked town members as witches. Bridget Bishop (last name may be spelled wrong) was the first to be hung. The propaganda spread to other towns and new girls were claiming to be bewitched and accussing neighbors. they trials ended quickly but many inocent people were killed, and Salem is now the witch headquarters of the US.
Sorry i did this all from memory so some things may be wrong but i hope it helps :D
Only recently I was accosted by a Muslim man who thought I was Jewish because I was wearing my Pentacle. When I told him that the star of David has six points, and the pentagram only five, and that it was not Jewish but Pagan. He told me that I should be burnt to death. The idiot!
While I have never suffered any kind of abuse for being known as a witch, I heard Professor Ronald Hutton (Professor of History at Bristol University and acknowledged authority on historical witchcraft) speak at a moot about this very subject.
He said that most of the trials, at least in Europe, were instigated by village and town populace rather than the Church or authorities. This was at a time when infant mortality rates where high and people looked for reasons as to why their children were dying, the same with livestock deaths. With the belief in sorcery being so prevalent they blamed the deaths on witchcraft and petitioned the authorities to do something about it. Local authorities were actually rather reluctant to start accusing people of witchcraft and were cajoled into it by a grief-stricken and maddened populace.
I have a dear friend. In the last six months she and I have spent a lot of time together. She is a high school teacher, smart, funny, adorable. Her religion is Christian. Going to church every Sunday and Jesus is the number one thing in her life, everything and everyone comes after that. Living her life by the Bible.
Now, just about a two weeks ago I told her that my life path especially in the last ten years was based on witchraft and studied all kind of different religion, philosophy and pagan ways.
Her reaction was rather dramatic.
I have not heard from her since. The only email in one sentence I got from her that she is very busy.
Now after that in the last 6 months we have spent many hours together, several days a week, I think one lousy sentence in an email is an obvious difference.
I have noticed that here in Florida - I just moved here few months ago - people are very very Christians. So very Christians that they cannot accept or not willing to accept any alternatives whatsoever.
Apparently, being a well educated teacher makes no exception. If you grew up on the Bible, with the Bible, among people who did the same, finding out about someone that they are on a different faith (especially witchcraft), then I guess it doesn't matter what kind of person you are in their eyes, if you are a witch, you are bad.
It's sad. I hope she will come around, I won't bug her, but honestly it is not the first similar reaction I have got from people.
