I was once a Christian, i later came to understand that i could not belong to one religion. Since then, my spiritual path has changed dramatically and i have gained great knowledge in areas of magick and energy healing. I am very curious however to understand the beliefs of the Christian witch. I have met a few on this website and i would love to know more about their beliefs in the Bible and Magick. Like; how do you perceive parts of the Bible that talk down upon magic and the occult? Would you say that "Christian Witches" are almost an entirely different denomination of Christianity?
Most of those quotes are not correctly translated. Plus, when the King James was published it was worded to forward the intersts of one man: King James. Try reading the Old Testament in a Jweish bible, where it was translated directly from Hebrew to English. It makes a world of difference.
I have always wondered why a Christian would choose the magical path of a witch. I mean, there are many Christian magical and esoteric paths. Why would someone feel the need to integrate two that are so different?
As a former Christian i have heard a lot about how the translations of the bible are rough in some areas, and how the Bible doesent really command that we stone gay people >:( However i was unaware of the passages pertaining to witchcraft, interesting.
The witches, cunning folk, folk healers, hedge wizards, wise folk, conjurers and pellars from the late Medieval period right up to the early 20th century were overwhelmingly Christian in their beliefs. It would have likely been a more folkish form of Christianity and mingled with various bits of folk and rural lore, probably including traces of the Polytheistic pre-Christian indigenous customs, but if you were a European witch there weren't a lot of other choices.
Until the Pagan Revival, which has its earliest roots in the Renaissance but didn't really grow until the late 19th or early 20th century, practitioners were Christian. Check out some of the charms and spells they used and you'll see them calling upon God (Yahweh), Christ, The Holy Ghost and the Saints. There are some excellent examples collected in 'The Black Toad' by Gemma Gary.
Also bear in mind that the Bible isn't the literal word of Yahweh dropped fully formed in laps of the early Church. It's a collection of texts which, as Tiredofgags has pointed out, has undergone various translations. As for James I he was terrified of witchcraft, although considered himself an expert on the subject and even published a book about witch hunting, 'Daemonologie'.
I come from a Catholic family so I've learned a fair bit so I'll give my viewpoint
As far as I know a lot of it isn't actually valid anymore as after the rebirth of Jesus many of the older teachings (Such as the anit-gay one) were no longer followed and as Tiredofgaggs has said King James changed a lot
I'm also quite sure (But I'm not sure so don't assume this is right) that the pope is allowed to make edits as he is meant to have the highest connection with God so he is said to be able to bring his teachings to peope
Assuming that it was the first book ever written as God created the world so this started from the begining of time then that would this mean it's extremely old so the original is probably completely long gone
If what you're reading isn't the original how can you even be sure any of it was from the original? There are no references or sources of any of this anymore as most/all are probably lost or broken beyond repair from all this time
I actually studied to be a minister at one point in my life. One of the things they make you do at Christian colleges is learn basic Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin. If you look at the original texts of the Leviticus where it repeatedly says 'witchcraft' is bad, the Hebrew word used actually means 'soothsayer'. A bit more digging will show you that the meaning was supposed to be fortune tellers.
Now, look at the ancient history for the Jews. At the time Levitical law was written, people would turn to 'soothsayers' or fortune tellers to tell them how to live their lives. These fortune tellers would commune with gods and goddesses other than Yahweh. One of the most famous statements in the Bible made by Yahweh is that he is a jealous God and that people should have no other gods than him. So the problem was not the use of divination, but rather divination reliant on gods other than him.
Here's where it gets good. The Jews had a system of magick called Kabbalah. Kabbalah does have its own forms of divination and they even have tarot. The difference is when Jews do divination, they are communing with Yahweh instead of any of the other gods. So there is the magick and its connection to Judaism.
And for the punchline, how it affects Christianity. Most people see Christianity as completely separate from Judaism. This is not the case according to Christ and the writings of the Apostle Paul. A true Christian who actually follows the Bible should know that they are simply what is called a 'completed Jew'. They are not separate from Gods Chosen People, but rather grafted into the family by accepting Christ. The Jews would have annual sacrifices for atonement. Christ was the ultimate sacrifice made for atonement. Some joke that the Jews killed Christ, but by them killing him they made the sacrifice for atonement and anyone who accepts his sacrifice as covering their own lives and thus grafted into the Hebrew lineage spiritually.
And the spirituality of the Jews involves Kabbalah. So by accepting Jesus Christ as your permanent sacrifice for the attonement of your sins, you are inheriting the Biblical right to use Kabbalah and all forms of magick so long as your Patron is Yahweh, your Matron is Shekinah (female aspect of Yahweh) and you have no other gods you commune with.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live - If there had been no witches, such a law as this had never been made. The existence of the law, given under the direction of the Spirit of God, proves the existence of the thing. It has been doubted whether mecash-shephah, which we translate witch, really means a person who practiced divination or sorcery by spiritual or infernal agency. Whether the persons thus denominated only pretended to have an art which had no existence, or whether they really possessed the power commonly attributed to them, are questions which it would be improper to discuss at length in a work of this kind; but that witches, wizards, those who dealt with familiar spirits, etc., are represented in the sacred writings as actually possessing a power to evoke the dead, to perform, supernatural operations, and to discover hidden or secret things by spells, charms, incantations, etc., is evident to every unprejudiced reader of the Bible. Of Manasseh it is said: He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times [, veonen, he used divination by clouds] and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, [ vechishsheph] , and dealt with a familiar spirit, [ veasah ob, performed a variety of operations by means of what was afterwards called the , the spirit of Python] , and with wizards, [ yiddeoni, the wise or knowing ones] ; and he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord; 2 Chronicles 33:6. It is very likely that the Hebrew cashaph, and the Arabic cashafa, had originally the same meaning, to uncover, to remove a veil, to manifest, reveal, make bare or naked; and mecashefat is used to signify commerce with God. See Wilmet and Giggeius. The mecashshephah or witch, therefore, was probably a person who professed to reveal hidden mysteries, by commerce with God, or the invisible world.
