Hello, my loves and welcome to WiccaNow! In this post, I explore the question ‘What is Witchcraft’. Join me as we find the fascinating answers to all of your witchcraft-related questions.
If you are looking for more witchy 101’s, check out these posts on spells, our love spell 101, our guide to money spells, a guide to making a banishing oil, and this post about candle magic.
What is Witchcraft – When Did Witchcraft Begin?
Many people write to us wanting to know the origins of witchcraft. Where, they ask, did it come from? What is Witchcraft really? Is witchcraft a cult of devil worship? A delusion? A mass hysteria? I can honestly say that is none of the above.
The word ‘Witchcraft’ has its origins in England where was used from the 12th century until the close of the 17th century to describe a person who used spells and charms to accomplish certain ends. The term ‘witch’ appeared to be the result of an amalgamation of various components drawn from folklore.
These elements were “fused together with the conceptual glue of ‘demonic pact”. During this time, witches were assumed to have abandoned Christianity and to worship Satan. Through labelling someone as a ‘witch’, religious and political groups, as well as ill-intentioned individuals, were able to exercise a system of subjugation and control over the people whom they perceived as a threat. People were seen as threatening, due to their abilities as healers, because of their divergent beliefs or simply because they did not ‘fit’ into the roles which society had deemed as being acceptable.
Labelling a person as a ‘witch’ left them vulnerable to attack and open for persecution. The persecution of ‘witches’ often resulted in torture and death. The witch-hunts and inquisitions which took place from 1450 to 1750 are thought to have resulted in 35,000 – 100,000 deaths. Most of the people killed during this time were women. Possibly the most notorious witch trial of all is that of Joan of Arc. Joan was burned alive at the stake after having been accused of being a witch in what was later deemed to have been politically motivated and unlawful trial.
Witchcraft itself is steeped in mystery and hidden in antiquity. There are few written sources describing witchcraft and those that do exist are often obscure and difficult to make sense of. We can find traces of witchcraft and magic in old Norse legends and an Arthurian legend has it that Arthur’s half-sister, Morgan la Fay was a witch.
Much of what we now understand as ‘witchcraft’ is simplified and unsophisticated in comparison with the lost witches lore burned during the inquisitions. Witchcraft itself has long been associated with cultural stigma and even recently, to call a woman as a ‘witch’ was considered a grave insult.
Up until 1959, the ‘Witchcraft act’ which prohibited the practice of witchcraft remained in force in Britain. In 1959 the ‘witchcraft act’ was repealed by British courts. Following the repeal, witchcraft has undergone a worldwide renaissance and interest surrounding the topic seems to be following a sharp upward trend.
What is Witchcraft?
Modern understandings of witchcraft have been largely shaped by people such as Gerald Gardner, Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune.
According to Gerald Gardner witchcraft can be divided into three categories:
- Those who believe that witchcraft is a mass hysteria resulting from psychological causes
- Those who believe that witchcraft is real but centred around the service to Satan
- Those who maintain that witchcraft is the remains of an old Pagan religion, dating back to the stone age and that the church’s persecution of it was because it was a dangerous rival.
Gardner claims that there are still witches practicing the craft today who are direct descendants of ancient witch families. He believes that these witches have inherited ancient knowledge but that they remain highly secretive and that their knowledge remains largely hidden.
Garner also writes that witches believe in reincarnation with a common saying amongst witches being ‘once a witch always a witch’. Although much of the ancient knowledge of witchcraft has been lost or destroyed, Garner believes that the real knowledge can never be lost and that it will continue to find its way into human consciousness life after life.
“The witch is the babe in the womb and the child in the arms of the mother. She is the maiden racing through the sun-drenched fields and dancing coyly in the moonlight. She is the eternal women in the arms of her lover, the mother giving birth and caring for her young. She is the old one sharing her knowledge and love with…
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