In view of this and the many other similiar hate-crimes taking place even as you read this, I present you to my piece on what is probably the most wide-spread and least-acknowledged form of religious discrimination against Witches and Witchcraft.

That’s right, Witchcraft is a religion. Which brings us to the first misconception-“Witches are Satanists.” Witchcraft is a pre-Christian religion, its roots being traced back to 25,000 years ago. The concept of the Devil wasn’t thought of until Christianity developed, so how could Witches worship the Devil?! What they did worship (and still do) was the God of the Hunt and the Goddess of Fertility. Since most of the animals hunted had horns, they pictured the God as having horns. Since the Christians’ Devil also had horns, they accused Witches of being Devil-worshippers. That wasn’t the only thing Christians did against the “Old Religion”. In an attempt at mass conversion, Pope Gregory the great took over old Pagan temples, smashed any “idols”, and turned them into Christian churches. He figured that if the people were used to going there anyway, they’d continue to go but worship his God instead. What he didn’t realize was that the only artisans available to build these churches were Pagans themselves. In decorating the churches, the wood carvers and stone masons cleverly incorporated figures of their own Deities so that if they were ever forced to attend, they could still worship their Gods there.

As time wore on, the fight against Non-Christians continued. Whatever the Witches did was turned around and used against them. They used magick to heal, promote fertility, and increase crops. The Church claimed they made people sick, women barren, and killed crops. One thing the Witches did was go into the fields on the light of the full moon and dance around astride ptichforks, poles and broomsticks, jumping high in the air to show the crops how high to grow. Thus came misconception #2-“Witches fly around on broomsticks.”

In 1486, the “Witch Hunter’s Handbook of the 15th Century” was produced. “Malleus Maleficarum”, also known as “The Witches’ Hammer”, was authored by two German monks, Heinrich Institoris Kramer and Jakob Sprenger. It told in detail how to discover and interrogate Witches.

Another book, “The Damned Art of Witchcraft”, describes Witchcraft as “The Church of Hell” and used a passage from Exodus XX: “Thou shall not suffer a Witch to live” as proof that God wanted all Witches to be killed. Doesn’t the Bible also say, “Thou shall not kill”?

Now we come to the infamous Salem Witch Trials. it all began in February of 1692, in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris. Tituba’s (his slave) main job was to look after his daughter Betty, and Abigail Williams, an orphan. Tituba entertained the two girls and their friends with tales of Voodoo magick she learned in Barbados, where she was born. One favorite trick she taught them was the homemade crystal ball. It was said that if you put an egg white in a clear glass, the shapes you saw would tell you of future husbands. Anne Putnam saw a coffin. Was it really her future she was seeing?

Mrs. Putnam had many children that died young. Psychologists say that children with dead siblings often feel guilty for being alive. Was this true in Anne’s case? If so, could her guilt cause her to see the coffin?

Anne started mumbling to herself, barking like a dog, and braying like a donkey. She scrambled under tables and chairs and made animal sounds. When she fell on the floor screaming and went into convulsions, her father rushed out to find Dr. Griggs, the town doctor.

When Dr. Griggs got there, he wasn’t at all surprised. He had just treated Betty, Abigail and two other girls for the same symptoms. Said the doctor, “The evil hand is on them.”

Parris tried curing the girls through prayer and fasting, but it didn’t work. He then called ministers from nearby towns for a meeting. At first the girls sat quietly while the ministers prayed for them. Then they threw themselves on the floor and made such a noise that the meeting had to break up.

One of the girls’ aunts, Mary Sibley, decided to take matters into her own hands. Since she knew Tituba could cast spells, she paid her a visit. In an attempt to help the girls, Tituba baked a “witch cake” and fed it to the Parris’ dog.

When Reverend Parris found out what she had done, he was furious. He said what they had done was like going to the Devil for help against the Devil.

Some people thought the Witch Cake had worked. The girls finally told of their meetings with Tituba and named Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne as Witches. Both Sarahs denied being Witches, but every time one of them looked at the girls, the girls would fall on the floor and have screaming fits. Tituba, however, after being beaten by Reverend Parris, admitted her guilt. “The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.” she said. Tituba was imprisoned.

Giles Cory refused to testify when accused of being a Witch, so they placed heavy stones on his chest in an attempt to get him to admit his guilt. At first he was silent, then let out a groan and died. His wife, Martha, had already been hanged for practicing Witchcraft during the Salem craze. More than 150 were arrested.

The Salem Witch Trials lasted from March to September. They ended when Governor Sir Williams Phips returned from a trip to Canada and discovered his wife, Mary, had just been accused. He demanded that the trials stop and all accused witches be released from prison.

On December 23, 1696, the presiding judge at the Witch Trials, Samuel Sewell, sat in mourning because his two year old daughter had just died. he asked his son to read something from the Bible, so he opened it at random and read, “But if ye had known what this meaneth: ’I will have mercy and not sacrifice,’ ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” Judge Sewell then confessed before the entire congregation of his church that he had been wrong in his judgements of the accused Witches and did penance for the rest of his life. Other people who participated in the Witch Trials admitted that they were wrong and in 1706, Anne Putnam read her confession:

“I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling Providence that befell my father’s family in the year about ’92: that I, then being in my childhood, should by such a Providence of God be made an instrument for the accusing of several persons of a grievous crime, whereby their lives were taken from them, whom now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons... I can truly and uprightly say before God and man, I did it not out of anger, malice or ill will to any person, for I had no such thing against any of them; but what I did was done ignorantly, being deluded by Satan.”

Salem wasn’t the only place accused Witches were condemned to death. Just one example: in 1586, the Archbishop of Treves decided that the recent severe winter was caused by Witches. 120 men and women were tortured into a confession. They were then burned to death. It has been estiomated that nine million people have been burned, hung, and tortured to death on the charge of Witchcraft.

Finally, in 1951, the last laws against Witchcraft were repealed. Since then, Witchcraft has come a long way. Witches appear on television, in radio shows; there are even courses on Witchcraft given in colleges. Witchcraft is legally recognized around the world as a valid religion. Even the Armed Forces has special religious rights for Wiccans. These are described in the Department of Army Pamphlet #165-13, “Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups - A Handbook for Chaplains.”

Even with all the legal rights Wiccans have, too many people are still mislead about them. Most books readily available to the public are Christians and other non-Wiccans. To give you a basic idea of the beliefs of Wicca, I’m including Appendix A of Amber K’s “How to Organize a Coven or Magickal Study Group.”

As you can clearly see, Witches aren’t the mean, warty old Devil-worshippers most people think they are. Quite the opposite.

If you’d like to learn more about the Old Religion, I recommend looking for books by Gerald Gardner, Sybil Leek, Ray Buckland, and Charles Leland.