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The witchhunts, the burning times are an abomination unto European history and our collective consciousness. However is is a ground of much unquestioned assumption and heresay. This little post is to hopefully bring discernment over some aspects of the matter.
Part of the 'new dogma' of neopagan spirituality is the assertion that 5 million women were burnt alive in Europe during the witchhunts. Surprisingly, this idea is not founded in any evidence but ,rather, a deep and essentially contemporary outrage in the collective consciousness toward tyranical oligarchy (for 'patriarchy' - as if every man were implicated - but I argue the problem is more a form of tyranny where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society) - which is often attributed in some way to Christianity .
"The so-called great European witch-hunt has been a much-vexed issue, one easily contorted to suit the prejudices of every age" - Sandra Miesel
The body of evidence around the witch hunts leads to a bit of a different take on events, where it is neccesary to again OWN the shadow of our human nature rather than projecting it upon an external authority 'doing it to us'.
The earliest reference to 9 million witches burnt is from 'the witchcraft museum' .In 1951 the owner Cecil Williamson had put up a memorial to "the estimated nine million people killed during the witch persecutions in Europe." There is no source of evidence anywhere giving any figure remotely close to this. "Cecil Williamson simply made it up. " (Hinds, 2006)
* The total number of Europeans killed is generally thought to be 40,000 to 100,000, not 5 million.
* Depending on european country, between 20 to 90% percent of the accused tried for witchcraft were men.
* The trials were not run by churches of any denomination. They were largely held in civil courts and prosecuted by local authorities
* In France, Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland, almost all of the accused were executed were garroted before the flames were lit. In England most convicted witches were hung and not all of them were put to death.
* The judicial records indicate a mainly provincial and vindictive character to the 'witch hunts', much as how people are scapegoated or sacrificed in indigenous cultures for illness or bad luck.
"Most of the complaints concerned pregnant women, infants, young children and lactating mothers who suffered from unexplained and sometimes fatal maladies. Such misfortunes were commonplace at a time when only half of all babies made it past their first birthday. If the mother or her family felt inclined to blame this on supernatural forces, the most likely culprit to single out would be an elderly woman who had some encounter -- even a seemingly benevolent one -- with mother or child."
"Current popular history holds that the witch hunts were concerted campaigns by a male-dominated church that felt its sway diminished by stubborn pagan and folk traditions that gave too much respect to wise old women. The persecution, the story goes, was designed to stamp out those beliefs. However, when you look at actual cases, the picture is quite the opposite. "In 1627," writes Roper, "in the town of Ochsenfurt, rumors about witchcraft had involved the allegation that a child had been eaten ... Later that same year, 150 citizens gathered in force to complain about 'the enemies of their livelihood, and vermin and witchcraft,'" and to demand action. Against the bishop's express orders, the mayor and council arrested and tortured several suspects, causing the death of one."
This picture, of waves of local hysteria triggered by the death of a loved one, especially a child, leading to scapegoating by the execution of marginals, is very sad indeed, and it is a scenario, a human behaviour pattern still playing out across the planet to this day, from the social ex-communication of unique people or 'outsiders' in schools and colleges, to the scapegoating of entire nations on account of resource wars. Humans urgently need to look at their still undeveloped pattern of scapegoating and sacrifice instead of assuming that this behaviour has its roots in a particular creed or historical context.
dir.salon.com/story/books...e/index.html
www.twpt.com/burning.htm
www.crisismagazine.com/octobe...re1.htm
Lyndal Roper "Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany"
Brian Levack' "The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe"
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Harvard University Press, 1974).
Robin Briggs, Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (Viking, 1996). This is the best point of entry to modern scholarship on witchcraft.
Gustav Henningsen, The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (University of Nevada Press, 1980).
Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford University Press, 1999).
H.C. Erik Midelfort, Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations (Stanford University Press, 1972).
James Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).
Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics (Beacon, 1988).
Part of the 'new dogma' of neopagan spirituality is the assertion that 5 million women were burnt alive in Europe during the witchhunts. Surprisingly, this idea is not founded in any evidence but ,rather, a deep and essentially contemporary outrage in the collective consciousness toward tyranical oligarchy (for 'patriarchy' - as if every man were implicated - but I argue the problem is more a form of tyranny where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society) - which is often attributed in some way to Christianity .
"The so-called great European witch-hunt has been a much-vexed issue, one easily contorted to suit the prejudices of every age" - Sandra Miesel
The body of evidence around the witch hunts leads to a bit of a different take on events, where it is neccesary to again OWN the shadow of our human nature rather than projecting it upon an external authority 'doing it to us'.
The earliest reference to 9 million witches burnt is from 'the witchcraft museum' .In 1951 the owner Cecil Williamson had put up a memorial to "the estimated nine million people killed during the witch persecutions in Europe." There is no source of evidence anywhere giving any figure remotely close to this. "Cecil Williamson simply made it up. " (Hinds, 2006)
* The total number of Europeans killed is generally thought to be 40,000 to 100,000, not 5 million.
* Depending on european country, between 20 to 90% percent of the accused tried for witchcraft were men.
* The trials were not run by churches of any denomination. They were largely held in civil courts and prosecuted by local authorities
* In France, Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland, almost all of the accused were executed were garroted before the flames were lit. In England most convicted witches were hung and not all of them were put to death.
* The judicial records indicate a mainly provincial and vindictive character to the 'witch hunts', much as how people are scapegoated or sacrificed in indigenous cultures for illness or bad luck.
"Most of the complaints concerned pregnant women, infants, young children and lactating mothers who suffered from unexplained and sometimes fatal maladies. Such misfortunes were commonplace at a time when only half of all babies made it past their first birthday. If the mother or her family felt inclined to blame this on supernatural forces, the most likely culprit to single out would be an elderly woman who had some encounter -- even a seemingly benevolent one -- with mother or child."
"Current popular history holds that the witch hunts were concerted campaigns by a male-dominated church that felt its sway diminished by stubborn pagan and folk traditions that gave too much respect to wise old women. The persecution, the story goes, was designed to stamp out those beliefs. However, when you look at actual cases, the picture is quite the opposite. "In 1627," writes Roper, "in the town of Ochsenfurt, rumors about witchcraft had involved the allegation that a child had been eaten ... Later that same year, 150 citizens gathered in force to complain about 'the enemies of their livelihood, and vermin and witchcraft,'" and to demand action. Against the bishop's express orders, the mayor and council arrested and tortured several suspects, causing the death of one."
This picture, of waves of local hysteria triggered by the death of a loved one, especially a child, leading to scapegoating by the execution of marginals, is very sad indeed, and it is a scenario, a human behaviour pattern still playing out across the planet to this day, from the social ex-communication of unique people or 'outsiders' in schools and colleges, to the scapegoating of entire nations on account of resource wars. Humans urgently need to look at their still undeveloped pattern of scapegoating and sacrifice instead of assuming that this behaviour has its roots in a particular creed or historical context.
dir.salon.com/story/books...e/index.html
www.twpt.com/burning.htm
www.crisismagazine.com/octobe...re1.htm
Lyndal Roper "Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany"
Brian Levack' "The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe"
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Harvard University Press, 1974).
Robin Briggs, Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (Viking, 1996). This is the best point of entry to modern scholarship on witchcraft.
Gustav Henningsen, The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (University of Nevada Press, 1980).
Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford University Press, 1999).
H.C. Erik Midelfort, Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations (Stanford University Press, 1972).
James Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).
Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics (Beacon, 1988).
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