WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT
When I was in the process of selecting a topic for my project it had never occurred to me that there even existed a religion by the name of witchcraft. To me the very concept of witchcraft was a figment of some imaginative fiction writers...a concept that was enough to scare any child out of his wits and to send shivers down any grownup's spine . So I was quite surprised upon learning that witchcraft is actually practiced as a separate religion in itself and has a devoted following.
Belief in magical practices was widespread in the Middle Eastern ancient cultures. Acts of white witchcraft were ascribed to heroes, great men and gods in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan. Likewise in ancient Rome and Greece only magical practices directed towards evil were condemned whereas acts of white witch craft were approved of and even encouraged. Certain Goddesses such as Diana, and Selene were associated with malevolent magic that took place at night. It was among the Germanic people who spread throughout Europe that the image of an old woman as a witch gained popularity and has till this day remained. However to this day the stereotype of the witch differs from society to society. In contrast to the old, thin women of Europe in Central Africa witches are described as fat from eating human flesh and their eyes may be blood sot due to the evil activities carried out during the late hours of the night. In a number of societies witches are believed to be the slave of an aberration and addiction and in some cases to be even driven to performing evil act by their animal familiars. Heredity is supposed to play an important role in the propensity of being a witch.
According to the followers of this religion it is the oldest religion known to mankind, even older than the ancient religions of Hinduism and Zorastrianism. It is said that the Paleolithic people practiced this religion 25,000 years back in order to aid them with their gathering of food and hunting. It is a nature based nature. Witches seek to live in harmony with nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept. Witchcraft is a religion according to it's proponent which is based on the encouragement of free thought, individuality and expression. It is proclaimed as a an individual religion in which every witch is free to choose his/her right paths which all lead to the same truths. The ethic of dedication is part of being a witch because life is understood as a constant learning experience and the goal is truth and knowledge. Witches were known as the 'wise ones' because of their special knowledge of healing, magic and spirituality. It is claimed that because witchcraft was the only important religion in Europe before the arrival of Christianity, the Christian clergy sought to remove this ancient religion through political and religious opposition.
In 1484 two Dominican Friars published the Malleus maleficarum(the witches hammer), a worker that became the authoritative encyclopedia of demonology throughout Christianity. It was a synthesis of folk beliefs that had hitherto been manifested in local outbursts of witchfinding. It ascribed the witches powers to special links(especially sexual) with the devil. The campaign against witchcraft (devil's Earthly representatives) waged long and unrelentingly. The biblical injunction of "thou shall not permit a sorceress to live" was repeated over and over again. Accusations varied from making milk and cream go bad, stealing milk from cows to causing misfortune which was incidentally the most common accusal. Huge numbers were killed, set on fire etc. in the name of practicing witchcraft. The punishments for practicing witchcraft also varied from simple executions and setting fire to punishments handed out in the province of Bastar in India which involved shaving the witch's hair in which they were supposed to store their power knocking their teeth out to prevent them from muttering evil incantations. Women suspected of the same crime were even hanged upside down from a tree, pepper put into her eyes and a lock of hair cut from her head and buried in the ground to break the link between her and her former powers of mischief. The fear of witchcraft was so engrained in the minds of people that there were a number of acts that were supposed to protect from witchcraft. These again varied from the belief that mistletoe provided protection against witchcraft and sorcery to the fire rituals that were performed in Europe which were believed to drive away witches. The famous Salem witch trials can be regarded as the one of the last fitful flares of the European witch craze. A study by an American Chadwick Hansen sows that witchcraft was actually being practiced in Salem and it did do harm to the victims. However due to widespread fear among the common people, lots of innocent people were also executed. It is further stated that witchcraft in Salem worked because the people involved in it believed in it. Numerous case of witch hunts and the terrifying details of executions and tortures that were inflicted on witches are to be found in the pages of history. The term witchcraft as it is used today makes the religion look quite respectable in contrast to the despised and hated mystical miscreants of earlier periods.The so called witches of today seek to find new adherents to their religion by appealing to the cherished value of religious tolerance.
There were wide spread killings and prosecution of witches throughout Europe and the very fear of death and oppression made the proponents of this religion go underground. The turning point for modern-day witchcraft came in 1951 when the laws against witchcraft were repelled in England. The basic belief on which witchcraft is based today is summed up in the following :
"An' it harm none, do what thou wilt".
Witches therefore try to follow this rede as closely as practically possible using the route of "least" harm. This least harm concept seems to be a bit familiar to the Jain teachings even though the followers of Jainism indulge in least harm activities that may be described by an ordinary person as not being at all "practical".
I will proceed by stating the basic tenants of the religion of witchcraft and by discussing them in the light of human intellect and if possible then perhaps in the context of the Sematic religions of Christianity and Islam. These two religions which are today the biggest religions in the world have a lot to say about the everyday concept of witchcraft.
When the word witch is commonly used it image of a female with along pointed nose and dressed in robes flashes across the mind. However a witch can either be a male or a female. What a particular witch follows is not a norm amongst all the witches . Rather the religion witchcraft can have different meanings for different witches. It is seen by its followers as a system of beliefs or a philosophy. Witchcraft demands dedication by its followers (like most other religions). In contrast to other religions in which the emphasis is on social interaction, most witches are solitary. This is not to say that there are no groups in witchcraft. There are indeed a number of covens that follow witchcraft.
About the Goddesses.....................
Rebirth
Like in Islam death in witchcraft is not seen as the ultimate end and the belief is that the spirit will live on even though the physical body may have died and perished. However witchcraft believes in reincarnation like Hinduism and states that until the spirit is returned to a physical form on the world it will dwell in the "Sumerland". It is further believed that once all the lessons have been learned in this world and all the karmic debts have been balanced then the spirit unites with the god and goddess. This concept of Sumerland is in very sharp contradiction with the views of Islam on afterlife and especially the very thought of uniting with God is considered blasphemous. Witchcraft believes in neither hell, redemption or sin. There are however a number of different opinions among witches as to what happens does happen afterlife. As mentioned above most believe in reincarnation. Some are also of the opinion that in between death and rebirth the soul undergoes some sort of transformation to prepare it for the rebirth.
Witchcraft does not believe in criticising the beliefs of people but witches do object to philosophies and religions which according to them try and suppress other people's religious beliefs and practices. This is surely a pointer towards Islam and in particular Christianity which according to them claim to be the only true way. They say that there is plenty of evidence that points in the direction of not one but a number of true ways.
Sexuality is valued in witchcraft as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life and as one of the sources of used in magical practice and religious worship. Furthermore sex is viewed as being a part of nature and sacred to the deities. It is viewed as a process of joining the male and female creative energies. This is indeed a very creative way of defining sex in a religion.
Witchcraft(according to modern day witches) may be seen as the sum of all of the witch practices and it is not just limited to spell casting but also includes the ancient arts of meditation, herbalism ,healing, dancing and singing to raise energy, ritual drama, clairvoyance, creative mythology ,etc. According to them the real tradition of the craft is creativity.
Creation and destruction are part of the natural cycle according to the followers of witchcraft. They also believe in the existence of evil in this world but as something that is the result of wrong human actions and not due to some devil e.g. Satan who will be discussed later on this discussion. Witches , like Muslims ,believe that they have known all along the various systems that modern-day scientists are now beginning to acknowledge.
When imbalance is caused in one area the whole system is thrown out of balance. Imbalance is caused by evil acts. Witches believe that their acts are towards harmony and balance.They lay claim on being healer and protectors and on acting swiftly in order to avert aggression but do not themselves attack.
Magic:
One of the things that is associated most with witch craft is the act of magic. Magic refers to human actions that are believed to influence human or natural events through supernatural power. According to the encyclopedia britica, magic and witchcraft need to be considered together . According to witchcraft Magic is the act of changing consciousness by Will. It is the science of coincidence. Witches are essentially a changer and a shaper of their own life force.They carry out acts of divine to find out the possible direction that their lives may take and the act on the information accordingly. Witches say that their magic works but it does not involve turning people into frogs or midgets. According to them some of them do not even believe in the distinction between black and white magic and state that its nature depends on how it is used. For them casting spells is merely a form of worshipping the Goddess(and God) and to honor the Earth and nature. For them rituals and spells are simply a means of arranging elements to encourage a frame of mind conducive to performing magic.This may involve the burning of incense and/or candles,chanting rhymed formulae, using herbs and oils , turning down lights and all that a witch's imagination can come up with.
Satan:
According to Witches they are not Satanists because they do not believe in Satan.They state that the popular notion of the pointy horned, goat footed devil has been constructed by the Christian Missionary Church which made indigenous gods into evil in order to win over converts.They state that their horned god is neither evil nor the source of any evil but is rather the source the energy that manifests itself in nature through plants, animals and human beings. It is further claimed that their pagan concept of diverse gods does not match the Monotheistic concept of the devil. Inspite of this denial they readily admit that they worship "a Horned God named Pan". It is an inescapable fact that Pan is the universal symbol for Satan. In the rites of Pan music and sometimes drugs were used to entice spirits to possess the ritual's participants. It is popular belief among Christians that possession by Pan from which we get the word panic, often results in an obsession with sex and need for immediate gratification. The universal law of witchcraft is similar to satanism: "An' ye harm none, Do what thou wilt". This philosophy is expressed in another way in the satanic theology of Aleister Crowley, the most infamous Satanist of modern times. "Do what thou wilt is the whole law". This is Crowley's most well known and enduring proverb. Contrary to the deceptive stereotype, no black masses or wild sex rituals are necessary to be the followers of Satan-simply deny the love and the authority of God by living your life the way you want to.
Throughout history in different cultures witches have been blamed for a wide variety of things. Some of the beliefs associated with witchcraft were : flying brooms (in Europe) or saucer shaped winnowing baskets in Central Asia, employing animal familiars ( agents or assistants), stealing or destroying property , injuring and eating people while they are still alive, exhuming corpses and sacrificing children. The list seems endless.With such a lot of common folk tales and fiction available and also the beliefs engrained in the mind of a number of people regarding witches and their behaviour their have been a number of theories that have been put forward to explain the existence of witch beliefs. One of these put forward by a British Egyptologist, Margaret Murry considers witches of western Europe to be the lingering adherents of a once pagan religion displaced by Christianity. Most contemporary scholars reject this theory as unfounded historically. Trevor-Roper, a British Historian views witchcraft as an outgrowth of the systematic "demonology" that the medieval church constructed out of scattered folklore of peasant superstitions and that acquired a momentum of its own in the centuries of political and religious strife that transformed Europe from the so-called Dark Ages the modern period.
Khurram Shakeel
Lahore University Of Management Science
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