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COMMENT: FROM WISE WOMEN TO WITCHES It's Halloween and I got tell you this is an embarrassing time to be associated with Christianity. I especially think about witches and how the Church maligned and slandered their good name. How is it that those who were once so highly regarded as the wise women of the community came to be identified with all that was evil and vile. Are you familiar with the story ? The History Channel did an excellent synopsis of this transformation this week and it merits repeating for those who missed it. Basically this transformation took place over several thousand years. Initially what we would call witches were the priestesses of female, earth deities. Whether called Ashura or Isis or a number of other names, these goddesses were attended to by women who conducted rituals, healed the sick, and midwifed the deliveries of pregnant women. They were wise and powerful and dealt with the mysteries of life with magic. At about 3000 BCE, bellicose Indo- European tribes invaded the west taking over and transforming peaceful matriarchal societies into warrior based, male dominated cultures. These tribes worshipped warrior, male Gods. Thus the place of the Earth goddesses and their priestesses was lowered. Worse Judaism's YHWH was jealous of and antagonistic to their practices and condemned both witchcraft and its practitioners. Nonetheless this did not stop Hebrew kings to turning to them in their hour of need (see Samuel 28.7) The most significant blow to witches came in the 15 th century during in the midst of the Black Plague. It is hard to imagine such a calamity which killed more than thirty percent of the people in western Europe. Without science to understand what was happening or effective medicine to combat it, people panicked and the Church seized upon this crisis to declare that its strongest rival , was responsible. For the first time witches were linking with the Devil who was understood as the ultimate source of the scourge. The inquisition was begun to seek out and destroy those who were suspected to be in league with Satan and thereby ending the plague. In what was perhaps the most misogynist book ever written, Maleus Malefacorium, provided a hand book for investigators to determine who were witches. This text concocted by two monks, Springer and Kramer was pure propaganda. It claimed that women were by their nature vulnerable to the Devil due to their lustful nature. Wise women never worshipped the devil much less had sex with him. Nonetheless a terrified and hysterical continent was willing to believe that the people they had formerly trusted and turned to was now the source of their malady. It is difficult to accept but it is true that due to the Church's persecution and torture between 60,000 and 300,000 completely innocent women were put to death in less than 200 years. The third development which is so disturbing, involves us . The Salem witch trials is a shameful tale. Indeed, for in addition furthering the lies about witches, the trials took religious hysteria and persecution to a new level. Religious intolerance became a political weapon. Indeed all of the self righteous concern for morality and fighting the devil was in fact a way of destroying one's political enemies. Everyone of the accusers was on one side of a local political struggle and everyone of the defendants were on the other. It is interesting that the end of the the trials came abruptly the same day the wife of the governor of Massachusetts was accused. The history is humbling and disturbing. While it is painful to realize how the church has been unable to accept and honor the gifts of women differences, it is horrifying to realize the lengths it has gone to to destroy their very existence. We live in an age of science and
witches are no longer seen as a serious threat to anything. If anything
Wicca represents an ecologically responsible group. Nonetheless the importance
of valuing tolerance and celebrating diversity need to be constantly remembered.
Rev. Michael Heath, Fayetteville NY - 10/28/99 |