Halloween Folklores#4: Witches

Ah witches. Those commercially old decrepit women on broomsticks, who are said to have used hallucinogenic ailments on their skin to mimic the feeling of flying. We all know that witchcraft is actually practiced past and present, but I want to look deeper into the truth behind witchcraft and it's symbolism around Halloween.

(warning: this is a long one)

The real truth behind witches and their craft

As we know, Halloween has its origin in the British Isles about 1300 years ago. In those days, there were many men and women who practiced a so-called “nature religion” known as Wicca. (The word “Wicca” means “wise ones.” The word “witch” is derived from “Wicca.”) The witches worked their spells and magic as individuals or sometimes in groups of 13 known as Covens. Sometimes the witches and wizards worked as a triumvirate or power of three. The female Wiccan was known as a witch, and the male Wiccan was known as a wizard. The word “warlock” was not used by witches to identify themselves. It is actually a Scotch-Gaelic word that means “traitor.” Satanists use the word “warlock.”



The Wiccans were worshippers of the “Earth Mother”, the sun, the moon, and stars. Witches do not believe in Satan. Eight times each year, the witches celebrated a sabat and the ritual work and spell casting was always done on the eve of the sabat. Witches have special ways of celebrating for each sabat, and even though they do not believe in Satan, it is said by some that it is Satan who gives them the experiences they have and deceives them into thinking it is the forces of nature they are tapping into?.

Halloween is the most important of the eight sabats in witchcraft and is known to the witches by the Scotch-Gaelic word “Samhain”, which is pronounced “SOW-EEN.” As i have mentioned in my past threads, it is believed that on that night, the barrier between this world and the next, known as the astral plane, becomes very thin. The witches believe that this allows spirits of departed ones to travel freely back and forth between the earth and the spirit realm. Thus, Halloween is the highest day in Wiccan witchcraft. On that night for many centuries, witches would work their magic and then have wild parties all through the darkness of that night. They would play games, such as bobbing for apples which we have looked into. The witches would also tell stories from their personal diaries of spells known as their “book of shadows.” These ghost stories would start when the hosting High Priest or Priestess would say, “A witches’ tale and a cup of ale for the host of our guests unseen.”

In those early days in England, there was another kind of witchcraft known as Druidism. The Druids were called “men of the oaks” and were a strange clan of men who dressed in white robes. The Druids worshipped Cernnunos, the “horned hunter of the night.“ Halloween was sacred to the Druids because their sun-god receded to the underworld on October 31st, which is why darkness increased and light decreased according to their reckoning.



As darkness set in on October 31st, the clan of Druids would put on their white robes and hoods. They would carry sickles and Celtic crosses as they began a torchlight procession. At the beginning of the procession, a male slave was killed and dragged by a rope fastened to his left ankle. The Druids would walk until they came to a house or a village where they shouted the equivalent of “trick or treat.” The treat was a slave girl or any female to be given to the Druids. If the people refused to a girl as a “treat”, blood was taken from the dead slave and used to draw a hexagram or six-pointed star on the door or wall of the village?. Spirits of the “horned hunter of the night” were invoked by the Druids to kill someone in that house or village by fear that night.

 

?As we can clearly see, Halloween hasn't always been fun and games. It was a dark time and eventually people who practiced or were accused of practicing this witchcraft were put on a 'witch hunt'.

While witch hunts are thought of as a medieval phenomenon, the height of the atrocities actually occurred between the 15th and 18th centuries. In fact, it was not until 1320 that the Church officially declared witchcraft as a heresy.

While there is no definitive answer as to the number of people tried for witchcraft, it seems safe to say that tens of thousands - perhaps as many as hundreds of thousands were accused.



Following the advice in the witch hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum - The Hammer of Witches - witch hunters used a variety of tests to try the accused. Believing that a witch wouldn’t bleed when cut, they employed a variety of instruments to test this theory. (Though of course, the instruments often were blunt).

Birthmarks were often seen as the mark of the Devil?. In a voyeuristic show, hunters would strip their victims before the crowd to inspect for the Devil’s marks.

Another test - often shown in medieval woodcuts, involved dunking - or worse, throwing - women into a pond or well. If they floated , it was thought that they had been rejected by the water of baptism and thus were witches. If they sunk, it indicated that they were innocent. Of course, this could also involve drowning, but at least they were innocent and their soul was saved.



Confession under torture was another favorite. Using a variety of grisly devices, the witch hunter would try to extract a confession. Although torture was sometimes held in secret, it often was a public spectacle, providing entertainment for the masses.

The key to all of this was that the accusation alone often was enough to make you guilty.

A person found guilty of witchcraft often was executed for their crimes - although apparently, a confession (and under torture, who wouldn’t confess?) could result in a chance at rehabilitation. A reformed “witch” could be sent to a monastery or convent.

In the popular imagination, however, the proper way of disposing of a witch is by burning at the stake.



While many were burned at the stake, other methods of execution also were employed. Hanging seems to have been a preferred method, and images of witch hangings can be seen in period engravings. Others were beheaded, stoned, broken on the wheel, drawn and quartered and so on. In the famous Salem Witch Trials, one man was “pressed” to death, by placing him under a board and then piling rocks on top until he was crushed.

However today's commercialised interpretation of the witch and witchcraft is very different of course. They are seen as Ugly and evil, or riding broomsticks and stirring their black cauldrons?

 

Wow, i bet that was a interesting upbringing 

 

?Burn her?


But seriously some of things the Druids did to the women (stuff I certainly won't go into detail with on a public forum) was truly barbaric. Think of these women as a 'treat'for the Druids before their 'sacrifice'. It really is shocking how life was back then. The more deeper I get into making these threads, the more interesting it gets. I really am enjoying putting them together.