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This article will examine witchcraft in its historical and anthroplogical contexts. For witchcraft in the modern Western world as practised by neopagans see articles on The Craft and Wicca.
In colloquial use, the word witch is now applied almost exclusively to women, though in earlier English it applied to men as well. Most people would now call male witches sorcerers, wizards, or warlocks. However witches and wiccans continue to use the term witch for all who practice witchcraft. Warlock is considered an insult among Wiccans and Neopagans.
The etymological roots could be several: among the candidates are German weihen ("consecrate") as well as the English word "victim" in its original meaning for someone killed in a religious ritual. Thus, a "witch" would signify nothing else but an ancient type of priestess. The Old English words wicca (m.) and its feminine counterpart wicce both mean wizard and gave rise to the adjective "wicked". Wizard, again is thought to be related to the modern term "wise". A cautious interpretation gives us a witch being a person of (presumably occult) knowledge.
The belief in witches has always existed in nearly every region of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Western culture, the concept of a witch has existed since at least the days of the ancient Greeks, as witches figure prominently in many Greek tragedies.
The shamans of the Germanic peoplesThe term Germanic peoples may refer to: the Germanic tribes that in the first millennium were seen as a barbarian threat by the Roman Empire and its successors; the Germanic Christianity that in the second millennium came to dominate much of Northern Euro were female, and were called Wicces in Anglo-Saxon England and VölvaThe volva vala wala ( Old High German), seidkona or wicce was a female shaman in Norse mythology, and among the Germanic peoples. They practiced the seid ( shamanism), which was regarded as unmanly. Also associated with them were incantations called galdrs in ScandinaviaScandinavia is the cultural and historic region of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Scandinavian countries are Norway, Sweden and Denmark, which mutually recognize each other as parts of Scandinavia. The collective label "Scandinavia" reflects the cultural. This knowledge comes from Norse sagaThe Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: slendingasogur , are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse ls and some excavations in BirkaBirka also Birca and Bierk (today named Bjork literally "Birch Island"), was an important trading center in the Baltic Sea region from the 8th century, which handled goods from Eastern Europe and the Orient, possibly as far as China, thus covering most of suggests their existence. Naturally, the tradition of female shamans did not disappear immediately with the arrival of ChristianityChristian cross and its many variations are widely recognized as an ancient Christian symbol. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Although Christians generally chara. The traditions were maintained, but the churchThis article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation . Stanford University. A church is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, confessional, dome, nave, pew, pulpit, s condemned the women who practiced the ancient shamanism (and consequently elements of the old religion) as witches, and demonized them. Ultimately the Church tried to exterminate any women who could be suspected of maintaining the tradition (see witch hunt).
The Church's successful transformation of these socially important women into the modern concept "witch" can be seen in the following law:
The Shamans of the Germanic peoples, the so-called Wicces ( Witches) or Völvas praticed the seid. They served as healers, diviners and spiritual advisors before the arrival of Christianity. As competitors to the Roman Catholic Church they were demonized and persecuted in witch hunts. Thus, little is really known about the survival of the practice of 'witchcraft' in Europe before modern times. In written records, people deemed 'witches' (not necessarily practictioners) were primarily women who practiced forms of herbal medicine, but became unpopular in their community for one reason or another and were singled out for the attentions of the Inquisition and persecuted. Charges of heresy or witchcraft were sometimes brought against people for political reasons. The accusation of 'practicing witchcraft' was usually allied with others, especially 'having sexual intercourse with the devil'.
While it is common to classify witches into one of three categories ( white witch, black witch and hedgewitch), this is not a very accurate grouping as the concepts of good and evil are foreign to witches. A witch is neither good, nor evil, neither black nor white because all acts in themselves are relative and cannot therefore be classified one way or the other.
C.f.
Witches have often been imagined to have the power to fly on broomsticks or distaffs. This mural of a naked pagan sexuality/fertility goddess on a distaff suggests that the connection may have originally been a sexual one (sticks and staffs have long been common masturbation devices, orgasm is achieved by rubbing them between the legs against the clitoris). From A history of pagan Europe by Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick
Witches are usually reputed to fly on broomsticks or distaffs. There is a legend in Scandinavia about the sorceress Maran who causes pain by riding at night on people or horses; she flies to her victim by broomstick. Some believe that supposed visitations of Maran were actually a heart disease, causing the victim to awake in a panic.
Before the advent of Christianity, wicces served as spiritual advisors and healers (see Völva or shaman). This changed with the arrival of Christianity and the priests who regarded them as competitors. From the Middle ages and onwards to about the mid-19th century, witches were universally associated with evil, under the belief that the witch's magical powers were granted by Satan in exchange for the witch's soul. A few folk tales, however, refer to kindly witches. Many outrageous claims were made about the powers of witches, which include the ability to fly, to transform oneself or others into animals or other shapes, and to curse one's enemies. On the other hand, all these powers typically belong to those of the shaman, so these powers were associated with witches long before the arrival of Christianity.
It was extremely dangerous to be accused of being a "witch", since a common punishment was to be burnt at the stake. Both in North America and in Europe, thousands of people (mostly women), were put to death as witches at various points in history. Some of the worst witchhunts were in Germany, though there are documented cases of torture and murder in the name of stopping witchcraft in nearly every European country.
Before the Enlightenment era, it was held by some that the realm of Satan was in Northernmost Europe and that the entrance to Hell itself lay somewhere in Finnmark ( Laponia) and that because of the close connection to Satan, it was a place where witches thrived. The indigenous people of the north, the Sami, had a reputation all over Europe of being masters of witchcraft and sorcery. Shamans, i.e. peoples with central roles in cermonies such as noajddes, gonagas and guopas , were believed to have a major connection to witchcraft. They could control dreadful cold weather and wind in Europe through so-called "Sami magic." The work Acta Lapponica (1673) tried to counter this supernatural picture, but the book was instead adapted and abridged with more stories on witchcraft and sorcery, and it was held by some (such as Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)) as late as the late 19th century that the North was the centre of horror.
Most people who were killed as witches were probably hapless midwives, herbalists, widows, spinsters, social outcasts, or victims of revenge seekers. For example, some researchers wholly attribute the Salem witch trials in 1692 to rivalries between opposing political forces in Salem, Massachusetts. See the extensive discussion under witchhunts.