A thought on Witchcraft.

[Neville]

It's difficult to believe that Witchcraft remains so misunderstood. Many still automatically conjure up visions of robed people standing facing an upside down crucifix or a Goats Head before an Altar and sacrificing Chickens. The Film Rosemary's Baby did nothing to alter this perception.
More recently we see TV shows like Charmed bringing in a more modern perception, the accuracy of which still remains questionable.
However, we must not be too eager to lambast these misrepresentations, because not so very long ago, The lot of the witch was considerably and much more dreadfully worse. Yet conversely especially in medieval times a Wise Woman with knowledge of medicinal herbs was an invaluable member of rural communities. I wonder, for example how many Births were successful as a result of the intervention of these Wise Women. The predecessor to our current day Midwives.


Best Wishes Neville. :hug3:

You can read my full article here

http://relijournal.com/paganism/a-thought-on-witchcraft/

[norseman]

How about starting a campaign to call it Witch-Craft instead of witchcraft. Gives a better idea of what it is, I think. In fact, lets drop "witch" entirely and use Wise/Cunning Folk and Craft of the Wise instead.

I am 100% with you Neville on looking at what the old Wise/Cunning Folk actually did, then seeking the modern equivalents to see that they are flourishing in this age like they did before. They are embedded in Brit. Culture and always were, right back to the Tribal Shaman.

[bilko]

Nicely put Neville.
As you may or may not know i don't like to label myself as belonging to any one religion simply because Most of it does not sit well with me intuitively. However if i were to, it would be something earth based like Wicca or Paganism.

I think it has a lot to do with politics especially the politics of control ( is there any other? )> i'm not gonna get too conspiracy- fied? lol Or maybe cynical is a better word but i believe witches or more accurately, practitioners of anything other than the mainstream religions were rooted out simply to control the masses. In the same way that december 25th was deemed to be the birth day of jesus simply to stop the pagans worshiping the sun on that day iirc.
The word 'WITCH' was infused with negative ideals through fear in my opinion. Fear of being drowned or burned. So many were accused and murdered that this fear became part of the mass consciousness that we pass on through generations.

However, if you look at places where some of the major religions ( and i'm not christian bashing ) never reached, they still use witch doctors and shamans.

On a side note i would choose a seasoned practitioner of natural and spiritual healing over a "normal" doctor anyday. I have never once had an actual diagnosis from a doctor, they only see to treat the symptoms and never the root cause.

[sidhe_1997]

I can't believe how a lot of people won't even let witches or Wiccans explain themselves. Not exactly explain; that almsot makes it sound like they've done something that is dodgy and they're trying to communicate understanding. Witchcraft isn't evil; not all witches, anyway. Either way, there'll always be people who misunderstand. The key is to find out why.