Cyber Cauldron

Since the beginning mankind developed a tendency to associate in groups and set interdependent relations inside the group. Animal hunting and crop foraging were the key sources of food and life sustaining materials. During these times, took birth a whole set of legends, myths and stories concerning witchcraft, especially in the roman and Greek culture. With time, people started to tell apart two forms of sorcery, which they called good sorcery and evil sorcery. Laws in those days severely punished evil sorcery, but the proliferation of Christianity came with the blending of the two types of sorcery. As far as this new and fast-growing faith went, all sorcery was witchcraft.
At this point, there was a sudden breakout in isolated occurrences of witchcraft accusations directed at heretics, because they seemed to reject all the teachings of the church, and something had to be done to stop the spreading of heresy. At first, they were excommunicated from the church, but this wasn’t enough. Soon the church leaders realized that this wouldn’t put them to silence, they adopted a horrible solution: burning them up.

In 1200 AD, the clerics started an even greater and fierce full campaign against all forms of heretics. The plan was to force them to reject their beliefs, and convert them into Christians. This was not exactly a great plan, given the fact that most of them remained adamant. Then, the church started an inquisition that saw the conviction and death of heretics. Secular courts adopted this method and the term witches caught more and more popularity. Heretics received the death sentience because they were suspected of taking part in evil rites that obscenely worshiped the devil.

During the last part of the 1500s, the witchcraft idea was ingrained deep within the people that even the most subtle suggestion of witches caused anxiety in people. The hunt for witches became large scale during these times. An incident in Salem, Massachusetts is the main cause of this event. History has it those two girls which made allegations of witchcraft against three women from Salem. It is said that these girls had a fascination with secret occult rituals and started to act strangely: continuous screams followed by the contortion of their face in a horrible way. The arrest of the three women was closely followed the arresting of other 150 persons, of which 19 were accused of witchcraft, sentience to death and executed by hanging. After about a year, all other suspects were released.

To the early 1950s the world of witch crafting remained silent, until Gerald B. Gardner published two books: “Witchcraft Today” in 1954 and “The Meaning of Witchcraft” in 1959 about the ancient rituals of witchcraft. These books are very popular today, being known as the foundation of modern day witchcraft religion. They kept flourishing even if they received a high dose of critics from historians who claim that his work has no historic fundament, since the Margaret Murray’s theories that inspired him were flawed.

You can learn more about Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Age and Witchcraft charms on Witchcraft history

Author: Cristian Raiber
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
White Coat Hypertension

Originally posted 2011-08-10 21:58:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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