Witch Trials In Early Modern Europe

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Trial records show that in the 1340s CE, trials of "heretics" almost ceased, to resume only after publication in 1376 CE of Nicholas Eymeric's "Directorium inquisitorum". That book replaced Bernard Gui's "Practica officii inquisitoris heretice pravitatis" of 1324 CE. Bernard Gui was a competent lawyer. It is thought that his book and the legal requirements it contained slowed the trials. To our knowledge, no other reason for the slowdown has been suggested.

-- Kieckhefer "European Witch Trials" pub University of California Press, 1976

The Black Death slots neatly into the middle of that period. The first cases occurred in southern France and northwestern Italy in December 1348, and it reached Scotland and Scandinavia two years later.

-- Ziegler "The Black Death" pub Collins 1968

1315 - 1320 were the first 5 famine years of the Little Ice age, involving continual rain and the ruin of cereal crops. An estimated 2 million souls died. In the following 300 years, there were 111 of total famine. In France an estimated 7 million died. All death statistics in this whole period are SWAGs (scientific wild-assed guesses), though the few extant birth records reveal that the women were trying to repopulate Europe. Many women formed beguinages, mainly female towns/villages/communes. Such population centers were easy targets for later genocidal murders ordered by the church.

-- M. Kolbenschlag "Eastward unto Eve" pub Crossroads 1996

The plague was made more virulent because people were (a) starving and (b) huddled together in hovels for warmth--along with heat-seeking rats that bore the fleas that carried the disease.

The 1350-81 time period saw continuous peasant revolts against civil and church laws. In England the 1351 revolt is well documented. It was caused by the church's backing of the Statute of Laborers, which attempted (a) to fix wages back to pre-plague levels and (b) to reintroduce serfdom and forced labor.

The first serious mention of Witches comes from the Council of Constance, 1414-16 CE :

"Witches are real and are the cause of the bad weather."

This was a reversal of the previous position of the church in the Canon Episcopi, which decreed the death penalty for anyone who burned supposed magicians. St. Boniface's encyclical declared : "Belief in magic and werewolves is unchristian."

Only in 1428 CE was the classical definition of "witch" tortured out, in trials held in the canton of Valais (Switzerland). The definition allows hair-splitting Christians to claim that none of the "heretics" murdered earlier were Witches and that anyone who doesn't exactly fit the Valais definition is not a Witch and thus doesn't count.

-- G & Y Frost "Who Speaks for the Witch?" pub Godolphin House 1991

-- H. C. Lea "Materials toward a History of Witchcraft" (3 volumes) pub Yoseloff 1957

-- H. R. Trevor-Roper "The European Witch Craze" pub Pelican 1969

It appears to us that this period, say 1315 through 1376 CE, should be studied in more depth to correlate information from various disciplines. Maybe a doctoral thesis... ?

By the way, any time you get a chance to hear Professor Skip Clark at one of the festivals, do it! He is a genuine expert on the subject, not just a guy on a crusade, and has no axe to grind.

-- S. Clark "Mythhistory of Witchcraft" / VHS tape pub Godolphin House 2005

Suggested e-books:

Nathan Johnston - The Devil And Demonism In Early Modern England
Friedrich Adler - The Witchcraft Trial In Moscow
Margaret Alice Murray - The Witch Cult In Western Europe

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Wicca Whither

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Cultural anthropologists generally agree that religions go through three distinct stages of development. As Max Weber wrote in "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", these are the stages:

1. Visionary - Someone has a vision of a better explanation of all that is; through charismatic leadership he promotes that path. Many other people with similar thoughts join, each usually following slightly different visions. Squabbling and argument and schisms ensue. If the visions are strong enough, a movement develops and moves to Stage 2.

2. Festival - The groups hold festival-style meetings offering a lot of attractive freedoms. The main freedom is that of thought, but other freedoms from socially accepted behavior are encouraged. Yes, even the Christians were sexual, excessively and immoderately--free enough that they shocked the Romans--to such an extent that men and women were not allowed to worship in the same building. In following centuries, though, they must have managed to get over it...

3. Institutional - Here the movement grows up and becomes accepted by the general population. It loses its freedoms. Now its new leaders--who are usually in it for power, not for the original vision--insist on political correctness.

Frost musings:

Centralized power - The next step in the inexorable progression is the setting-up of positions or "offices". The set of offices has titles and hierarchal structures such as ministers, bishops, archbishops, and so on, who are charged with keeping the doctrine "pure". What is a church without an organization chart, anyhow? The word for bishop, episcopos--one who oversees or who takes the overview--indicates that clear sight was held to be necessary. Then, instead of a person deciding what was or was not orthodox, the office fulfilled the function. Centralized power--that's the key.

Since time immemorial earth-centered religions have had many charismatic leaders. As founders of Wicca in the late 1960s, we dare to count ourselves among modern charismatics, perhaps comparable (shudder) to many others in the frothy time of new ideas and paths that most or all movements undergo. Many of those ideas and paths were modeled on ancient ways. We all had a clarity of vision and an energy which the movement may be losing. It seems clear that the Community is now at Stage 2, Festival, moving away from Freedom. Since the Church of Wicca is a "church", we probably should have expected it. The question becomes: Are we going to follow the rest of Weber's narrative, eventually, inexorably morphing into a massive institutionalized monolith?

We Frosts see signs of it, and we will fight it by encouraging independent forward-thinking charismatic movements. At the same time, since many of you seem to want the movement to grow, we must face the fact that a large percentage of the Community would like it if the movement did become institutionalized... though of course promoting their own particular favorite path over the promotion of other paths, and probably with themselves as leaders, fostering power that grows ever more centralized.

As the pagan/Wiccan community expands, it will inevitably follow the examples from history. That's the assumption. But at the same time, the Community must keep its independent autonomous forward thinkers.

The point surely is this: If the Community criticizes its leaders into obscurity instead of listening to the vision, we are doomed. Progress will take a back seat to control, and growth will be judged by how big and fancy we build our campgrounds and temples.

Personally, I (Gavin) like the Hindu attitude: You toe the line through the early years of life, but in old age you're allowed to venture into any spiritual path you like. Thus when people who are, for instance, hard-working householders kick at the religious orthodoxy, they are told simply, "Wait. You will have your turn at changing the rules."

So what is the Community to do? Must it too set up a religious hierarchy with a basic orthodoxy (decreed by who knows whom? the loudest? the richest? the meanest?) allowing for free thought in some areas but requiring that a majority of people adhere to the official line on certain basic precepts or axioms? It's no use hoping it won't happen, because it will. If we don't learn the lesson of history, we will all fail.

The bottom line, perhaps: If you don't like the thoughts articulated above, start your own letterhead. If you just sit and piss and moan, nobody can get anything done. It will all sink of its own weight and, like the worm Ouroboros, eat its own tail.

So surely our first basic axiom must be that taken from the charge to the Goddess. Here it is as it was first uttered, before it got politically correct--that is, before it got smooth below the waist:

To show that ye are free,

ye shall be naked in your rites

and afterward make the game of love.

Suggested e-books:

Aleister Crowley - Magick Without Tears
Aj Drew - A Wiccan Bible

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Three Books Of Occult Philosophy Book I

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Book: Three Books Of Occult Philosophy Book I by Henry Cornelius Agrippa

Book I of The Three Book of Occult Philosphy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa

The Three Book of Occult Philosphy purports to be the work of Henry Agrippa, the 16th century author of "Three Books of Occult Philosophy". But the 4th Book was obviously not written by Agrippa and bears no resemblance to his style of writing. Although it can be traced back to the 16th century as it is mentioned by Agrippa's student, Johann Weyer in his "De Praestigiis Daemonum", the work remains of uncertain provencance.

In part a partial summary of some of Agrippa's writings, this facsimile of the English translation by the 17th century Cambridge scholar Robert Turner, comprises spurious essays on Geomancy and Magick under the name of Agrippa, The Heptameron of Peter of Abano, and books on Astrology and Demonolgy, concluding with the Arbatel, a largely Judeo-Christian outlook on the dangers of magic.

It is a very quick and easy read, despite the portions dealing with Geomancy and Astrology that even those serious about such subjects would find largely frustrating and incomprehensible.

The work largely remains of pure historical interest with not much of serious substance to an undertanding of Magic and Occult Philiosphy.

This volume is a facsimile of Robert Turner's English translation (1654); the original volume first appeared (in Latin) in Marburg around 1554. The original volume included a large number of short texts of varying interest, but Robert Turner's (1654) (for unclear reasons) decided only to translate a few of them. This edition includes 6 short texts: Of Geomancy (H.C. Agrippa); Of Occult Philosophy the Three Book (pseudo-Agrippa); Heptameron or Magical Elements (pseudo-Peter de Abano); Isagoge: An Introductory Discourse on the Nature of... Spirits... (Georg Pictorius Villinganus); Of Astronomical Geomancy (Gerard of Cremona); and the anonymous Arbatel of Magic. Only the Geomancy is actually by Agrippa, and it doesn't fit well with the other texts. The Three Book is, as another reviewer noted, certainly spurious; it purports to be Agrippa's "secret key" to the Occult Philosophy, of which he spoke in a letter to a friend. The Heptameron and the Arbatel are grimoires of some interest for those interested in black magic, as indeed is the Three Book itself; the Isagoge is a rather dull dialogue about spirits; and the Astronomical Geomancy is more or less impenetrable but perhaps interesting in a peculiar way. There have been a number of reprints of this volume, some now surprisingly valuable despite their modernity; all, however, have trimmed out one or more of the already few texts. As such, this is probably the best edition available. It is, like all Kessinger products, a cheaply-bound xerox facsimile of the original 17th-century text, but it's readable and includes everything. If you collect grimoires or magical texts, this is a very famous one, and you ought to have it; copies of the various Latin printings turn up with some regularity, and those with access to Latin would do better with those, although they are of course quite expensive. If you're looking for works by Agrippa, the Geomancy is all you'll find here, but it's interesting in a number of respects. If you want to know about Agrippa's ceremonial magic, however, you need to read book 3 of the Occult Philosophy, available in a nice Llewellyn edition.

Download Henry Cornelius Agrippa's eBook: Three Books Of Occult Philosophy Book I

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Drawing Down The Moon

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All ye assembled at mine shrine, Mother Darksome and Divine.
Mine the Scourge and mine the Kiss, Here I charge you in this sign.
All you assembled in my sight, Bow before my spirit bright.
Aphrodite, Arianhod, Lover of the Horned God.

Mighty Queen of Witchery and night,
Morgan, Erione, Nisene, Diana, Bridgid, Melusine,
Am I named of old by men, Artemis and Cerridwen,
Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's Queen.

Ye who ask of me a rune, Or would ask of me a boon,
Meet me in some secret glade, Dancing round in greenwood shade.
By the light of the Full Moon.

In a place wild and lone, Dance about mine altar stone,
Work my holy mystery, Ye who are feign to sorcery.
I bring ye secrets yet unknown.

No more shall ye know slavery, who give true worship unto me.
Ye who tread my round on Sabbat night,
come ye naked to my rite, in token that ye be really free.
I teach ye the mystery of rebirth, work ye my mysteries in mirth.

Heart joined to heart and lip to lip,
five are the points of fellowship,
that bring ye ecstasy on earth,
for I am the circle of rebirth.

I ask no sacrifice, but do vow,
no other Law but love I know,
By naught but love may I be known.
All things living are mine own,
from me they come, to me they go.

I invoke Thee and call upon Thee Mighty Mothers of us all.
Bringer of Fruitfulness by seed and by root.

I invoke Thee by stem and bud.

I invoke Thee by life and love
and call upon Thee to descend into the body
of this Thy Priestess and Servant.

Hear with her ears, speak with her tongue,
touch with her hands, kiss with her lips,
that thy servants may be fulfilled.

Lady Sheba - 1974.

Suggested e-books:

Saint John Of The Cross - Dark Night Of The Soul
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Thing On The Doorstep
Bernard King - Meanings Of The Runes

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Were Back

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Okay, troops. We're back home, just returning from three (3) wonderful festivals.

1. Sirius Rising

2. SummerFest

3. Kaleidoscope Gathering

Sirius and SummerFest occur at the back end of New York State at the site called Brushwood, between the towns of Sherman and Clymer. Kaleidoscope Gathering happens west of Ottawa, Ontario. If you live anywhere in the northeastern quadrant of the US, any one of the three can be a life-changing experience for you. Take off those whalebone stays or that celluloid collar, and dive in. You'll never look back.

To us it seemed that this year they all three exceeded themselves in being more loving and with far less friction than we have known in earlier seasons.

In some respects Kaleidoscope, at its new site of Raven's Knoll, is more of a family affair than the others. It's 60 miles west of Ottawa, Ontario; and of course being in Canada they don't have the problems we face in the States with raucous fundamentalist thinkers from an assortment of franchises, Baptist and other. Because Raven's Knoll is in a piney forest (with a river running past it), and because the summer has been very dry, we could have only one small fire. But everyone gathered around and had a good time anyway. Yes, Virginia, such an event is possible.

The fires at Brushwood more than lived up to expectations; and the very sight of 500 to 600 pagans dancing around while the Dragon burned was awe-inspiring. They broke another world record for the Guinness people, by the way: the most couples hugging for a full measured 60 seconds. This follows on with their earlier world record-breaking event of the most body-painted people on a single site in a 24-hour period.

This year everyone enjoyed the labyrinth, and the weather was good to us, in that the candles of the labyrinth did not get doused.

So what do we recommend to our readers? Wherever you live in the USA, make it your business to go on a pilgrimage and visit all three festivals. They follow week by week after one another. If you can visit only one in the US, go to Sirius itself. If you can visit only one in Canada, Kaleidoscope is a must. Each event has its own character; each is worth a visit... or many visits as summers come and go.

Their respective contact sites:

Sirius camp@brushwood.com

SummerFest camp@brushwood.com

Kaleidoscope Gathering www.kaleidoscope-gathering.ca

We'll look forward to seeing you there.

Blessed be all. GY

Suggested e-books:

Basil Valentine - Twelve Keys
Meshafi Resh - The Black Book

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Goddess Sophia

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SOPHIA (pronounced sew-FEE-ah) is the Gnostic Goddess of wisdom. Gnostics believe that there is one true Source, the Pleroma, which is a state of nothingness, full of potential energy. At some point, the Pleroma imagines the "something", as opposed to the "nothing". When the something and the nothing come together, they create Sophia. Sophia in turn creates the Demiurge, and the Demiurge creates the universe and sets himself as God. However, the Demiurge is a flawed being, because Sophia created him without a divine spark, and his creation is therefore flawed as well. Trying to fix this, Sophia carries a spark of divinity down to each and every thing on earth. By reawakening this spark, a process called gnosis, the believer can be reunited with the Pleroma. Christian Gnostics believe that Jesus Christ was sent to earth to help mankind to awaken the spark.

Suggested e-books:

Dean Hildebrandt - Essay On Enochiana
Francesca De Grandis - Be A Goddess
Francesca De Grandis - Goddess Initiation

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Saint Thekla

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"THEKLA" WAS A HISTORICAL FIGURE, NOT A GODDESS, BUT SHE DESERVES MENTION IN THE CATEGORY OF DIVINE FEMALES. HERS IS SUCH AN AMAZING STORY OF FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE, OF A STRONG WOMAN IN MAN'S WORLD, AND HOW SHE STOOD UP FOR HERSELF...DESPITE THREATS OF DEATH.

SHE WAS BORN A.D. 16 IN THE CITY OF ICONUIM IN TURKEY. HER PARENTS WERE PAGANS. THEKLA WAS ABOUT 18 YEARS OLD WHEN THE APOSTLE PAUL CAME TO HER TOWN TO PREACH. SHE WANTED TO ATTEND, BUT BEING FEMALE, SHE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO HEAR HIM SPEAK. SO, WHEN SHE SAT BY HER WINDOW, SHE DISCOVERED SHE COULD HERE HIM, AND AFTER HEARING HIS TESTIMONY, SHE DECIDED THAT SHE WANTED TO CONVERT TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

SHE SNUCK AWAY FROM HER PARENTS' HOME AND SET OUT TO FIND PAUL, BUT WHEN SHE FOUND HIM, SHE WAS DISHEARTENED WITH HIS REFUSAL TO BAPTIZE HER. DISHEARTENED, YES, BUT SHE DID NOT GIVE UP. SHE INFORMED HER PARENTS OF HER DECISION TO FOREGO MARRIAGE IN ORDER TO BE BONDED WITH THE LORD, AND THEY WERE ENRAGED AND ASKED THE GOVERNOR PUNISH THEIR WAYWARD DAUGHTER. AS A PARENT MYSELF, IT IS HARD FOR ME TO IMAGINE DEMANDING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT FOR EITHER OF MY CHILDREN, BUT THOSE WERE DIFFERENT TIMES WITH DIFFERENT WAYS OF DOING THINGS.

IT WAS DECIDED THAT THEKLA WOULD BE PUNISHED BY FIRE; SHE WAS TIED TO THE STAKE AND A FIRE WAS LIT AT HER FEET. ALL WAITED FOR HER TORTUOUS SCREAMS, BUT INSTEAD, A THUNDERSTORM BEGAN AND EXTINGUISHED THE FLAMES. THEKLA WAS SET FREE AND BANISHED FROM HER HOME.

SHE THEN SET OUT TO ANTIOCH IN SEARCH OF PAUL, BUT, SHE WAS A YOUNG, ATTRACTIVE WOMAN WHO WAS TRAVELING ALONE. A NOBLEMAN CAUGHT SIGHT OF HER AND LUSTED AFTER HER. HE PLEADED WITH HER FOR HER AFFECTIONS AND ATTEMPTED TO BUY HER WITH WORLDLY SEDUCTIONS, BUT THEKLA DEFIED HIM. SO, ONCE AGAIN THEKLA WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH.

THIS TIME SHE WAS PLACED IN AN ARENA TO SUFFER DEATH BY LIONNESS, BUT WHEN THE LIONESS WAS RELEASED, THE ANIMAL CALMLY LAID AT HER FEET. NEXT, THEY SENT IN A BEAR; THE LIONESS AROSE AND KILLED THE BEAR; THEN, THEY SENT IN A FAR MORE VIOLENT AND ONCE AGAIN THE LIONESS ATTACKED. THIS TIME, BOTH LIONS PERISHED. AND ALL THE WHILE, THEKLA HAD REMAINED CALM, CONTINUING TO PRAY FOR STRENGTH.

THE AUTHORITIES TRIED EVERYTHING--FIRE, DROWNING HER, LIONS, BULLS, BEARS--BUT THEKLA COULD NOT BE KILLED. DEFEATED, THE AUTHORITIES THEN RELEASED THE MAIDEN, AND SHE WENT ON TO SETTLE IN A DESOLATE REGION IN THE MOUNTAINS WHERE SHE PREACHED THE GOSPEL AND LIVED UNTIL THE OLD AGE OF 90.

TO MANY, THEKLA WAS CONSIDERED TO BE AN EQUAL TO THE APOSTLES; TO OTHERS, SHE WAS 'JUST' A WOMAN WHO DID NOT KNOW HER PLACE IN RELIGIONS HIERARCHY. TODAY, THEKLA IS CONSIDERED A SAINT IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, BUT IS VIRTUALLY UNKNOWN TO MOST OTHER CHRISTIANS. AND, EVEN MORE IRONICALLY, SHE SEEMS MOST UNKNOWN TO THE CHRISTIAN MINISTERS. SHE WAS A WOMAN THAT COULD NOT BE KEPT DOWN AND EVEN THOUGH SHE LIVED IN AN AGE WHEN WOMEN WERE THOUGHT OF AS SUBORDINATE TO MEN, THEKLA STOOD HER GROUND AGAINST THE PATRIARCHY AND WON. IN MY EYES, SHE IS A GODDESS.

Suggested e-books:

Tuesday Lobsang Rampa - Feeding The Flame
Tuesday Lobsang Rampa - Living With The Lama
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - In The Vault

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