Witchcraft & Sorcery

Chapter 6
Lehman & Myers
Witches
Witches vs. Shamans
Similarities
Fly
Heal/harm through magic spells
Communication with supernatural or spirit world
Differences
Evil/harmful
Destructive
Responsible for misfortune
Escape goats
Historic Overview of Witchcraft
Missionaries
9th century Europe
13th century Inquisition
1347 The Black Plague
15th century witch hunts
1450 organized witch hunts
1486 Malleus Malefacaran standard
Witchcraze 1550-1650
1690 Salem witchcraft
1700s Enlightment period Age of Reason
Witchcraft & Sorcery
Poverty & Magic
Explanation for crises
African traditions
Witch qualities
Sorcerer vs. Witch
Historic Overview
16th & 17th century
1692 Salem 200 arrests
Witchcraft & Sorcery
Evil Eye
Middle east, Europe, Central America, & Africa
Voluntary & involuntary
Perpetrators
Victims or most vulnerable people
Protective measures
An Anthropological
Perspective on the
Witchcraze

J. Brain
Image of the Witch
Two Universal constants
1. Witches represent peoples deepest fears of
selves & society
2. Witches represent a reversal of all normal
behavior
Image of the Witch
Divinely ordained
Authority & power struggles
Patrilineal/patrilocal societies
Matrilineal/matrilocal societies
Women as manipulating
Myths of women inferiority
Aristotle
Darwin

Ritual pollution
Sexual pollution
Mobility as a Factor in the Nonexistence
or Decline of Witchcraft Beliefs
Non-western & small-scaled societies
Sedentary agriculturalists
Unilineal descent
Pastoralists
Mobile societies
Environment control
The church & witchcraft
In Class Activity
Use the information from the lecture and the
films to answer these questions:
What caused the end of the witch craze?
Why do we see a change in the existence of
witchcraft beliefs in various societies?
Is there witchcraft in your society today?
Describe it and give examples
 Wicca & Witchcraft

by
Denise Zimmerman & Katherine Gleason
All about Wicca & Witchcraft
Wicca- witch wicce- someone who uses magick in everyday
life
Image of the witch
Basic Witchcraft Principles
Practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of
life forces.
Recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique
responsibility toward our environment
Acknowledge a depth of power far greater than is apparent
to the average person.
Conceive of the creative power in the universe as both
masculine and feminine. We value neither gender above the
other
Recognize both outer worlds and inner, psychological
worlds, and see in the interactions of these two dimensions
the basis for paranormal and magickal exercises.
Don not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy.
 All about Wicca & Witchcraft
Basic Witchcraft Principles (continued)
See religion, magick, and wisdom-in-living as being united in the
way one views the world and lives in it.
Calling oneself a witch des not make a witch, but neither does
heredity itself, or the collection of titles, degrees, and initiations. A
witch seeks to control the forces within that make life possible in
order to live wisely and well, without harm to others, and in harmony
with nature.
Our only animosity toward Christianity, or toward any other religion
or philosophy of life, is that its institutions have claimed to the the
onne true, right, and only way and have sought to deny freedom to
others and to suppress other ways of religious practices and beliefs.
We are not threatened by debates on the history of the craft but
concerned with our present and our future.
We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship
any entity known as Satan or the devil as defined by Christian
traditions
We work within Nature for that which contributes to our health and
well-being.
Beliefs
The Goddess
Venus of Willendorf
Coven or solitary
Idea of original sin
Threefold law
Wiccan Rede
An in harm none,
do what ye will
History of Wicca & Witchcraft
Emergence of supernaturalism
Cave paintings & Venus figurines
Rise of rituals
Pagan
Shamanism & witchcraft
The Druids- 350 B.C.E.
The Roman Empire & Christianity- 371B.C.E.
Pope Gregory I- The Great (540-604)
Pope Innocent VIII- Papal Bull (1484)
Joan of Arc (1431)
Malleus Malleficarum- Witches Hammer by H. Kramer
& J. Sprenge
History of Wicca & Witchcraft
Enduring and surviving the crucible
King James Is Witchcraft Act (1604)
Salem, MA (1692)
Poland 1793
1954- Gerald Gardner published Wtichcraft Today
1979- National Public Radio reporter Margot Adler
published Drawing down the Moon: Witches, Druids,
Goddess-Worshippers, and other Pagans in America
Today.
Starwhawks best selling book The Spiral Dance.
1986- Laurie Cabot founded the Witches League for
Public Awareness, Witches Anti-discrimination Lobby
Practicing Wicca & Witchcraft Today
Social acceptance or Traditions (cont.)
discrimination? Feri
Witches Coven Reclaiming**

Traditions of the Craft Dianic

Gardnerian Wicca British Traditional

Alexandrian Wicca Celtic Wicca

Georgian Wicca Blue star Wicca

Algard Wicca Strega Witches

Seax-Wicca Black Forest Clan

Solitaire