Witchcraft: Myth to Reality

1. Witchcraft: Myth to Reality Laura A. Wildman-Hanlon

2. “Witchcraft is a form of magic whereby with the with the help of a demon one man does an injury to another. “ Compendium Malificarum (1486)

3. “Witchcraft was not only the secret religion of the outcasts of society it was also the cult of people who did not conform in whatever walk of life they found themselves … The word “Witch” means ‘wise one,’ and a person cannot be made wise, they have to become wise. This is the real meaning of Witchcraft.” Doreen Valiente, 1973

4. So, how did we get from this…

5. To This?

6. The Burning Times Witch Persecution: Middle Ages (5th to 14th centuries) Heightened between 1550 -1650, During the religious strife of the Reformation. Sharp decline after 1650 Disappearance in the 18th century – beginning of the Age of Enlightenment.

7. The Age of Enlightenment • Began in 1700 – used to describe the period in European history when rationalism was coming to replace unquestioned faith in the authority of church and state • The central theme of the Enlightenment is the effort to humanize religion, to look at religion and magic as expression of man’s intellect as opposed to divine providence.

8. Magical Thought Never Died! • Western esoteric tradition is made up of a group of texts on magic and occult groups • Esoteric: obscure, something understood with special knowledge or training. Hidden.

9. Modern Magical Movements In the 18th century – magicians began banding together in magical societies such as the Freemasons, the Rosicrucian, Illuminati, Theosophical Society and The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

10. Aleister Crowley(1875-1947)

11. Dion Fortune(1891-1946) Founder, Society of Inner Light Her worked, combined with Crowley, forms the basis of the Western mystery tradition.

12. The Industrial Revolution1750-1830 • 1748 Pompeii was uncovered. • The Rosetta stone translation stirs more interest in ancient Egypt and Greece • Anthropologist and folklorists began to start developing theories of Pagan survivals. • There was a rise of Romanticism of the Pastoral • Towards the end of the 19th century books emerged suggesting that Goddess worship had not be completely suppressed in Europe.

13. Sir James George Frazer(1854-1941) The Golden Bough, a Study in Magic and Religion 1890

14. Charles Leland(1824-1903) Charles Leland Maddalena Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, in 1890

15. Robert Graves(1895-1985) The White Goddess (1948)

16. Margaret Murray(1863-1963) The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) God of the Witches (1933)

17. Gerald Gardner(1884-1964) Coined the term Wicca and popularized contemporary Paganism

18. Doreen Valiente(1922-1999) Gardner’s High Priestess and helped developed versions of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows

19. Raymond Buckland(1934 - ) Brought Gardnerian Tradition to US in 1963

20. Modern Movement in the US1979 Margot AdlerStarhawk Drawing Down the Moon The Spiral Dance

21. Why Now?Many things came together • The Counter-Culture / Hippie movement of the 60’s • Modern Women’s movement • The Ecology movements • The Gay and Lesbian counter- culture • Social Activism movements • New Age community

22. Population • The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) places the number at 750,000 members • A Poll conducted in 1999 by the Covenant of the Goddess (CoG), affirmed the number as 768,400 Neo-Pagans in the United States. • According to Adherents.com, in 2005 Neo-Paganism had approximately 1 million members in the United States. • This site also lists Wicca/Neo-Pagans as being the 10th largest religion and the 7th largest organized religion in North American.

23. Wicca • Wicca is a contemporary Earth-based religion that acknowledges the sacred found within Nature • It honors the Divine in the forms of both a God and Goddess. • It has no standard creed, official system of doctrines or dogma. No authoritative text or holy book.

24. Witches and Wiccans • Not all Witches consider themselves members of the Wiccan religion, although the vast majority of Wiccans do call themselves Witches. • Wicca is one form of Neo-Paganism and modern Witchcraft. All Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Witches.

25. British Traditional Witches Wiccan Traditions • Gardnerian: the first Wiccan Tradition. Published in 1951 in “Witchcraft Today” • Alexandrian: Similar to Gardnerian but uses more ceremonial magical principals in its practice • Seax Wica: 1973 Raymond Buckland broke away from the Gardnerian Tradition and founded his own Tradition which he called, Seax-Wica.

26. Other Magically Based Popular Pagan Traditions • The Church of All Worlds (CAW) In 1968 became the first Pagan religion in the United States to be federally recognized. Based from a science fiction novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” • Church of Wicca: Gavin and Yvonne Frost In 1972 became the first recognized church of witchcraft in the United States. Mail order tradition. • American Faery (Feri) Tradition: founded by poet Victor Anderson (1917-2001) and bard Gwydion Pendderwen. Borrowed much from Gardner but favors a spontaneous ritual approach.

27. Reclaiming: based on the Feri Tradition. combines self-empowerment with spirituality with political activism. Known for its “Witch Camps” • Dianic Tradition: focus on the Goddess Diane and the divine feminine • Dianic Wicca • Mixed-Gender Dianic Wicca • NROOGD: The New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn

28. Reconstructionist: reproduce, as best as can be actualized, the rites and practices of ancient Pagan cultures • Ásatrú & Druidic are a reconstructed Pagan tradition • Generic / Eclectic / Solitary: Self-created from books and personal experiences • Hereditary Witchcraft: FamTrad, Family Tradition

29. What Have We Learned? • During the Reformation, the accusation of being a Witch could have deadly consequences. • Despite this, magical thought and practice in the form of occult science, texts and groups continued • The Age of Enlightenment fostered a new look at religion and belief. • Which developed in the 18th Century into the creation of Secret Magical Societies • The Industrial Revolution brought in romantic notions of the pastoral countryside and of a time lost

30. Authors such as Frazer, Murray, Leland and Graves feed into the idea of hidden but surviving folk Pagan practices, while ceremonial magicians such as Crowley and Dion Fortune continued fostering the magical mystery societies. • In the 1940s Gerald Gardner coined the term Wicca and started the most popular of the Neo-Pagan Traditions. • The ideas come to North America in the 1960s where it took hold and spread, developing into countless numbers of Pagan Traditions.

31. Conclusion • Stemming from magical occult practices, • Combined with folk traditions • and embracing as sacred the natural seasons and cycles of life • Wicca, modern Witchcraft, has transformed into a new RELIGION.