WERE THE WITCHES REALLY EVIL?

In a lot of fairytales from our childhood, We have always seen witches as evil ugly women with a wart on their nose, wearing a pointy hat and black clothes, riding a broomstick, or huddling over a huge cauldron while making wild potions.

They might have been the villains of the stories in our childhood but is that the whole story or have we been fed a lie our entire lives?

Let’s find out.

WHEN DID WITCHCRAFT START BEING TIED UP WITH “EVILNESS”

The earliest mentions about the witches are in the Book of 1 Samuel (said to be written between 931 B.C and 721 B.C) 

It talks about how unholy it is to practice witchcraft. 

For example, a verse says    [1 Samuel 15: 23]

 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you asking.”  

 History has proven that hate spreads faster than anything else. So yeah, this message spread rapidly, and soon witches were hated with a passion. 

So this was the start of the long-held loathing against the witches.

The sad part is that there was never any concrete evidence that witches hurt people during this period.

Now, let’s go a little bit ahead in time.

 WHY AND WHEN DID THIS LOATHING TURN VIOLENT

 Imagine you are in Europe during the 1400s. You are pretty famous in the town. Why famous? Because you are excellent at hunting.

Not at hunting animals but hunting witches. 

Yes, you read it right, “hunting witches.” 

In the 1400s, hunting witches became common in Europe. And the witches were treated even worse than the animals. They were tortured, beaten up, and burned alive.

The “witch hunters” mainly targeted single women, widows, and women living on the outskirts. Most of them were wrongly accused and didn’t even practice Witchcraft let alone harm someone.

By the end of 1660, The “witch hunters” executed more than 70,000 people.

 Now, the question arises, WHY did it turn so violent?

 It all started because of this one book.

, Link

 “Malleus Maleficarum,” which means the Hammer of Witches, is a guide to identifying, hunting, and interrogating witches. 

As the book fell in the hands of Protestants and Catholics, they decided to hunt and clear the hidden witches to “purify” the society. 

This game of hiding and seek made the whole society very unstable.

In fact, more than half of the accused were innocent.

Now we can’t really talk about the hunting of witches without talking about the famous Salem witch trials.

So let’s see what started this infamous trial and whether the “witches” were in the wrong.

 THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

It all started, in 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, When two girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, suffered some weird symptoms like uncontrolled screaming and contortions. Soon other girls also started to show the same symptoms, and William Griggs, the uneducated village doctor, had no explanation for it other than Witchcraft.

But how did they find out WHO was practicing witchcraft?

Now at this time, wars were going on, poverty was shining like the north star, and some little girls were desperate to move the attention from serious things happening out there and needed a scapegoat. 

Willy gave them the answer, “WITCHES,” and so, Elizabeth, Abigail, and the other girls started accusing anyone (they hated) of practicing witchcraft. 

The worst part was that people actually believed these children, and more than 150 people were imprisoned.

On June 10, Bridget Bishop became the first witch to be executed in the Salem gallows. 

Here, letting small girls make decisions led to 19 deaths. 

Moreover, other evidence also supports the theory that witches were not responsible for the symptoms.

For example, many people believe that the girls suffered from epilepsy, mental illness, or ergot (a disease caused due to eating fungus-infected rye).

you can read more about the salem witch trials here.

MODERN DAY WITCHES

If you thought witchcraft is extinct, you couldn’t be more wrong!

WICCA is a religion that practices witchcraft, and It’s still practiced in the US, UK, Mexico. 

Now let’s look at the origin of this modern-day witchcraft.

 Now, you see this man above, he is Gerald Brousseau Gardner. He was British but spent most of his time in Asia and due to this, he became familiar with a variety of occult beliefs.

He also used to read books on such philosophies and beliefs. Below is the picture of the book by a pretty famous occultist.

Right before the start of WW2, he returned to England to start his occult. 

In 1954, he published “Witchcraft Today” and found his first coven of followers.

(Coven: A group of witches. A coven has 12 witches and a devil as a leader like Jesus and his 12 disciples). 

With the help of the members, Gerald developed modern witchcraft into Wicca. 

During the late 1960s, just like buddha, the Americans started “The search for spirituality,” but instead of being enlightened under a tree, they found Wiccan. And that’s how Wicca reached America. 

Throughout the years many changes have been made, but Wiccans all around the world still have the same beliefs. 

They respect nature and hold both polytheistic (worshiping more than one God) and pantheistic (God or an expression of God’s nature) views.

 Wiccans call themselves witches, and due to this misunderstandings are created. They might call themselves witches, but that doesn’t mean they are involved in worshipping Satan or causing anybody any misfortune. The witches mean no harm to anyone. In fact, They follow an ethical code called “WICCAN REDE”, which states:

         “If it harms none, do what you want”

So, now that we have finally discussed the interesting but painful history of the witches, I hope you have a better understanding of the story.

Now, we are in a position to understand that the witches weren’t necessarily “evil.” They didn’t possess or kill people.

This widespread misconception also shows how easily people are ready to blame someone or something for misfortune and how easily people believe anything widespread.

I hope that the portrayal of witches as evil and villains in kid T.V shows will change.

I hope the article was helpful and yall liked it. 

Comment down below if you have any questions or suggestions that will help us to improve our articles.

So, until next time, stay bewitching!!!