CRM 1301 Midterm uOttawa Carolyn Gordon Essay

Hunting for witches has been going on for more than four centuries (from the 14th to the 17th century) and was a deeply rooted social phenomenon. It was born in feudalism and lasted until the "age of reason". It took different forms at different times and places, but never lost the essential character of the terrorist campaign of the ruling class against the female population. The witches were perceived as a political, religious and sexual threat to both Protestant and Catholic churches, and to the

Professor of religious studies Karen Armstrong finds in the early Christian Church examples of hostility toward women and fear of their sexual power, which she contends led to the eventual exclusion of women from full participation in a male-dominated church.

Witches have been around for centuries and everyone has either seen them or even dressed up as them for Halloween. It is a common thought that witches are bad and that they are the stereotypical look with the pointy black hat, broomstick, or the horrid looking face. Yet it is not common to know that it is believed that witches are tightly tied with the Devil and that was one reason that they would be executed. It is now a normal idea that all witches are women but why is that? Is it because women have always been subjugated to be worse than men or is it just another way that women were being controlled? To demonize something or another group it allows some to show them as a threat and this was an easy way for those who held the power to not let anyone rise above or to have the entire community go against one singular group or person. When someone was demonized between the 14th century to the 18th century it was common to call them a witch or state that they were associated with the Devil. During this set of time religion had most control over people so stating that they were associated with the Devil instantly set that they were evil and needed to be killed.

The nine year old daughter, Elizabeth Parris, and eleven year old niece, Abigail Williams, would creep into holes, hide under chairs and benches, twist themselves into weird positions, and scream and shout uncontrollably. Around mid-February in 1692, village doctor William Griggs could not find anything wrong with the two girls so he concluded that they had been bewitched by other witches in the Salem Village. Unsure of what to do, Samuel Parris led community prayer services and fasting to get the devil out of the girls. Samuel had two slaves from the Caribbean, Tituba and John Indian. John Indian made a witch cake for the girls made out of rye meal and the two girls own urine to help them reveal who the witches were. The two girls finally accused three ladies most likely due to the pressure. They accused Tituba Indian, Samuel’s slave, Sarah Good, a homeless beggar, and Sarah Osborne, a poor and elderly woman. On March 1st, 1692, the three ladies were questioned by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne claimed that they were not witches and that they had been falsely accused. Tituba on the other hand, confessed that she was a witch and told stories of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds, and a black man who wanted her to sign his book and

The idea of Witch Trials first came about around 560 BC in the Bible. The lines “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” and, “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them,” appeared in the

In this article by the BBC, the origin of witch culture is explained and questioned. The questions of, “Why did witchcraft become so popular?” and, “What made these women so appealing to artists are writers?” were mainly addressed. While the article does say that the earliest example of witchcraft is cited in the Bible, it claims that our modern idea of witches wasn't fully created until the early Renaissance by German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer. He created art that shows witches as young, beautiful creatures that could lure men to their deaths, as well as depicting them being old and ugly sitting on top of goats. In one of these paintings where the witches are shown as nasty, there is even one clutching a broom, creating the beginning

A witch is a woman that is thought to have magical powers that differ depending on the time and place, like the weird sisters in Macbeth, who practice sorcery. In fourteenth century Scotland, there were trials being held for treason. There were large numbers of people being accused of meeting with the devil to perform

Prior to 1400 CE, during the middle ages, there was a popular belief that “Satan-worshiping Witches” existed, who devoted their entire lives to harming others by using dark magic. At this time the Christian church stated that there were no Witches (Robinson, 2002).

Also known as, the Four Powers of the Witches’ Temple, the Witch’s Pyramid, is the basis for all magickal work, symbolizes the belief that is required to create magick and the traits to be accepted by all witches. It is the learning tool for pupils of the Craft. There are four declarations that epitomize The Witch’s Pyramid: To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Keep Silent. Each one of the influences is linked with a direction as well as an element. each of these powers can be applied as a way of seeing a method to study. In order for a Witch to have a perfect understanding of anything, all these powers should be present.

Basically, it was people who were lonely or were considered to be outcasts. There were also Indian slaves and anti-Christians who were accused of witch craft because of their different point of views. However, sometimes, everyday people were accused because of their superstitions like 'knocking on wood.'; The church saw them as those who didn't put their complete faith in God, and so therefore, were considered to be witches.

Thousands of years ago, the Goddess was viewed as an autonomous entity worthy of respect from men and women alike. Because of societal changes caused by Eastern influence, a patriarchical system conquered all aspects of life including religion. Today, the loss of a strong female presence in Judeo-Christian beliefs has prompted believers to look to other sources that celebrate the role of women. Goddess religion and feminist spirituality have increasingly been embraced by men and women as an alternative to the patriarchy found in traditional biblical religion.

Woman in relation to asceticism were seen as the opposite than how we would like everyone to view them today. Women were seen as weaker than men, and responsible for the way that they make men feel (Cark, 34). The majority of women in early Christian asceticism were seen as a pathway to temptation and were depicted as tempting the most strong willed of followers of Jesus’ teachings.

The people in the Medieval and Renaissance times understood and related so well because they believed witches were evil and used their powers for foul things. “The kinds of misfortune for which witchcraft was

People believed witches could control the weather, cast bad spells, had the power of flights, had contact with the devil, could vanish into thin air, had the ability to make people go mad, were able to change their physical

In the book Women and Spiritual Equality in Christian Tradition, by Patricia Ranft, a new and innovative look at the role of women in the sphere of Christianity is examined. In a total of twelve chapters, the Central Michigan University professor discusses the role that women played in the first fifteen hundred years of Christianity and she disputes the contention that the church was traditionally misogynistic. She writes in her introduction, “that within Christianity there exists a strong and enduring tradition that maintains the spiritual equality of women," (xi) and she takes this idea a step further to support her thesis by writing that there is no foundation to the argument that “Christianity was largely responsible for western misogynism,” (ix). Instead, she tries to show that these misogynistic tendencies stemmed not from Christianity, but from the surrounding secular cultures. Throughout the text, Ranft will be attempting to show the reader that women maintained more spiritual equality with men before the modern era. However, it is the author’s intention in the book "merely to document the presence of a tradition of women 's spiritual equality throughout the centuries," (xii) not to provide analysis of this presence.