Mayhem And Misogyny Informed Feminism In Modern Pagan Religion

A few centuries ago in Europe, the fear of witchcraft led to witch hunts and executions. These occurred mostly in France, Germany, northern Italy, and Switzerland. “Tens of thousands of people in Europe and European colonies died,” and “millions of others suffered from torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear,”. It is estimated that the early modern witch trials claimed the lives of nine million Europeans, 80% of whom were women which led early feminists such as Margaret Murray, Mary Daly and Barbara Ehrenreich, among others, to wonder: “Was the witch-hunt an intentional woman-hunt”. Back then, women were accused of being witches since Accusations of witchcraft required no evidence of guilt. The trials were “intended only to produce

Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the seventeenth centuries, witch trials occurred in Europe. Many people were accused of being witches some of these people were accused of being witches for not following Christian beliefs at that time and others followed witch prosecutions for goods and money. Furthermore, the stereotypes of witches at this period also had a role in causing witch prosecutions. In this essay I argue how these three components led to the death of so-called witches. Firstly, I will discuss how the Catholic Church had an impact on most prosecutions. Secondly, I will explain how social stereotypes of that period have also influenced with the causes of prosecution of many alleged witches. Thirdly, I will discuss how

Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg, 1561-1652, is a collection of witchcraft narrative literature that took place in Rothenburg, Germany by Alison Rowlands. Margaretha Horber’s Tale of Witchcraft written in 1627 serves as an example of one account of a person who would be accused of being a witch due to her deviance against social as well as religious norms. Already we see this theme of individuals in society changing their attitudes towards another for minor infractions. As the story goes, “Margaretha did not make the progress in religious instructions her guardians had hoped for. On the contrary, she seemed incapable of fulfilling her pious obligations adequately.” As one may learn from this statement alone, individuals in a Rothenburg, and many other societies for that matter, were to meet a certain standard in term of religious knowledge. Deviating from the norm would perhaps have influenced her accusers greatly. However, as this source will illustrate, perhaps another factor influencing her accusers was the fact that this particular society may have in fact been experiencing turmoil. As history has often illustrated, when a society is experiencing difficult times, it may look to a scapegoat to take out pent up frustration, or possibly to explain the difficult circumstances. According to this source, during the Thirty Years’ War between 1621 and 1631 it is likely that Margaretha Horber’s parents, who died in early 1626, fell victim to an outbreak of plague

The author’s purpose in writing this article was to inform the reader of the rise and decline of witch prosecutions, along with their lasting effects on the society. The author’s central argument is that historians do not usually focus on

Were influenced by the Bible, “the book of Exodus (22:18) says: ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’” (qtd. in Oster 216)

Witchcraft was defined for the masses by the publication of the Malleus Maleficarium also known simply as the Handbook. Written by two Dominican friars in 1486 it’s purpose was to be used as a handbook to identify, capture, torture, and execute suspected witches. Opinions stated as facts and written in the Malleus Maleficarium, “handbook”, were based their faith, church doctrine, and the Bible. No doubt a religious masterpiece in it’s time this handbook is a neatly woven together a group of beliefs, experiences, wisdom of ancient writers, religious ideas, and God inspired writings that justify it’s purpose. Written by and used by Catholics this handbook proved useful for Protestants as well. Based on biblical interpretation and ideas the handbook provided Protestant Church leaders biblical authority to prosecute witchcraft as well. Translated into today’s vernacular phrases such as, “everybody knows that women are feeble minded” or “everybody knows that women are more superstitious than men” and “all women have slippery tongues” are included in the handbook and presented to the reader as foregone conclusions. Specific

Spielvogel states that “Europe’s longtime adversaries-war, famine, and plague-continued to affect population levels” (Spielvogel 437). Europeans also experienced another temperature drop that hurt harvests and led to a shortage of food (Spielvogel 437). Anxiety and anger over Europe’s worsening state led people to make allegations of witchcraft in order to explain the worsening conditions in Europe (Spielvogel 437). To summarize, heightened tensions within small communities because of Europe’s longtime worsening conditions played a part in why there was so much hysteria over witchcraft.

For more than two hundred years, individuals were persecuted as witches throughout the continent of Europe, even though the witch hunt was concentrated on Southwestern Germany, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Poland, and parts of France. In a collective frenzy. witches were sought, identified, arrested, mostly tortured, and tried for a variety of reasons. The total number of witches tried exceeded 100,000 people. This essay is supposed to identify three major reasons for the witch craze in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe.

In essence, society’s notion of female inferiority is reflected through the misogynistic views and actions towards women, as shown in the Greek society The Odyssey. These views, such as expectations of chastity towards women, continue on today. By recognizing sexist actions in literature, similar current actions can be acknowledged and

Were the witch-hunts in pre-modern Europe misogynistic? Anne Llewellyn Barstow seems to think so in her article, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History: A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions”. On the contrary, Robin Briggs disagrees that witch-hunts were not solely based on hatred for women as stated in his article, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community”. The witch craze that once rapidly swept through Europe may have been because of misconstrued circumstances. The evaluation of European witch-hunts serves as an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of misogyny.

The evidence of witchcraft and related works has been around for many centuries. Gradually, though, a mixture a religious, economical, and political reasons instigated different periods of fear and uncertainty among society. Witchcraft was thought of as a connection to the devil that made the victim do evil and strange deeds. (Sutter par. 1) In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth century, the hysteria over certain causes resulted in prosecution in the Salem Witch Trials, European Witchcraft Craze, and the McCarthy hearings. These three events all used uncertain and unjustly accusations to attack the accused.

The central issue at stake for people during the Salem witch trials were a series of hearing and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. It all started in Salem Village, in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. A man by the name of Richard Godbeer, the author of “The Salem Witch Hunt” and several other books is a professor at the University of Miami. Godbeer’s research and teaching interests center on colonial and revolutionary America. Also, his fields of interest are in gender, sex, witchcraft and religious culture.

Prior to the fifteenth century, rural European women were highly revered and respected pillars of rural community life; not only considered mothers and wives, but seen as community leaders, physicians, and sources of strength and wisdom. Women had a special and imperative role in rural life, and even those that lived on the fringes of society were well respected as the village healers and wise women. These old women would possess the wisdom of the ages and pass it on to others. This respect for women quickly deteriorated, however, during the witch hunts. The belief spread that women were morally weaker than men and driven by carnal lust, therefore making them more susceptible to being tempted by the Devil, and thus practicing witchcraft. (Levack p. 126) As people took this belief to heart, it is apparent that society would be affected indefinitely by such intolerance.

Voices of men have traditionally been the loudest, and therefore most important in history, especially in Medieval Europe where male academics and preachers had the most influence on the lower classes and upper classes. Those accused of witchcraft were disproportionately female, and the writing and sermons from this era clearly set the groundwork for misogynistic witch hunts which are to come in the Early Modern period. The works of Burchard of Worms, William of Malmesbury, Jacobus de Voragine, Bernardino of Siena, and Martin Le Franc each perpetuate different stereotypes of magic which all address the idea of gender in sorcery. While not all of these texts take explicitly misogynistic or misandristic positions, they give insight into whether or not gender was a main issue in determining who was or wasn’t a witch. However, it’s important to keep in mind whose voice is being heard in these texts: often well respected, upper class, or clerical men. As a result of these authors positions, they have influence far beyond their parishes and countries and, therefore, can define, both explicitly and implicitly, what ideas are “correct” about the behavior of women, specifically regarding witchcraft. Because these texts were written by men, there is a clear and distinct bias about women’s behavior and their possible involvement in the magical arts, however there are some notable variations that still establish harmfully unattainable ideal.

Goddess, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Classical Women of Antiquity, written by Sarah B. Pomery, focuses on the main categories of women in the literature and society of ancient Greece and Roman over a time period of fifteen hundred years. Pomery focuses on these roles and how they are significant in the development and structure of these great ancient civilizations. Her goal in writing this book was to expand upon her first book, entitled Goddesses as she discusses in the Preface of this book. She wanted to include the significance of all women’s roles beyond just that of Olympian women because the first thesis was so well received.