Power of Classical and Scriptural Witches Essay

Witchcraft is the practice of black magic, the use of spells and invocation of spirits. Witchcraft, Fortune tellers, and necromancy (communication with the dead) are all Satan’s counterfeits to holy spirituality. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 says “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells or who is a medium or spiritists or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the lord.” The word sorcery is translated from the Greek word pharmakeia meaning pharmacy. Witchcraft and spiritsm involves ritualistic use of magic potions and

The most favourable belief during early modern Europe was that that women were more susceptible to becoming Witches then a male would be. The main reason for this being that Eve was fell pray to the serpent’s temptation in the Garden of Eden and becoming the morally corrupted.

Over the centuries, the image and the meaning of a witch have undergone a strange transformation. Most people affiliate the word with that of a woman that practices some form of magic; often depicted as evil conjurers who laid curses on others. However, they have been a popular myth throughout the history of humanity. It is safe to assume that people created witches in order to explain some phenomena that existed in ancient times. In modern times, the concept of a witch is nothing more than a fictitious belief because science has discredited the existence of real witches; or perhaps real witches have evolved into something else.

The primary sources, even those Christian writers who were hostile to her and claimed she was a witch, portray her as a woman who was widely known for

I found it very interesting that most accused witches were women. I know they use to think men were more intelligent than women so they felt women could be more easily mislead by the devil. Also men had a more violent nature,but women are more secretive in the way they start rumors and false stories. Women are more mysterious than men,plus Eve was the one who talked Adam into eating the forbidden apple.

The Renaissance was just beginning and so was the trying and killing of witches. The wrongful persecution of witches was a disastrous occurrence in time. However, a direct reason for why they were hunted was never officially given. Why did the Europeans hunt witches? Perhaps the witches really were just evil beings that deserved the painful deaths they received. A more likely reason for their hunting would be they were just female outcasts that did not fit in with society. During the times of these brutal killings of witches, however, the church was weakening rapidly, and the Europeans became quite fearful as to whether or not their religion would make it through these tough times.

Many people feared witches for thousands of years, especially the people of Salem. From 1692 to the beginning of 1693 young girls and women were put on trial for being “witches”. The trials often ended with a slow, painful death. Witches are commonly seen as ugly, old hags who wear black clothes, black hats, and black pointy shoes. Many witches don’t look like this though.

In addition, she may have other, more mysterious powers which do not derive from the established order. All women threaten make hegemony with their exclusive power to give life; and social order depended on women conforming to male ideals of female behavior. Thus, the identification of any woman as a witch will, therefore, set against her not only males, but also conforming females and their children .

The use of witchcraft has been around for centuries. Witchcraft was paired with the worship of Nature and pagan gods and goddesses. Just like there is a wide variety of people who call themselves witches, there is a wide variety of the types of witchcraft. People have many definitions for the word witch. Realistically speaking, witches do not wear all black with pointy hats and ride on broomsticks. Witches typically use witchcraft as part of worship or as a tool of communication with Nature and/or gods and goddesses. C. S. Lewis, the author of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe writes his story about: Four children in the magical world of Narnia filled with mythical creatures beyond a wardrobe door. In the book the children battle an evil witch who turned Narnia to an everlasting winter. With a lion named Aslan by the children?s sides, the children are able to defeat the witch and change Narnia back to what it once was. Lewis creates the White Witch, who relates to human and supernatural witches in mythology, to convey how witches have been perceives as evil and cunning, using their magic for selfish reasons, and were expected to act like so.

What comes to mind when someone says, "witches"? Most likely a picture of the Wicked Witch of the West, or Elizabeth Montgomery’s portrayal of Samantha from the sitcom Bewitched. Sometimes it’s someone evil and scary hunched over a black bubbling cauldron. Today’s modern witches are known as Wiccans who follow the nature-based religion, that have different branches and denomination. There has been some controversy about when Wicca had started, if it was formed back before pre-Christian ideas or if it was formed just a few decades ago. A man named Gerald B. Gardner had started the Wiccan Movement, along with Margret Murray, with the collaboration from both that is when the modern form of Wicca was born. Wiccans follow a dualistic idea of there being a Goddess and the Horned God. There are others who are polytheists believing in different gods from other pagan religions. The basis of the religion is the Three-Fold Law, which states that whatever you put out into the universe it will return to you three times good or bad; it can also be seen as karma in ones’ lifetime. “An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will" this means that you can do whatever it is that you want if it doesn’t cause any harm to anyone or thing. Wicca is more of a personal religion, there are different things that are believed in by covens and circles, groups of witches, or by those known as solidarity witches who practice by themselves.

Having analyzed the symbolic attributes of “witches” in both societies I have reached the conclusion that humans have the mental ability to make multiple forms of "collective representations", making a selection of things from their social and physical environment, which then they group by many different possible patterns according to social importance or similarity. Given the basic human instinct of survival, anything that puts his vital physical needs into danger is automatically considered “evil”. The personification of this threat, considering the existing social pattern we came across above, is the witch. It is at this point, when we should stress that not all societies, but mostly more compact and dense societies that depict this danger

Folklore has always told a tale of feminine power in regards to magic. There have been numerous accounts over millenniums of females having magical powers and supernatural in many countries all over the world. From the early starts of Mesopotamia, to the Greek and Mayan profits and finally to our modern magical women today. There is no set word to state what these women are called, but like most mythical things, witches were and still are a huge phenomenon even today. There are many definitions of what a witch is. The most common one is, “a woman thought to have evil magic powers. Witches are popularly depicted as wearing a black cloak and pointed hat, and flying on a broomstick,” which is typically what one sees during Hallowe’en in modern times.

When people hear the word witch, they think of a grumpy, aged woman, flying around on a rickety old broom-STOP. One would think that Witches throw glass bottles of potions all over the place, One would think that a Witch would stir their potions in a caldron. One would not think that a witch would have a long pointy nose. One would not think that a witch could be a normal teenager, with a normal life, who went to a normal school, had a normal family, ate normal food, Lived in a normal house, and had normal friends, and did any normal thing a typical human would do. The witches in this book, are unlike any kind of witch, they are Wiccan witches. The book is Spellbound, the author is Cate Tiernan, the book takes place in New Orléans.

There are also those that do not stand out with special signs or clothing and hide their magic skills. The main feature of any witch is her ability to putting spells and using magical, supernatural powers. Witches use magic and spells to influence people, animals and objects, and interact with ghosts. Examples are Halliwell sisters, Salem witches or East End witches. There are special spells required to communicate with ghosts and spirits: the Halliwell

Furthermore the appearances according to is religion there were some other ways women could be accused to be a witch . the political and economical crisis took part in how many women were often sexually harassed , Witchcraft could be transmuted through medicines. An active which could feed an innocent person a witchcraft substance, or it could happen to