What Is Wicca?

Witchcraft, even in contemporary society, remains a topic of scandal. Race politics, too, still remains a taboo topic in certain social circles. The intersection of these two social issues may seem unlikely. However, this intersection played a crucial role in the 17th century witch hysteria, especially in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Accusations during the trial have proven to be quite the topic of debate, but the matter becomes increasingly complicated when one of the accused women is black (and even more so if they’re foreigners in addition to being black). This raises many questions which historians have debated for years: were they witches? Or perhaps, were they simply practitioners of their own foreign religion and culture? The purpose

During the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches. It was thought that these individuals practiced black magic and performed evil deeds, the deeds of the devil. This all happened during a time of great change in Europe, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments. They were persecuted for a variety of reasons, but three major ones were religious reasons, social prejudices, and the economic greed of the people. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin influenced the ideas of their followers. Religion dominated the time period and it’s easy to see how many opinions

Wicca is actually a modern pagan religion, and is concentrated on a more peaceful, harmonious and balanced way of life. It is actually a belief system that is of pre-Christian that is mostly how our ancestors lived

There are countless different assumptions about witches. The majority of individuals in the sixteenth and seventeenth century presumed that God and Satan were real (Lambert 1). They also assumed that “witches” were in allegiance with Satan and made a vow to bow down and serve him (Lambert 1). Furthermore, another common belief was

What images does the word "witch" create in a person’s mind? Most people would tend to think of an old woman wearing a black, cone-shaped hat, with a large mole on her face, and perhaps flying on her broom. The European witch trials began when both men and women were accused of consorting with the devil. Due to the accusations of consorting with the devil many women were tortured for days and even weeks for information. The most documented witch trials occurred in Europe and the United States. Throughout history millions of people have been accused, arrested, tortured, put to trial, and persecuted as witches. However, why were a majority of the accused and prosecuted women?

The nature of evil was spread by Satan and the people that followed, which were witches. Acts of witchcraft was one of the greatest crimes a person could commit, that is punishable by death.

Being that the Salem Witch Trails date back to over three hundred years, many people believe witch trails are a thing of the past. However, modern day witch trails are still extremely prevalent. Modern-day witch-hunts are reported to still be happening in Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, even in the U.S. and Europe. According to a New York Times article, within the last fifteen years alone, more than 2,000 Indians have been killed after being accused of witchcraft. Almost all of the accused have been women, usually accused by a neighbor or due because of personal disputes about land rights or personal property. Not only are witch-hunts going on in India, but reports have also come in from Papa New Guinea. Starting in 2000, when a newspaper reported men were tortured with weapons, including iron rods, before being beaten and burned to death, there have been many accusations of people partaking in witchcraft. Not only are these accusations happening to woman, they are happening to men, children, and the elderly. Causes for witch-hunts in Papa New Guinea are believed to have steamed from problems between men and the community, sparked because of the lack of educational and economic opportunities, also fueled by drug use. It is heavily debated that one of the reasons the Salem Witch Trials had such an impact on America is because modern day witch hunts have made what happened in Salem still relevant. One theory states that the witch scare was brought on by the ministers as a

The first ‘witch’ is believed to have originated from ancient Egypt around 2000 B.C. Many things about Egypt are still unexplainable in the 21st Century. The language alone was misunderstood to those who tried to comprehend it. Who’s to say the word ‘witch’ itself wasn’t misunderstood or the person(s) accused of being a witch was suffering from something that was undiscovered at the time? Andrew Smith said it best “People fear what they don’t understand and hate what they can’t conquer”. One instance was during the late 1600s in Salem, Massachusetts. A mother, canary, orphan, child, grade-schooler, deceiver, delinquent, martyr, servant, and a lost soul, ten lives seized for the simple reason that an inscrutable incident occurred. The blatant

What was and still is considered folk healing in the south, can also be considered a type of witchcraft. Most of this type of witchcraft is basically today's home remedies, that have been passed down over the years. " 'Our people don’t always call this magic,' says Amis. ' And they don’t always call it witchcraft. It’s just what you do.

The following paper will talk about Wicca and Paganism as a religion within the United States. Wicca is a diverse community as a religion, but is not yet considered by any Supreme court case but some aspects such as traditions are recognized by the federal and state courts. This will be further touched upon further later on.

“...hundreds of thousands of Americans practicing Wicca today (and the actual numbers are unclear), there are thousands of different Wiccan groups out there. There is no one governing body over Wicca, nor is there a "Bible" that lays down a universal set of guidelines.” (Wigington). Wicca is similar to Christianity in the way that they don’t have just one branch to follow. Even though the

Salem Witch Trials: Casting a spell on the people Today, the idea of seeing a witch is almost inconsequential. Our Halloween holiday marks a celebration in which many will adorn themselves with pointy black hats and long stringy hair, and most will embrace them as comical and festive. Even the contemporary witchcraft religious groups forming are being accepted with less criticism. More recently, the Blair Witch movie craze has brought more fascination than fear to these dark and magical figures. So, it becomes no wonder that when our generations watch movies like the Crucible, a somewhat accurate depiction of the Salem Witch Trials, we are enraged and confused by the injustice and the mayhem that occurred in 1692. For most, our egocentric

There are many who are Wiccan today that do not believe that the origin of their religion is in Witchcraft; while others believe that these religious practices are part of the foundation of Wicca. Because paganism was not an organized religion and was primarily passed on through oral traditions, there is questionable historical evidence to support a direct connection between the two.

Wicca is generally acknowledged to have been founded by Gerald Gardiner. However, Wicca as a religion has its roots in many different things including pagan worship, witchcraft, alchemy, and 19th century mysticism. All of these things came together to make Wicca a 20th century religion that is one of the fastest growing, especially in the Western world.

They aren’t seen flying on broomsticks at night, but in malls and working regular jobs. Skeptics would get laughed at if they say witches don’t exist (Harrison 357). However, in the entertainment industry, they show witches as an old hag in a black robe, wearing a pointed black cap, and flying across the full moon (Carroll). Self-proclaimed witches are in demand for lectures and television. Books on witchcraft appear on bestseller lists They are many shows and movies exist about witches (Cohen 2).