I've ddone some research for this topic since my story: Kind of magic have that theme in the last chapters...

so, why do you think that happened?

why do you think the american people (and other nationalities) hated so much the witches?

Fear?

Anger?

Religion?

what's all about?

In a time when there were no other explanations for mishaps and good fortune except the wrath or good will of God, we raised a deeply religious people. They were so frightened of anything that might upset their precariously balanced society, including Satan and his workers, that they went so far as to burn innocent people simply to restore order. Unfortunately, that backfired much too often. Read the play, "The Crucible" for further info. Don't see the movie though. It sucked.

thanks Logan ...

but i mean, are they wrong or are they right?

because, it happens still, not the same way, but even so... what's the reason now? they're still people that are against the witches, most of them in the church.

but don't you think that we're more civilizate now, thatn in 1660?

I think even witches have a right to fight for what they believe in. They have a gift in my opinion, and they are simply using it to their advantage.


Very short post, but that about all sums up what I think!

Personally, I believe in total tolerance, acceptence, etc. This includes witches. I think the fact that people used to burn them is disgraceful.

Because I don't really believe in witchcraft, I'm not opposed to what they do. Techincally my religion forbids it, but there's not much of my religion that I still follow, so if someone believes in Wicca or Paganism, that's their choice.

Also, I currently have a huge crush on a Wiccan. :blush::wub:

Agree with you! I'm catholic, and even if i believe in everything the church says even if i'm not a religion person, i do have to believe that there's something more for that, like a Santa Claus for grown ups, that's for me Magic, and everthing about that.

ANd the witches? i used to have a crush on wicca, but then it passed away and left me the passion for the magic :P

luvly
andie

Whom they burn were not the real witches - let's just say there are, i dunno if I believe in it but let's just say it - Harry Potter got it quite right - I mean the REAL witches should be clever and powerful enopugh to cover...

I believe it's about the strength of women that the catholic ball-less bastard were afrait of :)
Really I try to accept religionism now and I do - But if I look back in time I just can't believe how much such wrong ideals and "knowledge" does to people - it makes culprits or corpses out of innocents.... I really hate it...

*sigh*

Yeah, actually, it's almost a fact that the *wtches* that were in the trials, were innocent ...

they just looked different from the others, so that gave them the idea that they were wtiches, or daughters of satan ... etc

I'm a Wiccan. I reckon from what i've read people were so opposed to the "different". They believed anyone who believed anything else was evil and that they must worship satan.
The other thing is that back then alot of things happened like bad crops seasons, people getting sick, bad things just happening and they wanted someone and something to blame it on, because they didn't have a lot of scientific explainations for what happened, so they thought it was a hex or a curse and they would take the person who seemed like they were a "witch"

Harry Potter is a crap. Good book to read, just how the magic works and also shows like Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer(they are my favorite shows by the way). Spells and stuff like that aren't the only thing about being a witch or a pagan or wiccan or whatever you want to call yourself. It's about finding yourself and admiring all of the world for what it is. If you do a curse or a hex on someone I believe you have no right to call yourself a pagan.
The only thing I live by is "And do what ye will, ye harm no one"

Most of the people (usually women) who were tortured and murdered during the witch hunts weren't witches. Many of the women who were murdered were simply village healers. Male doctors were in the process of establishing their dominance in "health care" and didn't like the competition. Others were either too beautiful (thereby inspiring envy and lust) or too ugly (thereby inspiring fear). Many times they were women of property who weren't about to give up their property for some greedy/ugly/old man. So they were accused of being witches.

All the various witch hunts, past-present-and future, are really about politics. They have very little to do with "faith". They are also about prejudice, fear and social control.

That being said, witches (as defined by popular literature for the last several hundred years) don't really exist. Yes, there are people who practice Wicca and Paganism who call themselves witches. Yes, they believe they can reclaim a term that I believe is poluted beyond repair. But, I think it is a mistake to use that term with any real legitimacy now. The term witch just has too much baggage. I prefer to be called a priestess (High Priestess, if you want to get nitpicky and technical....I've been practicing Wicca for well over 20 years now, lead several circles and had many a pupil...but, High Priestess can also sound just a touch pretentious). And magic? It is a natural part of the world, much like earth, air, fire and water. It is a neutral force that can be used wisely or badly. It is up to the idividual and there are always consequences. Indeed, I'm always trying to teach young/new wiccans about the "law of unintended consequences". Tough lesson to learn, but very valuable.

So, witch trials...they were a tool of fear and oppression. They always will be.

Namaste,
Cassandra

Back in those days, and still today, fear is what drives most people to do these obscene things. Burn people just because they think they're witches was then.
Today it's all sorts of other things.
Racism for example. People who think that the 'white race' should be the 'main race'. It's too absurt.
I think there are people, people who can easily influence large groups of people, have certain ways of thinking and proclaim those ways to be the right ways.
For example, the pope. The pope stands for us as the voice of God, so to speak. So lots of people believe everything the pope says to be everything God says. I do not.
I see it differently. When the pope speaks about being against gay people, I ask myself, why would God be against gay people? Gay people don't choose to be gay, gay people don't have that choice. Gay people just are gay people. Why would God not love gay people equally than straight people.
To me God is about love above all. Love and acceptance. Of every person, gay, straight, black, white, yellow whatever! ALL people.

Going back to the witches trails. Most of those trails weren't even fair, because those 'witches' were tested with tests that would prove EVERY person to be a witch.
The water test was one method the authorities used to determine if a woman was a witch. The accused woman was tied up and thrown into a lake, river, or some other body of water. If she sank and drowned, then she was innocent. However, if she floated on the water, she was condemned as a witch and was to be executed.
Also many times they used children as the only witnesses. And being as children are, not realising the impact of their stories, there were many fantastic stories told. One better than the other.
Those witches who confessed found themselves freed while those who maintained their innocence were executed. Strange! If they confessed to be witches, why were they then freed? It says that they were then redeemned from evil not witches anymore.
Another way out of execution was to accuse someone else. In this way, the number of accused increased along with the witch hysteria. Years later, many of those who participated repented their participation.
*shakes head*
Superstition, I tell ya! :) I'm glad witch trails are over, but superstition and this sense of having to follow a leader (e.g. the pope) in everything they say, sometimes really gives me the creeps all over again!

xxx
Petra

1. People fear what they do not understand.
2. People have the tendency to create false connections for the sake of understanding.
3. People need scapegoats to blame because nothing is their own fault.

Like what has been repeated over and over already, ignorance.

I wrote a shorty a while ago with the same name, kind of the same idea.

It's pretty short, but I think it fits this discussion:

The girl’s black hair flowed with the wind, lost strands following the light breeze. Her pale eyelids, which once held crystal blue eyes, were sewn shut. Tears of blood from her caked eyelashes mixed with drops from the crown of thorns placed on her pixy-like head. Her decapitated head was placed on a five foot high pedestal, reaching the height she had been graced with in life. In the fountain that was what made the town square infamous, stood the crude monument.

A young man came to look at her daily, his eyes beholding the words of the plaque at the foot of her pedestal:

A warning to all
or her kind and
to those who help
these creatures:
We will find you.

The young man wiped the traitor tears from his sapphire eyes, and looked upon her face. A face of agony and passion, of calm peace and disgust. So many things at the same time, the type of thing that was indescribable with one word. The man’s sub conscious would tell him not to put himself through the pain every day, every hour. The man knew her pain, up to a certain extent. He knew who she was. It was their ignorance that had taken the two out of their balance, that took her out of this world and forever into her own.

The man cursed them inwardly every time he passed one of them, or thought of her. He thought of her every second of his life, even in his dreams. She haunted him, and he welcomed it. Damn their ignorance. Damn their persecutions. They didn’t understand anything! Did they think they could stop witch-craft by beheading the suspected? They weren’t vampires. They weren’t werewolves. They weren’t demons. They were every-day people who recognized magik. They were human beings with a special gift that was to be shared, not to be kept secret on pain of death. When would the world understand?

Never. They’d never understand. The world would never accept something that scared them. They’d never accept something that was strange and foreign. To them, it was like a needle being jammed into your stomach, neck, arm. Anything they didn’t recognize was evil to them. And it would never change.

The last paragraph, especially.

They're just scared.

Hmmm...
I wonder if it could be down to the fact that people back in the day were made to be narrow minded by all the teachings to do with their religion etc. And, in my opinion, it was by large, fear, that drove people into believeing that certain people were witches.