By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
I’m watching yet another program- this one from the 1990’s that insists the Witchcraft Trials were all about persecuting the pre–Christian Pagan faiths. I’m not naming this one. There are countless places this is claimed but nowhere is it claimed more than by mainstream modern magical practitioners. Sayings like “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn” are shared by people whose family does not worship Pagan gods and many of whom condemn our neo faiths as demonic.
The founder of modern Wicca, Gerald Gardner, believed what Egyptologist Margaret Alice Murray wrote. She said the inquisitors persecuted pre-Christian faiths, taking the words of accused witches and warping what they said. In many so-called “confessions,” extracted under the duress of serious torture, multiple people were quoted as speaking about being in groups of 12 witches, led by a 13th, a man all dressed in black. Murray and others cited folk costumes with masks, some of which had horned headdresses – as can be seen in regions throughout Europe to this day – as being the likely costuming a black clad priest would wear to oversee these rituals. Some believe these horned costumes were misconstrued into imagery for the Christian devil.
Some such as the Scottish Isobel Gowdie would give detailed “confessions” of things nobody had heard of before, and used terminology modern witches use today. In 1662, she gave four confessions. She stated it was devil worship in a group called a “coven” and there was much dancing at the gathering. She said she laid a broom beside her sleeping husband to impersonate her and the attendees took the best food and drink from houses to enjoy. She said they would make effigies of people to cause them suffering. She said a queen and king of fairies attended and the witches could transform into animals.
She said the devil gave the witches arrows which they fired with their thumbs at victims and inflict death. She gave nicknames of coven members and names of people they had killed. She also gave the regular names of some coven members, revealing their identities. She said while a witch was transformed into an animal, they could not be killed but could be injured, as sometimes happened when a dog would bite them. She said the injuries would remain on the witch after transforming back into a human. She said the witches dined with the devil and detailed descriptions of sex with the devil were given. According to her testimony, the devil was also known to beat his witches when he wanted to. Dozens of other people were arrested, having been named by Gowdie.
My Priest pointed out no record indicates she underwent any punishment after these testimonies. Multiple experts believe she had a good imagination and was a great storyteller. Multiple people, my Priest included, believe she appeased those interviewing her so much that she was released without punishment. Other experts say just because no record of punishment occurred doesn’t mean it did not happen. At that time, people found guilty of witchcraft were executed. We may never know what happened to her.
The things she said she did are not things remotely similar to what modern Wiccans do nor is it similar to what has been found from ancient religious practices. One old practice that dates back to pre-Christian times is the veneration of the Cailleach and the goddess Brigid. In different parts of the British Isles, it is believed the Cailleach rules winter and Brigid rules Summer. In Kildare, n eternal flame burned for Brigid in ancient times, one the Catholics now maintain at a site for the Abbess St. Brigid. A battle rages in the seasons between these goddesses, both wanting to reign. When Spring comes, Brigid wins and the Cailleach turns to stone. She doesn’t want to turn to stone and wants to stay in power, so she fights the warm weather with ice, snow, winds, cold and all winter weather in early Spring.
One way people honor these goddesses is to care for stones representing the Cailleach and her family. Stones representing them are brought into the home in winter and taken outdoors to a shrine in summer. This is done in honor of a tale from Glen Lyon, Scotland. Long ago, the goddess and her husband and family asked a family for lodging in winter. The family took them in. Before the Cailleach and her family left, she told the family if they cared for stones named in their honor, the land would be especially fertile from Beltane to Samhain.
None of this is anything like what Gowdie or others said and none of this has anything to do with the biblical Satan or worship of him. The accusations were made by people who practiced Christianity and most if not all those accuses of witchcraft and devil worship also practiced the same faith. The old gods were not served by the accused and their worship was never mentioned by the inquisitors. Satan is not one of our gods nor will he ever represent them.
Wicca is very modern, some of it invented by Gardner and some of it inspired by the writings of Murray and, of course, Aleister Crowley. The ancient people did not cast a circle, have exactly 13 members, call themselves witches or have covens. Some people believe a romanticized view of Wicca and witchcraft but what the accused confessed, all of which was scientifically impossible, is fantasy.
Blessed Be.
Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own magical path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor who teaches and does Sabbats in her hometown, and she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for SpiritualBlossom and Mysticsense and she writes for PaganPages.Org emag.