Thread: witch hunting and witch trials

i picked this up in Treadwell's Bookshop in london mines the 1929 first edtion hard back with the hot leather cover but im sure you can find a reprint around amazon or something.

the books called witch hunting and witch trials by ewen its a book based on witchcraft in England it starts with a brief history and holds alot of name records.

if your from the uk its well worth the buy any one thats intrested in the history if witchcraft should buy this.

The burning times were a pain in the a**. Most of the people martyred didn't know a thing about witchcraft. Most of the ones that did were into satanism, including I would presume some of the clergy that hunted witches. The others may have been pagan, but wicca didn't even exist yet.

I would argue that MOST of the people burned were not witches. This is how i see it going.

Women catches her man in bed with another woman. Man says, she's a witch she put a spell on me!! ***looks to his friend***** friend says "it's true i seen it!!"

Then they burn her and its good until the women catches him bed with another women. And the cycle continues. Same with many other problems and mistakes people made and didn't want to take responsibility for. I just used that example above because it clearly illustrates what i'm trying to say. And don't think that it's over!!! It still happens everyday all over every country. They might not be called witches anymore, but people are still blaming their faults on others. And trying to lie their way out of their responsibility.

When you say guilty, do you mean guilty of different religious views? Or of turning people into toads? Wouldn't any books from that time not have been written by the people that were actually burned at the stake? and mostly by the people that burnt them. Cause if anyone else wrote about it from another view, they would have been burnt along with their writings. It's kinda difficult to get an accurate view when they burn anything that casts doubt on what they preach, say, or do.

These are honest questions btw!! I would like to know what you think about what i said. I have not read all that much on the subject and would like to know what you think. Mostly about what they were actually considered guilty of, and what people thought witches did. Just privates religious rituals? or did they think they were casting spells causing infidelity, droughts, and flying around on brooms snatching babies?

Because they could have been guilty of practicing a different religion. Which isn't really that guilty in hindsight. But are you saying they were guilty of flying on brooms?

Lets not forget this still goes on to this day.

Many of the trials were downright vicious, like if you burn you are innocent if not you are a witch, and also a water trial. Swim and you are a witch.
The real warlocks and witches were apparently the Elite who kept quiet, but they should of helped their fellow man and woman. The religious nutjobs were the folks who wanted to suppress and frighten their people so they can fill the religious coffers with money.

The sad truth is that most who were burned were not even witches, but those merely accused of witchcraft. Most of them were christians victimized not only by society, but their own religion. All they need do was disagree with anything the church called doctrine, and they would be brought up on charges. If you had visible birthmarks, were sexually active but not married, ugly, an atheist or just unpopular, you could be accused of witchcraft.

Let me ask you a question: If you were a witch and you heard this was going on in your village, would you stay there? No, I don't think so. You'd do what a lot of real witches did in those dyas and leave. Go live in the woods. Move as far out in the badlands as possible. you wouldn't hang around and wait to be accused. Perhaps in the very beginning in Germany they may have caught some, but after the initial fires, you can bet the word got out among the witches that it was time to be made scarce.

Serpent has made very good points.

I think the witch-burnings should stop, and we should all work with our governments to exert pressure on those countries where people are sentenced to death for witchcraft. Most think that witch-trials were a thing of the past, but it still happens in Africa.

I also have problems with witches in popular culture. Witches are mostly hidden in todays society, and there is a reason for that. To ridicule a witch is actually socially acceptable even in western societies. We still have a long way to go on these issues.

I would also like to clarify that you could do a search on African witch-burnings, but the thing you will see then will not be nice. And there are both images and videos out there that really show a total lack of humanity.