Witchcraft

The history & background

Rory Fuller, Felice Di Padova, Lukas Ritchie, mi

Mia Chapman
What was witchcraft?

Witchcraft or witchery broadly means the practice of and belief in magical skills
and abilities exercised by solitary practitioners and groups.
Who practiced it?
★ Wasn’t exclusive to women
★ Some men practiced it
★ Women were accused of being witches more often due to social stigmas
Witches in Europe
★ Witches were portrayed as old raggedy woman
★ Consisting of unattractive features
★ Communicating with evil spirits to execute immoral deeds
★ If a woman owned a cat, she was a witch
The Laws against Witchcraft
★ Elizabethan era was the most strict with sorcery
★ Elizabethan laws against witchcraft were instated in 1564
★ Fortune Telling was punishable by death
★ The first Witch Trial was of Agnes Brown
★ Witchcraft act of 1604, banned resurrection
★ Impersonating witches became a serious crime
Social and religious factors

★ Fear of Devil worship

★ Catharism
★ Oppression of Women
★ Increased power of the Catholic church
Witchcraft today
★ Neo-pagan religion
★ Reconnect with nature & natural world
★ 1954 Gardner Witchcraft Today
★ Margot Adler high priestess
★ Margaret Murray Witch-Cult in Western Europe
Gerald Gardner
★ 1954
★ Witchcraft Today “Witchcraft was a religion and in fact still is. I know
because I am a Witch myself.”
★ Then wrote The Book of Shadows - wiccans who practiced this called
themselves “Gardnerians” now “neo-pagans”
★ Similar to wiccan practices today
★ Meet in covens led by a priestess
★ Two principal deities - god of forests & what lies beyond, Triple Goddess of
fertility & rebirth
★ Modern = two main sects = Neo-pagan / wicca
Main beliefs
★ Wiccan rede (list of morals)

“An’ye harm none, do what ye will”

★ 5 elements - water, earth, air, fire, & spirit (pentacle)

★ Rule of three
★ Earth is our main goddess - everything she created is worshipable
★ polytheism, god (sun) & goddess (moon)
★ Magick is changes made by the power of will
Modern celebrations
★ Sabbats (full moon)
★ Solstices & equinoxes (quarter days)
★ Estabat (New moon)
Who practices wicca?

★ White middle-class women

★ Focus on powerful female deity
★ Nature based religion
★ Major importance placed on protecting the environment and worshiping earth
★
Modern tools
★ Book of shadows - diary
★ Cauldron
★ Chalice
★ Athame
★ Pentacle
★ Alter
★ Tarot cards
★ Candles
★ Herbs
★ Pendulum
Bibliography:
★ A history of Witchcraft sorcerers, heretics and pagans Jeffery B.Russel 1982 (ch.3-4)
★ Cawthorne, Nigel. The Strange Laws of Old England. Piatkus, 2015 (Ch. 18)
★ “Witchcraft in 16th & 17th Century England.” The Tudor Enthusiast,
thetudorenthusiast.weebly.com/my-tudor-blog/witchcraft-in-16th-17th-century-england.

★ Doward, Jamie. “Why Europe's Wars of Religion Put 40,000 'Witches' to a Terrible Death.” The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Jan. 2018,
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/witchcraft-economics-reformation-catholic-protestant-mar
ket-share.

★ Nolan, Gillian. Wicca For Beginners. San Bernardino, 2015.