➡ This text discusses the history of witchcraft, focusing on the persecution of women accused of being witches. It explains that these women were often singled out due to their solitary lifestyles or unusual behaviors, and were believed to have made pacts with the devil. The text also explores the role of women in early spiritual practices, where they were revered as mediums and spiritual guides. Lastly, it touches on the fear and misunderstanding that led to the witch trials, and the dark practices of pagan cults that preceded Christianity.
➡ The text discusses the dark history of human sacrifices and witch trials during the pagan era and the hypocrisy of the elite class who accused others of witchcraft while practicing it themselves. It highlights the fear and chaos these practices caused, leading many to convert to Christianity. However, it also points out that even within Christianity, there were instances of occult practices and witch hunts. The text concludes by suggesting that the real issue was not the communion with the spirit world, but the misuse of these practices for personal gain or harm.
➡ The main issue isn’t the existence of mystical practices, but how humans understand and handle them, especially when it comes to distinguishing between good and evil. These spiritual forces can be either destructive or life-giving, and they can greatly influence individuals and society. The fear and misunderstanding of these forces, particularly in women who were believed to have strong spiritual connections, led to persecution and hysteria. The key to addressing this issue lies in honest, individual spiritual growth, not in fear or dogmatism.

When a woman dips a twig in water and sprinkles the water in the air to make it rain, although she does not herself cause the rain, and could not be blamed on that account yet, because she has entered into a pact with the devil by which she can do this as a witch. Although it is the devil who causes the rain, she herself nevertheless deservedly bears the blame, because she is an infidel and does the devil’s work, surrendering herself to his service. Witches are so called on the account of their guilt. That is to say, their deeds are more evil than those of any malefactors.

They stir up and confront the elements by the aid of the devil and arouse terrible hailstorms and tempests. Moreover, they distract the minds of men, driving them to madness, insane hatred, and inordinate lust. By terrible influence of their spells alone, as it were, by a drought of poison, they can destroy life. Certain wicked women, perverted by Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of devils, believe and profess that they ride in the night hours on certain beasts with Diana, the heathen goddess, or with hernias, and with countless number of women, and that in the untimely silence of night, they travel over great distances of land.

The book Malleus Maleficerum, or the witch’s hammer, is an instructional manual designed to identify individuals who were thought to be practicing witchcraft. It was written in the late 14 hundreds by Heinrich Kramer, who had compiled different ideologies around witches, certain occult techniques that they allegedly practiced, and behaviors that were apparently common to witches. Latin for the witch’s hammer, it became an instructional manual for witch hunters. In the early modern period, the publication of the malleus maleficarum marked the era of the witch, a time of paranoid hysteria, a time where the intense fear of the darkest of the old traditions of paganism captured both Europe and America.

And at the center of it all was the witch. The witch could be anyone, but she was most often a lonely, impoverished woman, often without a husband, who therefore was susceptible to the influence of the devil. These single women were often thought to be in both a spiritual and sexual union with Satan, while single, reclusive women were the most often targeted. Wealthy women, married women, and even queens were being accused of witchcraft during the era of the witch. While some men did get accused of worshiping the dark lord, it was overwhelmingly women who were victims in witch trials.

In the summer of 1648, Margaret Jones, who was the local herbalist and midwife in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was suspected of being a witch. Some locals believe that her strong personality and use of herbs and medical knowledge was a sign that she had made a pact with the devil, and this potential pact with the devil made her dangerous for the community. The local witch hunter, General Matthew Hopkins, believed that you could determine that someone was a witch by spying on them for 24 hours straight. If during this 24 hours period, an imp appeared and was nursed by this woman, she was a witch, and the imp was her familiar.

That, once fed, would do her evil bidding. Unfortunately for Margaret Jones, Hopkins did indeed catch her feeding an imp. Other accusations from disgruntled townspeople poured in, and Jones was swiftly executed. She was hung by the neck from a local elm tree. Palacena of San Macario was executed in Italy for sorcery in 1571. She was an epileptic, and people had become suspicious of her seizures. Under torture, she confessed that she would anoint herself with oil and enter the body of a cat. She was sentenced to death by fire and burned at the stake. Elspeth Roach was an accused scottish witch.

Under torture, she confessed that she had had intercourse with the devil, who appeared to her as both a mysterious man by the sea and a fairy. She used her evil powers to wreak havoc on the town. For that, she was strangled and then burned. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe was erupting with superstition and witch trials. If your cow became sick, it was not uncommon to accuse the neighborhood recluse, or even your rival, of hexing it. If heat destroyed your crop, that too was the work of a jealous witch. If someone died in your family, that was also probably a witch working on behalf of the devil.

Women have long been accused of having supernatural powers, powers over nature, the ability to shapeshift, to channel the forces of the devil, to commune with spiritual beings. They had the ability to both heal and harm. As the givers of life. In this world, they had a closer relationship to the spiritual world and to nature. It was believed women could both give life and take it. Many women accused of witchcraft were local healers and midwives. For christians, the Eden account of the Bible proved that women were susceptible to being led and dominated by spiritual forces, and that they could do little to control these occult influences that would bear down upon them.

Thus, women were seen as liabilities with little individuality. Nor will they were sitting ducks, living vessels for spiritual powers to eventually possess and control. In the early modern period, if there was some kind of occult power to be had, it was through a woman. In earlier periods, the spiritual power of women was honored. The Pythia or the Sybil or the oracle of Delphi was a divinely possessed woman who would build within herself certain reverent or ecstatic states that created such a high level of mystical consciousness that angels and masters could enter her and speak through her, effectively allowing her to guide the community.

She brought heaven to earth through her being. Who could forget the vestal virgins, dutiful maidens who devoted their entire life to God to the degree that they became living constant vehicles for the higher worlds to work through? Women who gave of themselves so selflessly that their very being could help create a constant spiritual bridge into higher worlds. The Holy Spirit on earth is a flame, a flame that must be kept. If this flame is lost, the world turns to darkness. A similar role was played by the milyssae or the milise priestesses or the priestesses of the bee, who are also mediums for the spiritual world and responsible for setting the spiritual tone in their community by radiating the love and peace of God out into the collective ethers.

The specific tone and depth of spirit in any community was set not by a man, but by the magnetic influence of its most highly attuned woman. During the Hea dynasty of China, some 2000 years ago, women were used as a medium for spirit during an early divination style called abacomancy. Here a twig would be placed in her hands and used to point to different characters traced in the sand. It was believed that the young girl would draw to her the spirit world and through her body move the twig, relaying certain messages to the group. The integral role of women in early spirituality as mediums cannot be denied.

But today, and certainly in the early modern period, the era of the witch, it is greatly misunderstood. Men could have spiritual power, but it was of a different nature than women. While both men and women can be psychic and exerted spiritual influence, their spiritual powers are rooted in different occult processes and laws due to their innate difference in polarity. Thus, the issue is not that men cannot be psychic. The issue is that women operate differently than men when it comes to the channeling of raw spiritual forces. And this difference frightens people. The witch trials came about because people had a deepen fear of the dark and decadent era of paganism that preceded Christianity.

Before the era of Christianity, pagan cults ruled Europe and the world. And some of these cults practiced sexual magic or certain fertility rites and even human sacrifices. It was not uncommon in the pagan times to sacrifice not only animals, but people, especially children. The Celts would sacrifice both human and animals as burnt offerings. To the thunder God. They would build a human effigy out of twigs. And then place cattle, sheep and people within it. They would then light the structure on fire. The forces that were generated from the burning of these beings. Was food for the thunder God.

The early Celts also practiced a brutal divination technique. Where an individual would be sacrificed. And the future was divined. According to how his body thrashed upon death. And patterns in which he bled out. In early aztec culture, it was believed that the deity of the earth. Refused to give people food and water. Unless flesh and blood were given to her. Providing her with blood would create an energy called tianali. Which is similar to the modern concept of lush. The head of the person who was sacrificed. Was then publicly displayed on a skull rack. According to the Aztecs, the son also needed human energy.

That could only be provided through human sacrifice. The sacrificial energy directed towards the sun was called taolia. And was released when a human heart was cut from a living human body. And while still pumping, raised to the sun. These sacrificial victims of the Aztecs. Also had to drink human blood. As part of their preparation. Human blood was mixed with cacao. And this mixture was believed to create a kind of ecstatic state. During the pagan period of the Aztecs, cacao, the sun and blood were considered to be the same esoteric substance. Recently, archaeologists found 42 skeletons. They were all children who were sacrificed to the rain God tlaloc.

The hawaiian natives would also practice human sacrifice for them. They would sacrifice to achieve victory in war. Pagan tribes of Nicaragua would throw people in an active volcano to appease it. In Carthage, it was the saturnian cow God Moloch who demanded human sacrifice. This time it was infants and burnt offerings. The accounts of human sacrifice and cannibalism. Across all cultures during the pagan era are vast. This is a pg channel. But sex and sexual fluids were also part of these rituals. It was believed that the sexual fluids contained the essence of life. And could therefore draw the gods downward into their circle, into their ceremony.

Group sex, which is often sometimes labeled as fertility rites. Appeared in some pagan cults in order to create mass ecstasy. And this mass feeling of ecstasy, or group ecstasy through sex. Would produce a kind of etheric cloud. In which the entity they worshiped could close themselves. These kinds of occult ceremonies were also sometimes called sabbats or ecstasies. And became a central mythos during the witch trials. So what appears in their witch trials. Are direct fears about the resurgence of the dark aspects of paganism. The dark era of paganism instilled a deep fear into humanity. Would your baby be chosen to be cast into the fiery arms of mulluk? Would your husband be locked and burned alive in the wicker effigy of a man so that the crops could flourish? Would you be the unsuspecting person to be carelessly stabbed by a dark druid, so that the way your blood pooled out of your body could provide a means of divination? These senseless, demonic and cruel practices created chaos in society.

Many individuals were all too happy to convert to Christianity, as it professed that these kinds of profane sacrifices were no longer needed to reach God. Every epoch of spiritual, spiritual development on the earth has both a light and dark era. Paganism had its era of prolific and degenerate black magic. And today, Christianity also has been infiltrated with the same dark forces. The same evil that possessed people to kill on behalf of Moloch, or the thunder God or the rain God, Tilak, is the same evil that possessed those within the christian faith to murder on behalf of their spirituality.

Oftentimes, when researching the various cases of the witch trials, it’s more likely that these people were accused of witchcraft not because they were practicing the dark arts, but rather because there were local rivalries. Accusing your enemy of being a black magician was a way to humiliate them and potentially even officially have them killed. It was a way in which different institutions could actually steal people’s land and resources if they were accused. But it wasn’t just peasants, farmers, or the feudal class that would blame witches. The elite class was just as guilty of this. In the autumn of 1589, the seas were particularly rough, and many vessels struggled to make safe passage in the Atlantic.

One such vessel was that of Anne of Denmark. Anne was to marry the king of Scotland, James VI. However, both Anne and James experienced horrible weather, causing their ships to be damaged and delayed for months. James and Anne, overwhelmed by these apparent obstacles, became convinced that covens of women were using witchcraft to prevent them from marrying. He claimed that a secret network of hundreds of witches gathered together, creating wild storms that battered their ships. Convinced that the dark powers of witchcraft were working against them, he began a series of witch trials to root out these malicious occult groups.

During these kinds of trials, women were publicly humiliated, hung, or burned. They were often forced to endure grueling tests to discern whether they were possessed by Satan. Many did not survive the trials they were forced to endure, and most of the confessions of witchcraft by the accused were only given upon torture. These confessions mostly consist of obvious caricatures and tropes, like making a pact with the devil and flying in the air to meet him at night, turning into an animal and anointing themselves with oil made from children’s fat. These families would also be shamed. And it was not uncommon for their relatives to be exiled or even killed, as they were thought to be exposed to Satan as well.

As it was also believed that supernatural powers were hereditary, it was not unusual that the children of accused witches were also killed. What is interesting when it comes to analyzing the hysteria of the era of the witch is that the individuals that would accuse others of practicing witchcraft would practice it themselves. For example, throughout Europe, common folk would regularly use charms and spells to protect their home and livestock from negative forces. Gon sled for the light dome sees hexes about. This is evil coming from Germany. Hex or witch signs, are powerful occult symbols in use since at least the 12th century.

After 300 years of use in this country, they are seen as decorative ornamental objects. The hex signs on barns were once thought by some to protect against witchcraft. Today, even though their value is tied to their decorative effect, they remain a mystery. Barnes exhibit decorative artistic expression on the outside. But superstitious people also used occult symbols on the inside of barns and in houses to dispel witchery. Barn didn’t have any windows or anything in. You just had your doors where you went in. It was always a dark, a very dark barn. And I put these windows in, and lo and behold, I happened to be looking around.

I looked up. On the backside of the center beam that runs through the barn was this piece of paper that was tacked up to the backside of the beam. It had different magical phrases and I believe, a magical square. This symbol, also found in a local farmhouse, is said to have been used by early german mystics in Pennsylvania to protect their mud and stick chimneys from fire. This type of chimney construction is found in this West Virginia neighborhood as well. The symbol itself may be traced back to the mithraic religion common to first century Romans. A recent example was discovered at Pompeii.

In mithraic iconography, Perseus is depicted slaying a bull. Recent interpretation proves this to be symbolic of the passing of the age of Taurus in the cosmic world of astrology. The square spells five words in both horizontal and vertical directions. It has been used for occult purposes by many groups over the last 2000 years, but interpretations vary. It came to this neighborhood with Johnny Arvind’s great great grandfather. In the 18th century, people would also use magic spells and herbs for healing. It was also common amongst christians to use occult wands and rods to divine for water. Here we can see that rituals, charms and spiritual practitioners are common in all religions and spiritual practices.

They didn’t feel like these activities were taking them away from Christ, but rather deepening their relationship with the natural world in which God was present in. Nevertheless, all of these folk magic practices are part of the earlier pagan stream. Perhaps the most hypocritical of all was that elite families would have their own magicians, astrologers or necromancers on staff. Many monarchs or nobles would wait until a mystic could divine the right course of action according to celestial harmonies before they made a ruling decision. So while these individuals were allowing witch hunts and persecutions, they employed witches. So the very individuals that were driving the persecution of witches were also employing them.

In Rome, black magic was punished as a capital offense by the law of the twelve tables, which are to be assigned to the fifth century BC. And as livy records, from time to time, draconian statutes were directed against those who attempted to blight crops and vineyards, or spread rinderpest among the flock and cattle. Nonetheless, it was very evident from many latin authors and from the historians that Rome swarmed with occultists and diviners, many of whom, in spite of the lex Cornelia, almost openly traded in poisons, and to frequently in assassination to boot. Sometimes in the Middle Ages, a circumstance of which the malleus maleficarum particularly complains, the sorcerers were protected by men or wealth of a higher caste.

This was especially the case in the terrible days of Marius and Caitlin, and during the extreme decadence of the latest caesars. Yet, paradoxical as it may appear, such emperors as Augustus, Tiberius and Septimus Severus, whilst banishing their realms all seers and necromancers, and putting them to death in private, entertained astrologers and wizards among their retinue, consulting their art upon each important occasion, often even in everyday ordinary affairs of life. We can see again that the issue was really not that people were communing with the spirit world. Every religion has rituals, every religion has ceremonies, every religion has its mystics or prophets.

The issue is that it’s not the right kind of mysticism. According to people in power, the individuals who were persecuted were not in the right political circles, or not practicing the right stream of mysticism, or they were not within the right spiritual impulse, according to the opinion of the average individual or ruling class. Therefore, the issue is not that occult practices exist. They are at the core of even every dogmatic faith. Christianity is rich with ritual and ceremony, and is rooted in the experience of psychics or prophets. The issue is that humanity struggles to discern what evil is and how it works.

Through humanity. Certain spiritual impulses are destructive, while others are not. Certain spiritual impulses generate death, while others generate life. People can call to themselves light or dark forces, demons or angels. These spiritual beings can then, through the individual, bear down on the whole, or one individual can release through their own being, very dark forces that can affect those around them. Society has always had a difficult time dealing with this dynamic, dealing with the spiritual realities of evil, and how to properly confront that in society. What is important here is that the issue of evil is truly the issue of the human heart, or what spiritual impulses human beings draw to themselves.

Through their thoughts, feelings, feelings and actions. Human beings are playing out or expressing the dynamics of heaven or higher spiritual realities all the time. And rivalries between different spiritual impulses that capture humanity and work through humanity characterize our epoch. The battle between dark and light exists within us and can only truly be harmonized when we can objectively understand the spiritual world. Attitudes of superstition and dogmatism are rooted in fear and will therefore never solve the problem of evil. These attitudes will only perpetuate it. The mystery of evil can only be addressed through humble and honest spiritual development within the individual.

Although this medieval style hysteria has passed, we’re still left with a very strong taste in our mouth. Today, looking back, we can see a very real theme and pattern stands out. The fear of women and their apparent natural and deep connection to the spiritual world. The belief that women were easy vessels for spiritual forces, both positive and negative. The belief that women had such incredible spiritual powers that if they turned towards evil, could destroy an entire city. According to witch hunters, kings, and even average citizens, women could create storms or even kill with one wicked glance.

If a woman was in a low mood, too lonely, or without the proper male influence in her life, she would inevitably attract to herself a demon who would act as her husband. Together they would wreak havoc on anyone, one who crossed their path. That said, women were the healers in the community. With a touch or whisper, a fever would disappear, or a lame horse would recover. What is this apparent natural spiritual connection that women have? Why are they the innate mediums for the spiritual world? Why are they the classical oracles, the pytheas, the sibyls? What is the root of this? What are the esoteric laws that govern this incredible mystical power that women seem to have? Join me next week and we will explore these questions.
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