What was the workings of witches in past times

Wow I totally didn’t expect anyone to say that here.

Tell that to the families of the several men who ISIS beheaded recently.

I’m rather honest with my ideas. I try to moderate them on this site however as I understand many here are just beginning to open Pandora’s Box (which is not a bad thing BTW - But as I’ve pointed out; The box is best left closed until we are mature enough for its contents).

I do think people need a bit more compulsory teaching in basic metaphysics earlier in life however - A lot of those M.I. are result of the reality-shock after living twenty plus years of ‘normal.’

why were they burnt? usually if someone had a enemy they would accuse them of being a witch.
witches just mean wise women they were the midwives the people they would go to if they had a sick child
they knew which herbs helped with which illness but the village would be a little frightened of them but would still turn to them for help.

The theory I’ve always heard about the witches of Salem, Massachusetts was that some wheat in a grainery had gone bad and spoiled but they used it anyway to make bread. Mold grew on the bread and the mold had the same chemical composition of LSD. People ate the bread. So the women (AND men) who were accused of being witches because of their bizarre behaviors and visions and hallucinations were basically high on acid and didn’t know themselves why they were acting so strangely.

The ‘mind-reading’ thing was probably happening back then as well - accidentally. The accused probably weren’t even aware that they were doing as such.

Hence the need for Science again - Or researching for the better and more practical logic than just jumping to conclusions and executing others.

I read a book that will probably help you put witches into perspective. I don’t remember the name of it and I know it won’t come up in a google.

The book I read put more of an emphasis on the at home practices of early witches (this predates
Wicca and is more user friendly). It focused on simple things like burning incense to cleanse the house and bring good fortune. It did not emphasize bad spirits, but more of a way of life that payed attention to the little things. It was kind of like feng shui, mixed with herbal remedies, and practical solutions to day to day problems. For example, on a full moon night clean your house and put on a poultice for a certain injury.

I’ll make a real effort to find that book (maybe it was destroyed when the shed flooded.)

If you want to like witches don’t follow the modern wicca forms, they are too political for my taste. They also encourage you to be an outsider, when the ancient practices were more personal. They focus more one gore and shock value, IMHO.

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I’ve read some of the old stuff, I do like some of it. But yes… there is some modern stuff that I just wonder about.

When I was trying to tell my pdoc how to collect energy from other people and use it to trap a ghost and revel hidden treasure I was given a higher dose injection… so when I see a book saying the almost same thing selling at $35.00 a pop I get a little miffed. :wink:

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http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/schizoaffective/witchcraft-or-mental-illness

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Hahaha. Oh the money we’d make! :wink:

I was once told I should create a cult.

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Wasn’t so much about witches more about religion controlling the masses. Anything out of the norm was pretty much put to the torch. Stumping our technological growth and keeping us in the dark ages.

@san_pedro:

What makes me feel better about their being burned at the stake is that hopefully they passed out from the pain quickly.

A witch made me hallucinate once actually.

He said he was a black witch.

He mentioned he writes poems and i asked to hear one so off we went. One of the lines was “ill drag you into the darkness” i can still remember.

So while i looked in his eyes and he was saying this horrible poem the lights began to darken, they became darker and darker and darker. While that was happening his face began to change as well, slowly he became a guy missing patches of hair and missing teeth grinning murderously at me, you know those grins right?

It was one of those “im going to ■■■■■■■ kill you” grins, you know the ones right?

So as soon as the poem was finished everything snapped back to normal and the vision was over and he yelled at me “im a black witch!”

Just a short time before i saw pan as well as i was being tormented nearly to death.

Crazy “symptoms” this disease has, one of the symptoms apparently is a “black witch” making you hallucinate some evil ■■■■.

Not in the developed world. Not like in the middle ages. We quit burning people at the stake centuries ago.

because they where associated with black magic.
yet you also have white witches that do white magic.
people are generaly scared of things they do not know.
look at the frankenstein story he was also on the run for the
angry mob of pessants with pitchforks.

we are still hunted today by our beliefssteadfastand hold on to your beliefs

Duncan descendant

The best part of that link is the second comment on the page.

I doubt the women at the Salem witch trials were either mentally ill or wiccans/witches.

they were trying religious tactics unfortunately that it was not acceptable in society then or today

I read a really cool book by a boston historian Marilynne K. Roach.

It was amazing to read the after maths of the trials… even two years after… This book follows the lives of the core accusing little girls and the survivors of the victims for years after the trials.

There was an illness going around at the time… there was a poor wheat crop… there was some other things going wrong… and on top of that…

This book looks at property records and land titles and other odd little things…

the theory is… the girl who started all the fuss (Anne Putnam) was encouraged by her family to accuse as many as she did… due to the fact that the Putnam’s were quietly acquiring the land from the family of the victims. One of the women (Biddy Early) was a homeless beggar and why not get rid of her while your at it.

One of the women was a recent widow who’s large and profitable farm was bordered to the Putnam farm… get rid of her and take the land as abandoned less then two years later. I guess the Title transfer to that land is in the boston archives.

When Anne P. grew up and her parents died and she was going to marry, she was on record as making a formal apology to the victims families and admitted some of it was motivated by her family at the time in order to gain more wealth. I guess there is a letter in the Boston Archives that can back it up.

Just another theory into why it took off. It was interesting to read which families became very wealthy and acquired a lot of new property and goods as… other certain families were hung as witches. The families of two of the constant accusing girls got very rich… coincidentally

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