Introduction to Witches

Real? Not real? At the common level, even today, the elements of presumed witchcraft are fear of the unknown, belief in supernatural powers, and a tendency to symbolize so as to give substance and identity to intangibles.

(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - Belief in mysterious forces is not uniquely a Christian phenomenon. Witches and witchcraft fall into the mysterious category that was, and is, common to ancient, isolated or primitive societies, and continues to be a relevant part of cult-belief in many parts of the world, including the U.S. Southwest.

Psychic excitement may actually produce physical manifestations, as in the Easter phenomenon of bloody palms, etc. - suggestive of the wounds caused by the crucifixion of Jesus - a demon-stration [metaphorically speaking] of faith that approaches the level of witchcraft.

Julio Caro Baroja, author of THE WORLD OF THE WITCHES - published in Spain - says there are two sides to the question, what are witches?:

1). What is believed about witches; that they perform evil acts under the instruction of the Devil whom they worship [the religious definition] and

2), What presumed witches believe about themselves; that they have power and can perform acts of magic or witchery producing either good or bad effects with the aid of supernatural spirits.

No human being, or gathering thereof, can change the direction of the wind or affect natural phenomena according to whim. Therefore, self-proclaimed witches masquerade as magicians by pretending to do what is impossible, except in the psychic sense.

Religiously defined witches, on the other hand, are symbols of a disturbing or disastrous anti-Catholic-force the Church proclaimed is evil because their heresy and apostasy encouraged defections from the faith. Hence, so-called witches, of either sort, became victims of a disposal system, the Inquisition, to eliminate deviants, the useless and unfortunates in an institutionally designed attempt to impress Catholics with the importance of existing within the bounds of religious dogma.

The Inquisition was instituted in the 15th Century to arrest. imprison and try deviants, or condemn, and punish them as witches of deviant - "heretic and apostate" -disposition. The Holy Office operated for some four-hundred years, and was the law during the period of the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Pope Innocent VIII sanctioned the use of The MALLEUS MALIFICARUM [available through Amazon.com] as the legal code for use against deviants from dogma, or defectors to Protestantism. Protestants, not to be outdone, borrowed and used the same legal-text against its defectors wanting to re-embrace Catholicism.

Autos da Fe [acts of faith] were virtual carnivals of humiliation, ridicule and death, often attended by royalty who added fuel to the pyres that consumed those fated to die from an artificial hell that were meant to convince spectators of the value of submitting to the demands of Christianity.

At the common level, even today, the elements of presumed witchcraft are fear of the unknown, belief in supernatural powers, and a tendency to symbolize so as to give substance and identity to intangibles.

There is a willingness to displace to innocents the cause of apparent evil, even of natural causes, or emotional mal-adjustments which Community members feel are disruptive to the whole The elimination of the supposed cause assumes the character of a sacrifice to the god of a Community of believers.

The Community represents a symbol in its own right, a Nature not clearly understood, but its Immortality, an existence beyond that of individual life-spans, does represent a force able to be manipulate, by expectation, what is legitimized by the mystery of its function.

Therefore, anyone who is considered disruptive of the design of the Community may be viewed as a threat to Civilization, be labeled evil, and be subjected to sanctions, including elimination. Modern Penal Systems exist to perform the same function. NOTE: words capitalized possess an Immortal meaning beyond that of mortal life-spans.

Individual curiosity and original conjecture has ever worked against the conservative spirit of collective-emotionalism that makes Communities resistant to change. Persons who expressed opinion contrary to the general-will were cast in the role of reprobate. During Russia’s Communist regime, free thinkers were committed to mental hospitals to correct their thinking. Religion referred to them as “heretics and apostates,” the fundamental definition of witches as a whole.

Once baptized a Christian, even as a baby, a member who decided to renounce the Faith imposed on him was considered apostate. If he shared deviant thoughts with others who were persuaded by them, he was considered a heretic and a sorcerer, and sorcerers possessed the stuff of which witches were made because they contributed to the defection of members from the Church. The usual punishment for such a crime was banishment and excommunication, the most permanent form of which is death.

The culprit was ceremoniously set adrift, denied the Saving Grace of his Community, his family was condemned to the third or fourth generation, his property confiscated, and creature comfort denied him. And, the Inquisition might condemn him to be burned at the stake.

Salvation became associated with acceptance of, and participation in, the system of the Collective against the single mindedness of members from within, and the values of others from without. Catholics considered Salvation and Life to be synonymous. Man's Grace or disgrace was relative to the extent of his conformity to the dictates and the force of the Community's general-will.

Those who set good examples for living successfully within the Community were glorified, and honors were heaped upon them and their memory. They became the Saints, or were designated "Heroes," the symbol of righteousness and objects of devotion by which the leadership instilled in the minds of its members attitudes consistent with its philosophy.

Every society, once its values and norms are internalized, considers itself to be superior to all others. Because communities possesses a common spirit, what Jung described as the “Shadow [the universality of fundamental belief], there are as many gods as there are communities to support them, even among those that claim to worship the same God. It is not man's universality, but his vital situation, that determines how and what he worships, and sometimes how he lives and dies.

The Religious Right of the Republican Party, controlled as it is by its Evangelical Holy See, has picked up on this theme and made it the Party-philosophy of which Geo. W. Bush has been a most useful Apostle. He did what was expected of him, feels no regret for the part he played, and seems honestly querulous when defending his legacy for having done the will of the Religious Right and what he believes was correct.

Pope Innocent VIII sanctioned the use of the Malleus Malificarum against his better judgment, according to Rev. Montague Summers who wrote the Introductions, in which Innocent VIII is described as a pope who did what he must while living as a sinner. Rev. Summers admits Innocent’s life-style was more honest than subtle, but excuses him for having provided for his children and their mother in a munificent manner.