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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!panda!genrad!decvax!tektronix!orca!tekecs!hutch@volkstation.gwd.tek.com (Stephen Hutchison)
From: hutch@volkstation.gwd.tek.com (Stephen Hutchison)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Wyldeland theory of magic (& witchcraft)
Message-ID: <7638@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Sep-86 22:27:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.7638
Posted: Mon Sep 15 22:27:12 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Sep-86 22:02:44 EDT
References: <1059@leadsv.UUCP> <856@curly.ucla-cs.ARPA> <1082@leadsv.UUCP> <392@ubc-cs.UUCP> <142@zen.BERKELEY.EDU>
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Reply-To: hutch@volkstation.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison)
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 96
Keywords: animist magic
Xref: mnetor net.games.frp:2256 talk.religion.misc:66

In article <142@zen.BERKELEY.EDU> iverson@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Tim Iverson)
writes:
>	What I am curious about is why do people think witchcraft is so bad?
>Admittedly I don't know much about it, but I would think that unless it
>involved such questionable activities as involuntary human sacrifice, it
>should be treated as any other belief system whose main support is derived
>from FAITH and TRUTH (N.B. this is different from the real thing - faith
>and truth can be rationalized).

Since this seems to be an actual request for information I guess I can answer
it, even though it will probably collect flames.  I refuse to read any of
the religion newsgroups so if you insist on flaming me from that corner,
please use mail.  People in net.games.frp who are bored by this can either
hit "n" or read it for the ideas about how and WHY people think what they do.

Witchcraft is believed by most people, Christian or not, to be associated
with the malevolent summoning of spirits and demonic forces in order to
take magical revenge on other people, or to in some way achieve power over
them.  Note that this is what most people BELIEVE to be the case.

The historic persecution of Witches in western history is in some ways tied
to the change from a society where women were, if not equal in all roles, at
least valued for their own traditional roles.  The increase in male-sexist
social roles, especially in the prevalence of male doctors, resulted in the
women's healing arts being labeled "magic".  Of course, not all who practiced
those arts were women.  Anyway, the herbal medicine of northern Europe was
identified with black magic.  Since this herbal tradition was often also
connected with some of the pagan beliefs, and the pagan deities were labelled
as demons and such by Christians, the various traditional pictures of witches
arose as cauldron-stirring hags who lived in forests and had magical powers.

Three other things happened which resulted in the western view of witches.
First, in Europe, the Ergot fungus spread and destroyed much of the wheat
harvest there.  Ergot poisoning results in some specific, peculiar symptoms
which include partial paralysis, sexual hallucinations and hallucinations
of flying, and a specific paranoia: strong overwhelming dread that the mind
is being taken over by evil "voices" from outside.  It can cause uncontrolled
twitching, jerky dance-like spasms, all sorts of things which were attributed
to witches and the "evil eye" and since "witches" often KNEW better than
to eat ergot-rotted wheat, their own immunity was proof of their guilt.
Second, the Black Plague came.  Nobody knew what caused it, nobody knew how
to cure or prevent it.  Clearly it was the work of some evil thing.
Thirdly, in America, the slave trade brought some isolated, rather despised
people to Haiti; a group of cultish types who practiced a "death magic"
which has come to be called Voudoo.  The things taught by this cult were
brought to America by Haitian slaves, and in the paranoid, cultish and
insular environment of the Puritans, some of these slaves taught particular
kinds of magic to the children they raised, thus the Salem witch-hunts.
Incidentally, Cotton Mather was greatly maligned by a political opponent
and was NOT the bogey-man he is presented as being in most history books.

>	I always thought that fear of witches, dark magic, and the perpetual
>bogie man - Satan, had died out in the middle ages or maybe a little after
>the hangings at Salem.  So, what I want to know is this: Are any of you out
>there afraid of witches, black magic, or Lucifer himself?  HHmmm?

A lot of people ARE "afraid" of what you so quaintly call "the perpetual
bogie man".  They believe that the Enemy is trying to separate them from
their God.  Some people are warm, safe, and happy in their materialism or
atheism or whatever other religion they believe in, and thus feel free
to mock and sneer at those others for their beliefs.

>	Well, maybe that is so direct as to make anyone answering yes seem
>a fool.  Perhaps I should rephrase.  Should such a person exist that claims
>to be a witch, or practise black magic, or worship Satan - would you think
>that such a person was crazy, bad, or downright evil?
>
>	To start the ball rolling, I would think that such a person is no more
>crazy than most Christians and probably alot less evil - they are probably not
>going to denounce you as witch and burn you at the stake, something Christians
>have a long history of doing.  For those of you who wish to counter by saying
>that Christians have not burnt anyone recently, let me point out that although
>the Rev. Fallwell (sp?) and the news media never use fire, they do indeed
>roast people. :-)

If a person claims to practice black magic, depending on the methods used,
you bet I'd think them pretty crazy and pretty evil.  I used to try to do
that myself, and the psychological effects alone are pretty damaging to
the practitioner.  As for someone claiming to "worship" Satan, that depends
on what they thought Satan was.  A basic premise held by many Christians is
that ANY worship of any deity OR THING other than the One True God is in the
end a worship of Satan.  I won't necessarily go this far, but in the context
of Christian belief, where only the One True God DESERVES worship, where the
act of worship is the act of acknowledging Holiness, rightness and goodness,
then any worship of anything less than Him Who is Holy is an act in the
SERVICE of the Enemy.


As far as judging Christians now by the acts of Christians in the past, please
recall that there is no group of people on this planet at any time who can
be proud the whole history of their group.  I promise not to judge you because
your great-grandfather was a slave trader (if indeed he was) if you promise
not to judge me because my great-great-grandfather took scalps.


Hutch