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Witch-cult
The witch-cult hypothesis is a discredited theory that the Witch trials in the early modern period, witch trials of the Early Modern period were an attempt to suppress a Paganism, pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe. According to its proponents, accused witches were actually followers of this alleged religion. They argue that the witch Cult (religious practice), cult revolved around worshiping a Horned God of fertility and the underworld, whom Christian persecutors identified with the Devil, and whose followers held nocturnal rites at the witches' Sabbath. The theory was pioneered by two German scholars, Karl Ernst Jarcke and Franz Josef Mone, in the early nineteenth century, and was adopted by French historian Jules Michelet, American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, and American folklorist Charles Leland later that century. The hypothesis received its most prominent exposition when it was adopted by British Egyptologist Margaret Murray, who presented her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wicca
Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esotericism, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, and was Witchcraft Today, introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon paganism, ancient pagan and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 20th-century Hermetic motif (folkloristics), motifs for theology, theological and ritual purposes. Doreen Valiente joined Gardner in the 1950s, further building Wicca's liturgical tradition of beliefs, principles, and practices, disseminated through published books as well as secret written and oral teachings passed along to Initiation, initiates. Many variations of the religion have grown and evolved over time, associated with a number of diverse lineages, sects, and Religious den ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Witch-Cult In Western Europe
''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' is a 1921 anthropological book by Margaret Murray, published at the height of the success of Frazer's '' Golden Bough.'' Certain university circles subsequently celebrated Margaret Murray as the expert on western witchcraft, though her theories were widely discredited. Over the period 1929-1968, she wrote the "Witchcraft" article in successive editions of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. In 1962, ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' was reprinted by Oxford University Press. Murray's theory, also known as the ''witch-cult hypothesis,'' suggests that the accusations made towards "witches" in Europe were in fact based on a real, though clandestine, pagan religion that worshiped a horned god. Overview Thesis In this book and the subsequent ''The God of the Witches'' (1931), Murray explained her theory as follows. * Until the 17th century there was a religion, much older than Christianity, which all over Western Europe had supporters both amo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horned God
The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in Wicca and some related forms of Neopaganism. The term ''Horned God'' itself predates Wicca, and is an early 20th-century syncretism, syncretic term for a horned or antlered anthropomorphic god partly based on historical Horned deity, horned deities. The Horned God represents the god (Wicca), male part of the religion's Wiccan ditheism, duotheistic theological system, the Prince consort, consort of the female Triple goddess (Neopaganism), Triple goddess of the Moon or other Mother goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting, and the life cycle. Whilst depictions of the deity vary, he is always shown with either horn (anatomy), horns or antlers upon his head, often depicted as being Theriocephaly, theriocephalic (having a beast's head), in this way emphasizing "the union of the divine and the animal", the latter of which includes humanity. In traditional Wicca (British T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Witchcraft
European witchcraft can be traced back to classical antiquity, when magic and religion were closely entwined. During the Ancient Roman religion, pagan era of ancient Rome, there were laws against harmful magic. After Christianization#Roman Empire to Early Middle Ages (1 to 800), Christianization, the History of the Catholic Church#Middle Ages, medieval Catholic Church began to see witchcraft (''maleficium'') as a blend of black magic and apostasy involving a pact with the Devil. During the early modern period, witch hunts became widespread in Europe, partly fueled by religious tensions, societal anxieties, and economic upheaval. European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment. One text that shaped the witch-hunts was the ''Malleus Maleficarum'', a 1486 treatise that provided a framework for identifying, prosecuting, and punishing witches. During the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a witch trials in the early modern period, wave of wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Paganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, sharing no single set of beliefs, practices, or religious texts. Religious studies, Scholars of religion may study the phenomenon as a movement divided into different religions, while others study neopaganism as a decentralized religion with an array of Religious denomination, denominations. Adherents rely on Christianization, pre-Christian, folkloric, and ethnographic sources to a variety of degrees; many of them follow a spirituality that they accept as entirely modern, while others claim to adhere to Prehistoric religion, prehistoric beliefs, or else, they attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. List of modern pagan movements, Modern pagan movements are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray (13 July 1863 – 13 November 1963) was an Anglo-Indian Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. The first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom, she worked at University College London (UCL) from 1898 to 1935. She was president of the Folklore Society from 1953 to 1955, and published widely. Born to a wealthy middle-class English family in Calcutta, British India, Murray divided her youth between India, Britain, and Germany, training as both a nurse and a social worker. Moving to London, in 1894 she began studying Egyptology at UCL, developing a friendship with department head Flinders Petrie, who encouraged her early academic publications and appointed her junior lecturer in 1898. In 1902–1903, she took part in Petrie's Excavation (archaeology), excavations at Abydos, Egypt, there discovering the Osireion temple, and the following season investigated the Saqqara cemetery, both of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohistory derived from the superstitions intrinsic to occultism. Pseudohistory is related to pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology, and usage of the terms may occasionally overlap. Although pseudohistory comes in many forms, scholars have identified common features in pseudohistorical works. Pseudohistory is almost always motivated by a contemporary political, religious, or personal agenda. It frequently presents sensational claims or a big lie about historical facts which would require unwarranted revision of the historical record. Another hallmark is an underlying premise that scholars have a furtive agenda to suppress the promoter's thesis—a premise commonly corroborated by elaborate conspiracy theories. Works of pseudohistory often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witch Trials In The Early Modern Period
In the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, about 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and British America. Between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, almost all in Europe. The witch-hunts were particularly severe in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Prosecutions for witchcraft reached a high point from 1560 to 1630, during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion. Among the lower classes, accusations of witchcraft were usually made by neighbors, and women and men made formal accusations of witchcraft. Magical healers or 'cunning folk' were sometimes prosecuted for witchcraft, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused. Roughly 80% of those convicted were women, most of them over the age of 40. In some regions, convicted witches were burnt at the stake, the traditional punishment for religious heresy. Medieval background Christian doctrine Throughout the medieval era, mainstream Christian doctrine had denied the belief in the ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witches' Sabbath
A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became especially popular in the 20th century. Origin of the phrase The most infamous and influential work of witch-hunting lore, ''Malleus Maleficarum'' (1486) does not contain the word sabbath (). The first recorded English use of ''sabbath'' referring to sorcery was in 1660, in Francis Brooke's translation of Vincent Le Blanc's book ''The World Surveyed'': "Divers Sorcerers ��have confessed that in their Sabbaths ��they feed on such fare." The phrase "Witches' Sabbath" appeared in a 1613 translation by "W.B." of Sébastien Michaëlis's ''Admirable History of Possession and Conversion of a Penitent Woman'': "He also said to Magdalene, Art not thou an accursed woman, that the Witches Sabbath ( French: ''le Sabath''] is kept here?" The phrase is used by Henry Charles Lea in his ''History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages'' (1888). Writing in 1900, Germ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Ginzburg
Carlo Ginzburg (; born 15 April 1939) is an Italian historian and a proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: '' The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an Italian heretic, Menocchio, from Montereale Valcellina. In 1966, he published '' The Night Battles'', an examination of the '' benandanti'' visionary folk tradition found in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Friuli in northeastern Italy. He returned to looking at the visionary traditions of early modern Europe for his 1989 book '' Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath''. Life The son of Natalia Ginzburg, a novelist, and Leone Ginzburg, a philologist, historian, and literary critic, Carlo Ginzburg was born in 1939 in Turin, Italy. His interest for history was influenced by the works of historians Delio Cantimori and Marc Bloch. He received a PhD from the University of Pisa in 1961. He subsequently held teaching positions at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witch-hunt
A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or Incantation, incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. In medieval Europe, witch-hunts often arose in connection to charges of heresy from Christianity. An Witch trials in the early modern period, intensive period of witch-hunts occurring in Early Modern Europe and to a smaller extent European Colonization of the Americas, Colonial America, took place from about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still foun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Folklore
European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the Western world, especially when discussed comparatively. The history of Christendom during the Early Modern period has resulted in a number of traditions that are shared in many European ethnic and regional cultures. This concerns notably common traditions based on Christian mythology, i.e. certain commonalities in celebrating Christmas, such as the various Christmas gift-bringers, or customs associated with All Souls' Day. In addition, there are certain apotropaic gestures or practices found in large parts of the Western world, such as the knocking on wood or the fingers crossed gesture. History Many tropes of European folklore can be identified as stemming from the Proto-Indo-European peoples of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, although they may originate from even earlier traditions. Examples of this include the 'Chaoskampf' myth-archetype as well as possibly the belief in knocking on wood for good luck. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
