Here's to Witches - and those who weren't -

It's that time of year again - my favorite holiday is approaching and in honor of the bewitching season I thought I'd share a bit of what I discovered recently regarding the history of witchcraft.

Overall the record of witchcraft is horrible and brutal! 

Back in the 1600s, Germany was the classic land of witchcraft.  At least 100,000 people were executed - and as you might well imagine these were just ordinary people who had the misfortune of having a mole, scar or bunyon in the wrong place at the wrong time!  The law orderd torture in Germany and burning was the prescribed method of death. In 1590 a chronicler wrote of Brunswick "A horrible specticle met our eyes. Outside of the walls of many towns and villages we saw numerous stakes to which poor, wretched women were bound and burned as witches."  Even young children fell victim to this horrific insanity! 

Nowadays, girls and women dress up like witches on Halloween without realizing how much pain and suffering went on just a few centuries ago.

Happening day after day for centuries, resulting in torture and horrible death for tens of thousands - of mainly women, the following examples of witchcraft in action are terrifying to ponder, just because they are so routine:

• A bishop in Germany burns a minimum of 900 men and women - many of which are respected wealthy citizens, as witches, and confiscates their estates and properties for his own enjoyment.

• A Protestant minister in Scotland refuses Christian burial to a  woman crushed to death by a mob because she was accused of being a witch by a 16 year old boy.

• A French Magistrate reveals that, instead of burning young children accused of witchcraft, he had merely sentenced them to be flogged while they watched their parents burn as witches.

• A woman in Scotland is burned as a witch for stroking a cat in the window at the same time the householder finds his brew of beer turned sour.

• A poor immigrant in Boston, speaking only Irish and saying her simple prayers in Latin, is hanged as a witch because she could not repeat the Lord's prayer in English.

Cats, mice and blackbirds, along with irregularities in the body were but the outward indications of the pact with the devil - the essense of witchcraft.

I can't help but wonder how long I would've lasted had I been born back in those times!  With my inclination to paint aliens, cats and devilish characters, I would've had to hide my paintings for no one to see, or more likely would be too afraid to express myself at all. 

And, so I'd like to take a moment to honor and remember those who died as witches, not only in Europe, but right here in the United States not more than a few centuries ago.  My heart goes out to these poor victims who lost their lives or were tortured for such insane and ridiculous reasons.

We've come a long way since then.  Nowadays the Wiccas can cast spells and hold events without fear and those with scars and bunyons and moles don't have to fear for their lives!

So, here's to the witches - and those who weren't.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(Information above compiled from the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology)