A Witch (in masculine, a Warlock or Wizard) is a person who practices witchcraft. Although the typical image of a witch or witch varies greatly according to each culture, in the popular heritage of the western world the representation of a witch is nowadays strongly associated with that of a woman with the ability to fly mounted on a broom, as well as with the Coven (place of witches) and with the hunting of witches (search and identification of witches and witches). Some associate it with the seer or the clairvoyant, others associate it with the shaman (who is a specialist in communication with the powers of nature and with the deceased), while others associate it with a more tribal witch oriented to the healing of patients of the body and soul, etc. The witch (in feminine) is a recurring character of the contemporary imagination, which endures and is affirmed thanks to stories, novels, movies, as well as through certain popular festivals and their special masks.
In history[]
One of the oldest goddesses of magic in Greco-Roman antiquity is Hecate. Together Artemis the moon and Persephone the goddess of hell companions of Hades by force, form a magical triad. Hecate is considered the divinity presiding over magic and spells. It is linked to the world of shadows. It appears to wizards and witches with a torch in the hand or in the form of different animals, mare, bitch, she-wolf, etc. The invention of sorcery is attributed to him. Hecate as a magician, preside over the crossroads, the places par excellence of magic. In them stands her statue, in the form of a triple-bodied or three-headed woman, pointing out her three ages, young, mature and old. These statues were very abundant, formerly, in the fields, at the crossroads, and at their foot offerings were deposited.
Another wizard from the ancient world is Circe, who does not hesitate to use her magic wand to turn Ulysses' companions into Homer's Odyssey into pigs, and they already call her a witch right there. Just like what happens to Medea with the concoctions she prepares for Jason. The Greeks also give us the Sibyls, they were mythological beings who lived in caves near streams. The first Sibyl is Herophilus who prophesied the Trojan War, followed by ten more always called by their place of origin.
For many years the witch was the only one in charge of health in small settlements. That is to say, she cured her neighbors and also used to be the midwife who helped them come into the world. Their knowledge was transmitted orally from mothers to daughters, they were great connoisseurs of nature, of what it could offer them. This situation remained more or less the same when it came to towns and cities.
The great leaders, such as emperors, kings, popes, nobles, etc., had doctors, but the great mass of the population continued to consult these healers, whom they respected with a mixture of fear, they called them fairies as a good woman or beautiful Lady, but when things went wrong and their spells and potions didn't heal, they were called witches. These witches unlike Circe or Medea do not move a magic wand but use the nature close to them.
It is in the Middle Ages when the situation of these women changes. The new conception of the Christian Church, only God is capable of healing the body and soul, therefore everyone who directs his practices to pursue this end will be imprisoned, tried and executed. People executed in the name of God, boys, girls, men, women, Jews, Moors, professionals of different branches, condition, etc. are very diverse, but I focus on women accused of witchcraft.
From healers they became poisoners, to consider them cursed, brides of the devil, they lived in isolated sinister places, cursed, among ruins and rubble. The ignorant people did not know their resources and were malleable. Hatred and ignorance killed anyone, out of jealousy, out of greed, any reason triggered a denunciation of the inquisition, with their Dominicans leading the way with all kinds of gadgets to bring out the truth. A truth that under torture was confessed, of course.
For the Church, the woman, inferior and lewd, and therefore prone to pleasures and revenges, is necessarily predisposed to witchcraft. They condemned them for collusion with the devil. European witchcraft for a time differed from that of the other continents, in that it became a kind of religious heresy and concerned women more than men, since they were suspected of giving themselves up to the devil. Based on these facts, the Church managed to get the civil power, between 1450 and 1650, to burn several tens of thousands of women.
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.webp "Beldam (Witch).webp (40 KB)")
