what is the witchcraft religion

The Craft, or alternatively, Wicca, Witchcraft, or Paganism, has been traced successfully through a 25,000 year history, by Dr. Margaret Murry. The Craft originated in the ancient past, and has maintained a more or less unbroken line to the present. The Craft was born out of the ancient Animistic cults of prehistory, where a God controlled the wind, rain, hunt, waters, etc... It was in this time that Magic first mixed with the beginnings of religion. This early Magic was likely of the sympathetic variety.

Together with the God, the Goddess evolved, and Fertility was her domain. The Fertility of the animals and the peoples that hunted them was important to the continuance of the race. The God has changed little over the intervening millennia, while the Goddess changed dramatically with the advent of the agricultural society, and the Goddess expanded to cover the Fertility of the crops. The year then fell into two halves, the Summer, when the Goddess and the crops predominated, and the Winter, when the people had to revert to hunting and the God predominated. With the Goddess and the God of hunting growing in power in the society, as the chiefs among the deities, the other Gods fell into secondary roles, and were then, finally, forgotten. As the race spread across Europe, the Goddess and God were carried with them, and as the nations rose, and languages changed, the Names of the deities changed, but the essential force of the deities remained the same. The Celts, Heathens, Nordic, Greek, Latin's, and all the other races have the same Goddess and God at the center of their religions.

With the development of civilization and the the learning of the ability to store food, hunting became less important, and the God took the role of God of Nature and the Wild Places in general. The Goddess grew into both the Goddess of Fertility and the Goddess of Rebirth, as life after death and reincarnation had evolved in the religion. As time progressed, and the Rituals became more involved, a Priest class developed to insure the Rituals were carried out properly and the knowledge was carried on. These people became known as the Wicca, the "Wise Ones." The power of the Wicca was such that it infused the entire religious and political structure of the nations. The Kings of Anglo-Saxon England would never make any important decision without consulting the Witan, the Council of Wise Ones.

With the coming of christianity, there never was the mass conversions that the christians claim. While whole nations were classified as christian due to the fact that the leaders had converted, the populace, in general, kept the old ways. The most important attempt at mass conversion was imposed on the Wicca by pope Gregory the Great. He ordered the construction of new churches on the sites of the old temples and the creation of new holy days on the Wicca Sabbats. In reality, the attempt was only partially successful, for the only available craftsmen to build these temples were the Wiccan, and these craftsmen very cleverly hid their own Goddess and their God in the decorations of these churches. That way, when the Wicca were forced to worship here, their Goddess and God images were also present. It was at this time that Lucifer, became the Horned Satan, the new christianized image of the Horned God, and the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, was Sainted, a new christianized Image of the Goddess. The charge of Devil Worship is therefore a contrivance of the christian church in an attempt to eradicate it's rival for the attentions of the populace. The contrived god of the new religions is the god of a complex civilization, developed to control a rebellious people, rather than the loving embrace of the people, as they are, that the more Human Old Gods offer. As the influence of the new religion grew, through force of arms, the Old Ways only survived in the outlying districts and counties. These people became known as Pagans, from the Latin Pagani meaning people who live in the country and the Heathens, which means one who dwells on the heath. The derogatory connotations are again undeserved and a contrivance of the new religion.

The persecution of the Old Way continued and grew with the advent of the Papal Bull against Witches of pope Innocent the VIII, in 1484. Two years later, two infamous German Monks, Hienric Isnstitoris Krammer and Jacob Sprenger, produced the most baleful contrivance of of anti-Witchery ever produced, the Malleus Maleficarum (the Witch Hammer). In this book they provided definite instruction for the persecution of Witches. Although this book was never accepted by the appointed church censor, the approval was forged by the authors, and then the hysteria spread like wildfire throughout all of Europe. The forgery was not discovered until 1898.

Throughout all of Europe, the new religion used Witchcraft as an excuse to murder any people they felt were an enemy of the church. The old, invalid, mentally ill, women, healers, and of course, the true Witches. Since the Witches held fertility as an object of great importance, the christian Judges gave these sexual rites unnecessary prominence and seemed to delight in the prying, often through torture, the details concerning them from those accused of participating in them. The religion of Wicca is an extremely happy and joyous religion that was totally incomprehensible to the dour and repressed inquisitors and reformers. The total estimated number of people burned, hung, or tortured to death on the charge of Witchcraft is nine million.

It was during these times, the burning times, that the Craft began to go underground, for safety. Also the members of the Craft realized that the Craft was in danger of losing it's knowledge, as the Craft was being so mercilessly hunted and killed. The High Priestesses and High Priests began to keep records of the Rites, Rituals, and esoteric knowledge. These books of the Craft were kept hidden from the enemies of the Craft, they were kept "in the shadows" and it was thus that gave rise to the term for the Witch's Book as the Book of Shadows. It the Burning Times there was but one such book in a Coven, and all were contributors, but with the resurgence of above ground Witchcraft in these modern times, it has become accepted for each individual member of the Craft to have their own personal Book of Shadows, which is, in the view of the Coven of the Fiery Skies, a very good thing, as this will help ensure the dissemination of reclaimed knowledge, and thereby help insure that it is not lost again. Modern Witches still use this as the title for their book to Honor our lost Sisters and Brothers.

By the late seventeenth century, the Craft was well underground, as it was also illegal to be a Witch, as well as against the Cannons of the church. In 1951, the last of these laws was repealed, and the first Witch to speak up in defense of his religion was Gardner, and through him, all of Witchcraft was able to resurface, in its many forms. Now there are many Covens out in the open, and many many more still in hiding, fearing a resurgence of the persecutions. In America the first Witch to come forward was Raymond Buckland. Sybil Leek and Gavin and Yvonne Frost followed in his footsteps, then a rush as more and more Covens came out into the open. Now, even the US Army, with the publication of Army pamphlet 165-13, A Handbook for Chaplin's, recognizes Witchcraft as a Religion