The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca pdf torrent

Centuries ago, the inquisitors and witch-hunters who executed
witches as servants of the Devil believed they were
doing a service to God and humanity. They envisioned a
society free of witchcraft, which they viewed as heresy, a
scourge, an evil and a blight. They would be astonished today
to find that Witchcraft—with a capital W—has become
one of the fastest-growing religions in Western culture.
How did this 180-degree turn take place?
The road from sorcery to spirituality is a colorful one,
full of secrets, twists, rituals and compelling personalities.
In its short half century as a religion, Witchcraft has
a history rivaling that of any of the world’s great faiths
in drama, intrigue, pathos and triumph. Witchcraft has
taken its place in the ecumenical religious theater.
Traditionally, witchcraft—with a small w—is a form
of sorcery, concerned with spells and divination. The
magical witch, the sorcerer witch, was not practicing a
religion of witchcraft, but was practicing a magical art,
passed down through families or taught by adepts.
Witches have never enjoyed a good reputation. Almost
universally since ancient times, witchcraft has been associated
with malevolence and evil. Witches are thought
to be up to no good, interested in wreaking havoc and
bringing misery to others. Individuals who used the magical
arts to divine and to heal often took great pains to call
themselves something other than “witch.”
In Christianity, witchcraft became interpreted as serving
the Devil in his plan to subvert and destroy souls. A
witch hysteria mounted in Europe, Britain and even the
American colonies and was seized upon by the church as
a way of eliminating rival religious sects, political enemies
and social outcasts. From the 14th to 18th centuries,
thousands of people—perhaps hundreds of thousands—
were tortured, jailed, maimed and executed on charges of
witchcraft. Many of them were innocent, framed by personal
enemies or tortured into confessions.
They told lurid stories of signing pacts with the Devil
in blood, of being given demons in the form of animal
familiars that would do their malevolent bidding and of
attending horrid feasts called sabbats, where they would
kiss the anus of the Devil and roast babies for a meal.
None of these tales was ever substantiated by fact, but
they served as sufficient evidence to condemn those who
confessed to them.
The accused also admitted to doing evil to their families,
friends, neighbors, rivals and enemies. How much
of that was true is uncertain. Folk magic practices were
part of everyday life, and casting a spell against someone,
especially to redress a wrong, was commonplace. Since
most confessions were extracted under fear and torture,
it is likely that a great deal of untruth and exaggeration
spilled out.
In the American colonies, the Puritans were obsessed
with evil and believed the Devil had followed them across
the ocean from England to destroy them. No wonder this
paranoia erupted into witch hunts, including those in Salem,
Massachusetts, in 1692, when the tales of hysterical
girls were enough to send people to their deaths.
The stigma upon witchcraft left by the Inquisition and
witch hunts lingers to this day.