30 Days of Witchcraft ~30-Day Challenge~Day 30 We are the Descendants

It's Day 30 of our 30 Days of Witchcraft "Write Your Craft" Challenge. We've been together on this journey for a full month. I have gained friends, followers, and group members. I have found my voice in the community. I am blessed and I am grateful for you all. Today, I want to talk about our past, our present, and our future as witches. This one is long...take your time.

We are the descendants of the witches they couldn't burn. 
We are the witches that are opening their eyes.
We are the ancestors of the witches that will rise boldly, unafraid.

Our Past

Scholars have determined that witchcraft was used  2500 years ago in the Paleolithic era to bring prosperity to their clan. Humans and nature lived in harmony and worshiped the streams and rocks. Earth was their mother's womb and death's tomb. They used attracting magic for fertility for herds, flocks, and people insuring the success of the clan. Animals were buried as they buried humans - even the bones of their feasts, so they could be rebirthed from the earth. 

Before that, shamanism was documented in an area of the French Pyrenees around 1400 BC, though it's probably the oldest of the pagan practices. Neolithic hunters (7500-5500BC), had a God that was the consort of Mother Earth who was the god of vegetation, corn, winter, and death. Cutting down the cornfield represented his sacrifice. And shrines to the Triple Goddess began to be seen in this era, as she began to be associated with the moon in which they told time: waxing, full, and waning.

Ancient Greeks had a theurgical religion that used rituals with the intent of swaying or invoking the actions of the Gods. They also had a form of sorcery practiced by individuals that claimed to have powers to help their clients with rites and 'formulas" - probably potions and the like.

However, the roots of witchcraft as we know it, and magic, came from Celtic, Viking, and Germanic cultures during the 1000 BC- 100 AC era. They worshiped gods and goddesses, and druidic culture developed. This love of the land, and reverence for the trees - mainly the oak - became the basis of and grew into what we know as Paganism.

The best known period however is our more recent Middle Ages and the Early modern period during which time Christian authorities in Europe put hundreds of thousands of alleged witches on trial and tens of thousands burned in the European witch trials. Heretics were tortured and nonconformists were accused of Satanism. Even Pope Innocent VIII accused Satanists in Germany of "meeting with demons, casting spells, and aborting infants". This is where the "Malleus Maleficarum" came about. "The Hammer of Witches" ended the church's theory that witches were powerless in the face of the Christian God and bore a new theory that Christians had a new obligation to hunt and kill witches. This was in 1486 - a mere 536 years ago. 

This book, which was technically banned by the church in 1490, but was still reprinted 13 times in the next 40 years:

• Geneva, Switzerland, 1515 - 500 accused witched were burned at the stake
• Como Italy, 1526 - Charges lead to 1000 executions
• France, 1571 - witchcraft hysteria led to claims of over 100, 000 witches "roaming the countryside"

In 1580, Jean Bodin wrote "On the Demon-Mania of Sorcerers" after which the gates opened for children testifying against parents, entrapment of witches, and torturous devices were used. and after this  Protestant religions took on the mantle of hunting witches as well.

• Germany's witch execution rates rose higher than the rest of the combined content.
• Between 1500-1660 it is estimated that 50,000-80,000 suspected witches were executed, including estimates of:
• 26,000 in Germany and
• 10,000 in France
• 1,000 in England
• 4,400 in Scotland
• Just 4, in Ireland 

By the 1680s, the "Enlightenment Period" led to the end of witch-hunts in Europe, at a time when the hunts had quite literally jumped ship, and the mantle was taken up by the American colonies. The Connecticut Witch Trials and Salem Witch Trials led to over 200 people being arrested and imprisoned, and approximately 30 being convicted. Their deaths were: 19 by hanging, one man crushed with rocks after refusing to give a plea, and 5 died while still imprisoned before the proceedings were put to a halt and the rest were pardoned by the Superior Court of Judicature. America's witchcraft trials came to an end in 1693 - 329 years ago.

Our Present

After the trials, our practice remained in the shadows, cut off from our kindred, and practiced in silence. Though practices have still been recorded in our own grimoires and Books of Shadows. Only 71 years ago (1951), the English Parliament repealed its final laws against witchcraft. This led to the second half of the 21st century seeing a resurgence of new Paganism, called Neopaganism. 

The movement has seen the likes of, and people refollowing:

• Gerald Gardener, the figurehead of the modern Wicca movement
• Raymond Buckland, Gardener Convert & spearhead of the Seax Wica tradition
• Alex Sanders, founder of the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca
• Zsuzsanna Budapest, founder of Dianic Wicca
• Morgan McFarland and Mark Roberts, founders of McFarland Dianic
• Émile Zola, founder of Naturalism
• Helena Blavatsky started the resurgence of Occultism
• Francesco Petrarch, founder of Humanism

However, these are all based on their own form of following and religion. Wicca has recently been accepted by the IRS and other sources as a true religion and their symbolisms have been added to databases for religious markings, including the U.S. Military.

Witchcraft in and of itself is not a religion, it is a practice. Some of us may call on various Goddesses and Gods for assistance,  but it is a practice of beliefs in one's natural ability, and in the elements surrounding us. But because of these religions, we can come out openly in society and say, "I am a witch." I generally say, "I am a Pagan." because it is better understood and I do follow the old ways. Though many in society may not understand, hell many in our own family or friendship circle may not understand, we are able to be together again and not in full hiding. We have Facebook and blogs and insta and everything else to connect to our kindred. We are not prosecuted and hunted. And we are here to stay.

Our Future

I dream of a time when no witch has to hide their light in the broom closet. Where we can all practice freely, just as the Catholics and Protestants and Jewish and all other roads do. 

Though we do follow a tradition, we are bringing the witchcraft movement into the light. We are modernizing the movement! Need an herb? Hey, Amazon!!!! Seriously,  I have only recently gotten my green thumb working to grow things lmao! We meet online in covens. We ask for assistance in spells on message boards. We ask for shared knowledge the same way. I'm an American Witch with followers in the US, Canada, UK, Philippines, Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand, Mexico, and the Netherlands!! I practiced for decades alone, in my home, hidden from even my husband and children. This is amazing to me.

We are emblazoning the path for our children and grandchildren. Our descendants will say, "We are the descendants of the witches who burned the bridges!" If we continue to rise, continue to teach, and continue to inform, our descendants will be able to stand tall in hopefully our lifetime and say, "These Crones paved the way for me to stand proud as a witch today!"

Stand tall in your strengths, beliefs, and magick,  my dear kin. We have awakened. We are here to stay.