Paganism/Wicca

I learned about The Witches’ Hammer when I attended middle school. “Witches” worshipped Satan. Evil. We weren’t taught the totality of the atrocities committed against suspected witches, advocated in the book, by Inquisitorsor about the church banning the Malleus Maleficarum. We were taught the Crusades were good.

We were taught about dunking suspected witches. If they sank, they were innocent; if not, guilty. We learned about the pillory and convicted witches being burned at the stake, like Jeanne d'Arc.

“Grown-ups” told us witches didn’t exist. On Hallowe’en, we pretended to be witches, wearing pointed hats, riding on broomsticks, having talking black cats and mixing magic potions from soda. We’d cackle like Witch Hazel in Little Lulu’s comic stripand the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. “Mythology” was interesting. We were told it was fiction.

When we were very young, adults said Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy were real, only to later find out they weren’t.

We were taught ghosts weren’t real. When I was eleven, I read my first parapsychology book and learned there was evidence they existed, so I decided to research witches. Discovery: Paganism and Witchcraft are religions.

Evils of the Holocaust were recounted. What does this, the Inquisition, witch persecutions and Crusades have in common? Parallels: they were all done in the name of religion….

BTW, other things I didn’t learn in school:

• North Berwick Witches' Persecution
• Witch of Edmonton, England
• The Witches of Zugarramurdi
• Stamford Witch Trials: Kinder, Gentler than Salem
• Witch of Scrapfaggot Green: Historical Documents Evidence Witchcraft Was Once a Capital Offense
• Cats Persecuted as Familiars
• Familiars and Totems: Medieval Times: People Believed Animals Helped Witches in Evil Deeds
• Pagan Symbol of the Sun: Hitler and the Swastika