Witches and Brooms

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
21

Could we please have a dose of religious tolerance here?

I am also a Wiccan, and was also rather offended by Cecil’s latest column. I think it was rather shortsighted, but I’ve found that a few times when it comes to “fringe” sorts of lifestyles and The Straight Dope. I’ve come to expect shortsightedness. Sorry Cecil, but that’s how I read it.

As for some comments mentioned here:

“Witchcraft” is a far older term for our manner of lifestyle than “Wiccan”. As we fight for the social recognition for our faith, we fight the irrational bigotry against Witchcraft. Most scholars and Wiccans agree that the majority of Witch-burning victims were not Witchcraft.

Considering the oldest useage I have ever seen of the term pagan (The Bible), I would suppose that Pagan came to mean “not religious” in a later age, when ‘if it wasn’t Christian, it wasn’t religion, dammit!’.

Part of what I found attractive in Wicca is how dynamic it is. There is no dogma, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to worship. All of that is between you and The God and The Goddess.

Anyway, there is of course a very strong sexual symbolism in the besom, or broom. Very akin to many eastern religions (Hinduism is the only one I have any real exposure to), Wicca treats sexuality as a major force in the human experience. Since we have beliefs that do not include original sin, or a value system that lists acts of sexuality as “BAD”, we don’t think it’s a really big deal. There are some Witches who include sex in rituals.

Now, to a Christian, this is completely wacked out. I can sympathise with your understanding of our system, it’s a logical step based on your system of morals and ethics. I don’t have a problem with you not liking it - but I think our views should be expoused just as loudy in a public forum such as this. Because, to us, it IS faith, and it IS our way of life. And, we are free to do this.

It is wrong to persecute and slander anyone, Jesus taught people this. If you choose to follow his banner than listen to his lessons.

I find 8 Matthew 10-12 a good lesson on religious tolerance from a Christian perspective. You might not love us, but your God does.

And if you think that we are not persecuted, I direct your attention to Killeen Texas. A christian coalition recently marched on a Witchcraft supply store there to protest that local Wiccans in the military at Fort Hood wanted to practice their faith on base (a practice encouraged in the Military Chaplains handbook and allowed on many other bases). Their leader, a local pastor, can be quoted as claiming they were all minions of the devil and that they should all be killed.

Many local Pagans rallied, with local Christians (including a Methodist minister) who believe in the right to freedom of religion.

Again: It’s our choice, our way of life. If Cecil chooses to belittle it a public forum, we must respond. Belive ANYTHING you want, but please offer us respect. EVERYONE deserves respect.

I have been very general in my comments, Witchcraft is very diverse. I consider what I wrote nearly to the point of off topic, further indulgement on these topics would be foolish.

To drift on topic: Can someone please explain the logic of administering narcotics by placing them on a stick and bashing them against your genitals? I’m not about to claim it never happened, but there are FAR EASIER ways to get the job done…

Really, consider the splinters…

Edward

22

Well Andros- MY dictionary lists “witch” as “a charming or alluring girl or woman”, “dope” as “a thick liquid or pasty preparation”, “Cecil” as "English statesman; helped draft League of Nations covenant”.

If one is to use the word “witch” to mean anything but your mother-in-law, you are almost required to have a religious element. Witches weren’t burned at the stake (or drowned or crushed) for being atheists (although that would get you burned just as fast, I’d think) they were burned for being in cahoots with the devil. The devil being the antitheses of God, to worship the anti-god indicates a belief in god, which is a fairly important part of a religion, so therefore- even the fairy tale witches had religion.

Also, when one mentions seeing God, being in league with the devil, shamanism, mystical experiences, leading religious figures, etc. it seems the one may be talking about religion… so therefore, to suddenly use a word who’s primary meaning is “a follower of a polytheistic religion” to mean someone with no religion seems odd.

Here is a little tidbit I think some people may have overlooked- if I may quote the great one directly “Scant underpinning for a mighty far-fetched theory, you may say, and I won’t deny it.” Wow, that looks like even the Master doesn’t believe it!

And what does being a minority have to do with anything? In my lifetime I have seen several words be downgraded from descriptive to derogatory because a ‘minority’ complained. Saying that it’s not a big deal except to “THEM” leads to the kind of thinking this country is trying to leave behind (IMNSHO).

Wow, this is much longer than I intended, sorry!

“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once”

23

Edwyrd said:
“‘Witchcraft’ is a far older term for our manner of lifestyle than ‘Wiccan’. As we fight for the social recognition for our faith, we fight the irrational bigotry against Witchcraft. Most scholars and Wiccans agree that the majority of Witch-burning victims were not Witchcraft.”

In the days of yore, when witch burnings occured, they did not happen because of an “irrational bigotry” against a set of opposing religious beliefs. The people responsible blamed the witches (wrongly!) for the fact that their cow died, or thier baby never woke up or the rains never came or some plauge hit. And you can see why–you watch half your village starve to death, you probably start looking for a scrapegoat. You see, witch persecutions were not just therotical. They were a very misguided way to deal with real, tangible problems. Today, if a healthy 20 year old sudddenly keels over and dies for no apparent reason, we take him to the doctor and find out he had menegitis. Five hundred years ago the same situation was totally unexplicable without witches. Furthermore, as I said earlier, I sorta resent it when modern wiccans try to present the witch persecutions of earlier times as part of thier own particular historic legacy, distinct from the rest of us. Three groups-- modern day Wiccans, the burning victims of the middle ages and the pre-christian Celts–are frequently presented in Wicca books as all being part of a single cultural heritage, which is far from the truth.

Edwyrd again:
"And if you think that we are not persecuted, I direct your attention to Killeen Texas. A christian coalition recently marched on a Witchcraft supply store there to protest that local Wiccans in the military at Fort Hood wanted to practice their faith on base (a practice encouraged in the Military Chaplains handbook and allowed on many other
bases). Their leader, a local pastor, can be quoted as claiming they were all minions of
the devil and that they should all be killed.

Many local Pagans rallied, with local Christians (including a Methodist minister) who believe in the right to freedom of religion."
You call that persecution? We should all be so lucky. In the senario above, the Wiccans had the support of both the local people and the fedral government. I think it is kind of ludicrious and even arrogant to describe “harrassment by a fringe group” as “persecution”. Persecution is when the local people come raid your shop and the fedral government is suddenly very busy somewhere else and it is only the fringe groups that will dare speak up for you.

Edwyrd again:
“To drift on topic: Can someone please explain the logic of administering narcotics by placing them on a stick and bashing them against your genitals? I’m not about to claim
it never happened, but there are FAR EASIER ways to get the job done…”

Actually, if the hallucinogens are too nasty tasting to put in your mouth, your pre-hypodermic-needle options are pretty slim. A well known analouge to the what Cecil hypothisizes can be found in the Classic period Maya, who gave themselves hallucinogenic eneimas duing religious cerimonies. I’m not saying I buy Cecil’s theroy about brooms, but it’s not that bizarre.

24

My (admittedly limited) understanding is that the relationship of modern wiccans to ancient witchcraft is somewhat similar to the relationship between modern-day Egyptians and the ancient Pharoahs – namely, none. Or, so diluted and thin as to be about as close to “none” as one can get.

Cecil’s attitude towards “fringe” groups has been commented on here, and I guess I’d like to comment that if you read his discussions that touch on mainstream religions (frinstance, his discussion of stigmata), you’ll find that same wonderful cynacism and biting edge that we’ve grown to love.

25

FTR, I don’t try to claim that my own (pagan) religion is the same as that of ancient pagans. I use some of their practices and share a part of their worldview, but in the final analysis my beliefs are my own.

(Heck, I don’t know any modern pagans whose beliefs are congruent to mine. Why should I expect more from peoples who lived hundreds of years before me?)

Of course I don’t fit in; I’m part of a better puzzle.

26

On the persecution angle, I think that many modern pagans are too quick to jump on anyone whom they perceive as persecuting them. A lot of people have been labelled “witch hunters” or “anti-pagan bigots” because they ignorantly confuse Wicca with “Satanism” and “devil-worship”.

This is not to say that bigots do not exist, of course. As previously noted, there are at least a few public figures who are determined to hate and vilify pagans, despite all attempts to explain that we’re just regular people. (For instance, Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia adamantly insists that all pagans worship Satan, and has refused to listen to anyone attempting to explain otherwise.)

However, these are by far the minority. Most people, on learning that pagans do not actually plan to steal their children in the night, are content to live and let live.

27

Wyzardd said:

Oh, good – another knee-jerker. Just what we need.

How about going back and reading what I said? Now read it again. Good. Now, do you understand it yet? Nowhere did I say anything remotely close to what you claimed here. All I said was that claiming to be a religion based on what the US government says is not a real good idea. If you read anything more than that into what I said, that’s all in your head and I take no responsibility for what goes on there.

28

Hey everyone, what to join my new club? It’s the Gay Fellows Glee Club No we’re not homosexual, just fun loving guys and gals. C’mon and join the fun!

29

For what it’s worth, I read a similar explanation somewhere in regard to Haitian voodoo, so it’s not just European broomsticks.

30

Actually, the root meaning of “pagan” is “hick”. Same thing, basically, for “heathen”, “gentile”, and “goy”.

John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams

31

MandaJO said:

“In the days of yore, when witch burnings occured, they did not happen because of an “irrational bigotry” against a set of opposing religious beliefs. The people responsible blamed the witches (wrongly!) for the fact that their cow died, or thier baby never woke up or the rains never came or some plauge hit. And you can see why–you watch half your village starve to death, you probably start looking for a scrapegoat. You see, witch persecutions were not just therotical. They were a very misguided way to deal with real, tangible problems.”

Although I am by no means a scholar on the subject, what I have read leads to a conclusion that the VAST majority of victims of this persecution had nothing to do with Witchcraft. It was a good tool, basically unprooveable, that allowed you to make scapegoats out of innocents. A religious basis is the easiest way to brand someone as pure EVIL and deserving of being killed, because if they are just a “little” evil, they get thrown in jail or whipped or somesuch…

I’ll concede my liberal usage of the word “persecution”, but frankly I have a degree of certainty that my employment would be in jeopardy should my employer discover my theological beliefs. North America has a healthy dose of secularism in it’s legal areas, thus the right to freedom of religion, but that doesn’t mean that people actually believe in that principle.

The term “irrational fear” was meant as a claim against the modern interpretation of witchcraft. Of course it stems from ignorance on the part of society. It has little to do with faith and a lot to do with intolerance.

Tip to Banshee: Education works against intolerance. Flaming makes it worse.
Edwyrd

32

Firstly, CK is correct. There is no connection, except in some imaginations, between modern day Wicca and what is traditionally known as witchcraft. Wicca is a modern invention, put together out of whole cloth by Gerald Gardner back in the late '50’s. Gardner, a disciple of Aliester Crowley, split from the latter’s Ordo Templi Orientalis, a notorious sex-magick group, and married ancient paganism with some new rituals he wrote himself and blammo : a new religion was born. (On a side note, H. Spencer Lewis took the same route when he began the modern flavor of Rosicrucianism, “A.M.O.R.C.”) The problem with most modern wiccan historians is that they try to interpret any instance of folk magic or superstition and an example of witchcraft. But to put it succinctly, there is no verifiable, historical, continual linrage from historical “witchcraft” to modern day Wicca. To say that there is is the same as trying to assert that modern Freemasonry had it beginnings in the building of Solomon’s temple.

That being said, the problem I have with Cecil’s answer is that he leaned towards the sensationalistic (and probably wrong) answer rather than the more mundane and rationalistic one. The idea of witches flying, for a start, has it’s origin in the legend of Diana and the “night rides” of her followers where women would go out at night and meet for their rituals and dances. Since Diana worship, to the medieval Christian, equaled the worship of Satan, it was an easy move to believe that these women were going out to do evil. About the turn of the century, the idea first turned into the idea that the women flew or rode upon wild beasts in order to attend.

Congruent with the idea of the witches flight was the idea of the magic stick or wand. This idea may go all the way back to Moses’ staff with which he parted the Red Sea. But to the medieval mind it most likely goes back once again to the worship of Diana and the Golden Bough. J. G. Frazer spent 12 volumes (with footnotes!) trying to sort this one out. (And don’t even get me started with the legend of the murdered and ressurected king; I’ve probably already upset some of the Wiccans here, no reason to alarm the Christians as well.) Suffice it to say that, since most accused witches were regular housewives, the idea of the magic stick transmogrified into regular household objects. This began in earnest probably around the year 1280, the first reference we see to a witch riding a broom being a picture in the cathedral of Schleswig dating from about that time.

The ointment does come into play though, although not in a hallucinogenic sense. It was the ointment, it was believed, that properly prepared gave the power of flight to inanimate objects such as sticks, chairs or brooms. This salve was prepared in various bizarre ways, with various bizarre ingrediants including the blood of murdered babies, toads who had been fed consecreated hosts and then killed, or the “distillations” from a red-haired Catholic who had been tied, hung upside down and bitten by venomous animals.

Yuk. Well, all I can say is that if I went through that much trouble to put together an ointment, the damn broom had better fly!

Source : Russell, Jeffrey Burton : Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press, c1972

Saint Eutychus
www.disneyshorts.org

33

[[For what it’s worth, I read a similar explanation somewhere in regard to Haitian voodoo, so it’s not just European broomsticks.]]

Charlie, can you tell us more about this?

34

I would like to submit that the a much stronger argument of the “witches and brooms” origins can be found in Idries Shah’s book, “The Sufis,” (first copyright 1964) in the chapter “Strange Rites.”

According to Shah (an amazing scholar)“Witch” simply means “wise,” which is also a name used by dervish cults. Great importance is placed on dervish symbols having meaning based upon the name of the cult (in Arabic)and the radical. A radical is similar to the permutations of words within the Jewish mystical traditions (obviously also semetic in origin).

The maskhara dervishes radical is BRSH. The arabic (in the Syrian dialect under the Saracens in Spain, circa 850 A.D.)word for broom is M-BRSHa, pronounced MiBRSHA.

Shah makes a number of other extremely convincing links of the witches rituals to the mystic cults of the east. I leave it to the reader to make their own assessment, but the colorful explanation quoted by Cecil is extremely weak compared to Shah’s links that also explain the “Athame”, the witches ointment, seasonal festivals, etc.

I have no need to comment further. Those interested may read Shah’s book “The Sufis” and learn more about the influence of Arab mysticism on witches, Masonic rites, the Coalmen, Tarot cards, and many other “unexplainable” customs.

Those that find him as fascinating as I do are welcome to email.

35

Most of the responses to Cecil’s explanation have nothing or little do do with the main content of his message. I learned the same explanation in an Anthropology class as an undergrad where the “kids” had similar irrational forays because they were disturbed by the content of the explanation. Banshee, it’s about smeering halucinagenic substanses on genitals, not persecution of religious practioners. Besides, it’s only a theory.

The music gets louder, the lights spin faster and the chap who passes out has failed the acid test. -Kesey

36

I didn’t think the response to the origin of broom riding was necessarily wrong, and in fact it kinda makes some sense. However, I’ve been researching wicca a lot latley, and more than once I’ve heard the origin of the broom riding explained differently.
I read that the wands were often disguised as brooms, so that they could be taken from home to the sight of ritual without much hassle. Similarly, I’ve heard that the jewel on top of the staffs was often very difficult to spot at night. If some busy body xtian was chasing a witch, and said witch ducked around the corner, then the xtian busy body (who are always known for there pristine observation skills <snicker>) might mistakenly belive the witch took flight upon it’s stick.
I wish I could provide the site name where I found this, and if I do, I’ll post it here I’d love any comments anyone has. . .I have quite a lot of time on my hands ( =

CactusRome@aol.com

37

“Wicca” is a 20th-century scam. There is no, repeat, no historic evidence of substantial survival of organized pre-Christian paganism surviving the Dark Ages. In fact, coming out of the Dark Ages, the Church condemned all accusations and prosecutions for witchcraft as a superstitious pagan remnant – which it was, for there had been plenty of “witchcraft” trials in the days of pagan Rome. It was only in the late middle ages, and especially the “enlightened” Renaissance, that the old cry turned up again.

Even those who continued to oppose and ridicule witchhunts, such as Reginald Scot, never give any support to the theory.

John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams

38

In the historical context that’s been offered so far, here’s what I don’t get:

If most Wiccans apparently admit that there is precisely zero connection between their beliefs and the old idea of a “witch” as being a devil-worshipping practicioner of black magic, why are they up in arms about a column that deals with the old definition of “witch” and therefore has nothing whatsoever to do with them?

Help me out here.

39

I’m a Neopagan (Wiccan), too. Most of the other Neopagans I hang out with consider the word “Witch” to be synonymous with “Neopagan”. However, personally, I’m with you. I don’t use “The W Word” precisely because it frightens people who think they know what “witch” means. They only know what they’ve seen on lurid TV shows and movies, and it has nothing to do with what Wiccans do. As has been said here elsewhere, Wiccans don’t worship (or even acknowledge) Satan, they don’t kill or eat babies (many don’t eat meat of any sort) and are generally the most peaceful, moral and gentle folks you would ever want to meet. So I choose to call myself “Pagan” or “Techno-Pagan”, which doesn’t have those evil connotations associated with it.

Now, regaring Cecil’s column, I’m baffled at my brothers and sisters being so incensed at Cecil’s answer. Witches have used herbal preparations for healing and ritual purposes throughout their history. Modern witches frequently use “Entheogenic” drugs (drugs which induce religious experiences or visions) and this is nothing new. There are groups in the Neo-pagan community which are actively trying to decriminalize the use of these drugs when used for religious purposes. So clearly, Cecil’s theorizing that Witches might use drugs isn’t what has raised the hackles of my Neopagan brothers and sisters.

Cecil’s proposed theory that these might be absorbed into the body vaginally on a broomstick is not something I’ve head before, but I’ll bet it’s been done more than once. The thory that it’s been done so frequently that this is why Witches are associated with broomsticks seems to me to be a stretch. I would think that there would be sections of the Neopagan community that would happily emulate this practice today if only they knew what stuff to smear on the broom.

So I’m not offended. Just amused. And, I was impressed when, several years back, someone asked Cecil if he knew any love spells. His answer was in his usual flippant style, but he did actually consult Miriam Simos [a.k.a. Starhawk] to get an answer, and he couldn’t have asked a better real witch. So cut him some slack on the prejudice thing. Let’s face it, there’s a lot to laugh at about us Neopagans. There’s a lot to laugh at about Christians, too, and Cecil seems to enjoy this too.

TechnoMages pride themselves in knowing everything that can be known. And most of the rest.
- Galen, from the short-lived Crusade TV series

40

Apart from the dubiousness of the theory Cecil outlined, I think it offers several intriguing – and potentially very profitable – marketing possibilities for the good folks at Hallmark, not to mention O-Cedar