Burning times

On "feeds", click header for video to the "Burning Times" song.

Many lives were lost during this time.  We as Wiccans do care for and love all living things.  We, even I do not hate Christians, nor do we hate Jesus.  I happen to be an eclectic solitary Wiccan.  I do have a disdain for ceremonial magick, since it can be abused very easily.  Blessed Be.

Burning times song

Tribute to our 300 year "tribulation" - 1484 - 1550

End of the burning times

The main ones who ended the burning times was an astronomer around the Rennesianse and a Protestant preacher who was once a Catholic priest.  Both attracted the attention of the Inquistion.  The one who was the preacher was Martin Luther, who nailed 95 theses on the door of the Wallisburg church in Germany.  He almost got burned at the stake for heresy until he gained the support of the German barons.  Luther then lived happily with a wife and had children.  Martin Luther started the Luthren church.

The other one was an Italian astronomer and scientist by the name of Galleleo.  He built a telescope that observed the moons of Jupiter.  Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are still known today as the Gallelian moons.  Gallielo even allowed the bishop to look at the moons through his telescope [Gallileo's telescope] and the bishop still denied their existance though he saw it through his own eyes.

These brave men, both Christians ended the horrible witch burnings.

The incident in Salem, Massachussetts colony was a hysteria that was caused by rottting rye that had ergot (ergot produces LSD).  The whole town was hallucinating on acid basically.  Only one person actually got burned at the stake and she was a slave.  All of the others were hung and one man was pressed to death.

The Burning Times

What if it happened again?

The Burning times

The term burning times has come to refer to "any threatened return of prejudice against or persecution of Witches and neo-Pagans by other religious groups, law enforcement agencies, employers, politicians and others." (See: Helms Amendment)

Historically the term designated, especially for witches, the period within Western history in which there occurred intense burning, also the various types of murdering of witches. This period is known for its vindictive witch-hunts which extended from the mid-15th century to the early 18th century.

The idea of burning witches, one of the cruelest forms of execution, is said to have originated with Saint Augustine (354-430), who said "that pagans, Jews, and heretics would burn forever in eternal fire with the Devil unless saved by the Catholic Church."

Witches, also were classed as heretics, during the time of the Inquisition. Heretics were not only disbelieves of the church doctrine, but, many also were accused of beings servants of the Devil by forming compacts with him to get his help. The accused were sentenced to execution by burning when found guilty of heresy, and few escaped this conviction of the church, which practically controlled every aspect of human life, because "Fire itself is the element of purification, and nothing less than fire could negate the evil that was said to be witches."

The 16th century demonologist, Jean Bodin, stated in De la Demonomanie des Sorciers:

Even if the witch has never killed or done evil to man, beast, or fruits, and even if he has always cured bewitched people, or driven away tempests, it is that he has renounced God and treated with Satan that he deserves to be burned alive...Even if there is no more than the obligation to the Devil, having denied God, this deserves the most cruel death that can be imagined.

However, all witches were not burned at the stake. It seems various countries had their preferred forms of execution. Hanging was preferred in England and the American colonies. In France, Scotland and Germany it was the custom to first strangle the condemned witches, as an act of mercy, before sending them to the hanging stand or garroting, and then cremating them to ashes.

Many witches were burned alive, needless to say. It is alleged by church authorities that many who were burned had either recanted their confessions at the last moment or did not repent for their crimes. The burnings were executed by civil authorities because the church would have no part in the murdering of people. An elaborate accounting system connected with the burnings was established which included expenses for the trail and the prisoner's incarceration in jail. Some trial in Scotland show that the burning of a witch consumed 16 loads of peat plus wood and coal. This debt was attached to the condemned person's estate or relatives. If the debt was so large, more than the person's estate value, or more than one generation of relatives could pay off, then it was carried over to the next generation.

It might be asked who collected this money? Usually it was collected by three parties in the time of the Inquisition: the Church, the Inquisitors, and the civil authorities. Here might be added two interesting details which helps to explain the popularity and the terminus of the Inquisition. The Church did not favor the Spanish Inquisition because the Royalty did not give a proportion of the property of the condemned to the church, and when the Papacy said such property could no longer be confiscated the Inquisition abruptly ended.

Witch lynchings and burnings continued infrequently into the late 19th century in England, Europe and Latin America. There are no reliable accounts as to the exact number of witches executed. Only estimates can be made. During the 150 year period of the Inquisition, in Germany where the most fierce witch hunts occurred, the minimum estimates range from 30,000 to 100,000.

A witch burning was a great public spectacle. Most of the village's population turned out to witness it. It has been pointed out that more burnings occurred in small hamlets than larger towns or cities because in the villages people were more superstitious. Also, neighbor was more likely to spy and tell on neighbor. This did occur, especially during the torturing of the witches. Many said their neighbors were witches in order to escape more suffering.

Usually the burning occurred shortly after sentencing. The interval between was just long enough to hire the executioner, construct the execution site and gather the fuel. However, in Scotland, the burning was preceded by days of fasting and preaching. The witch was strangled first, sometimes not completely. Then she was drugged unconscious or semiconscious to where she was tied to a stake or dumped into a barrel of tar and set afire. If the witch was not dead and managed to escape the flames then onlookers would shove her back into the fire.

Needless to say, because of superstition, cats, especially black cats were burned alive also.  The burning times was a 300 year tribulation for Witches and Wiccans.

The Burning Times

burning times

In 1484, a Catholic pope issued a Papal edict that commenced burning suspected witches at the stake.  Around the same time, two monks wrote a book called the Malleus Mallificarum or also known as the Witches Hammer.  (Mallificarum is Latin for evil witch (either male or female - not a harm none Wiccan.)  This book of all things it said, said that witches had sex with the devil and that the devil's penis was bone, horn and red-hot iron.  Before that, heretics and Jews were burned at the stake too.  Most accused witches were either mentally ill, exceedingly attractive women (thought to sexually bewitch men) or old women (thought to be evil spell casters, especially if they talked to themselves - thought to mutter evil spells) or the women who knew herbalism (competing with the male medical establishment).  About 9 million innocent people including Jews were tortured and burned in this manner.  Needless to say, Martin Luther, the one who preached salvation through faith alone nad not works almost got burned at the stake for heresy.  His success ended the burning times effectively.  Many burned witches were guilty by asscociation.

Salem, in all reality was a hysteria.  People were eating contaminated rye bread with ergot, which was hallucinagenic (like LSD).  Most of the accused witches were hanged, one was burned and a man was pressed to death.  In England, except under Queen Mary I (bloody Mary of the Scotts), witches were deprived of sleep and hung, not burned or legally tortured.

Unlike the American legal system, where a suspect is innocent until proven guilty, during the burning times, accused witches were guilty until proven innocent, usually and mostly always through intense torture.

By the way, the Bible was on the Roman Catholic Index, a list of forbidden books.

The Burning Times --- Rush - Witchhunt

What I think I am at times

First of, I am manic-depressive (bipolar).  I have schizoaffective disorder which is a combination of paranoia, schizophernia and a mood disorder. That is my official diagnosis.  Sometimes I think I am God, at times I think I am Chewbacca.  At times, I have thought I was Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader)  There are times I think I am the devil.  I am not violent, and am not a harm to others or myself.  I do have quite a temper, but my bark is worse than my bite.  I know Wiccans do not believe that the devil exists, and I am a solitary Wiccan.

The Burning Times

The burning times -- Persecution

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DOES ANYONE NEED TO TUNE THE TV?

Persecution is persecution, no matter who the victim is.  It is evil and cruel.  Whether it is Christians being thrown to lions, the Holocaust (and there are neo-nazis that deny the holocaust) or witches being burned, it is not funny (I made cruel jokes about Christians being killed in Rome.)  We all need to work together and love each other despite the creed we follow.

About the burning times

I posted a cruel, angry post about Witches and Pagans and how righteous it was being burned at the stake.  I choose Wicca as my religion, because I was just angry.

Another thing is that Wicca must become more welcoming to minorities.  Most of Wicca is in English-speaking countries and few minorities join the Craft.  It also needs to be more democratic.  High priestesses are equal with the others, but respected for their worth.  It comes from a song called "The Burning Times."