Pre-Classical, Classical and Biblical Origins of Witchcraft

Enuma Elish

Aspu, the First Begetter, and Tiamat, the First Mother, made a generation of dragons from Chaos.  Some time later, another generation rose, one of which was Ea, the god of wisdom.  Ea soon killed Aspu, and Tiamat, wishing to avenge his death, with the help of one of her sons, Kingu, made another race - scorpion-tailed monsters.  Tiamat, with eleven of these monsters, went to do battle with Ea's son, Marduk.  However, Marduk was armed with seven winds, a storm chariot, and a strong coat of mail.  He wore upon his lips a red paste and, on his wrist, a herb protecting him from poison, and his head was crowned with flames.

When the two met, Marduk captured Tiamat in a net, sending the wind into her belly which tore her open.  Then Marduk shot her full of arrows and beat her about the head until she was dead.  Following this, he bound Tiamat's body and stood on it, before shackling the eleven monsters which he imprisoned beneath the ground.  These monsters became the gods of the underworld.

The battle between Tiamat and Marduk (Original)

Marduk then split Tiamat's corpse in two, using one half to hold back the waters from above, and using the other half as a foundation for the earth and the sea.  He made the sun, moon, constellations and planets, going on to kill Kingu, whose blood he used to create the human race.

The Sumerian-Babylonian hero Gilgamesh  was one of the first of the humans to encounter the underworld gods.  He sought a magical herb which would make him immortal, only to find his way blocked by two fearsome monsters, one male, one female.  These monsters, which were part human, part dragon and bore scorpion-like tails, recognized that Gilgamesh was part divine and allowed him to pass.  Gilgamesh soon found himself in a heavenly garden, where he met a woman who was making wine.  However, he didn't find the herb of immortality.

So, Gilgamesh spoke with Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, who himself had already attained immortality.  At last, he learned that the herb could be found beneath the sea and went to retrieve it.  Now that he had the herb in his possession, Gilgamesh believed that he no longer needed to fear death.  Unfortunately, a serpent stole the herb and Gilgamesh was forced to accept the inevitability of death. 

 Gilgamesh, 8th century (Original)

Enuma Elish is one of the earliest creation myths, dating from around 2000 BC and being Babylonia-Assyrian in origin.  Many of the themes found in this myth - scorpion-tailed dragon monsters, the underworld, a heavenly garden, magical plants, and women bringing mischief into the world - are seen consistently through 4000 years of occult belief.  For example, Aztec mythology echoes Sumerian themes when describing a heavenly garden which is guarded by a serpent, and the Norse beliefs tell of a great snake which coils around the world tree, Ygdrasil.  The role of the serpent in Eden is another well known similarity to these ancient beliefs, as well as the weakness of Eve, who brought suffering to the world.

Less well known is the Jewish teaching where Eve is created from Adam's barbed tail, rather than Adam's rib, showing us how the demonic element of Adam is converted into the female form.  This is probably the first evidence of misogyny, which presents itself in late medieval portrayals of the serpent in Eden, which was given the face of a woman.

Adam and Eve (Original)

While Eve brought suffering, she was considered an improvement on the Jewish Lilith, Adam's first wife.  Lilith was the original loose woman.  First she objected to her supine role in intercourse, asking Adam, ''Why must I lie beneath you?''  Adam tried to force her, so she left him to live beside the Red Sea with the more compatible wanton demons.  Before leaving Adam, Lilith bore Asmodeus and other demons, with some saying that she went on to be the queen of Zmargad and Sheba.  Apparently King Solomon believed that the Queen of Sheba was a night-demon as she had hairy legs.  Lilith can also be found as the Babylonian-Assyrian wind-demoness Lilitu, and in Sumerian writings as Lillake.  She was believed to strangle children and was also a succubus which preyed on sleeping men.

Famous relief from the Old Babylonian period, believed to be Lilitu or Lilith (Original)

In Isaiah 24:11-15 Lilith, who is referred to as ''screech-owl'' in the King James Bible, was believed to suck the blood of children, and was related to striga, a word meaning witch.  She was simply a ''night-demon'' in the Hebrew Bible, and lived in the ruined desert of Edom.  Lilith was believed to keep company with pelicans, hedgehogs, owls, ravens, jackals, ostriches, kites, wildcats, hyenas, vipers, and satyrs, many of which were attributed to ''Devil worshippers'' in later times.  Lilith can also be found in the book of Job 18:13-15, where she is seen as domestic, but she also kept company with what sounds like the Devil.
He [the wicked man] is torn from the shelter of his tent, and dragged before the King of Terrors.
Then Lilith makes her home under his roof, while people scatter brimstone on his holding.

Satan identifying with the serpent of Eden and with Lucifer was not established until the end of the first century AD, with the Book of Revelations telling us:
The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.
From this point on, the scaly-tailed, claw footed, bat or dragon-winged representation of Satan becomes an important point of Christianity and develops as a fundamental  preoccupation of those hunting witches. 

Yahweh made sorcery and divination something which should by punishable by death, with Exodus 22:18 telling us, ''You shall not allow a sorceress to live.''  The Greek Septuagint translates ''sorceress'' to ''pharmakos,'' meaning ''poisoner.''  Leviticus 20:27 tells us, ''Any man or woman who is a necromancer or magician must be put to death by stoning; their blood shall be on their own heads.''  And Deuteronomy 18:10-11 tells us, ''There must never be anyone among you... who practices divination, who is a soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, who uses charms, consults ghosts or spirits, or calls up the dead.''

However, the Egyptian Exodus could not have been achieved if not for numerous acts of authorised magic.  The most famous of these acts involved a contest with Egyptian magicians, and can be found in Exodus 7:9-13:
Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ''If Pharaoh says to you, 'Produce some marvel,' you must say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and let it turn into a serpent.'
To Pharaoh then Moses and Aaron duly went, and they did as Yahweh commanded.  Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh, and it turned into a serpent.
Then Pharaoh in his turn called for the sages and the sorcerers, and with their witchcraft the magicians of Egypt did the same.
Each threw his staff down and these turned into serpents.  But Aaron's staff swallowed up the staffs of the magicians.
Yet Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold, he would not listen to Moses and Aaron.
Moses and Aaron follow further instructions given by Yahweh, using the staffs to impose plague upon Egypt.  Pharaoh's magicians match this, turning the rivers into blood and creating a plague of frogs.  But they find themselves outdone when Moses and Aaron bring plagues of mosquitoes and gadflies, the death of livestock, an affliction of boils, locusts, darkness and the death of Egypt first-born children.  Moses later uses his staff to make water flow from a desert rock and during the Israelites battle with the Amalekites they would prevail as long as Moses held his staff aloft.

In critical situations it was extremely important that freelance diviners and magicians not be allowed to obstruct legitimate policies.  When King Saul were pushed by the Philistines, he enforced the ban on necromancy and expelled the sorcerers.  He then asked Yahweh for advice but, when Yahweh didn't answer, he was forced to find himself a witch, who raised the ghost of Samuel.  Samuell then correctly predicted Saul's approaching death. 

Apart from necromancy and wand-power, other magical practices were well known in the ancient middle east, including the interpretation of dreams, the casting of lots (urim and thummin), and forms of sympathetic magic involving magical models, the ''poppets'' that are traditionally part of the witch's armoury.

One of the most influential and successful magicians found in the ancient world was the pharaoh Nekhtanebt II, who was said to have protected his kingdom with witchcraft from 359 to 342 BC.  He did this in the following way.  News of an attack comes : an invading fleet is standing off the Nile delta.  The King is unconcerned, soon going to his secret room where he practices magic.  He pours water into a huge bowl.  On its surface floats small wax ships of his own and the enemy fleet.  He says the magical words to summon demons of the wind and other elements.  The waxen fleets begin to move, meeting one another on the surface of the wave roughened water.  Soon the enemy's wax fleet begin to founder and, as they do, their counterparts also founder and sink in the Mediterranean, and Egypt is once again saved.
However, a day comes when a Persian army gather against Egypt.  The pharaoh again goes to his secret room and tries the magical words, but finds that his power is insufficient.  He foresees his army's defeat, sees Egypt taken by Artaxerxes Ochus, the butcher.  Nekhtanebt has no further choices, so he puts on a disguise, packs up his gold and books of magic and runs away.  In time he crosses the Mediterranean, settling in Macedonia.  Here his reputation as a seer and a doctor spreads.  He has brought the Egyptian art of magic and divination to Greece.

God Horus Protecting King Nekhtanebt II (Original)

This story includes three elements which are seen throughout the subject's history- political crisis, the use of supernatural powers, and an exploitation of a mystical connection between things which are similar yet different - in this case , the wax models and the real ships they represent.

The basic political element of ancient witchcraft was divination, with state oracles being well established throughout the classical world.  Among the Mesopotamians, haruspication, or the study of the internal organs of sacrificed animals, seems to have been the most common method of prophecy.  However, abnormal births of both a human and animal nature, were also closely examined by entrail specialists known as baruas.  Dreams were also studied for their predictive power.  And so the earliest method of divination required either ritual sacrifice or the invocation of supernatural beings.

In China, amongst other places, similar techniques were used to predict future events.  They would do this by reading the lines on tortoise shells, the flight of birds, the cracks appearing in burned bones or the way in which a handful of sticks and stones fell.  We can see this technique used today when we have our tea-leaves or playing cards read.  In all methods of divination, either a connection with the cosmological or with some superior being is assumed.

All major oracles of Ancient Greece had enduring political or social weight behind them.  The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi is probably the most famous today, but there were others which were equally notable.  What is now Libya was once known as the temple of Ammon, in the territory known as Nubia.  This was one of the most famed.  The oak grove at Dodona was sacred to Zeus and was just as acclaimed.  Every oracle had their own priests and, while these were open to the public for a fee, they were also subsidised to some degree by the state.  Their methods of divination varied.  At Dodona, the most popular form was kleromancy, in which a question would be asked and a stripe of lead would be chosen, on which a yes or no answer would be written.  An Ammon, the movements of the god's statues would be interpreted by a priest for an answer.

At Delphi, where the god of light, Apollo, is said to have defeated a great serpent, oracular statements were given by the Pythia, a priestess.  In some accounts, the Pythia sat on a tripod above a crack in the ground, where she would inhale the volcanic fumes and the smoke from a burning mixture of barley, marijuana and chopped bay leaves.  She would speak in verse and her words would be interpreted by a priest.  During the fourth and fifth centuries BC, private citizens would pay a fee equal to two days' wages for the average Athenian for a consultation. The state could pay anywhere up to ten times as much.  An emergency consultation could be arranged for a premium amount.

Odysseus and Circe (Original)

Non-institutional advice on hidden things was available, although the psychic risk was believed to be higher, with the witch or necromancer's procedures being dangerous.  When the hero Odysseus needed prophetic advice, he was forced to go to the enchantress Circe who had turned several of his soldiers into pigs because the great seer Teriesias had died.  Circe tells him that, if he wished to find Teiresias he first had to visit Persephone's groves of willow and black poplar which skirted the House of Hades.  Odysseus followed Circe's advice, digging a pit one cubit square, before pouring a concoction of honey, milk, wine and water into it.  Next he sprinkled white barley meal on top before filling the pit with the blood of a ram and ewe which had been sacrificed to Hades and Persephone.

The oracles of Apollo and Zeus were relatively typical of established Greek religion.  However, another impulse, this one being personal, chaotic and elated, was expressed in the worship of Dionysus, the horned god of wine and fertility.  Dionysus was as important to Greek religion as Hecate, the patron of necromancers.  During this religious worship, rather than the careful removal of animal entrails, devotees tore living creatures, including humans, to pieces with their teeth and hands.

Dionysus (Original)

Dionysus was god of the earth, specifically of the vine.  His name means ''sprout (or shoot) of god, with his main festivals taking place at the end of a harvest.  Dionysus was half human, half divine, having a mortal mother, Semele, and a divine father, Zeus.  In all of the myths about Dionysus, we again find recurrent themes - this time of a god with strong connections to humans, who experiences violent outbursts and who goes through great suffering (he is dismembered and resurrected, like the crops whose fertility he oversees).  He is usually horned and is followed by horned familiars, with his main follows being wild women, worshipping the fields, woods and ravines instead of the temple.

In the Eleusinian mysteries, which were dedicated to Dionysus and Demeter, a mystifying religion was established which gave its followers faith and confidence in the afterlife.  As late as 80 BC, Plutarch the historian wrote soothing words to his wife when their daughter passed away:
About that which you have heard, dear heart, that the soul once departed from the body vanishes and feels nothing, I know that you give no belief to such assertions because of those sacred and faithful promises given in the mysteries of Bacchus (the Roman name for Dionysus) which we who are of that religious brotherhood know.  We hold it firmly for an undoubted truth that our soul is incorruptible and immortal.  We are to think that they pass into a better place and a happier condition.  Let us behave ourselves accordingly, outwardly ordering our lives, while within all shall be purer, wiser, incorruptible.

Dionysus, unlike many other ancient gods, was powerful and popular enough to survive until modern times, although only in rural and unfamiliar fragments, as a type of horned, anarchic god, much like Satan.

As you can see, many of the factors found in ancient myths have found their way into modern religion, although perhaps not in the form they were once known as.  The themes that we have seen here have been twisted and changed throughout history to fit in with newer religions, such as Christianity.

Next time: I will tell you about the Burning Times.

The Origins of Witchcraft

The Origins of Witchcraft

Everyone has heard about the witch-hunts and persecution of witches which occurred mostly between the 14^th and 17^th centuries, a period known as the The Early Modern period, but where does our modern perception of witchcraft come from? In fact, where did our 14^th century predecessors get their concept of witchcraft? In other words, where did witchcraft originate and how has it evolved?

The word 'witch' originates from the Anglo-Saxon word 'wicca', which was derived from the word 'wicce' meaning wise. The word 'witch' also means to 'twist' or 'bend', and relates to psychogenesis or telekinesis. The word 'witch' dates back thousands of years, to when people worshipped Mother Earth or Nature as goddesses. Women were revered as creatures of new life. Witchcraft means 'the craft of the wise' and is the oldest religion in the world, remaining in existence through the oral transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. It was primarily practiced by women as they stayed at home while the men worked. Witchcraft incompassed not ony magic - home medicines and remedies including potions, herbs, stones, oils, and massages were important factors.

Earth Mother by Shere Crossman (Original)

Essentially, witchcraft was created along with human civilization due to fear of the unknown, and because of the role magic was believed to play in making day-to-day life easier. Witches were the mediators between humans and mysterious super powers, such as spirits and angels. When a witch succeeded in solving someone's apparently mysterious problem, it was labelled magic: a process which couldn't be easily explained using logical analysis. Witchcraft was practiced in almost every society and culture across the world, although beliefs and traditions differed from place to place. According to scholars, it predates the majority of well-known religions and goes back to the Paleolithic period.

Archaeological discoveries have shown us how people worshipped the hunter god and fertility goddess during this period. The presence of cave paintings, estimated to be 30,000 years old, which protray a man with the head of a stag, along with another showing a pregnant woman standing in a circle made up of eleven other people, proves that witchcraft is one of the oldest religions in the world. These relics are evidence that witchcraft predates Christianity by thousands of years.

 Dancing Witch Doctor Cave Painting Copy by Abbe' Breuil (Original)

While it was more often practiced by women, men were also witches, although this was less common. Witches were considered highly valuable, providing vital services for the health of the family. They healed the sick and suffering and were respected for how wise they were.  Witches had a range of different uses, being capable of inducing hypnosis, making childbirth and other health problems pain free; they could use telepathy, clairvoyance, intuition, dowsing, crystals, and trance as means of communicating with the dead. At this point, religion and magic were inseparable. However, as people flocked to witches with the health problems, the Christian Church began to feel threatened. 

 

The Wise Woman from Catkin (Original)

While witches and their craft were once respected, it has evolved massively since its creation. As we come to the growth of Christianity, witchcraft changed to suit this new religion, which portrayed the practice of magic as evil and those practicing it as heathens and heretics. Many of the ideas incorporated into the practise of witchcraft were taken from popular folklore, with the development of these beliefs being the responsibility of the Christian intellects of the time, before being filtered back to the common people through indirect means.

When looking at the old beliefs in witchcraft, one of the common elements is involvement with the Devil and demons. During the Middle Ages, the Devil was usually known as Satan, meaning 'the adversary'. Satan did not play a particularly big role in the Old Testament, but he was far more apparent in the New Testament, where he tempted those with a belief in God, trying to get them to turn their backs on their religion. In the New Testament, the war between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan began, each trying to gain control of the souls of mortal men.

You may wonder what this has to do with the evolution of witchcraft and that Christianity has little to do with witchcraft.  However, the growth of Christianity had a great deal to do with the later views on witchcraft. As Christianity spread, it encontered other beliefs and other religions, all of which those following Christianity would try to convert to the 'one true faith.' Those seen to be denying the word of God and to be leading souls away from God were seen to be a part of the Kingdom of Satan.

Before long, Christianity began to demonize the gods belonging to other religions, especially those which had converted to Christianity. Pagan deities were some of the most often used to describe the Devil, along with Roman and Celtic deities. People were taught to fear and hate these deities, with fertility gods most often being recognised as demonic. The Greek deity Pan and the Celtic Cernunnos gave the Christian Devil his goat-like appearance, with the Roman Diana adding the sometimes described woman''s breasts to his description. In the confessions of accused witches, these details were often described, although they were probably prompted by the inquisitor.

 The Persecution of Witches (Original)

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, demons were creatures of spirit – much like angels, these were the fallen angels. If a demon were to be visible, its body was said to be made from the vapours of the earth, with this control of the air later becoming an imporant theory for the flight of witches.

The Christian religion maintained that only God could cause a miracle. Any claim that the Devil could control creation or free will was considered heretical, and any 'miraculous transformations' were considered to be an illusion, with illusion being one of the Devil's supposed powers over the material world. Where the Devil was considered to have power over the material world, God was believed to provide humans with free will. So, if you were seen as being possessed by demons, it was believed that it was through your own choice. According to Malleus Maleficarum, the Devil could influence a person's choices through bibery and tricks. This meant that accused witches maintained their moral responsibility, especially is a pact with the Devil had been made.

This brings us to another important element in accepted witch traditions. A pact with the Devil meant that not only did you practise harmful magic, you were also considered to be a Devil worshipper. This idea was developed over many centuries, with the earliest documentation of such pacts being by St. Augustine, although the belief didn't become widespread until the descriptions were translated into Latin during the 9^th century. It was, by this point in time, believed that all magic practisioners received their powers from pacts with the Devil, although not all Devil worshippers were granted magical powers. A pact with the Devil was seen as some kind of legal contract with the Devil promising a reward in exchange for the witch's immortal soul. This reward may be a promise of wealth, power, sexual indulgence, or happiness in the afterlife. In some instances the witch would be bestowed with magical powers.

A portrayal of Devil worship and cannibalism committed by witches (Original)

The practice of magic increased in the 12^th and 13^th centuries with the transaltions of Greek and Islamic texts. One popular magical practice was necromancy, or communication with the dead, where demons would be apparently summoned so they could be trapped, meaning the witch could learn from their hidden knowledge. As the practice of magic became more common, so did condemnation of these practices, with demonologists stating that while necromancers may not mean to worship the Devil, their communications with demons must come with a price. They concluded that the witch must need to offer some form of bait for the demon, or do some service for the Devil in exchange for the demons knowledge. This meant that even if the practisioner didn't intend to worship the Devil, anything considered the practice of magic was condemned as evil.

This was not the first condemnation of magic, but a pact with the Devil was an imporant addition to witchcraft traditions, making the label of witch applicable to peasants who practiced magic with little or no understanding of the implications of their actions – a pact with the Devil, whether it was was intentional or not. This connection between magic and heresy was then used to condemn other so called heretics, including those found to be involved in secret, group worship and abnormal, inhumane behaviour. Witchcraft became a sort of religious mockery of Christianity, which was best expressed during the witches' sabbath, the next element in the concept of witchcraft.

At this point there was a shift of focus from the upper-class, educated, male magician to the poor, unknowledgable, female witch. There was a corresponding change in the attributes of the pact, from equal partnership where the magicial could fight for the advantage, to a role of subservience, where the witch submitted voluntarily. This was pointed out by King James VI of Scotland, when he said, ''Witches are servants only, and slaves to the Devil; but the Necromancers are his masters and commanders.''

A gathering of witches was known as the sabbath and was a place for those Devil worshippers to debase themselves, taking part in sexual activities with demons, cannibalism and the murder of innocent infants. In some parts of Europe, including France, Spain and Italy, witches were believed to take part in parodies of the Catholic Mass. When all of these activities were connected they provided fulfilled Christians worst fears. This society of so-called witch lore may have been invented by monks during the 12^th and 13^th centuries as propaganda in the war against other beliefs, such as those held by the Waldensians and Cathars, before being applied to other heretics. These intense accusations became a huge burden for accused witches as knowledge of heretical practices grew.

Belief in the sabbath was not universal, although it was widespread and an important addition to those who hunted witches. The assumption that witches gathered to worship the Devil led to many endless hunts for those connected to the accused witches, and was probably a contributing factor in the scale of the exhaustive searches.

Coven in Flight (Original)

Another belief that was often included in witch lore was the claim that witches were capable of flight. One way of doing this was through the Devil's material control over the air, which could propel a witch for great distances through the air. Another theory was that the Devil used his power of illusion, making the witch believe that they had flown. This second idea was also used in claims that the sabbath itself was an illusion. Regardless, flight was used to explain how witches were able to attend sabbaths which were believed to be held in remote areas. Origins of this concept may go back to pagan beliefs which were still followed by many peasants. One of these beliefs held that women could transform into strigae, or abhorrent screeching owls. Another belief was of the Dianic 'wild hunt, when a witch was said to ride through the countryside on the backs of various beasts.

Metamorphosis was another element in Early Modern witch lore. It was said that a witch was capable of transforming themselves or others into animals, with a particular favourite being the wolf. While this too was supposedly another of the Devil's illusion, it was a common assumption. To us, these beliefs may seem far-fetched but, at the time, they seemed like rational explanations. These beliefs were often challenged, although no one dared to deny the central theme of the Devil, which held the entire movement in one piece.

So, when looking at the origins of witchcraft, one has to understand that it had been present in society since the dawn of time, with witches being considered wise and important. However, with the growth of Christianity, fear of witches and the practice of magic was instilled into the public, pushing them to convert from their life-long religion to the 'one true faith', Christianity. What followed was the accusation and murder of many innocents who had often committed no crime or wrong doing.

Fortunately, with modern witchcraft, respect for this practice has once again grown and is now followed by many people in the modern age, without the fear of persecution. It attracts people from all walks of life, bringing them together in an understanding of the life, nature, evolution and mysteries of the universe through witchcraft. Unlike other religions, witchcraft allows a huge amount of freedom, with the only real rules being that you should harm none unless you wish it to be returned to you three times three, nor should nature be misused the generosity of nature by distrupting its balance. 

Next time: We will take a closer look at the persecution of witches during the Salem Witch Trials.