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from 15th century-the known mid-century witch hunt-were innocent women who were nurses,liked plants and was into herbology,were burnt to death by people who actually believed they were witches..
today,do you think there might be places in the world that there is a witch hunt there and we don't know?what's your opinion about it?do you think witches exsist?and were some of the burnt women real witches?if so,how didn't they manage to escape with witchcraft?

yes there are real wychs/witchs. personally i think that only a hand full of the real ones where found. wychcraft went underground like any group that is on the edge of mainstream society.

and there are parts of the world that the wych hunt didn't happen and there things haven't changed for 1000s of years.

okay, forget bewitched, charmed, and Sabrina the teenage witch - that is just fantasy. Witchcraft is a religion or philosophy - a way of life - not some magical superpower that is inherited through non-human parents. being a Witch will no more protect you from harm than being a Jew or a Catholic. nobody can wriggle their nose and suddenly vanish from the burning stake. if anyone thinks differently, you now have 30 seconds in which to apport into my living room and prove me wrong.

wow, karnstein, you are one tough critic. However, I agree with you. Most people that were hung or burned were not witches. They were either dredges of society or they had property that others coveted. If there were real witches burned that could do magic, my feeling is that they were refrain from doing so to keep from fanning the witch hunts and to protect remaining family members from persecution.

he is maybe a tough critic,but he is damn right,I don't believe in witchcraft and never will I believe in it...it's all a myth and fairytails...

no, you aren't listening. that sort of magic is not real. you can't change a bunch of flowers into a bunny rabbit, or make someone grow horns, or teleport at will. that is television make believe. a real Witch may know how to make healing salves, foresee the future, know what a close friend is feeling, commune with spirits, maybe even influence luck. but television is not real - its just something to entertain children.

Okay okay okay, so here we go.....

I am a witch. I practice witchcraft. I can wiggle my nose but let me tell you nothing happens... what a shame. A true witch is not the things you see on television or in the movies. Witchcraft is not a myth and was and has been around since before even christianity. I dont understand why some people can not see the difference between Hollywood and reality.... GAH! I can do many things as a witch, but turn people into a frog is not one of them.... A simple spell, is making chicken soup for a sick family member or friend.... not hocus pocus eye of newt, tongue of frong...... That is just ridiculous.... As far as the topic at hand, there were more then women burned, there were men as well, and I do believe that there were a few actual witches caught, but as far as getting away from an angry mob using witchcraft? If you had an angry mob running at you, could you vanish into thin air? No, I didnt think so, well neither can a witch. As far as are there still places with witch hunts, Im sure that there are biggots in any place you look that will say they are a witch hunter, as far as actual trials, no... I would say that if anyone hunts the witches now, it would be the southern baptist hell fire and brimstone preachers. GAH, maybe I should be afraid..... lol. I am in Ga and my gods do they surround me.... lol.

Id have to say yes they do, i pratice wicca. So it's not a witch but they are about the same guideline. Is there still witch hunts. Yes I think there are. People try to get away from things they do not understand.

People are misunderstanding me as well. I don't personally believe that there are people that can vanish into thin air and perform that type of magick. However, I don't presume to know everything. Every day they discover a new species in the rainforest so maybe somewhere someone could perform magick like that. Most likely, not. As far as witch hunts, yes, they still take place today. They just have different forms, like political as opposed to burnings. For example, that teacher that is getting persecuted for alternative sites and I got fired/forced to resign from my job due to affiliation with this site.

it depends where you live and where you work, or where you go to school. When i joined the TA many years ago, i was asked what my religion was. I said I was a Pagan. the officer looked me in the ye for a second, then said "that's not recognised as a religion - i'll just put C of E." Now my boss sees my religious persuasion as an advantage - it shows how diverse the company is. but i know some of my friends who are parents are experiencing problems with teachers attitudes - but then you can't really expect an enlightened attitude from a teacher can you? in some parts of Britain, Pagans still get a lot of police harassment, so yes - there are still prejudices, and there is still some persecution, but it's mainly coming from a small minority of closed minded people who happen to have some3 influence or power. i see it a lot less than i used to, and i think it's an attitude that is dying out. as the world grows smaller, mankind is gradually learning that intolerance cannot be tolerated.

hey, I'm a teacher. It's the reason why I'm getting in trouble. I try not to suppress any of my student's beliefs or life style changes. One of my students told me he was gay and I told him that I support him. I do see in a lot of older teachers, the more mainstream and narrowminded way of thinking.

Hello,

I believe there are witches, yes. I think it was wrong just to burn innocents...

I am a witch. i have been one for over 30 years. There is and always will be those who hunt for our blood just because they do not understand us. They do not want to know us for who or what we are. I will not go off and stand on my soap box about this subject. I will however say we live by the rule harn to none. Can others truely say that

I have to agree with cursedtodarkness. there are witches /were witches. The things that made the Inquisition all the more horrendeous was that there were many inquisitors that decided to force themselves upon the young women of the time into doing what he willed with the real threat of being tortured to death if they refused his advances. The Discovery channel not too long ago did a program on this very subject and yes the found witches in Africa that are occasionally blamed and hunted down for misfourtunes of the local populace... Witchcraft in the times of the inquisitors could be seen as anyone who did not possess advanced knowledge---mind you for the time.

If my memory of history does me justice women were found guilty of being witches for adding extra ingredients in their teas, like the root of an exotic flower or plant. The truth of the matter is that you just needed to be not liked by someone in power to be convicted of being a witch. Not much has changed.

people are scared with what the dont know. do i think some of the burnt victims wre real-yes but i think that people thought all the unknown was pur evil "unchristian". witches are still around today, the "craft" is better known and more understood. the "craft" with many witches today has been passed down through the family. but not all witches back then were burnt. a hand full were hung.

1) Of course there were and are "real" witches. Not T.V. types but those that follow the wiccan path.

2) I'm sure some of those burned at the stake, pressed to death, drowned etc. during the period of hysteria regarding witches were indeed practicing wiccans, but most were not.

3) The only "advantage" to actually being a witch during this time frame was a witch, knowing society's paranoia regarding witchcraft, would be more careful and know what NOT to be caught doing. The average women knowledgable in herbs etc. would be innocently going about their daily lives and would likely be surpised when they were accused, condemmed abd executed.

KCRC I feel the need to say (just incase you didnt know) that not all witches are of wiccan faith. Wicca is a newer form of witchcraft worshipping the goddess..... It is however not the old school way of witchcraft. It is however a common misconception for it to be thought that the term witch means wiccan... I am by NO means wiccan. lol. Just thought I would add that. :)

Yeah there were/are witches and there still to this day be the persecution of anyone that does not adhere to the local standards. There are regions all over the world that are still rarely explored by new age scientists. As for why they didn't escape, next time your alone in the woods with a mob of pissed off people coming to kill you tell me where your gonna run. I don't think there are any "transport me to the bahamas" spells to get out of danger quick out there.

as always Karnstein,you are a tough act to follow but again right as rain,as to being hunted,how many of us out here who practice wicca are persecuted because of our beliefs,automatically labeled satanic,without knowing what they are labeling,then and now isnt much different,there just isnt a roaring bonfire in my future

I too have to kind of go with Karnstein on some of this...there is no blinking, twitching noses or any of that...but there is witchcraft...and like all other religions...you have to have faith *smiles*

Thank you for the clarification Cursed.

I was under the impression that the "path" was the same but only the name had been modified. i.e. the "old school" witches and modern wiccans followed the same rituals, practices etc, as modern day wiccans.

i think gaston's group said it best in beauty and the beast-----we don't like what we don't understand, in fact it scares us!

the hunts were assembled because simple people wanted their sick to die, rather than be healed by a medicine they didn't understand.

Nope. lol. I seem to run into that alot. It is a very common misconception. Wiccan is a very modern term. It is a goddess based faith. There are all sorts of different ways of the path... druid is one of them that is more medicinal and based more on herbs and healing...... The old ways are not based mainly on the goddess.... Its gets complicated... lol.

the old witch hunts were a way to get rid if the different , the educated and landholders who had something somebody else wanted. our forefathers hunted other christians , like the shakers as well as anyone who was different. if you were female and could read, you could be accused. if you were a widow and owned good property, you would most likely be accused...our forefathers were a pretty hysterical bunch of hyprocrites

i am not certain how many real witches were killed during the witch hunt. many times the accused were just individuals on the outside of society and the term witch was an easy way to deem someone guilty without any real chance of refuting the claim.

I didnt say it was wrong. No religion to me is wrong. I was referring to the church I was raised in as a kid. Not ALL Southern Baptist churches are like that but the one I went to was. It was the type that if you werent baptist, you were wrong. The preacher knocked everyone from pagans, to catholics. He was sooooo rude that one time I brought a catholic bf with me to church, and his whole sermon was about how the catholics are wrong. lol. That is the type of thing I was refering to. It wasnt meant to be offensive. There is nothing wrong with any religion as far as I believe. I think that whatever you believe is right for you is right. It doesnt matter what religon a person is, you will always find someone that is just flat out close minded in general. :)

History shows us that witches and many other groups that were off the beaten path were persecuted or destroyed by those in power. The terrible truth is that while "witch hunts" still are carried out in many third world countries today out of fear and greed as in the past. Parts of Africa are very bad for it, killing a witch there is still not prosecuted. As terrible as this is then we have modern, educated, civilized people being as prejudiced against those with different religions, lifestyles or even choice of clothing. Some lessions are too hard to learn apparently.

i don't think if there are countries that still persecute witches but im not sure with it...

i believe in witches and wizards and some things they can do that normal people cannot. but i agree with the-good-karnstein that they can't jusr wriggle their nose and dissapear. what we see in tv is different in reality...

From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided.

most of the wych's where hung not burned and yes I think there are still places in the world where they do punish wychs for practicing

I read that as late as 2006, whole families were being murdered after being accused of witchcraft in remote parts of India and Africa. Here in America there are still many who loose custody of their children due to their "different" religion or face discrimination in the workplace. Oh they don't call it that but the parent finds themselves held up for ridicule and investigation into any possible "ritualistic" activities by concerned individuals who then determine they are "unfit" to be the role model for their children.

I agree i think most of them were just hung or burned for no reason. If they were really witches how come they allowed this to happen?

This is kind of a silly question. Of course there are real witches. And no, not all of them are wiccans. And of course many of those who died in the Burning Times were not witches. As a matter of fact, most of them were God-fearing individuals who fell victim to superstitious terror. People were fools back then. People were accused of being witches and satanists because they believed the earth traveled around the sun.

No, witches can't make things vanish and none of them have a broom that actually flies. "Wingardium leviosa" is not really a spell. Witches can , however, create healing herbs, hexes, cures for hexes, and influence the flow of events to make one outcome more likely than another. And there are many other things witches can do.

Regardless of whether or not real witches exist, those witch hunts were started by fear and by grudges. If you made an enemy of somebody, inherited land they wanted, moved up in society by some stroke of luck when they couldn't (Where you were in society and how much you owned were very important back then), or even gossiped about a neighbor they'd report you to the proper authorities, saying they had seen you suckling a familiar or dancing around a fire, and the common person was so scared of anything they did not understand that it spread like wildfire. True, some of it was going on, but I doubt more than 10% of the people condemned to death actually practiced witchcraft.

As for today, yes, most certainly people are tortured. For witchcraft like back then? Maybe not, but millions of people the world over are punished for believing something different. I don't think it's done so much out of fear or trivial revenge now, but the idiotic need of people to prove that they are right and anybody who believes differently is wrong and needs to be punished.

It is crazy and yet amazing that in todays era in some parts of the world some are still being accused and killed for being witches. The Burning time as we know it might be over, but it continues in other places. Unfortunately intolerance of religion isnt what is really driving these accusations but just a way get rid of the marginal people.

ok to the person I was speaking to earlier and you know who I am talking about... all is cool. Iamactualy going to go to a methadist church on sunday.... I know a southern baptist going to a different church is strange but I have had a lot of changes in my life this year so if you want to know what they were email me and I will be more than happy to clue you in.as for night game you need to look further than christianity for your blame cause I can assure you chistians belive in witch craft, look to scottland if you dont belive me cause there are still witches there tat do all kinds of crazy things there certian times of the year. I personaly dont condem any one for what they belive. trust me I worship Jesus and God and the Holy Ghost with eveything I have But I also belive n the other things as well Belive it or not dragons and unicorns are in the bible some will argue that fact but open your mind and read a little christian are not only to blame for this. Closed minded people are. I study and belive in lots but it is who I worship that counts to me. The other things are there and do exist. They are who they are and will always be and you have to respect them for that. My cousin is a warlock and a christian. He does magic but he also knows who saved him...... dispute this if you want...... but I know what I know and I know what I belive.

I think there are places where the sun doesn't shine, groups which are underground and things which go unheard. So do I think there are places for witch hunts? Very possible.

I used to love this topic in school...

Alot of women were also burned at the stake as witches to "keep them in their place".

Nightgame - that happened in england too, towards the end of the 20th century. a couple of entire communities were torn apart by social workers (falsely as it turned out) accusing parents of "satanic child abuse". it took several years to discover that the entire back story was a complete fantasy, and much like the Salem witch trials, based entirely on the imaginative tales told by a few children, who had watched a couple of horror videos on the vcr. At the time, the myth of "Satanic child abuse" was widely believed by the public, the police, and even the government as being true. they actually believed that secret communities of "devil worshipers" secretly impregnated girls so that their babies could be used in ritual sacrifice - despite not one shred of evidence or anecdotal reports outside of the clinically insane. i find it hard to believe that this was believed by powerful and respected people as late as the 1990s - and you are right, it isn't just christianity that persecutes people like this. atheists can be stupid people too.

i believe there are witches yes i am one.....

the burning days yeah i think they got a few of us..... but not all like KCRC said was involved or witches....... alot of innocents was burned or accused of being witches that wernt.......

Obeah (I know it is not exactly witchcraft, but there are definately similarities) is actually illegal in the British West Indies (read Carribean Colonies.) This is rarely inforced, and usually only with a couple of years in jail at most. Offences might include casting a spell for someone ot have bad luck and they get hit by a minibus. Rumour has it that even fortune tellers can get pinned with time in jail for predicting negative events... but being an expat I would probably be just deported and never allowed to return...

I don't think it was right what they did to people back then no matter if they were a witch or not...

Sun Dial

Lead me the stray Path of Fame,
Inhabitants of Failure fueling the Flame.
Distant actions collide Devastation consumes,
Walking Narrow the objective Lost in the dunes.
Blarring sounds Near in the back of my Mind,
turning inside out with the coming of Time.
Blinding by sorrow the Point is Lost,
Washing my eyes with sweat and Frost.
Tired and feeble Sinking From grains of Despair,
exposing my weakness the deep seeded Stare.

Yeah Witchcraft is real but the belief that it create magic or has any effect on our realm is false.Its all superstition

well Now that I have been called stupid for my opinion I will just say this.......... if I were you I would stop the childish antics and actually educate your self because from were I am sitting,it looks that that may just be a problem for people that choose to be closed minded on not just witch craft but also other religions as well.

I still believe that there is a common fear among Christians for witchcraft or the practice of. As long as the fear exist there is always a chance people will be killed for what they believe or practice. Check out the middle east for an example.

well , in modern times..fortune telling is still illegal in most states here. africa, india , the phillipines , haiti and alot of south america still believes in witchcraft and at the very least, jail them , but i think death is still the prefered remedey. alot of birth defects are still attributed to witches in these countries.

the fact of the matter is that as human beings we all fear something, whether its the unknown, or something that is known, as for the witch hunts, those of us who are wiccan remain in hiding for that very reason, not to be persecuted, for there are many in this world who don't understand what we are and why we are, there is no one to blame, but humanity as a whole for ignorance, and not understanding, those who are quick to judge are no better than those who persecute.

thank you finaly someone with half a brain that understands what I am saying.

Witch craft is a religion of its own .Of course it exsist.
Odd thing is if they freed themselves then they believed they were witches. If they couldnt get free then they werent witches.......(how many really got free?)
My personal opinion is that witchcraft is form of many energies. (I really dont know because Im not one lol)I have yet to see one of my Wiccan friends say "abracadabra" and vanish in mid air.
The hunting of witches is nothing more then sheer ignorance like so many religious wars this world has faced.Difference of opinion and ignorance will never end .So being different to ANY degree is dangerous in this world.

I agree, if being different were a crime we all would be in jail...

Well DarkGothica, you asked 2 very destinct questions.
1) is there witchcraft?

in my opinion (take it for what it is worth) yes there is. there are actualy several different varaities (sp) of it. Just like there are several diffeent variaties of chistianity or budhism or islam. a lot of it is a belief in differnt aspects of creation and different dieties. Yes there are talents that they have developed that may not be able to be explained by modern science. and surely are not suported by the christian faith.

2) Are there still witch hunts? Surely yes. people who do things that are differnt are persecuted every day. they may not be CALLED witch hunts but it is the same fear fo the unknown.

again just my opinion

Sean

With society as it is today I don't believe that there would be a hunt for witches because they would blend in. Society has become more acceptant of various practices and faiths even if they were discovered. I do believe there are those that possess gifts and practice witchcraft. In regards to your final question I believe that those that were executed during the witch hunts were not actual witches. They were simply women that had an alternative lifestyle.

Were there real witches that were caught? I believe yes, but only a few. The others were innocent or at the bad end of somebody's vendetta. Do witch hunts still go on in the world today? Yes, but not always looking for witches per say. They often go about trying to root out some other supposed "bogeyman". Those that head these up play upon the fears and superstitions of the ignorant to instill a fear and radicalism within them that they would disregard the rights of the accused. Remember the Red Scare or how about senator McCarthy?

ok just for curisoty measures has anyone been to scottland lets say aroun holloween? I have family there and have been told lots of what happens on al hollows eve. Iam just wondering if what I have been taught is correct. Yes this does have everything to do with witch craft..

I'm sure some were. They may have been naturals, and didn't actually realize it. Little things like a plant returning to green, things like that would have been normal to them, but not to anyone else.

There has been a semantic shift regarding "witchcraft". What is denoted by the word "witchcraft" in our own day is, in fact, Gerald Gardner's hoax pseudo-religion launched in the late 1940's/early 1950's and various derivatives of that hoax with its pretensions to antiquity as a pre-Christian alternative religion (which historically never existed anyway).

Let's be very clear - in the Middle Ages and up to the 17th century witchcraft invariably meant the exercise of instrumental Maleficium, of evil magic intended to wreak harm and corruption, infliction of disease and death, worked via the agency of malign spiritual beings ie unclean demonic powers and their chief and monarch, the hideous Exarch of Hell himself, Sathanas, the Foul One, the fallen Lucifer, the Prince of Lies, who was, and is still, served by the perpetration of acts of evil and of spreading the insidious disease of rank falshood and delusion to prepare the way for the coming of the Antichrist.

Thus was the rank and noisome fungus of witchcraft, spreading secretly through all classes, as condemned by the just, prudent and wise Inquisitors, Prelates, Judges and Popes of mediaeval Europe. The ancient measures of the rack and the pyre were only a considered and measured response to a virulent spiritual poison and the methods of the Malleus Maleficarum of Sprenger and Kramer should, in my view, be implemented afresh in the present day. The time for such a great purification of these ancient evils is long overdue.

The unbelief and scepticism of the materialistic and atheistic epoch we live in may be pervasive but that does not mean that the hellish potencies of black magic, evil witchcraft and demonry are no more. As Bram Stoker wrote in Dracula:

"And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere 'modernity' cannot kill."

I would love for you to educate me somehow with your knowledge!

Witches were, are and will be. Shure alot of them got chased down and burned together with alot of inocent people which were not involved or entirely involved! But is was the panic, and fear of the weak brain manipulated people that "others used" (highers) as a weapon against their own enemies!

i believe that only a small handful were witches and the rest were all innocents, there are still plenty of witch hunts nowadays in other countries, which is sad to read

I also think that there were a handful that wee real witches. and people were frightened by things that they could not accept as the norm.

Throughout history, man has feared and hunted what they didn't understand. Because of your current level of development i don't think that witchhunts are still some think that is happening in the western world.

In Afrika and other parts of the world that are still more prone to superstition, i think it would very well be possible for witchhunts to occur. But they will probably be aimed at individuals and not against Witches in general.

As for magical teleporting yourself away, i have yet to see any prove that that would be possible. If the Witches of old had those powers they would probably have used them to prevent themselves from being burnt.

Lovecraft said it best: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear of mankind is fear of the unknown."

Such a debate will never be answered correctly due to definitions perceptions and paradigms

After the crusades the templar nights were killed for craft , but really for there money… war is not cheap and they had it all.
Next with so many men killed there was a lot of land with widows, so they set about accusing all they could the
witches hammer
A rather sick but more popular than the bible at one point on how to find get confections and dispose of.
Yes we are real yes innocents are killed looking for us, but the real target was money to pay for war and history repeats

Given the reaction just to my martial arts teachers over the years, I can see how others could think some people posses supernatural abilities.

But really they just seem to have an advanced understanding of how things work!

yes there are witches and yes in many parts of the world they are still being persecuted in one way or another. People are afraid of what they do not understand. Also many believe that their religion or belief system is the sole "right" religion. Because of that thought pattern they feel the need to condemn and try to save other on the "wrong" path.

if you read my profile it states that i am a witch not a wicca nor a neo-pagan.. i beleave it the old ways and live my life in that way

First off, may I ask?

Why is it the older the religion/belief/legend someone purportes to follow/believe/be, the worse thier spelling becomes?

Seriously, people, take some time to proof-read. Doesn't take more than a second, and makes people read your posts, rather than scoff, or laugh, and move on. Like I did with the majority of the posts in this topic. Except for Vampirologist. His post was excellent, if a bit odd.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand!

Witchcraft? Sure. I was raised by Witches. Coven, circle, and all. My Aunt was a lady Named Circe, operated out of Ohio, had a church and all.

Scariest thing she could do was make a room of idiots part with thier better senses. heh. And she made a MEAN cookie.

Wicca? Not witchcraft. Anyone who says otherwise? I'll beat with a broom for being dumb, then with the book they need to educate themselves with. Also, it isn't JUST a goddess, theres a god there too, don't forget that.

Do I think Witches are still persecuted? Sure, though the methods tend to be a bit less...flammable. Especially the little goth idiots who go around saying they traffic with dark powers, TRYING to get a rise out of people, because they get off on the persecution. Seriously. Most 'practioners' are just attention seeking whores trying to get someone, ANYONE, to notice them, for any reason.

Especially the people who claim over and over that they are witches and that they were so offended by the Burning Times.

If so few actual Witches caught the torch....why the hell do you care so much?

Anyway. heh.

Can witches perform miracles/magic? Any religion has its miracle workers. Belief is an incredibly, ridiculously powerful thing. Get enough people to believe, and it happens. If everyone BELIEVES that Gerta Wartnose (I heart cliches. Sue me.) can fix a chest cough with the foot of a frog? It happens. But then, if it is that natural, it isn't a miracle, or magic, it just is.

So really, only the perceptions of the observer determines if it is natural, or supernatural.

Mmm, delicious food for thought....

A witch from my old coven was going thru a divorce her in our county and her soon to be ex-husband told the judge that she was a practicing witch and involved with the wiccan religion and she lost all custudy of her son and visitation and the judge order that it be documented that she was a witch. This was only 5 years ago.

Yes,witches do exist as well as warlocks,wizards,sorcerors or however us wish to say it.Me,I'm a praticing ecclectic means I study many forms and not just one.

As far as the witch hunts it was a easy way to get rid of someone and do it legally.Whether it be due to greed,lust or just not liking that person.Was a very easy frame up and usually ended in death,so as they say," Dead men don't tale tells."I feel that not were all witches,but alot were innocents.

For some modern cases of persecution check the following site.

http://www.amasterpiece.com/BurningTimes/

There has been many accounts of the 'burning of witches' throughout the world. One of the most famous is the Salem Witch Trails. Many innocent women were burned. But how many were exactly innocent? They wouldn't actually admit to being a witch, they would be burned or something alike. However, it could also be seen as the attention seeking of the young girls who started the whole thing off.
Morganx

I think that Witch hunts are still going on in secret. As long as people fear Wicthes they will always be hunted.

Witches really do exist, they are not just creatures of myth. Ask anyone who practices traditional witchcraft or Paganism for that matter.

I don't believe that all of the witches who were burned were true witches. I've read somewhere a while ago that witches are still hunted in some countries. As far as how true that is, however, I'm not sure on that one. Time for research!

To learn more about witches lok at the following sites.

http://www.celticcrow.com/

http://www.witchvox.com/

The saddest part of the entire "burning" issue is that they used it as an answer to all things they didn't understand. I recently read an account of witch burning where it was proven that the woman was set up by elders of her town, and she was set free. This was a wonderful step of progress. It is rare during the witch trials and hunts. But as a rule, these women were used a scapegoats.

personally i think SOME places that had "witches" actually respected them and knew them as witches not evil beings

Look at todays political climate. The last time polotics and religion got together people were burned at the stake.

Ok.. from personal experience.. Yes they still "hunt" but not in the ways of old.. now a days.. its more like political and accusations which bring forth .. oh i dunno, Child services or othere dept. of state and county and what not.. long story short.. as HellsGuardian said.. I just dont for see me burning at the stake.. or hung from a branch.. or dunked in water over and over til i am dead.. i only see as of late.. people going through the courts being accused of worshipping the devil and some without evidence getting their children taken.. long story.. but anyways..
yes i believe it just not like old days..
I should mention.. I am Pgan.. which when some hear that.. they automatically think.. Satan Worshiper.. No I am not..

so so so many people think that when the pagan ways come up.... i have been called a satan worshiper many a time...

do people really think we are all evil?

Using Magic Is In Life Is diffrent than in charmed You Cant orb or throw flames from your hands, It is more influincing Nature and the things around you.

with the way society is today my opinion is that the witch hunts are still existing in a way..i AM a witch..besides vampiric..
i mean look at the christians and anyone else who does not either understand the occult,is afraid of it or what ever u wana call it..unfortunately there still are some who if u dont understand "it" then it must b evil and destroyed..

I just finished a history paper about the Salem Massacre (Witch Trials) and I feel that there are alot of modern day witch hunters. My daughter is Wiccan and she is told on a regular basis that she is going to hell. When she announced her religion to the people that she thought were her friends they turned their backs on her. I believe that there were some witches that were burnt back then but they were not bad people...just different from everyone else back in those days. Religion was organized and any devation from that was considered a sin. It makes me very upset that people still treat all pagan religions like they are all about satan or devil worship. I guess that is all I have to say. I get angry because I see my daughter being persucuted for her religious prefernce and I do not understand...

As long as witches are still in peoples thoughts and memories there will be witch hunts but they will be kept discreet...

witchs excist and it wasnt only women it was men as well that were burnt... there are many ways they could have escaped and yes there are places even in this time of age were witch hunts still happen.....

witches do exist and are still shuned by society to this day. it is ashame that certain people still hunt for witches because to the untrained person and the person that does not know anything about witchcraft, they think it is all bad!

yes in some places there are still wich hunts they arn't very known about and they don't burn the witch anymore, they have fornd even more... "human friendly" ways of punishment
i stongly think that then and even now that, that is and was wrong. i don think that maybe less than one percent of the witch hunts done in the mid-century were real witches,but i think most if not all were not.

I believe there are. Because basically, whenever something went against the other religions faith, they're considered a witch. Like if they know a death is coming, or have healed without seeking medicine. It's just that so many places still aren't really open minded to other things...even in this country where it's supposedly freedom of religion and all the other crap they say...but yet plenty of laws downgrading it to what the government feels is "right." Imean...it was just a few years ago that Wiccan became an accepted religion in the military but they finally realized something...but I don't remember what because it's been awhile since I read that article. But I think it was also because they needed people and no one was joining because they couldn't.

I might be wrong on the date, here, but I don't believe that anyone was burned for the crime of witchcraft anywhere above (germany?) after 1300. Or... something like that. Either way, they were hanged, is what I'm saying. And no one in north america was burned for the accused crime either.

Those who were punished were, as many of you have said, not witches at all. The book Malleus Mallificarnum (I may have spelled that wrong) aka, "the witches' hammer", was written in england in the 1400's or somewhere in there, and it condemned women such as:

Midwives, for easing the pain of childbirth, because the book stated that chilbearing was pain to make up for eve's partaking of the apple

Nurses, because the eased pain with herbs and "potions", even if they were intended to be just medicines.

Women who read books

Women who were not Christian/Catholic

And the book also gave instruction on how to find markings left on womens' bodies by the devil- for which many painful testing and removal evices were made. Finally, there were instructions on how to punish them.

So, I'm not good with dates and places, but if it's persecution you want to know about, some of the worst comes from that book, and it's truly the worst because they weren't even witches or pagans.

Side note, though: the word "Pagan" is actually a term for a country dweller, or someone who lives on the outskirts of town, and this term (once again, bad with dates and crap!) was developed during feudal england by landlords. They believed that the people who lived on the outskirts of towns and villages were less clean and perhaps less pious, and some of them were indeed "pagans" as we know them today, so they called then country-dwellers-- pagans.

good book for lots of that info:

The encylopedia of magic and witchcraft by susan greenwood. Gives an overview of paganism around the world and in different cultures, and some good background history.

If anyone is interested I have written an article on Witches which you find in Members Articles, under the name of Emaerald, my old nick on here.

witches wth is this bewitched all over again tho this is a classic it aint real at all people may believe in it in today but it is all hollywood ttrying to playin a trick on u and taking your money in the process if people want to believe in it I wont hold against them but I know the real truth behind it lmao

witchcraft is more then just saying I am a witch, its a lifestyle, a way of life , its a belief a way to be and a path or faith, this is not a thing can be stop or eradicated since tis formthe mind and the heart , unless you end all life then the witch will always remian

I do actually believe in witches but i don't believe that there are witch hunts today because it is a little more accepted in societys today

I do actually believe in witches but i don't believe that there are witch hunts today because it is a little more accepted in societys today

I have alot to say on this subject I won't,I will say that I have read of witch trials all over the world and the treatment was very harsh,most women just admited to being a witch for the sole purpose of not being tortured anymore and was the torture harsh.I am a practicing Wicca,but all for nature and beauty,I believe in alot of things,It all comes from inside yourself,I get critisized alot for my beliefs,Do I believe in God,of course I do but I also worship nature which is why we are here,we desolve into nature when this life is over,All the rules are the same no matter what you may believe.

There are still witch hunts, they may not be able to be proven, and the people may not be so called hunters or whatever. But I was and felt I was evicted from my apt. because of my belief. It's to long to go into details, and honestly there is no proof. Just the circumstances and reasonings the management company said why I was evicted, were false. I live a bible belt area.

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