Beyond this point, there be monsters...a brief history of witchcraft, with a little human sexuality thrown in. PART ONE.

 So, it's October, and it's a time for monsters, ghouls, and ghosts.   Now we're not talking about Monster's Inc., here...

No.  

Let's look rather at this 'monster,':

The wicked witch of the West, as portrayed by Margaret Hamilton.  But, was this always the way in which the witch was portrayed? Why, this stereotype? Well, that is a complex question.

To understand witches, and why this myth persists to this day, we have to go back to the earliest societies--back to the primordial world, where men and women gathered around campfires, and tried to make order out of the physical world.  To give reason for the changing of the seasons, and the rising and setting of the sun.  Why were such things? Why was there sadness, fear, and malice in the world?

Perhaps to explain this, we should look at some ancient images which denoted a belief in magic and the supernatural.  Look at this ithyphallic figure, from the caves at Lascaux:

This is an anthropomorphic figure, with bird like features, and yet a prominent phallus.  Such combinations of the sexual, with magic, tended (at least in the past) to have certain divine implications.  Perhaps these were the early gods of prehistoric man.  

In the paleolithic and neolithic worlds, goddess figures abound, such as the infamous "Venus of Willendorf":

While this is a fertility figure, without doubt, it also possibly is an indication of how aspects of the feminine were sacred for ancient cultures--at least in the West.  This post will consider the development of western sexuality, and how it eventually became entwined with morality, particularly within the Judeo-Christian construct, where sexuality outside of restrictive customs was to be viewed as dangerous, even against the laws established by the divine.  

Also in the paleolithic, and neolithic eras, we have a goddess figure that suggests death:

How can we ascertain that the above figurine is female?  The hips, and the \/ symbol, which of course indicates the vulva.  Gimbutas stipulates, that this represents a death goddess figurine.

White as an indicator for death, strange, no?  Think about it--practically, I mean.  For us, the cowboys in the white hats are the 'good guys,' whereas the guys in the black hats, are their opponents.  But, for the ancient world, not only did we have the sacred feminine, but black indicated fertility, the moist cave, the darkness of the womb, whereas white was symbolic of death--the blanched bone;  the bloodless skin.

And, what of other colors? Blue is obvious--water, sky, etc.  Yellow, uh, sunshine anyone?  But red is the other interesting color--one in which we see a recurrence over and over.  Red is blood, yes, but it could also be indicative of the life force, in particular one aspect of it:  menstruation.

Often, you will see the pairing of white, red, and black on pottery from ancient cultures, and the best examples of this are from the cultures of ancient America:

This is an excellent example, too, of the chevron symbol, which represents either the vulva, or the penis.  Think about an inverted chevron, if you must, folks.  Down = feminine;  up = masculine.

Symbols are also key therefore, to understanding so called 'primitive' forms of sexuality.

As we move forward, we begin to see certain goddesses becoming important to early civilizations.  Take Inanna--a god of the ancient Sumerians:

Here we have a woman who was young and beautiful, robust and healthy.  Inanna was associated with many things--from love and desire, to fertility, to temple prostitutes.  She was also associated with magic, although perhaps not anything we might equate with witchcraft.  

There are two seminal texts on the history of the ancient goddess cultures: 

For more information regarding this, one should read 

• Gimbutas, Marija (1989). The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
• Eisler, Riane.  The Chalice and the Blade.

So, what does Inanna have to do with the evolution of witchcraft? Well, the characteristics of ancient gods incorporated aspects of the magical and fantastic, which were inextricably intertwined with sexuality  Also, we find that the ways in which gods like Inanna manifested themselves, was often that of a young beautiful, sexually active girl;  a middle aged maternal figure; and finally a crone.  Is any of this sounding familiar yet?

Look at these images:

i.e. both of these images are of beautiful sexually desirable women, perhaps even a little dangerous in their sexuality.

Take this:

and perhaps the most well known image (such as the original clip I showed you from "The Wizard of Oz):

Now, one of the things common in ancient societies, was hagiography--the art of reading signs in the natural world, in order to predict future events.  I believe that this practice was folded gradually into our evolving ideas of the supernatural, in terms of practice.  

In the ancient world, oraculation was also viewed with respect and reverence.  The best example of this last, is of course, the Greek Oracle at Delphi.

Here, numerous women combined prayer, with magic, and many people believed in the art of prophecy.  This was one example of the sorceress image.  For the Romans, witchcraft was associated with Hecate, a goddess whose binary nature uneasily straddled the concepts of good and evil.  

With the advent of Christianity, the West began to divide the world between the white hats and the black hats.  White becomes the color of purity and light, whereas black becomes symbolic of darkness and evil.  The mythology of Christianity is also vehemently anti-pagan--thus casting the old gods in the role of false idols.  Take, for example, the serpent, which in the ancient world was a symbol of the Goddess.  Serpents were seen as a good omen, an animal close to the divine influence of the Mother, and of fertility.  This, of course, is antithetical to how Christians viewed the serpent, characterizing it as an alterntive servant of evil.  

In time, Christians began to persecute women (and yes, men too) who still worshipped pagan gods as witches--these were the servants of the Devil.  

An entire mythology grew up around so-called 'servants of daemonkind', eventually identifying a laundry list of behaviors for suspected witches.  Although witchcraft persecutions were relatively few and far between during the Dark Ages, they did exist.  The Middle Ages would see the dramatic rise of witch hunts, with thousands of men and women being tried for 

'performing magic' for alleged nefarious purposes.

The rise in hunting witches can be correlated to the decline of the pagan faith systems.  With the clear division between good vs. evil, Christians had distinct problems with the blending of female and male in the divine.  They also had difficulty accepting other faith systems, believing that theirs was the One True Faith.  Too bad pagans, you're SOL.

Okay, Dear Reader, we have come to the end of part one.  In the next post, I'll deal with the Medieval period, where witch trials escalated to an insane degree.

I'll end part one with this: