Bed knobs and broomsticks, Are witches evil? : Argumentative Paper on Witchcraft

 By Erik Stebbins-Colón

General Aim:  To argue one side of an issue.

Specific Aim:  To argue that Wicca is not a work of devil or evil, but that is a basis for a balanced noble earth religion.

Audience Analysis:  The major audience of this paper is people who are not familiar with Wicca or persecute Wicca without hearing the other side of the story.  The age limit on this group is from High School on up.  Their interests should be learning about other religions.  It is required that the reader has an open mind and heart while reading the essay.

Thesis Statement:  The opposition against Wicca has always thought Wicca is evil because of its polytheistic ideology, arcane practices, and lack of morals; however, Wicca is not evil but a basis for a good earth religion because of its balanced, polytheistic ideology, “Old Religion” practices, and strict discipline.

Body  

Witchcraft.  “When that word is said it calls up a cauldron of mythical superstition and hysteria.” according to Arthur Kent, in the History Channel’s History Mysteries: “Witchcraft”.  When a person says that word already people think of the wicked ‘Witch of the West’ from the Wizard of Oz.  Some think of people around a satanic circle about to sacrifice someone or something.  Still others think of an old crone in black or the witches from the movie Hocus Pocus, but all of that is bunk.  It is hard-wired into almost all Christian, Islamic, and Jewish brains that Wicca, or the practice of witchcraft is pure evil, a work of the devil.  According to Joan Bamberger, “…witchcraft, which they claim to be an ancient Western religion, historically misunderstood and much maligned.”(Paragraph 13).  What is going to be shown is what is thought and what is truth, after all truth is the key to everything.  The opposition against Wicca has always been the Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths no matter what century.  The opposition against Wicca has always thought Wicca is evil because of its polytheistic and harmful ideology, arcane practices, and lack of morals; however, Wicca is not evil but a basis for a good earth religion because of its balanced, polytheistic and pacifistic ideology, “Old Religion” practices, and strict discipline.

            Simply put Wicca, a Celtic word that means “craft of the wise”, is an Earth Religion that recognizes the existence of a ‘Universal Energy’ afloat everywhere at all times.  Every object in existence is made up of this energy.  In essence, all objects are alive with it.  This energy is the "Creative Energy".  So then, this force is the foundation and creativeness of the God and Goddess. Wicca believes in a balance of female and male powers, hence two figures.  There are three pure forms of the ‘Universal Energy’ used and believed in Wicca.  In a ritual's purest form is the first form of this energy, without gender or characteristics, and is what is used or worshipped.  God and Goddess are the second purest form of this power, which has gender and human type characteristics.  The third purest form of this force is a second group of Gods and Goddesses.  These Gods and Goddesses specialize in specific areas ... such as a Goddess for Love, Venus.  A note as to why Gods and Goddesses is capitalized is because this second group of Gods and Goddesses make up the God and Goddess, which in simple terms means that the second group are parts of the body.  An example to further simplify this the Goddess Athena would make up a part of the Goddess’s brain. 

Witchcraft is usually performed outside in nature.  Spells, rituals, and the like are performed on any day or night, because they are all sacred to the Wiccan, not just Sunday or Wednesday.  Some belong to covens, which is a group of Witches that gather on full moons and Wiccan holidays to do rituals. Every once and a while people may run across a Witchcraft "sanctuary", which means a place where Witchcraft is regularly performed and where Witches may gather.  This can be somewhat compared to a church, but a closer comparison would be Witch's Sacred Space or Circle. Again in very general terms, this simply means a locale "cleared" of harmful and/or negative energies and set for performing Magick, this Sacred Space can be created anywhere.  If a comparison must be made, a Witch's "church" is the Earth and the Universe.              

The opposition against Wicca believes that Wicca is a work of the devil or simply put it is evil, because of its ideology.  The Bible or Koran, plus Jewish, Islamic and Christian Doctrine consider anything that delves away from the monotheistic belief of the ‘One God’, who is male, is evil.  It is considered to be devil worshipping because they are not worshipping the way of God or Jesus or in the Islamic faith Muhammad showed them.  In the Christian faith, Jesus showed the way of prayer, fasting, and good deeds shall get thy self to heaven anything else will send thyself to Hell.  It is the same with the Islamic faith, except the follower of Islam must fear God and their Messiah was Muhammad.  In the Jewish faith it is a little different from Christian and Islamic faith in that Jesus was not the ‘Messiah’, or in the Islamic case Muhammad was not either, but that the greatest prophet is Moses.  Wicca does not follow the way of monotheism; therefore it looked on as being paganistic.  Therefore it is believed to be evil, because Wicca believes in more than one God.  They are considered to be heathens for not following the defined path set out by the prophets, the Bible, or Koran, and church doctrine.  Plus female Gods in these three religions, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian, are seen as evil because of the story from Genesis.  Eve is the downfall of humanity at Garden of Eden, it is because of this biblical fact that any female deity is looked down upon and the female gender as a whole is looked on as being more vulnerable to commit sin and turn towards the devil. 

Trudging further on why Christian, Islamic, and Jewish religions consider Wicca as being evil.  It is considered by the three religions that oppose Wicca that Wicca is evil because it is part of the satanic culture.  Wiccans are believed to dance naked and fornicate with the devil on the ‘Black Sabbath’, or night of the devil.  Another belief of why Wicca is evil that the witches instead of just practicing promiscuous fornication and satanic worship, which is evil and gruesome at the same time, witches were believed to practice cannibalistic infanticide.  Simply put Witches would come and steal babies away, then these witches would eat the children, and it was also believed that sometimes these witches would not stay on their infant diet, instead the would feast on the flesh of older children.  This doctrine against Wicca and beliefs of what witches do simply is not true, even though raised a Roman Catholic, judging a religion before understanding it, and basis it on hearsay and supposed myth is absolutely ludicrous.  It would be like judging someone guilty instantly without hearing any substantial and believable evidence. 

Wicca is not evil, because of its polytheistic and pacifistic ideology, but is the basis for a good earth religion.  In the Wicca religion there is no Satan or negative force, but only happy, positive beliefs.  Therefore this form of polytheism is not evil or a work of the devil.  Yet another reason that Wiccan polytheism is not evil in that with the addition of these two deities, one male and one female, the force is balanced.  Take into consideration that in Christian religion Mary, mother of Jesus, is crowned Queen of Heaven and she balances out the male part, God, in that the fact she has mercy for humans.  Think about it, in the “Old Testament” God is more wrathful and does not have that much mercy in him, but when Mary comes along he becomes more merciful, because of her.  Adding on to why Wicca is not evil, all satanic religions believe in total destruction and harming everyone and everything, but in Wicca the main belief is that not to harm any one.  Can Wicca be considered evil if it follows the code of harming no one, it simply must be understood that it would not follow under a satanic religion since Wicca disobeys first rule of Satanism, which is killing and harming everything, including even the people or things that a Satanist loves. 

Keeping with why Wicca is not evil, it is time to divulge into some myths that were probably created out of thin air.  According to Arthur Kent, of History’s Mysteries: Witchcraft, “In the twelfth century, the Roman Catholic Church considered the belief of that a witch could fly was a sin, but in the fifteenth century it was considered a sin not to believe a witch could not.”  With this tidbit of information from History’s Mysteries: Witchcraft, one can tell that Church doctrine was changed because they desired a scapegoat for what was going wrong at the time, which was the “Black Death” or bubonic plague.  This plague of course was not caused by witches, cats, or rats, but was entirely caused by the flea on a rat, cat, or person.  These fleas carried the bubonic plague with them and transferred it to humans.  With everybody dieing all Churches needed a reason for this plague since they had none, thus the tribunal of the Inquisition was born.  The Inquisition was ordered to weed out all evil out the society.  First they blamed cats, which could have killed of the rats that had the killer fleas, yet they stilled blamed the cats.  So all cats were killed which explains why there are few extinct species of cat that existed during this time.  Yet the plague continued so the Inquisition needed another target, which would happen to be the witch.  Since the witch quickly became the scapegoat for what was going wrong many myths were created about the witches to make them seem they were evil and the cause for the plague. 

Continuing on with these created myths, during this time few people knew witches were not evil, the Churches quickly made it known that all witches were evil.  Two Dominican monks wrote a book called the Malleus Malficarium, which could point out a witch by telltale signs, but the question is how did these two monks know what a witch did.  Of course the answer is they did not know they what a witch did, but yet they constructed the book from what they made up and what was written in Church doctrine, which was nothing but myth, although both sources were completely wrong it was used to hunt and kill anyone who was remotely considered a witch.  Of course since the female was considered vulnerable, many females were killed just for being a woman.  Many people were killed even though they were not witches; this is why a Witch-Hunter is seen as today as one who is more evil than what he hunts.  It was thought that if a witch were burned, the witch’s power would be broken.  As said by Constance Holden in “Witches or Cannibals”:

The bones come from about 30 sites where skulls have been smashed in and brains removed, while other bones have been broken and the marrow removed. That evidence, he says, comports with 16th century accounts of witch trials by Spanish explorers….  The body had to be completely destroyed so the witch could not return to it. This entailed "corpse pounding" with large rocks, mutilation, and cutting up the body….  Some of these events took place at "kivas," or ritual houses.  (Paragraph 2).

Continuing on with reasons for why Wicca is not evil, because of its ideology.  The belief of harming no one or anything has led to advent of a multitude of vegetarians within the Wicca, not to say that all those of Wicca are vegetarian.  Which should debunk the myth of witches practicing infanticide and cannibalism, or both.  As said by Rosemary E. Guiley, “It seems as though many Earth Spirituality practitioners are vegetarians, but it is certainly not all practitioners, and it certainly is not a requirement of Wicca. Since Wicca believes that everything on Earth has a life-force and that everything is equal in that regard, many refuse to kill and eat another animal.”(Page 46).  The belief of infanticide is idiotic in the fact that it is positively, absolutely disgusting, not to mention the fact that Wiccans believe life is sacred.  If a person wants to see true infanticide, just look at the abortionists who do kill babies everyday, but yet not a single one of those abortion doctors is a Wiccan.  Most followers may believe in more than just the God and Goddess, these followers might believe that there is a God or Goddess for a specific purpose.  Which is considered in most books and people ‘the Old Religion’ or faith of multiple Gods and Goddesses. 

Keeping on with the main code of harming no one it has probably done less damage than other religions have caused over a thousand years.  Take into the effect all of the Crusades, and Jihads, not to forget any of the Hebrew holy wars, which was fought over who spoke what and whose religion is right.  In Wicca there has never been a fight or war over who said what and who is right, after all the belief of harming no one is being pacifistic.  Pacifism is the key to the future of global unity, but not many religions enforce it.  Wicca, however, enforces the code harm no one, which is pacifism in a couple of words.  Wicca should be accepted as not a work of the devil, but as a balanced, polytheistic and noble earth religion.

            The opposition against Wicca believes Wicca is evil because of its arcane practices.  Under all church doctrine anything that is a ritual outside of their doctrine is considered to be evil.  Wicca is therefore considered evil because of its practice of ‘Magick’.  Casting spells or using magick spells is considered evil, because the Bible or Koran did not set it down.  Brief note a magic spell is an illusionary trick done by a magician for entertainment purposes, while a magick spell is a spell that is cast by those of Wicca and usually gives a benefit to someone or even does something else.  Thus this practice of magick spells is considered evil for it being a ritual done out of the confines of church doctrine.  Plus these magick spells and rituals call upon the usage of sacrifices, such as animal and human sacrifices according to Christian, Islamic, and Jewish doctrine.  Another reason for Wicca’s practices considered to be evil is because of the celebration of the Samhain, or All Hollow’s Eve, or Halloween, which is Wicca’s New Year Day.  All churches concur to the fact that Halloween is evil, it is seen in their eyes as the day of the devil.  Also it is seen as evil because it celebrated just like New Year’s Eve, but on a different day than the church accepts as the beginning of the New Year, and of course the churches considered this day to be evil.  This belief of rituals not set down by the Bible or Koran has some merit in that the fact of satanic rituals are complete evil, but the practicing of magick is not evil.  Magick only becomes evil when it is used for the wrong purposes and harms someone or something, even if the spell-caster did not intend to harm.

            The practices of Wicca are not evil, even though its rituals differ from Christian, Islamic, and Jewish rituals.  Magick as with any power that is in this world it can be used for good and it can be used for evil.  The practicing of magick in Wicca is only used for good, because any harmful magick would go against Wicca’s main code of harm no one.  Followers of Wicca do not use harmful spells because their beliefs of that what goes around comes around three times. They believe that the spell may effect something or someone once, but it will effect the caster three times, of course this only applies to a spell that causes harm whether intended or not.  Thus this ritual of practicing magick is not evil when it used by those of Wiccan.  Of course there are witches who do not obey the code, instead they follow the satanic code, so one should not consider them witches or Wiccan instead one should consider these evil witches only as Satanists.  “A Witch will typically live by code harm none, and do what thou will. A Black Witch does not live by this code, and may be found harming another on occasion. Magick is seen as positive if it harms none” said by Scott Cunningham (page 75).

Further it is a known fact that those who are Wiccan who practice magick and rituals today are not the first ones to do this.  High Priestesses of a culture that had a female Goddess practiced what was believed to be the earliest form of magick only practiced magick known only to heal never to harm, which leads one to believe where and when did these High Priestesses get the bad wrap of Satanism.   Another thing the witch was known to do was to help with female and male infertility.  Going on, the celebration of Samhain is not evil.  As a Christian, partying is usually what one does on New Year’s Eve, and Samhain is just nothing more than the celebration of New Year’s Eve on Halloween.  Thus it is not evil because they are drinking, partying, and just having a good time.  After all, most people drink, party, and have a good time on New Year’s Eve.

            The opposition believes that Wicca is evil because of its lack of morals.  Since Wicca does not follow church doctrine it is believed not contain or accept morals of the church.  Wicca is believed to be by the opposition to be nothing more than hedonistic in its morals.  Witches are believed to fornicate with devil and men whose babies they have stolen; also these witches steal the seeds of these men so that the men cannot produce more children.  Thus the Church considered Wicca to have no morals like do not commit adultery and do not commit fortification, and yet other morals, but to accept only which is pleasurable.  This simply would be evil if a religion has a lack of morals, but Wicca does not.

            Wicca’s discipline contains more morals than the opposition believes it to contain.  According to anonymous friend “Even though Wiccan does not follow Church Doctrine.  We do follow the Ten Commandments, since they were set down by God.”  Of course, this belief of following the Ten Commandments may not apply to all of Wicca, but nether the less followers of Wicca do have morals, because everything must lead toward a positive life.  In today’s society, Wicca contains just as many morals as the churches, but unlike other churches Wicca does not use scare tactics, such as the existence of Satan, to instill this purpose of following good morals and good nature, it is believed to be instilled by using the truth.  Thus followers of Wicca are always striving for positive, never negative.   Said by Raymond Buckland on the issue of spell casting naked “Some do, but the majority probably do not. The belief of casting spells and performing rituals without clothing comes mainly from the Gardnarian tradition. It seems as though Gerald Gardner, the founder of the Gardnarian tradition, was also a nudist and he incorporated it into his form of Wicca. The people that follow this teaching tend to believe that the lack of clothes brings them closer to nature and allow their Magick to flow more freely.  This is certainly not a requirement of general Wicca, and the majority of practitioners probably keep their clothes on especially in group rituals.”(Page 120).  This shows that no harm was intended or even done by the few who go naked, the do it out of tradition, which other religions have many. 

Plus as a final note that is interesting is that the Wiccan do not recruit people like the other religions, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish, do. Ashleen O’Gaea says, “We do not preach. We do not recruit. We believe, and that is enough, you will not find us knocking on your door with booklets, nor will you find us trying to convert the unwilling. What you will find is unity, love, happiness, and a helping hand.”(Page 5).

My opposition has stated a very nice argument with a very credible source, but one cannot simply call something evil when it to focuses on good.  Despite the opposition against Wicca belief that it is evil because of Wicca’s ideology, practices, and lack of morals should considering taking evidence into the trial.  The opposition must take in the fact that although Wicca is polytheistic it is a good religion for its earthly beliefs, no harmful, beneficial practices, and its containment of morals into this witch trial.  For one cannot make a good decision based on one side alone.  After all, Jews consider Jesus not as the Messiah, but the Christians do, which one is evil.  Neither should be considered evil because their beliefs are concerned toward leading a positive life.  So with that in mind is Wicca evil for its goal of leading a positive life, by way of a polytheistic earth religion, this simply should not be the case.  The case should be that people from Islam, Christian, and Jewish faiths should accept Wicca as not being evil but as the basis for a good-natured earth religion.  Before this paper is ended one more piece of evidence should be listed, and that is the story of King Saul from the Bible.  In the Bible King Saul right before a major battle seeks out a witch to prophesize the outcome, but all witches were banned from his kingdom by him.  His men finally find a witch who uses her power to conjure up the spirit of the prophet Samuel who tells the King he is going to die.  The King dies and that is the end of the story, but wait a second here.  The witch in the tale was never considered to be evil, nor did Samuel say that the witch was evil in his talk with Saul, it is encouraged that the Bible story be checked out, the story is in First Samuel: Chapter 28.  So with this in mind let us stop the hate, and start the loving.

Works Cited

Bamberger, Joan.  “Taking Witches Seriously.”  Ebscohost. Master FILE Premier with a

Full Text and Peer Reviewed search of ‘Witchcraft’. 1997.  AN: 64890.  ISSN: 0003-1232. 

Buckland, Raymond.  Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft   New York : Llewellyn

Publications, December 1986. 

Cunningham, Scott.  Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner   New York : Llewellyn

Publications, November 1990. 

Holden, Constance.  “Witches or Cannibals.” Ebscohost. Master FILE Premier with a              

Full Text and Peer Reviewed search of ‘Witchcraft’. 29 Jan. 1999. AN: 1504326. ISSN: 0036-8075. 

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.  The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft   Chicago: Facts

            On File, Inc., September 1990. 

O’Gaea, Ashleen.  The Family Wicca Book: The Craft for Parents & Children New York :

Llewellyn Publications, January 1993. 

“Witchcraft” Narrator: Arthur Kent. History’s Mysteries.  The History Channel. 26 Oct.

1999.

Annotated Bibliography

Bamberger, Joan.  “Taking Witches Seriously.”  Ebscohost. Master FILE Premier with a

Full Text and Peer Reviewed search of ‘Witchcraft’. 1997.  AN: 64890.  ISSN: 0003-1232.  The author talks about witchcraft and whether a witch should write books about the subject, if one is trying to compile a book of research on witchcraft.  I used this source as one of my scholarly journals, although there was little information that goes into the pro side, but it talks a lot about my con side.

Buckland, Raymond.  Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft   New York : Llewellyn

Publications, December 1986.  The author covers all aspects of Wicca. If used with other books on Wicca it makes a great basis for learning Wicca. The beginner should cover all the topics covered in this book. People who are interested in learning Wicca, this book gave many of the tools needed to become a Witch.  I use this book very sparingly by pulling out the main ideas of Wicca out of it, because there are some rules and ideas that have not changed since 1986.

Cunningham, Scott.  Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner   New York : Llewellyn

Publications, November 1990.  The author focuses on the importance of individualism in Wicca, Cunningham explains the very basics of Sabbats (holy days), ceremonies, altars, and other nuts and bolts of Wicca that a solitary practitioner may have trouble-finding elsewhere. Another dated book that I am used sparingly because there are some points in it that have not changed, but I used it for Wiccan beliefs.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.  The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft   Chicago: Facts

On File, Inc., September 1990.  The author has some 400 entries survey the topic from its early pagan heritage to the present. Special emphasis is placed on the periods of witch persecutions, including the Inquisition and the Salem trials of 1692.  Honestly just a big book for looking up tidbits of information, plus it takes up as source.  I did not use this 400+ page book a lot, but I used it for information on the Inquisition.

Hawkins, Craig S.  Witchcraft: Exploring the World of Wicca   Los Angeles : Baker Book

House, January 1997.  Hawkins book on witchcraft and pagan religions grows out of a resurgence of occult practices in America and Western Europe in recent years. The author believes these are perilous times for Christians, but that the prepared Christian who knows what he believes can effectively combat this revival of darkness.  I used this book for my con side.

Holden, Constance.  “Witches or Cannibals.” Ebscohost. Master FILE Premier with a              

Full Text and Peer Reviewed search of ‘Witchcraft’. 29 Jan. 1999. AN: 1504326. ISSN: 0036-8075.  The author talks about skeletons found in Mexico that are mutilated, and he debunks the theory of cannibalism being involved, but that these were the skeletal remains of witches killed by the Spanish.  I used this source that I could have another scholarly journal and it helps to destroy the myth of cannibalistic witches at least in the region of the southwest and Mexico .

Melton, J. Gordon.  Magic, Witchcraft, and Paganism in America : A Bibliography    New  

York : Garland , June 1992.  The author cites sources, which include facts and statistics to on witchcraft and paganism.  Essential to students of the mindless monstrosity that is ruining society.  This is the main book I used for my cons.

O’Gaea, Ashleen.  The Family Wicca Book: The Craft for Parents & Children  New York : Llewellyn Publications, January 1993.  The author made this book so that she could get rich by telling Wiccan parents how to tell their kids about Wicca.  I guess you can say this one is another book taking up space, but there are some things I have been able to use out of it.

Phillips, Julia.  “Paganism, Past and Present.” Ebscohost. Master FILE Premier with a

           Full Text and Peer Reviewed search of ‘Witchcraft’. Oct. 1995. AN: 9510234183. ISSN: 0155-0306.  The author talks about the concept of paganism in the country of Australia .  She includes a history of paganism and Christianity.  The growth of paganism through witchcraft in Australia during the 1960s, and also tells the role of Internet in the rebirth of paganism.  I used this to get yet another scholarly journal source, but the problem is that it just provides a background view and nothing else.

Reis, Elizabeth .  Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England    Cornell

           Univ. Pr., February 1999.  The author explores the intersection of Puritan theology, Puritan evaluations of womanhood, and the Salem witchcraft episodes. She finds in that intersection the basis for understanding why women were accused of witchcraft more often than men, why they confessed more often, and why they frequently accused other women of being witches.  I used this book to help myself to understand the background of some myths about witches.

“Witchcraft” Narrator: Arthur Kent. History’s Mysteries.  The History Channel. 26 Oct.

1999. This television program goes from the earliest times of witchcraft through the Inquisition to the current day.  This program includes with interviews with historians and even a modern day Wiccan High Priestess.  I used this also to help with knowledge of Inquisition and what the Christian church thought about witches.