Medieval European Witch Cult

In the United States, an urban, “blue states” religion centered on “the great earth mother” is being promoted by Al Gore and other globalists. There is a rural, “red states” resistance. Just as Christianity was resisted by the rural population in an earlier time, now it is Christianity itself, in some quarters, doing the resisting. (Amazingly, the Catholic Church in some portions is actually promoting the mother earth worship!)

This parallel between earlier resistance by rural populations to the urban Christianity, and today's resistance to a mother earth global religion, makes a second look at Murray's “Witch Cult” relevant.

“Ritual Witchcraft – or, as I propose to call it, the Dianic cult – embraces the religious beliefs and ritual of the people known in late mediaeval times as 'Witches'”, wrote Murray. “It can be traced back to pre-Christian times, and appears to be the ancient religion of Western Europe.” (Other indications of a previous, vanished European and even global civilization were sketched in “Jack and the Beanstalk, Exposed”, http://www.shout.net/~bigred/Beanstalk.html).

“The so-called conversion of Britain meant the conversion of the rulers only; the mass of the people continued to follow their ancient customs and beliefs with a veneer of Christian rites.” (Ibid.)

Gradually, the “laws against the practice of certain heathen rites became more strict as Christianity grew in power, the Church tried her strength against 'witches' in high places and was victorious, and in the fifteenth century open war was declared against the last remains of heathenism in the famous Bull of Innocent VIII.”

A sketch of the gradual suppression of the previous belief system is summarized by Conspiracy Nation as follows:

Growth Of Crusade Against “Witches”

1^st Century: Strabo, 63 B.C. - 23 A.D. “In an island close to Britain, Demeter and Persephone are venerated with rites similar to the orgies of Samothrace.”

4^th Century: In islands near Jersey and Guernsey the rites of Bacchus performed by dancing women crowned with leaves.

7^th Century: “Liber Poenitentialis” of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, decrees, in part: “If anyone at the kalends of January goes about as a stag or a bull; that is, making himself into a wild animal and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, and putting on the heads of beasts; those who in such wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wild animal, penance for three years because this is devilish.” “The Laws Of Wihtraed”, King of Kent, 690 A.D.: Fines inflicted on those who offer to devils.

9^th Century: Decree attributed to a General Council of Ancyra: “Certain wicked women, reverting to Satan, and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that they ride at night with Diana on certain beasts, with an innumerable multitude of women, passing over immense distances, obeying her commands as their mistress, and evoked by her on certain nights.”

10^th Century: Ecclesiastical canons of King Athelstan, 924 – 940 A.D.: “We have ordained respecting witchcrafts, and lyblacs, and morthdaeds: if anyone should be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life.”

11^th Century: “Laws of King Cnut”, 1017 – 1035 A.D.: “We earnestly forbid every heathenism: heathenism is, that men worship idols; that is, that they worship heathen gods, and the sun or the moon, fire or rivers, water-wells or stones, or forest trees of any kind; or love witchcraft, or promote morth-work in any wise.”

13^th Century: Witchcraft made into a sect and “heresy” by the Church.

14^th Century: Trial of Dame Alice Kyteler, 1324 A.D. Tried for both operative and ritual witchcraft, and found guilty. She “was charged to haue nightlie conference with a spirit called Robin Artisson, to whom she sacrificed in the high waie .ix. red cocks.”

15^th Century: “Bull of Pope Innocent VIII”, 1484: “It has come to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have intercourse with demons, Incubi and Succubi; and that by their sorceries, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurations, they suffocate, extinguish, and cause to perish the births of women, the increase of animals, the corn of the ground, the grapes of the vineyard and the fruit of the trees...”

16^th Century: Decretal Epistle of Pope Adrian VI, 1521: Denouncement of “witches” as “a Sect deviating from the Catholic Faith...”

Fairies, Wee Folk, Crop Circles, and UFOs

“The round dance was so essentially a witch dance that [one author] says, 'It might be here very seasonable to inquire into the nature of those large dark Rings in the grass, which they call Fairy Circles, whether they be the Rendezvouz of Witches, or the dancing places of those little Puppet Spirits which they call Elves or Fairies.'” The “witches” apparently danced in circles with the “wee folk.” From this, some language etymologies are suggested by Murray: “Ringleader,” from whoever led the dance; the phrase “the Devil take the hindmost” refers to laggards in the dance. “Coven” is thought to derive from “to convene.”

Murray delves into the case of Joan of Arc “put to death as a witch, and the conduct of her associates during her military career, as well as the evidence at her trial, bear out the fact that she belonged to the ancient religion, not to the Christian.” Appendix I of Murray's book (op. cit.) includes the 4^th Article of Accusation against Joan of Arc, charging she “was not instructed in her youth in the belief and primitive faith, but was imbued by certain old women in the use of witchcraft, divination, and other superstitious works or magic arts... that in the trial before you she confessed that up to this time she did not know that Fairies were evil spirits.” The 5^th Article of Accusation includes information as to “a certain great, big, and ancient tree called vulgarly The Charmed Fairy-tree of Bourlemont; beside the tree is a spring; round these gather, it is said, evil spirits called fairies, with whom those who use witchcraft are accustomed to dance at night, going round the tree and spring.” (See also, “Heresy Of The Conspiracy Theorists”, http://www.shout.net/~bigred/Heresy.html)

The “Devil” instructed the witches, whose rites, especially when performed privately, were “more or less in the nature of experiments, the results were reported and when successful were recorded in writing for future use.” Among the “Devils” instructing the “Witches” were a Mr. William Simpson (ca. 1588) “who lived among the fairy folk” and an unknown man having a “grey beird” who Isobel Haldane (ca. 1623) “met among the fairy folk.” Alesoun Peirson (1588) “was burnt as a witch, having gained her knowledge from the fairies...” Devils were sometimes called “imps,” suggesting little people, the “wee folk”, and today's UFO beings.

This “was a fertility cult.” The purpose of various “magic charms” was “to promote fertility in general and in particular.” For example, to cause “fertilizing rain.” (Weather modification) A common saying in the “sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, [was] the better the midwife the better the witch.”

“The witches of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries appear to have carried on the tradition of the pre-Christian cults... Much confusion, however, has been caused by the religious and so-called scientific explanations of the contemporary commentators, as well as by the unfortunate belief of modern writers in the capacity of women for hysteria. At both periods pseudo-science has prevented the unbiased examination of the material.” (Emphasis added)

Conspiracy Nation

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html