Why witch huntings occurred? Why was there (or still is) such negativity for those who practice their earth-spiritualist idealogies?

I would say we need to know the history to understand why witch huntings occurred or why such negative impact on mid-wives had happened.

With my best efforts I will try to explain the reason. I believe it started with the term "heretic", which means "choice" or "one who makes choices". At the time of 180 C.E. a christian writer Irenaeus produced a massive five-volume work on heretics titled "Against Heresies".

He stated that making choices is evil, and suggested to church leaders who want to eliminate heresy is to not allow people to ask questions.

So christian followers had to follow the words of the bible without questioning it.

How ironic that is because if we can recall history "Jesus" did question the idealogies of the god of abraham and paid a heavy price for it. So how Iraneus could create such a wasted work of writings to contradict even the main person in their bible is beyond me. Jesus was Jewish born questioning such acts like "an eye for an eye" and came with a better solution such as to turn and walk away instead of getting even with injustice done to someone. This is one example of course. Of course this example is debated and disagreed on by many. I will not dispute that, but it is just to show that Jesus had different idealogies then what the Torah was teaching.

So let us continue ...

How did it become that people started hunting mid-wives or the christian term "witches"?

I believe it started in the eleventh and twelfth century. Actions where ordered to torture, kill, and harrass "heretics" to accuse mid-wives for practicing witchcraft and devil worship.

In 1320, witchcraft was added to the inquistion's list of heresies.

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII (not so innocent at all) issued his proclamation, which granted Inquisitors full authority to capture, torture, and punish "witches."

Two years later, the inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, both Dominican priests, published their book "The Malleus Maleficarum", or "The Witches' Hammer". Their book sets out methods for identifying and torturing "witches", and it became the standard text for with-hunters for the next three centuries.

How history got to this point is filled in many books today.

For example: St. Thomas Aquinas, also a Dominican and who died in 1274, came to the conclusion after studying Aristotle and others that women are defective men; this is, women exist because of a mistake in the conception or gestation process.

This belief continued in all of the mediterrenean mythologies and the reason why men believed to be superior then women. This belief continued until the early 19th century and still continues today in many parts of the world!

So St. Thomas believed women were born as a biological failure!

Kramer and Sprenger were impressed with Thomas's reasoning that they supported his idealogy in their books.

So there you have it. The witch-hunts were the product of several centuries of nonsense about women and sex rooted in biological ignorance, ideas that today seem so ludicrous we cannot fathom anyone believing them, let alone acting on them. These beliefs illustrate very well, however, how beliefs build upon each other, concept by concept, until they form a belief system that many follow. How ironic this still happenes in todays society. This system becomes a template around which people act to create a certain reality. The type of reality that is created shows us the merits of the beliefs that support it.

So my brother and sister Druids, Wiccans, Earth-Spiritualists, tarot card readers, etc. etc. don't let ignorance overwhelm your belief system. Know the history and confront it to anyone who neglects what you personal believe to feel good. Have fun with your practices and don't hesitate to educate me on what you have discovered.

Your brother,

smiless

What happened to the accused?

The witch-hunt process normally went like this: An accussed witch was first urged to confess. If she refused, she was put to torture.

Amazing that torturing still happens today!

As she was tortured, the inquisitor asked a series of questions, and a clerk took down her answers. The torture continued intermittently - usually for days or weeks - until the accussed confessed.

For this, the torturers were paid from teh victim's funds. Expenses included the costs of torture, the torturer's meals, lodging, entertainment, and travel. The estates of confessed "witches" the heretics were confiscated.

After confession, most victims were condemned to death, though some were released.

It is unclear how many people were killed in the inquisition, but modern historieans often put the number between 40,000 and 200,000, most of whom where women and German.

the inquisition reached its peak in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the same period in which the first English translation of the bible - the King James version - was completed (1611).

The witch bias of the English translators becomes clearer when certain passages of the King James version are compared to the earlier Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, manuscripts which were considered lost and therefore not available at the time the English translation occurred.


So in the end the inquisitor got his answers when the victim couldn't take the torture anymore and just confessed so the pain and agony would stop.

Now tell me who is wrong in this situation?

This is what inquisitors believed with the whole community of people who backed them up.

Witches ate babies
had sex with Satan and animals
kept cats as familiars
cast curses on neighbors
poisoned food and water
ruined crops
blighted cattle
attempted to assassinate priests and kings
drank blood
performed black masses
blasphemed god
desecrated holy objects
called up demons
flew on brooms

Ask yourself in history which religous group actually did this, claimed it to be true, and how they made it believable.

You will be surprised it wasn't the mid-wives.

they've been punnished un-officially since well before the fall of rome in 475, and hunted when there's problems they don't understand, so it could be into the millions at this point, but there was just no record of it.

I could imagine. It is surely a sad part of history that I believe isn't mentioned enough when you think about it. I mean I still see the bias of what mid-wives really represent in todays society. Just look at the cartoons, movies, and other interesting facts.

Actually I find it so interesting that many call themselves witches when in actuality they are doing exactly those practices that Christians claim they would be doing when in reality they didn't in those days. Do you get the drift I am going with this?

It is ironic in many ways when you think about it.

Incidentally, on a side note along these lines, the witch trials/executions in the USA officially only claim that witches were hanged. However, the early colonists did burn one accused witch at the stake. When the woman said, during the burning, that there were angels coming for her and she could see them, the American colonists lost their stomaches for burning witches. They didn't want to know that they were wrongly accusing and murdering a Christian, and after that every accused witch was hanged. I don't know if it was in Salem or another town. Salem, to this day denies that this burning happened, and it is a very obscure reference when a person can find it. I wish I could remember where I saw that. Sorry, historical footnote in obscurity, and a bit off topic.

You are right. It is unfortunately covered up and a very sad part of history.

I will post something from the Salem Witch Trials one day to get a deeper depth of what may have happened.