Witches, Those Popular Halloween Symbols
When one hears the word witch it typically brings to our mind green-skinned old hags hovering over a big iron black cauldron filled with disgusting ingredients, chanting some sort of spell and worshipping the devil.
Fairy tales and Hollywood movies are mostly responsible for such false propaganda only because the film is more exciting.
Witches are also generally associated with Halloween. But what are witches in reality? Let’s find out…
Basically, the term “witch” originates from the words wicca, wicce or wiccian; which all actually stand for ‘wise woman’, ‘wise women in the plural form. There always have been people interested in learning the special virtues of medicinal plants, the course of the moon, stars and other planets, and by many other aspects of the nature.
Witches are normally active members of the Wicca, a well-known earth-based religion however many other people, that can be also called witches, are not followers of this specific religion. The majority of these people practice a mishmash of ancient pagan rituals. These rituals existed a long time before the advent of Christianity whose originated the term “witch” and launched the idea that those who lived under the cycles of nature were worshipping the church of Satan.
It was the Catholic religion which established the concept of Satan or a demon. Until the Catholic church came on the scene there was no concept of Satan or a demon. In reality, the term “pagan” itself stands for “people of the country” – not devil worshippers.
Men can be witches also, but the term is more related to women. Hollywood, by the need of profitability and probably machismo, has also led people to the wrong idea that
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