Author: A Solitary Pagan
Good, Dorcas (17th century)
The youngest victim of the Salem Witches hysteria of 1692–93. Dorcas Good was the daughter of Sarah Good, one of the first persons to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Only four years old, Dorcas was also accused of being a witch. In a childlike fashion, she readily confessed to witchcraft, which she said she learned from her mother. Dorcas was arrested about a month after...
Burning Times
A term used by Witches and Pagans to refer to the period in Western history of intense witch-hunting and executions, generally the mid-15th to mid18th centuries. Burning, one of the most extreme forms of execution, was urged by St. Augustine (354–430), who said that pagans, Jews, and heretics would burn forever in the eternal fire with the Devil unless saved by the Catholic Church. During the Inqu...
Bodin, Jean (1529–1596)
Bodin, Jean (1529–1596) French demonologist and political theorist who encouraged the vicious persecution of witches and helped fan the fires of the Inquisition throughout Europe. Jean Bodin said that people who denied the existence of witchcraft were witches themselves and said that, with rare exceptions, no accused witch should go unpunished. Bodin was born in Angers, France. For a time, he serv...
Bishop, Bridget (d. 1692)
Bridget (d. 1692) The first victim of the Salem Witches hysteria in Massachusetts in 1692–93. Bridget Bishop was the first to be accused and examined, and the first to be tried and executed. Bishop was an easy target when the hysteria began. She was not well regarded by her neighbors, for she owned a tavern and exhibited “loose” behavior. She dressed provocatively, and some of her younger tavern p...
Women who Burned
“It was not witches who burned. It was women. Women who were seen as Too beautiful Too outspoken Had too much water in the well Who had a birthmark Women who were too skilled with herbal medicine Too loud Too quiet Too much red in her hair Women who had a strong nature connection Women who danced Women who sung or anything else, really. Sisters testified and turned on each other when their babies ...
Burning at the Stake as a Punishment for Witches
Contrary to popular belief, witches were not burned at the stake in England, after the Reformation. Instead, death sentences were carried out by hanging. In Scotland, however, the sentence of burning was still inflicted. However if the witches had confessed what they were ordered to confess, they were accorded the mercy of being strangled before being burnt. If they refused to confess, they were b...
The Persecution Of Witches
In medieval times, there were possibly many issues, political, religious, and otherwise, that brought about the persecution of witches. Amongst other things, These issues included the religious emphasis on the sin of Eve and the belief in the inferiority of women. The belief in the inferiority of women had existed since the time of St Paul. With the rise of an organized male medical profession, wo...
Witchcraft Theory & Practice – Solstice and Equinox
The Wheel of Solstice and Equinox is as follows: Winter Solstice (known as Yule); to Spring Equinox (known as Ostara); to Summer Solstice (known as Litha); thence to Autumn Equinox (known as Mabon). This is the Solar/Earth Wheel. We ritually acknowledge the solstice and equinoctial processions to align ourselves with these cycles, both personally and environmentally. The mythological symbolism is ...
Problems with the Climate
Are you troubled about traipsing through the chill of the night? Do you get singed in the sun or think an icy downpour is a downer? Witchcarft is a spiritual tradition that includes many practices that bring the practitioner into direct contact with nature. It seeks to harmonize the Witch with life as it is happening in this very moment. To be a person of magical power, one embraces the entire arr...
Weather Magick
Witches were once believed to be able to raise the wind at their pleasure. In a confession made at Auldearn in Nairnshire in the year 1662, certain women accused of sorcery said, “When we raise the wind, we take a rag of cloth and wet it in water, and we take a beetle and knock the rag on a stone, and we say thrice over”: I knock this rag upon this stane,To raise the wind in the devil’s name.It sh...
Weather Lore
The local Wise Woman or Cunning Man would have a pretty good grasp on predicting the weather. So would local farmers, if they paid attention to their landscape, which, given it was their livelihood. Get to know the weather patterns in your area, and make notes so that you can compare year upon year. Build up your own little system, as well as research meteorology. Here is some weather lore that ap...
Visualization in Witchcraft
Proficiency in visualization is most important to all occult training. The receptacle of the imagination is integral to the processes of creation. Change through intent begins with inspiration, passing through the realm of the imagination, This can be manipulated by the emotions of enthusiasm, desire, empathy, and compatibility and is transformed into a manifest outcome according to the proficienc...