witchcraft, how far? Options

how far back can someone trace witchcraft? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

im *guessing* all the way 2 achient egypt with the prist there if that wat ur thinking about

You would have to give a definition on what kind of withcraft first.

any witchcarft will do. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Who knows for sure? 5000 years back?

many people believe witchcraft has existed as long as man himself....

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) hmmm i would say since the beginning of time maybe?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wizard.gif) I know for sure. Witchcraft can definitely be traced all the way back to the Stone Age. Read the works of Maria Gimbutas. She wrote several great archaeological texts on the religious beliefs of pre-historical Europe. I think her research goes back to at least say 5,000 or 7,000 B.C. She wrote primarily about a widespread belief in Goddess worship, not witchcraft, but you can make the deduction for yourself. She uses Stone Age art to prove her hypothesis. She is very convincing, and the many statuettes she found of Bird Goddesses and Snake Goddesses are beautiful and fascinating. It doesn't take much guesswork to link her work with later historically documented religious beliefs.

Hail the Gods of Nature!
Anthony (DarkCleric)

This post has been edited by DarkCleric: Jan 28 2005, 01:40 PM

The earliest record of a magical performance is to be found in the "Westcar" papyrus, now resting in the Berlin State Museum. This papyrus, prduced approximately a thousand years after the appearance of the Egyptian magician Dedi, before Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid (c. 2700BC) tells the story of how this magician supposedly 110 years old, traveled to the court of Cheops and then: "He knows how to fasten on a head that has been cut off, and he knows how to make a lion walk behind him with his leash on the ground. And he knows the numbers of the secret chambers in the sanctuary of Thoth. The papyrus is incomplete, but in the translation by Professor Battiscombe Gunn, we read: "Then a goose was brought to him with its head cut off. The goose was placed on the western side of the pillared hall. Then Dedi uttered a magic spell and the goose rose up quivering. And when one had reached the other the goose stood up, cackling. Then he had another goose brought to him, and the same was done to it. Then his Majesty had an ox brought to him, its head being cut off, falling to the ground. And then Dedi uttered a magic spell and the bull stood up lowing."

http://www.myweb.cableone.net/teddc/history.htm

how far back can someone trace witchcraft? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

93

<<how far back can someone trace witchcraft?>>

If, by Witchcraft, you are referring to practices along the lines of low or sympathetic magick, I would hazard a guess that the very first Homo Sapiens practiced Witchcraft. It is in human nature to look for portents and mimic behaviour that seems to produce viable results (just look at the amount of sportspeople who wear "lucky" charms!)

However, if by Witchcraft you are referring to a systematised tradition of magick which has survived fairly intact, then I would hazard 50 or so years (IMG:style_emoticons/default/witch.gif)

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Todd

nice very nice (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

i agree with dark cleric. i was going to say 8000 bce and for some of the same reasons.

If you want to believe in mythology Witchcraft goes back since creation.
From archeological and anthroplogical research it started with the first humans on earth (probably in Africa somewhere) with shamanism. From there people migrated all over the earth, carrying witchcraft beliefs with them.

Trace an unbroken line of witchcraft practice? or find the earliest evidene of practices similar to today's definition of witchcraft?

How old is Wicca or what is practiced in modern paganism? Look up the name Gerald Gardener that will answer your question.

Arcangle You have opened up a can of worms when you brought Gardner into this. Gerald Gardner probably was initiated into the New Forest Coven in 1939. Philip Hesselton is probably the best informed writer on this period and in his last two books he explains that to the best of anyone's knowledge Gardner was initiated in 1939 and there was a New Forest Coven which contained three or more family trad members. That is the short answer.
But early Gardnerian history is clouded and controversial. For some years it was claimed that Gardner was the successor in an unbroken line of pagan priests/esses that stretched back to the stone age. Now that claim isn't taken seriously. But he was initiated into a group of magic workers (who probably didn't think of themselves as witches) and was taught a skeletal framework for working magic. Also supposedly, the New Forest Coven was one of George Pickensgill's nine covens. George Pickingsgill was probably the last of the traditional cunning men. Bill Liddell, a grand nephew of Pickingsgill is the author of a book called the Pickingsgill Papers. He made many claims in the book which are disputed and some of which he himself knows now were mistakes. I'm on another forum in which he is giving his side of things in an ongoing thread. There are a number of books out which deal with these issues with varying successes and people will have to make up their own minds on what to believe. But we seem to be closer to the truth now than we were 20 or even five years ago.

This post has been edited by Goibniu: Aug 30 2006, 09:03 PM