Zakoni o vještičarstvu i kraj progona

Za koji dan (tj. 22. lipnja) će biti šezdeset i druga godišnjica kraja službenih progona vještica! :D mislila sam da će biti prikladno reći nešto o događajima koji su doveli do ovoga jer, kao što znate, vještice su bile proganjane stoljećima. Za službeni početak progona se može uzeti 1484.g. kada je Papa Inocent VIII izdao svoju bulu kojom se izjasnio da podržava progone vještica. Dvije godine kasnije je napisana poznata knjiga Malleus Maleficarum koja će poslužiti kao vrsta priručnika za lovce na vještice. 

U ovom bih se postu ipak htjela bazirati na Englesku pošto se Zakoni o vještičarstvu prvenstveno odnose na ono što se zbivalo u njoj, a ne toliko na kontinentu. Oni su za wiccu važni jer je njihovo povlačenje omogućilo "javno" tj. slobodnije prakticiranje vještičarstva u dvadesetom stoljeću. Među ljudima kojima je ovo olakšalo život je svakako spadao Gerald Gardner (osnivač wicce) koji je do tada morao svoja vjerovanja držati u tajnosti i objavljivati knjige pod pseudonimima, ili pak pod krinkom romana.

Portret kraljice Elizabete I

Godina s kojom bih započela ovu priču je 1547. kada je engleski kralj Edvard VI (vlada 1547.-53.g.) povukao Zakon o vješticama iz 1541.g. kojeg je uveo njegov otac, Hernik VIII (vladao od 1509.-47.g.). Ovo je, dakle, bio prvi Zakon o vješticama.

Godine 1562./63. (ovisno o izvorima), ovaj je zakon ponovno uveden "zahvaljujući" kraljici Elizabeti I, kćeri Henrika VIII (1558.-1603.g.). Odnosno, sada već pričamo o drugom Zakonu o vješticama. On je bio dosta blag naspram prijašnjim kaznama. Za osobu kojoj je to bio prvi prestup, kazna je bila postavljanje na stup srama, ako bi osoba bila optužena tri puta za isto krivično djelo, onda bi bila smaknuta. Progoni su u Engleskoj bili najokrutniji za vrijeme njezine vladavine, iako nikada nisu bili toliko oštri kao na kontinentu jer je mučenje bilo zabranjeno u Engleskoj. Na kontinentu je mučenje bilo sastavni dio svakog priznanja za praktički bilo koje krivično djelo, a pogotovo za bavljenje vještičarstvom. 

No, jedna knjiga smiruje situaciju - The Discoverie of Witchcraft (prevedeno Otkrivanje vještičarstva) čiji je autor bio Reginald Scot. Ona je bila među prvim djelima koja je zauzela racionalni stav i ljude navela da posumnjaju u svoja praznovjerna poimanja vještičarstva. Ona ipak nije zaživjela dugo jer je njezino spaljivanje naredio Jakov VI, kralj Škotske koji je postao engleskim kraljem 1603.g. i imenovao se kraljem Jakovom I od Engleske. Njegova majka, Marija I, kraljica Škotske, je zagovarala smrtne kazne vješticama i provodila svoje ideje u djelo ubijajući oko 200 vještica godišnje u Škotskoj. On je majčine zamisli očito preuzeo i imao ih na umu kada je dao spaliti sve kopije ove knjige. Isti taj Jakov je objavio traktat o demonologiji i vještičarstvu, nakon čega je postao pokrovitelj lovcima na vještice.

Portret kralja Jakova I
engleskog

Sljedeći tj. treći Zakon o vješticama je stupio na snagu već 1604.g. (samo godinu dana nakon što je Jakov I. došao na vlast). Smatra se da je godišnji broj ubijenih vještica bio 500 tijekom prvih osamdeset godina sedamnaestog stoljeća. Uzmite u obzir da i dalje govorimo samo o Engleskoj, što znači da ova brojka ne uključuje broj ubijenih na kontinentu!

S vremenom su ljudi počeli sve manje i manje vjerovati u istinitost svih negativnih tvrdnji o vješticama, a pomalo i sumnjati u njihovo postojanje. Ipak su postojali neki pojedinci poput Josepha Glanvila koji su htjeli ljude uvjeriti u to da one postoje i da svima pakoste. On je te svoje ideje iznio u knjizi Sadducismus Triumphatus. Dokaz o ovoj nevjerici je suđenje Jane Wenharn iz 1711. godine. Ova je žena bila optužena za vještičarstvo, ali ju je sudac oslobodio optužbe. Ovaj se slučaj uzima za posljednje suđenje vještičarstva u Engleskoj.

Portret kralja Juraja II

Na vlast uskoro dolazi kralj Juraj II (1727.-60.g.) za čije je vlasti izdan četvrti Zakon o vješticama (1735.g.). No, ovaj je bio nešto drukčiji od prethodnih. Sva dotadašnja sumnja u postojanje vještica je akumulirala u ovom događaju jer ovaj zakon kaže da vještice zaista ne postoje i da se stoga nikoga ne može kazniti na temelju toga, ali da se sada može suditi ljudima kao varalicama jer to očito jesu ako glume da su vještice.

Ljudi su se malo po malo uozbiljili po pitanju vještičarstva. Dokaz ovoga je djelo Del Congresso Nottorno delle Lammie (O noćnim sastancima vještica) čiji je autor Girolamo Tartarotti. Ova knjiga je bila revolucionarna jer je prva sagledala vještičarstvo kao tradiciju. Tartarotti tvrdi da su vještice zapravo sljedbenice drevnog Dijaninog kulta, iako je malo pokvario dojam o vješticama povezavši ovaj kult sa nekim pravcima ceremonijalne magike koja se bavila, kako on kaže, prizivanjem demona.

Prikaz "Rogatog Boga" u spilji
Les Trois Frères u Francuskoj

Tako su se stvari nastavile razvijati da bi se do 1848. godine u potpunosti razvio moderni spiritualizam. Allan Kardec je 1857.g. upoznao zapadni svijet sa pojmom reinkarnacije, a u sljedećem stoljeću se na scenu pojavila dr. Margaret Alice Murray, koja vam je do sada vjerojatno već poznata ako ste čitali moj blog. Objavila je nekoliko knjiga 1921.g.: The Witch Cult in Western Europe (Vještičji kult u zapadnoj Europi) i The God of the Witches (Bog vještica). Ove su knjige, na neki način, naslijedile Tartarottijevu knjigu u smislu da tvrde da vještice nisu nešto novo, ali ne povezuju vještičarstvo sa demonima na ikoji način. Margaret Murray u njima tvrdi da je vještičarstvo ostatak drevnih europskih paganskih religija te da je Rogati Bog kojeg se štuje zapravo najstariji prikaz božanstva uopće u povijesti čovječanstva. To jest, ona ga poistovjećuje sa rogatim bićima prikazanima na spiljskim crtežima. Ako vas zanima više o ovoj tematici možete pogledati jedan zanimljiv članak po nazivu "Psiho-antropologijsko jedinstvo Sapiensa" koji se bavi prikazima poput ovih u spilji Les Trois Frères. 

Dakle, sve ovo vrijeme je Zakon o vješticama i dalje na snazi, makar je sve nekako pritajeno. Vještice se ne spominju baš toliko, nema nikakvih kažnjavanja ni suđenja jer je društvo postalo u potpunosti skeptično po tom pitanju i uspjelo zaboraviti na sve tragedije koje su se dogodile tijekom stoljeća. No, morao se pojaviti netko tko će ih podsjetiti, a to je bio Gerald Gardner koji je 1949.g. objavio knjigu High Magic's Aid (Pomoć visoke magije) pod pseudonimom Scire. Kako bi izbjegao kršenje ikakvih zakona i suđenje uopće, ogradio se pseudonimom i time što je knjigu zamaskirao kao roman makar se u njoj nalaze potpune instrukcije za izvođenje nekih rituala koji se i dan danas prakticiraju u wicci. Kao primjer bih uzela ovaj citat iz knjige koji opisuje dio procedure otvaranja kruga. Ne bih ga htjela prevoditi jer će samo uništiti cjelokupni dojam, pa se nadam da razumijete engleski koliko-toliko :)

"Upon the altar-table lay the athame, the magic sword, the burin and the sprinkler, also materials for their work; four iron discs, two-and-a-half inches in diameter, already purified by fire, had been prepared previously. There were writing materials, lengths of cord, some black cloths and a scourge, laid ready. Before the bench were two stools. The inner circle, seven feet in diameter ... was already drawn on the floor; surrounding it was a double circle eight feet in diameter, with names of . power between the two. Thur took the magic sword and retraced all the markings with its point, for the painted circle has no power of protection, which comes from power of the magic sword or the athame. It but serves as a guide to the latter, to ensure they draw the circle perfectly."

Gerald Gardner, isječak iz intervjua

Dvije godine nakon objavljivanja ove knjige (dakle 1951.g.) je došao trenutak kojeg su sve vještice čekale! Povučen je Zakon o vješticama iz 1735.g.! Na njegovo mjesto je došao Zakon o neovlaštenim medijima (eng. Fraudulent Mediums Act). Kada kažem "medij" mislim na osobu koja prenosi poruke između ovog i drugih svjetova. Naime, ovaj je zakon priznao mogućnost predviđanja budućnosti, duhovne komunikacije, psihičkih moći i svega što ide uz to, ali je svjestan da te "moći" ne posjeduje svatko. Smo one osobe koje su glumile da ih posjeduju su trebale biti kažnjene, a bilo bi im još gore ako su tražili novac za svoje usluge. Gardner je sada bio slobodan objavljivati knjige pod pravim imenom, što je i napravio 1954.g. sa svojim djelom Witchcraft Today (Vještičarstvo danas). Ovo je bila prva knjiga koja opisuje tko vještice zaista jesu i što rade, a ono što je rečeno u njoj je autentično jer je Gardner prepričavao svoja vlastita iskustva.

Sada znate zbog čega mi danas možemo tako slobodno prakticirati svoja uvjerenja, makar su drukčija od tuđih. Ja sam zahvalna svim nevinim dušama koje su umrle prije mnogo godina i žrtvovale se za svoja uvjerenja, a žalim za onima koji su krivo "optuženi". Nadam se da ćete uzeti barem minutu vremena 22. lipnja i razmisliti o slobodi koju imate, o svim ovim ljudima i promisliti što za vas znači sloboda mišljenja, uvjerenja i djelovanja.

Ako vas ova tematika dodatno interesira, možete pročitati sljedeće knjige u kojima ćete naći nešto više podataka:
Marion Gibson - Witchcraft and Society in England and America (Vještičarstvo i društvo u Engleskoj i Americi)
Gerald Gardner - The Meaning of Witchcraft (Značenje vještičarstva)
Raymond Buckland - The Witch Book; the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca and Neopaganism (Vještičja knjiga; enciklopedija vještičarstva, wicce i neopaganizma)

Uživajte u sljedećih nekoliko dana! Sutra (21. lipnja) je ljetni suncostaj tj. Litha, a 22. lipnja je ne samo godišnjica kraja progona nego i noć punog mjeseca, dakle vrijeme je za ezbat! Makar je i ovaj puni Mjesec poseban jer će Mjesec biti najbliži Zemlji i stoga najveći puni Mjesec u cijeloj ovoj godini! Neki ga nazivaju "super Mjesec", makar je stručni naziv za ovu fazu perigej (eng. perigee) Mjeseca.

Pokupite energije za nadolazeće dane, a ja ću vam opet pisati uskoro. :)

Do sljedećeg posta,
vaša Witch's Cat

The Witchcraft Acts and the End of the Witch-Hunts

In a few days (or more precisely on June 22nd), it will be the sixty-second anniversary of the official end of the witch persecutions! :D I thought it would be appropriate to say a word or two about how they even came to be because, as you know, Witches were hunted down for centuries. We can take the year 1484 as the official beginning of the persecutions because it was in this year that Pope Innocent VIII delivered his bull in which he clearly stated that he supports witch hunts. Two years later, the famous book entitled Malleus Maleficarum was published. It turned out to be quite important since it was used for a long time as a sort of witch hunters' manual.

Though, in this post, I would prefer to stick to England since the Witchcraft Acts primarily tell us what happened there and no so much about what was happening on the continent. They are important to Wicca because after they were repealed, it was possible to "publically", or better said freely practice witchcraft in the twentieth century. Among the people whose life was made easier when this happened was Gerald Gardner (the founder of Wicca) who, up to that point, had to keep his beliefs a secret and publish books under pen names and under the guise of novels. 

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I

The year with which I would like to begin our story is 1547 when King Edward VI (reigned 1547-53) repealed the Witchcraft Act from 1541 which his father, King Henry VIII (reigned 1509-47), had passed. This was, therefore, the first Witchcraft Act. 

In 1562/63 (depending on the source), this Act was reinstated "thanks to" Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603), who just so happened to be Henry VIII's daughter. This was the second Witchcraft Act. Now, this Act was quite mild in comparison to previous regimes. For a person who was a first-time offender, the sentence was only being put on the pillar of shame. But if a person were to be accused of the same crime three times, they would have been put to death. The persecutions in England are thought to be the most gruesome during her reign, although they were, as I said, mild compared to what was going on on the continent because torture was illegal in England at that time. On the continent, torture was a normal part of any confession for practically any felony, and especially for dabbling in witchcraft.

But then came one book which calmed the situation down - The Discoverie of Witchcraft whose author is Reginald Scot. It was among the first works which took on a rational attitude lead people to question their superstitious notions of witchcraft. Though it didn't have a long reputation since King James IV of Scotland (who became the king of England in 1603 and took on the title of James I of England) ordered every copy to be burnt. His mother, Mary, Queen of Scots was all for death penalties for Witches and realized her ideas by killing about 200 Witches per year (in Scotland that is). His mother's ideas influenced him and obviously had them in mind when he gave out the aforementioned order. That same James wrote a treatise on demonology and witchcraft, after which he became the patron to witch hunters.

A portrait of King James I

The next, or rather the third Witchcraft Act already came into force in 1604 (only one year after King James I succeeded the throne). It is thought that the annual number of killed Witches was about 500 during the first eighty years of the seventeenth century. But keep in mind that we're still talking about England alone, which means that this number doesn't include the number of victims on the continent!

In time, people started believing less and less in the verity of all the negative allegations regarding Witches, but they also started doubting their existence. Though there were a few individuals such as Joseph Glanvil who tried to prove to people that Witches really did exist and that they were malicious. He wrote these ideas in his book entitled Sadducismus Triumphatus. Proof of this disbelief is the trial of Jane Wenharn from 1711. This woman was accused of witchcraft, but the judge acquitted her of all claims. This case is thought to be the last witchcraft trial in England.

A portrait of King George II

Soon enough, George II succeeded the throne (reigned 1727-60). It was during his reign that the fourth Witchcraft Act was passed (1735). But this one was different from the previous ones. All the accumulated suspicion in the existence of Witches reached its peak in this historical moment because this Act stated that Witches in fact do not exist and therefore, no one can be punished for being a Witch. Although, people could be trialed as charlatans because that's the only thing they could be if they were pretending to be a Witch.

Little by little, people got a bit more serious about witchcraft. Proof of this is the book Del Congresso Nottorno delle Lammie (On the Nocturnal Meetings of Witches) whose author is Girolamo Tartarotti. This book was revolutionary because it was the first one ever to look at witchcraft as a tradition. What Tartarotti claimed in his work was that Witches are actually descendants of an ancient cult of the goddess Diana, but he managed to ruin this compliment by connecting this cult to some branches of ceremonial magick which, as he claims, dabbled in invoking demons.

A depiction of the "Horned God" in the
cave of the Trois Frères, France

The situation continued to progress and by 1848, Modern Spiritualism was born and already on its feet. Allan Kardec introduced the western world to the concept of reincarnation in 1857 and in the next century, Dr. Margaret Alice Murray came onto the scene (who is probably familiar to you if you have read some of my previous posts on the blog). She published several books in 1921: The Witch Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches. In a  way, these books are the descendants of Tartarotti's work in the sense that they claim that Witches aren't something new, but they, on the other hand, don't connect Witches to demons in any way. In these two books, Margaret Murray claims that witchcraft is a remainder of ancient European Pagan religions and that the Horned God, who Witches worship, was the first God to be depicted in the history of humankind. That is, she identifies him with the horned entities depicted in cave drawings. If you want to learn more about this subject, then I recommend you read an interesting article entitled "The Psycho-Anthropological Unity of Sapiens" which deals with depictions such as those in the cave of the Trois Frères.

Don't forget that the last witchcraft Act is still effect all this time, even though it's all hush hush. Witches aren't mentioned all that much, there aren't any trials or punishments because society became much too skeptical when it came to Witches and managed to forget all about the tragedies that had happened throughout the centuries. But someone had to remind them, and that someone was Gerald Gardner who published a book entitled High Magic's Aid in 1949 under the pseudonym of Scire. In order to avoid breaking any laws or trials, he covered his real name up with this pen name and he wrote the book as if it were a novel, even though it contains complete instructions for carrying out some rituals which are practiced to this day in Wicca. As an example of this, I would like to take a quote form this book in which the procedure of opening the circle is described.

"Upon the altar-table lay the athame, the magic sword, the burin and the sprinkler, also materials for their work; four iron discs, two-and-a-half inches in diameter, already purified by fire, had been prepared previously. There were writing materials, lengths of cord, some black cloths and a scourge, laid ready. Before the bench were two stools. The inner circle, seven feet in diameter ... was already drawn on the floor; surrounding it was a double circle eight feet in diameter, with names of power between the two. Thur took the magic sword and retraced all the markings with its point, for the painted circle has no power of protection, which comes from power of the magic sword or the athame. It but serves as a guide to the latter, to ensure they draw the circle perfectly."

Gerald Gardner, a clip from an interview

Two years after this book was published (that would be 1951), the moment all Witches had been waiting for finally came! The Witchcraft Act from 1735 was repealed! In its place came the Fraudulent Mediums Act. The word "medium" in this phrase refers to a person who conveys messages between this world and other worlds. To elaborate, this law actually acknowledged the ability to see into the future, spiritual communication, psychic powers and everything else that goes with this, but it was aware that not everyone possesses these "powers". Only the people to pretended to possess them had to be punished and it was all the worse if they charged a fee for their services. Gardner was now free to publish books under his real name, and he did so in 1954 with his work Witchcraft Today. This was the first book which described who Witches really are and what they do and what is said in it is authentic because Gardner himself simply wrote down his own experiences in it.

Now you know how it is that we can practice our beliefs so freely today, even though they may be different. I for one am grateful to all those souls who died so many years ago and sacrificed themselves for their beliefs. I also mourn those that were wrongly "accused". I hope that you will take at least a minute of your time on June 22 and think about the freedom you have, about all these people and meditate on what freedom of thought, beliefs and action means to you.

It this topic has intrigued you and you want to read more, you can read the following books in which you can find more information:
Marion Gibson - Witchcraft and Society in England and America 
Gerald Gardner - The Meaning of Witchcraft 
Raymond Buckland - The Witch Book; the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca and Neopaganism

Enjoy the next few days! Tomorrow (June 21) is the summer solstice and June 22 isn't just the anniversary of the end of the witch trials but also a night of the full moon. So, time for an Esbat! Although this full moon isn't just any full moon; on this night it will be closest to Earth and thus the largest full moon in all of 2013! Some call it a "super moon" but the official term for this moon phase would be a perigee moon.

Gather your energy for the next few days and I'll write to you again soon. :)

Until next time. Yours,
Witch's Cat