The Burning Times
What are the Burning Times? If you’ve heard of the Salem witch trials, you already have an idea of what the term means. Unfortunately in the past, many people gave in to the mob mentality that witchcraft was evil. Out of fear, they accused many innocent men and women who was clearly not a witch and sent them to their deaths. The fear spread to hysteria and made its way over Europe and in doing so, countless innocent lives were lost at the stake or gallows.
The frenzy spread to mostly Switzerland, Germany and France and most of the deaths were usually during a time of great political chaos. Though many believe the death toll to be around nine million, the total most likely is between 50,000 and 100,000. Though many supposed witches were hanged or burned alive from the 14th to the 18th century, most were killed from 1550 to 1650. And nearly all of the victims were tried by local, community courts instead of the Church. Also, a surprising amount of the victims were male, amounting to 25%.
Nearly all of the victims had things in common though that led to their ill-fated death. Many of them were midwives, native healers, single women who lived alone and/or owned property, people against whom neighbors had a grudge, practitioners of pagan rituals, people who were accused by other victims under torture and people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Since then, the witch hunts have thankfully died down. Wiccans can now lead a life free from persecution, at least not to the extreme extent. Of course, Wiccans do still need to be careful. The Wicca faith is still a minority and is generally met with scorn and bewilderment. There is still a danger of being physically attacked simply for being Wiccan. For this reason, it is a little more difficult than most to find a Wiccan group. For obvious reasons, they don’t advertise in the Yellow Pages. The best way to find a Wicca group is go to the local earth festival and introduce yourself. From there, you can find safety in numbers and feel free to practice your faith without fear of retribution.
