Weve come a long way since the times of the witch trials. I for one Im very upset about the cruel way that women were being treated for being accused of witches because they used homeopathic medicine.
Even now a lot of people fear and avoid anything that has to do with wicca because they immediately assume that wiccans are devil worshipers, and even though a lot of wiccans do deal in the black arts, there are those who use magic for good and not to harm.
But dont regular people do evil thing every day too?
In the old days women were killed by hanging by the neck, by throwing them into the water with their hands and feet tied up, if they escaped they were witches, if they didnt they werent but they would have drowned by then, by burning them on a stake in front of the whole town to serve as an example for all other witches. Women werent allowed to read, study or educate themselves because knowledge to women was the work of the devil.
Just how stupid and closed minded did those men and women have to be to believe that knowledge was the work of the devil?
In my opinion, those people were afraid that if women educated themselves they wouldnt need them anymore and would be independent.
I am very glad that those barbaric times are over and that magic is more accepted in society. We still have a log way to go but people are realizing that all of us have magic within if only we look hard enough.
I think the "magic within" is just energy manipulation, but that is my opinion.
Women were subject to much scrutiny because the men, of the time, wanted to control the women and keep power for themselves. The whole witch trial occurrence was another excuse to exercise control over the populous of the secluded faith. By breeding fear, the powers that be tightened their control over all who followed them.