RELS 161 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Ponte Milvio, Wicca, Coven
7 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Witch craze- 16th- mid 18th centuries ce in europe. Women accused of being witches were interrogated, went through physical trials, etc. Reclaiming/revitalizing / renewing and killed if they were found guilty thesis: witches were really practicing pre-christian paganism. Witch-cult hypothesis fertility rites linked to goddess/ mother earth gaia- greek goddess who, with ouranos created the olympian gods thesis: originally, religion was goddess centered and only eventually became god centered. Opposed to then-dominant rationalist interpretation: withcraft as complete delusion. Widely rejected by mainstream academics since 1970s. Murray was an egyptologist and not an expert on arcaic and medieval europe. Hypothesis ignores historical records of witch trials: confessions involving supernatural events (flying) explained away. Little to no evidence of cohesive pre-christian cult. Maximal witch-cult thesis vs incomplete christianization of europe thesis. Yet the witch cult hypothesis has been influential for neo-paganism and for wicca. Modern wicca developed and popularized by gerald gardner/scire (1884-1964) Moved to new forest in the south of england.
