Origin Of Witchcraft

Witchcraft originated with the human civilization itself.
The fear of the unknown and its imagined role in making our

Christianity.
A Craft of the Wise

day to day life easy or difficult, created witches and their
craft. Even though witchcraft as such was practiced mainly

In the ancient times, Witchcraft was known as ‘craft of

by experienced and old women, men also practiced it. Witches
were the mediators between the human beings and the

the wise’ as the wise persons were those who followed the
path of nature and were in tune with its forces, had the

mysterious super powers such as spirits and angels. When a
witch succeeded in resolving the apparently mysterious

knowledge of herbs and medicines, gave wise counsel and were
held in high esteem as Shamanic healers and leaders in the

problem of someone, the performance was termed as magic, a
process that could not be easily explained away through any

village and community. They understood that nature was
superior to human beings and that human beings were simply

logical analysis. The witches prayed to the higher powers or
the spirits for help and guidance in resolving the problem

one of the many parts of nature, both seen and unseen that
combine to form one whole. As Chief Seattle said, “We do

not own the earth; we are a part of it.” They understood
that what we take from nature or use, we must return in kind

Witchcraft, an earth based religion, was practiced in almost

to maintain the balance and equilibrium. The modern man has,
however, forgotten this and has paid the price in form of

all the societies and cultures across the world according to
local beliefs and traditions.

many ecological and environmental disasters.
Modern day Witchcraft

According to scholars of witchcraft, it was a belief system

Unfortunately for the past several hundred years the image

whose origin predates the majority of well known religions
on this earth. It dates 40,000 years back to Paleolithic

of the witch has been associated with the evil, heathenism
and unrighteousness due to prejudices created by the

period. It has been evolving since then and its present form
is quite different from what it was a thousand or five

Christian church. Of late people have started understanding
and practicing witchcraft as the true religion of God and

thousand years back. It did not probably have this name as
well. Even different covens perform the witchcraft

Nature. There is renewed interest in witchcraft and witches
profess to believe and practice the witchcraft with a sense

differently.
Archeological Discoveries

of pride and confidence. The believers in New Age movement
have understood witchcraft in its true perspective.

Archeological discoveries have revealed that people

Modern witchcraft attracts believers from all walks of life

worshipped hunter god and fertility goddess during the
Paleolithic period. This has been proved by the discovery of

and positions in society all over the world. They come
together to understand the life, nature, evolution and

cave paintings which are estimated to be 30,000 years old.
There is a painting that depicts a man with the head of a

mysteries of the universe through witchcraft. Witchcraft is
the most democratic religion in the world. There is no rigid

stag. In yet another painting, there is a pregnant woman
standing in a circle with eleven other people. These relics

dogma and no hard-line regime except for a simple premise
that we should not sow the seeds of evil if we want to reap

go to prove that witchcraft is one of the oldest religions
in the world. Wiccan view of God and Goddess aspect of the

the evil fruit multifold and secondly that we should not
misuse the munificence of nature by disturbing its balance.