Re: VMs: What do you think about Eight?

[Pamela Richards <spirlhelix@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, Nick and All

Yes, the witches (or so they would have been known in
RII's day) had those midseason celebrations.  I had
forgotten that entirely.

One thing that concerns me about bringing witchcraft
into the VMs is that witches were notoriously believed
to oppose the powers of Kings; a King employing
witchcraft, therefore, would be oxymoronic.
King James (IV of Scotland, later I of England, of
King James Bible fame) is a good example of a royal
reaction to witchcraft: in 1597 he published a
treatise with the hopes of alerting his subjects to
the dangers of witchcraft and forcibly ending the
works of witches in entitled _Daemonologie_.  

Kings were thought to rule by divine right, a
God-given supernatural power.  Witches also had access
to supernatural powers, which were said to come from
the Devil or evil spirits and were presumed to work in
opposition to divine decree or royal authority. 

Anyone in the King's court (such as an astrologer)
found with items of witchcraft or suspected of
performing witchcraft was in deep trouble, regardless
of what they claimed to intend by it.  The powers they
were calling on were opposed to the King by nature;
such an act would be considered treason.

The Malleus Maleficarum was first published in Germany
in 1486, inciting panic and resulting in highly
effective "witch hunts" throughout continental Europe.
 

So I think it's unlikely from a historical/social
perspective that anyone had the termerity to attempt
to introduce RII to witchcraft.

Warmly,

Pam

--- Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> At 00:35 25/08/2004 -0700, Dana Scott wrote:
> >I find the "Wheel of the Year" to be of interest. 
> It appears to tie a
> >number of aspects seen in the VMS together.
> 
> Fascinating - historically, though, it seems to be
> closely tied in with 
> Neopaganism, which is, what, mid-19th Century
> onwards or so?
> 
> Now, if there was any evidence linking an
> eight-Sabbat Wheel of the Year 
> with (for example) stregheria, that *would* be
> interesting...
> 
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 
> 
> 
>
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=====
"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing, than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."


	
		
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