“Witches do not kiss the Devil’s posterior, first, because they never kiss anyone’s posterior and secondly, because the Devil is never there for anyone to kiss.

I cannot make it any clearer than that, can I?

As I have said, there is no pact with the Devil or with anyone else. This, I think, rose from the Faust type of legend which may have been coined by clerics to frighten people from thinking of engaging in magical practices or to explain why people who performed magical experiments of the more or less permitted Key of Solomon type, without using a medium, usually did not succeed.. When his time came he prayed to the particular saint, who called up the Devil and by force or trickery got the pact back. The sorcerer then promptly gave all the profits of his sorcery to the saint’s shrine and died in an odor of sanctity. (Note : A classic example of this is the case of Eliphas Levi, who died a repentant Catholic after years of attacking real Pagans with his form of patriarchal, Christian-oriented sorcery)

These stories were usually fabricated in order to boost the power of some saint and were to the effect that a sorcerer, after years of failure, had made a pact with the Devil, selling his soul for so many years of wealth and power. The story of these pacts is rather naïve, but there was a belief in them, and Grimoires, textbooks of black magic, were printed, professing to tell one how to raise the Devil and conclude a pact with him, and at the same time trick him…..They seemed to actually have thought that the Devil was too simple or too ignorant to buy the book and read it himself.

I suppose these books were sold to the type of people who believe nowadays in sixpenny fortune telling pamphlets; they were made to sell, and the most famous of them all was the Grimoire of Pope Honorious.

It may be argued that many witches confessed to signing pacts. Of course they did, and so would I if I were tortured long enough.

Recent experiments by the Nazis have proved that people can be made to say anything under torture. By confessing to dealings with this Devil they were quickly condemned and burnt, but they avoided giving away essentials. They confessed to using charms to gain good harvests, without mentioning the methods used, and always delighted in telling of the joyous side, which was (and is) anathema to the Religious.

They believed in gods whom were not all-powerful. They wished humans well, and desired fertility for man and beast and crops, but to attain this end they needed people’s help. Dances and other rites gave this help.

These rites were based on sympathetic magic, the idea that like attracts like, and also that ‘what gives pleasure to man, gives pleasure to the gods’.

Possibly they thought that the gods could fell man’s pleasure. There was also the idea that the gods loved man and were pleased when he was happy, as opposed to the idea that god is an angry god who hates us to be happy…

…I remember, o fire,

How thy flames once enkindled my flesh,

Among writhing witches caught close in thy flame,

Now tortured for having beheld what is secret.

But to those who saw what we had seen

Yea, the fire was nought.

Ah well I remember the buildings ablaze

With the light that our bodies had lit.

And we smiled, to behold the flames wind about us,

To the faithful, among the faithless and blind.

To the chanting of prayers

In the frenzy of the flame

We sang hosannas to Thee, our Goddess,

Midst the strength giving fire,

Pledged our love to Thee from the fire.

XXX

The Glorious Christian legacy of the God of Love and the body the Church.

In the era of terror, just after the disastrous Children’s Crusade, Pope Innocent 3^rd made surgery a crime. He denounced the old pre-Christian faith as heresy and witchcraft and set the Inquisition to crush it.

About nine million people suffered death by torture.

The Dominicans, founded by St Dominic, a devoted ascetic who whipped himself three times daily and used to pluck birds alive, were put in charge of the persecutions, and they spread the story of a conspiracy against Christ.

It is often said that witches have confessed to the most abominable crimes.This is quite true, yet it must be remembered why they did so.

Paul Carus in The History of the Devil p323(Archives of the International Folklore Association), calls the Malleus Maleficorum, or Witch Hammer, the most infamous work ever written.It advocates beginning a trial with the question, ’whether or not the person on trial believes in witchcraft’, and adds: ’mind that witches generally deny the question’.  If the culprit denies, then the inquisitor continues: ‘well, then, whenever witches are burnt, they are innocently condemned.’

A denial of witchcraft sealed the doom of the accused at once, for, according to the Witch- Hammer, ‘the greatest heresy is not to believe in witchcraft’.

However, if the accused affirmed the question, torture made her confess. To plead ignorance was of no avail,for the refusal of a confession was counted as a crime under the name maleficium taciturnitatis.

There was no escape, and the best course for a victim on the rack was to confess all at once without a relapse into denials, for that at least abbreviated the procedure.

According to page 330, ‘before the torture began, the accused was forced to drink the witch-broth, a disgusting concoction mixed with the ashes of burnt witches, and supposed to protect the torturers against the evil influence of witchcraft.’

The filth (carceris squaloris) of the dungeons was used. The same page tells of the torture applied to a woman in the year 1631 on the first day of her trial.. Unfortunately he does not give the place,or whether it was by the Inquisition or the Reformed Church,but this is a translation by Koenig, Ausgeburten des Menschen-wahns, p130; also Soldan, Hexenprocesse, p269-270.

‘1) The hangman binds the woman, who was pregnant, and places her on the rack. Then he racked her until her heart might break…

2)When she did not confess, the torture was repeated…he cut off her hair, poured brandy over her head and burned itr.

3)He placed sulphur in her armpiots and burned it.

4) Her hands were tied up behind her, she was hauled up to the ceiling and suddenly dropped down.

5)This hauling up and dropping down was repeated for some hours, till the hangman and his helpers went to dinner.

6) When they returned her feet and hands were tied upon her back; brandy was poured on her back and burned.

8)Then heavy weights were placed upon her back and she was pulled up.

9) After this she was again stretched upon the rack.

10) A spiked board was placed on her back, and she was again hauled up to the ceiling.

11)The hangman again ties her feet and hangs on them a block of fifty pounds…

12) The hangman…fixes her legs in a vice, tightening the jaws until the blood oozes out from the toes.

13)She was stretched and pinched again in various ways.

14)Now the hangman of Dreissigacker began the third grade of torture (Note: No indication of what he did.)

15)The hangman’s son-in –law hauled her up to the ceiling by her hands.

16)The hangman…whipped her with a horsewhip.

17)She was placed in a vice where she remained for six hours.

18)She was mercilessly horsewhipped.

All this was done on the first day.’

From Archivob Hist, Nacional, Inquisition de Tolado, Leg138, quoted in HCLea History of the Inquisition of Spain, VOL3,P24 . Reports taken of the examination under torture.

 After long torture the inquisitor would say, ‘tell all.’

‘If I knew what to say, I would say it. Oh Senor, I don’t know what I have to say. Oh, Oh, they are killing me – if they would tell me what – Oh senores, Oh, my heart,…loosen me, and I will tell the truth; I don’t know what I have to tell – loosen me for the sake of God – tell me what I have to say – I did it, I did it – they hurt me, Senor- loosen me, loosen me and I will tell it…I don’t know what I have to tell-Senor, I did it-they hurt me, Senor-loosen me, loosen me and I will tell it….I don’t know what I have to tell it…I don’t know what I have to tell-Senor, I did it…take me from here and tell me, what I have to say…I don’t remember, tell me what I have to say…I don’t remember, tell me what I have to say-O wretched me; I will tell all that is wanted, Senores-they are breaking my arms-loosen me a little-I did everything that is said of me…What am I wanted to tell? I did everything-loosen me, for I don’t remember what I have to tell…Oh, Oh, Oh, tell all.’

And again, the cruel voice would say: ’Tell all.’

Aldous Huxley in his most enlightening book The Devils of Loudon tells (page177) of the tortures and death of one Grandier in 1634 on the charge of bewitching some nuns. The particulars are taken from the court records and are authentic :

‘In the presence of two apothecaries and several doctors Grandier was stripped, shaved all over and then systematically pricked to the bone with a long, sharp probe…the pain was excruciating and, through the bricked-up windows, the prisoner’s screams could be heard by the ever-growing crowd of the curious in the street below. In the official summary of the counts on which Grandier was condemned, we learn that owing to the great difficulty in locating such small areas of insensibility, only two of the five marks decribed by the Prioress were actually discovered…Page235 :’The judges saw the defendant only three times in all. Then, after the usual pious preliminaries they rendered their decision; it was unanimous. Grandier was to be subjected to ‘the Question’. Ordinary and Extarordinary…With a rope around his neck and a two-pond taper in his hand, ask pardon of God, the King and Justice…then burnt alive…He was stripped, in a few minutes his body was hairless…’his moustache and little beard, now eyebrows’ said the Commissioner.’Now the fingernails, you will now pull out the fingernails…’

Page244: ‘He was bound stretched out on the floor, his legs from knees to feet enclosed between four boards, of which the outer pair were fixed, the inner ones moveable. By driving wedges into the space between the two moveable boards it was possible to crush the victim’s legs…the first wedge was driven home between the knees, then another was inserted at the feet. When this was hammered to the head…a third was inserted immediately below the first…at the second stroke of the fourth wedge several bones of the feet and ankles were broken…a fifth wedge was inserted.

The prisoner asked: ’ Father, do you believe on your conscience a man ought merely to be delivered from pain, to confess a crime he has not committed?’

‘You have been a magician,  you have had commerce with devils’ was the answer.

When he protested once more that he was innocent, the sixth wedge was driven home, then a seventh, then an eighth; the bones of his knees, the shins, the ankles and feet, all were shattered.’

Page 249: ‘The two-pond taper was placed in Grandiers’ hand and he was lifted down from the cart to beg pardon, as the sentence had proscribed, for his crime, but there were no knees to kneel on. When they lowered him to the ground, he fell forward on his face.’

He was finally burnt alive, care being taken to see that his death was a most painful one.’

When a poor wretch was tortured enough, they would dictate to him what to say, and who to implicate. The average person conveniently forgets that this was done, if indeed he ever knew;

But witches do not forget that this or similar treatment was meted out to their Ancestors, and the days of persecution are not yet over, at least in many places, so the witch still keeps underground.

We talk a great deal of religious freedom, of our rights, and the liberty of the subject, but we still deny all liberty to witches. They are still persecuted just because some snooper was shocked at finding people in some lonely place dancing naked around a fire at night many hundreds of years ago.”

~ Gerald Gardner, “Witchcraft Today”,(1954) without copyright and with a moral right to be accredited as the author of the book and it’s contents.

So what has changed since Gerald Gardner wrote this book in the 1950’s, when the Craft of the Wise has just been decriminalized in Great Britain?

Certainly, except in some places in Africa, there are no more tortures and burnings of the kind inflicted on Pagans in the world of today.

The accusations of Witchcraft in Africa and indeed all related superstitions, come from the insane Inquisitions and Burning Times of the Christian Churches,  both Orthodox and Reformed, that much is certain. All of the current accusations of witchcraft levelled at the innocent nowadays in Africa, where the burning of accused and suspected ‘witches’ continues in some backward areas,are based squarely in the medieval practices of the Churches and their misguided and discriminatory belief system.

Missionaries in Africa were and are guilty of introducing these medieval beliefs into Africa; and are guilty also of superimposing Christianity on the traditions and cultures of indigenous peoples, wherever they gained a foothold.

Yet the media makes great hay of pointing out that there persecutions and burnings are ‘justified’, because ‘witches’ are devil’s daughters and are possessed by demons.

Yet in Pagan Communities, there is a never any need for exorcisms, and there is no ‘demonic possession' so prevalent in Christian communities..

No, actually it is only in Christian communities that there is a need for exorcisms, and it is the leaders of the Churches who persist in inculcating the fear of the devil and the demons of their own Pantheon among the people.

Witches recognize the right to freedom of religion, and do not deny anyone their sacred beliefs, nor are we anti-Christ –  merely against religious vandalism and the false accusations and ongoing persecutions against the Nature people, all done in the name of a God of Love.

Perhaps the essential difference is that a real witch is far too strong to be ever possessed by the host of evil spirits which Christianity embraces and never denies; and that those who believe in the Devil and his demons are welcome to them. We do not depend on Devils to be happy, for happiness is what we believe Goddess wishes for people. To live in love, and not in fear, self-doubt and consuming hatred against others just because they are indeed having fun in their lifetimes.

 The Goddess has nothing to do with a supreme male Devil, who according to the Bible itself is a favourite son of God, who carries out punishments against people for transgressing the laws and rules of this supreme male God;  and without whom, there would be no Christianity, at all.

The term ‘witch’ in Africa refers to a purely malignant, evil sorcerer type, who is the agent of disease, destruction and calamity in society. The same animals which were identified as witch animals in Europe, are likewise identified as such in Africa; wherever people have strayed from their Ancestral ways and have been brainwashed by Colonialist religion and teachings.

Any good Social Anthropologist will tell us that accusations of ‘witchcraft’ ie, not the real Craft of the Wise/Traditional Healer; but against an evil ‘witch/sorcerer’ are based in malicious envy.

When a community lacks adequate resources and competition for these resources is scarce, accusations of ‘witchcraft’ are rife. There is no easier way to get rid of someone in a society who has more than others, or has a nicer wife, or is doing well where others struggle, than to accuse that person of ‘witchcraft’.

Most people who are burnt and tortured in Africa, using similar methods as those used in Medieval Europe, do not have a clue what a witch actually is, and are innocent of all charges and accusations levelled against them.

The Missionary influence in Africa has left deep scars, which will take time to heal as we rid ourselves of these unwanted and destructive Imperialist influences on society and reclaim our indigenous traditions.

It is not the Witch who should feel ashamed of hir Ancestors, and for persisting in honouring our pre-patriarchal  Ancestral ways ;

It is the Church which alone must carry the yoke of guilt for what they have done to people all over this world.

Undoubtedly there are people in Africa who use ‘muti’, ie. Deal in body parts, and who are cruel to animals in the name of ‘witchcraft’; yet again these are foreign ideas and practices which have been introduced into Africa by mad medieval religious theologians and have nothing whatsoever to do with the Pagan Witch. All of these things come from ‘civilized’ Christianity and not from indigenous peoples.

It is the Bible and the Church which embrace demons and evil sorcery, and unfortunately many Africans who have been colonialized by the spiritual imperialism of the Christian churches still believe in such things. Christianity could not survive without their Devils; and real witches live in love and not the fear-based things which the churches embrace.

Witches hold all life as sacred, and especially love animals, which are the sacred beasts of the Divine Feminine. You will never find a witch burning sacks of living cats in the fires, or torturing and killing other people just because they are Christian. All of the Grimoires of Black Magic are written by either Christians or ex-Christians, who are called Satanists and who delight in rebelling against their God and their Church as disaffected members of that Church.

Witches are Nature people who love Nature and see all life as being interconnected. Karma is the ultimate Bitch, and time will tell, you’ll see. What goes around, comes around eventually, and knowing this, real witches look forward to many happy lives to come, free of the chains of slavery and evil devils of torture and burnings.

So when you watch a pop TV documentary all about the primitive savages in Africa who harm people maliciously and who deal in the body parts trade, exporting these body parts to willing buyers in Europe, just remember that the origin of all black magics lies within the Churches and all of the people who believe in these teachings of the Bible – the teachings which state that believers cannot do without the devil and his demons in their lives.. These teachings have saturated the consciousness of many Africans and were brought to Africa by the agents of the Church as a fear-based control mechanism.

Africa is slowly but surely recovering from these depradations, and the people are returning to our sacred traditions and the culture which was stolen by alien invader Religions.

It is more than hypocritical for Europeans to point fingers at the witch mania which still occasionally surfaces in some isolated areas in Africa, as in fact, it is the Christian churches which are responsible for bringing these antiquated and fear-based beliefs into Africa in the first place; and who carry the burden of nine million souls who died most excruciating deaths and were dispossessed of culture and property over hundreds of years of insane Inquisitions and Burning Times at the hand of the Church. Whether of the Church itself or outside of the Church, black magic is still used by many in the name of their God against the nature people. This is magic intended to harm others for one’s own gains and benefits – whether to demonize indigenous spirituality, or to gain financially from the transaction.

The witch says, ‘Live in Love’;

The evil patriarchal magician says, ‘Live in fear and hate all others if they are unwilling to join us in the body of the Christ’

We must all choose to do what seems right, after all, and then live with the results of the Karma we make for ourselves, after all.

Blessed Be