In Defense of and in Argument Against Witchcraft

I actually had to bog down and do a little research on this one. The things I do to prove a point...

Firstly, I had to look up the Pentagram situation because it confuses the heck out of me whether it's good or bad.

This doesn't really look Satanic... especially with all the hearts on it... I'm surprised rainbows, unicorns, and moon beams weren't added.

As it turns out Pentagrams have been used since Ancient Greek times. It has been used in numerous ways in various cultures to represent similar things -usually the 5 elements: Spirit, Water, Fire, Earth, Air. Wiccans use it as a symbol for their religion -like Christians use the cross, and Jews have used it for the Star of David. Christians themselves have used it to represent the 5 wounds of Jesus. Even Chinese traditions have used it -again focusing on the 5 elements -only instead of using "Spirit" they use "Metal".

Now where the Pentagram's meaning deviates into Satanism is when two points are projecting upwards, instead of the one like shown above. Essentially a pentagram turned at an angle. It is suppose to attract sinister forces because it overturns the natural order of things and shows the mastery of matter over spirit. The 2 points on the pentagram pointing up are associated with the Goat Horns of Satan and Black Magic.

They say the traditional pointed way is actually pointing to heaven where wisdom and serenity can be found. When it's turned with two oints facing up, perversion and evil result.

Now that we've established that pentagrams are not intrinsically evil, but can be used for evil when perversed from it's original good intent, let's talk about witchcraft.

There are 3 kinds of witches. We'll get the Satanists out of the way first since most people are somewhat familiar with that one.

Because of things like Malleus Maleficarum, which was used in the 1600s during the Inquisition era, many people don't take witchcraft or witches seriously since so many innocent people were accused of it and were tortured and often burned alive for thir "crimes". However, there were in fact "Witches" or Satanist doing some pretty F*d up things back then and throughout time.

1. The Ram Inn in England. A messed up place. It use to be a "place of worship" -but not the good kind. They actually dug in the basement and found the bones of children who were sacrificed in Satanic rituals. Carvings throughout the inn also have Satanic symbolism and a which was said to reside in one of the upper rooms for many years. The place is clearly haunted by some of those lingering dark energies and spirits. I would not go there.

2. Bobby Mackey's -near Tennesee? -somewhere around there. In the 1800s a group of satanists beheaded a girl and threw her head down a well. She, some demons, and a few other spirits haunt their now. There have been several cases of possession that occurred there and people being harmed. A couple murders actually took place right outside the music lounge in the 80s. I would not go there.

3. Paviglia, Italy -don't know if I'm spelling that right. It's a little island south of Venice that none of the locals will visit. Not only was the site of the crematorium where they would take unknowing people suffering from the plague to be burned. Not only was it a place where a sadistic doctor tortured his patients. It was also the site of devil worship. I would not go there. Ever.

So Satanist do messed up things that often hurt themselves, hurt others, and pretty much contaminate the entire area in which their rituals are performed.

The Second kind of Witch is what is known as a Wiccan or Wicca. It's essentially pagain witchcraft developed in the 1950s. Wiccans believe that the whole cosmos is alive- including us, this planet, and everything on it. They also believe there is a Divine source of it all since there "is no manifestation without polarization" -something doesn't come from nothing. Traditioally they believe this Divine source to be God or gods/goddesses.

They also believe in reincarnation and karma to some extent. It's like a Pagan-Buddhist hybrid. They consider "Magic" they use to be "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will" or "the science of the control of the secret forces of nature". They consider these forces to be supernatural. Wiccans cast spells during rituals to make changes in their physical environment through the summoning of these natural spirits. They use it for healing, fertility, protection, and banishing negative forces. They call this white magic -unlike the conept of black magic which is associated with the dark occult and Satanists.

They don't have a strict moral code, but they do believe: "and it harm none, do what ye will". They focus on minimizing harm to theirselves and others.  They also believe on the Law of Threefold Return: Whatever positive or negative action you do it will come back 3 times stronger to you -3 for Mind, Body, Spirit. So if you do unto others with harm, 3X geater harm will be done unto you.

Personally I think Wicca's a little too hippie for my taste, but I can't disagree with anything they're doing -except maybe the multiple gods thing. They call them deities, but really they're just nature spirits or natural forces they call upon to do good. My notion is, good spirits (not souls or anything, but natural elemental spirits or forces) and bad spirits (like demons) exist. If you go out of your way to call on them, they will come. I don't think exact rituals are required, mostly just the belief and others joining in. I don't think humans are smart enough mentally or spiritually to be consorting with these sorts of entities. Best to leave them alone. It's like someone trying to go up to a bee hive to get honey -unless you're a professional or really know what you're doing, don't bother.

Then there's the Third kind of Witch -The Fantasy/Imaginary/Story Tale/Made-Up/Stereotyped witch that we all know and love. This is the one used during Halloween and on funny T.V. shows. You really think parents would be dressing their kids up like Satanists? No. Our culture has developed this third kind of which because the first 2 are essentially non-existant in the majority of American's minds. Nobody thinks about them. They aren't exactly an outstanding presence in society. It's kind of like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny -made up concepts and traditions based on things taken from the past that no one can recall.

We can actually look at T.V. shows and movies and make the distinction between the three witches.

Evil Witches represented that either directly refer to Satan as their "master" or they do evil unto others:

Believe it or not the witchs referred to Satan as their master and tried "sucking the lives out of little children.

Definitely a Satanic witch who "reportedly" slaughtered men in sacrifice to the Devil in the movie.

As I said in a previous post, this show is badass. It's pretty interesting because Sam and Dean Winchester will use the "good pentagram" to capture demons possessing people, and demons will use the "bad pentagram" to perform rituals. The show also refers to witches as Satanists.

Wicca Witches:

There isn't much refrence to them that I'm aware of. But there was an episode of Boston Legal where a Wicca mother and a Christian mother were suing a school principal for hosting a Halloween party at the school and she, the principal, would dress up like a Witch like the one from Oz. The Wicca mother argued it was not good for her daughter to see witches represented in such a stereotyped way. The Christian mother said it was a Satanic refrence. The Principal won.

The Stereotyped/ Fantasy/ Make believe witch:

(Not Satanic -I don't remember Lucifer having flying monkeys)

They're friends with a werewolf and a vampire. It's a good show.

Actually, Harry doesn't do any rituals. He says a word and Bam! his wand does magic. More magician or wizard than Witch.