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A History of Witchcraft
Part 4: The Classic Period
(2,000 BC to 1,000 AD)
The Classic Period represents, I believe, the time when our religion of Wicca, of witchcraft, flourished in all those attributes we recognize today. This was the time of worship of the gods and goddesses in all their thousands of aspects and thousands of names, the worship of all the Sabbats and esbats. It was the practice of rites and rituals we could easily recognize - had we the chance to do so - as the very rites and rituals we still practice today.
To be sure there would be differences in the names of some of the deities, and the ritual content might not be exactly as we do it, but the basic structure of form and content would be unmistakable. This was indeed the Golden Age of our religion. It was not Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Seax, Dianic, or hereditary - or any of the other varied and sundry titles we hang on it today. It was simply the Craft of the Wise, the Old Religion, witchcraft. That very same religion that today many of us choose to call Wicca.
It was during the second and first millennia BC that our Wise Craft of the indigenous inhabitants of Britain became augmented and embellished with the Pagan religions of other peoples such as the Beakers and Celts. The embellishment continued with the Romans who came at the end of the first millennium BC and the Angles, Saxons and Danes who arrived during the first millennium AD.1 Although these many and varied settlers and in some cases conquerors represented differing cultures, their Pagan religions were not too dissimilar from that already practiced by the original inhabitants. They all recognized similar festivals related to the solstice and equinox events. They all had a mystery component regarding life, death and rebirth and they recognized, to some degree, the earth as a goddess-mother and the sun as a god-father. And they all, generally speaking, recognized a lunar goddess with the triple aspects of maiden, mother and crone.2/3/4
Given their general similarities it is not surprising that there were little if any "religious wars" resulting from these many incursions. Of course there were wars of territory, wealth and sovereignty, but by and large there were few conflicts involving the acceptance of other Pagan religions and in many cases these various religions simply merged with and enriched each other. As an example, the Roman legions stationed in Britannia rather quickly adopted Epona, the Celtic Goddess of Horses, as their own patron goddess of cavalry. Her shrines are still visible today in the excavated ruins of Roman forts and camps in Southern England.5
Unfortunately the rise of Christianity began to take its toll and by the middle of the first millennium AD the Christian church was actively competing with all forms of the Old Religion to become the single religion of Europe. Fearing a lack of control over the general mass population and witnessing a reluctance of many people to convert to the new religion, the church began to attack Paganism as the evil counterpart to Christianity. A dark and malevolent side to the good concept of the Christian God had to be established and this dark side took the form of the Devil as represented by a horned creature, the Horned God of the Pagans. Additionally the Pagan religion insisted that divinity was equally both male and female with the very essence of womanhood worshipped by Pagans as the Earth Mother, an unthinkable concept for Christians. All Pagan concepts became intolerable to the new patriarchal monotheist religion and branded as heretical.6
The Christian church had now become bent on the extermination of our religion, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge it's own Pagan roots. Refusing to acknowledge that it's own rituals were firmly rooted in Paganism and that it's own stories of divine birth, death and resurrection of a savior were predated by thousands of years by similar Pagan stories. Refusing to acknowledge that the very name of it's own savior, Christos, came originally from a 300 BC Pagan Greek concept meaning simply "anointed."7 Unfortunately religion alone was not the only factor driving the church, the acquisition of power and wealth were equally to blame and a violent confrontation with Paganism on both religious and secular levels was inevitable. A series of brutal attacks having the full support and sponsorship of the Papacy began on all aspects of Pagan life, culminating in 1233 AD with the formal installation of the Inquisition.
So then, I believe we have a firm connection from our practice of today's witchcraft to the composite Pagan religions that flourished in Britain between 2000 BC and 1000 AD. We have also shown a very recognizable link from the witchcraft of today that stretches through history to the Neolithic builders of Stonehenge in 5000 BC. That link containing some elements of witchcraft is also visible in the Mesolithic art and ritual of 10,000 BC and in the Late Paleolithic Venus Figurines of 30,000 BC. Our Pagan heritage, that with which we have in common with all other European Pagan religions, is then traceable all the way back to those hunter-gatherer tribes who carved and shaped the first wooden spears in the Early Paleolithic of 400,000 BC.
We are witches, some of us use the phrase Wiccan and some do not, but we all - each and every one of us who profess to embrace the Old Religion - are united in our ancient heritage. A heritage that links us through the mists of antiquity to the very dawn of creation, to the first sentient beings that walked the surface of this earth. By whatever name you choose to call your practice of the Craft you are part of that link, of that heritage, and always will be.
Endnotes
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Gary Cantrell has authored two books: Out of the Broom Closet (1998) and Wiccan Beliefs and Practices: Rituals for Solitaries and Small Covens, to be released by Llewellyn in early 2001. A third work, The History of Witchcraft, is in preparation. Visit his website: http://hometown.aol.com/heretic894/myhomepage/faith.html