detail in these later reviewed art pieces is graphic sexual practices that further strengthen the link between witches and sexual depravity. All of the reviewed works included the mirror as an essential component of a witch’s arsenal, all of them being depicted as concave-shaped mirrors. The shape of mirror significant as convex-shaped mirrors are associated with rituals that summon and entrap demons (Zika, 2013, p. 16). These views are shared in other studies such as those conducted by Barr…
Pentacle: (4)For years, the media, pop culture, portrayed the pentacle as evil, like the pagan symbols were bad. Beginner Wiccans often have to "reprogram" their own way of thinking about the pentacle. (4) The pentacle was seen as both good or evil. Mostly in pagan terms, good. Now, I have no other knowledge as to where the word originated from and what all powers it contains, so doing a bit of research on my own I have come to find out some, what I like to call. Fun facts. The pentacle…
The salem witch trials began when some little girls had extreme sicknesses. Nobody knew what the cause of the illness was. Then the little girls started accusing random women of witchcraft. Eventually, people started accusing each other of witchcraft. But what exactly caused the salem witch trials? Based on information and readings, I believe that the real reason behind the salem witch trials was revenge and economics. Let's go back to the years 1640-1700. During those years, there were two…
Nina Wise Professor Bruce Franklin HIST2013 14 September 2016 Salem Witch Trials In order to understand the Salem Witch Trials, you must first understand the Puritan belief in the supernatural. The Puritans believed that witches allied themselves with the devil to carry out evil deeds and anything bad that happened in the colonies such as death or illnesses were more times than not blamed on the work of witches (Boundless). They also believed in the wrath of God and they took any measure…
The role of women as healers during the middle ages has received some attention from medical historians but remains little known or appreciated. In the 3 centuries preceding the Renaissance this role was heightened by 2 roughly related developments. The first was the evolution of European universities and their professional schools that for the most part systematically excluded women as students thereby creating a legal male monopoly of the practice of medicine. Ineligible as healers women waged…
An infamous episode in American history, the Salem witch trials of 1692 resulted in the execution, by hanging, of nineteen villagers, fourteen women and five men, accused of witch craft. Additionally, one man, Giles Corey, was punished by peine et fort, death by pressing (Linder, paragraph 22). These antics could have been the cause of teenage boredom, congregational strife, personal jealousies, and fears of the citizens. The main question is why did this travesty happen in Salem? In 1689,…
WITCHCRAFT AND GENDER IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE Introduction The historical statistics during the Early Modern Europe have proven the existence of gender marginality that occurred during the persecution of witchcraft trials. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth century, eighty to ninety percent of the individuals convicted of witchcraft were female. Historians have presented theories to unfold the phenomena of the gender marginality across different parts of Europe by examining the trials records…
Everyone has heard the commonly used phrase “trick or treat?” especially around Halloween. It is usually followed by candy or a riddle where a little kid threatens to pull down their underwear. Does anyone truly know where it came from though? Maybe witches in the past used it to torture people or a young child asked the question to their mother one day. Today I Found Out discovered that the practice began with the Celtic tradition of celebrating the end of the year by dressing up as evil…
I did some reading on Voodoo as I didn’t know much about it. Benin is a country in West Africa known as "the cradle of Voodoo". This is the birthplace of the ancient practice of Voodoo, which is also known as Vodun, the country’s national religion. Its beliefs were exported along with the slaves to Haiti, the Caribbean and Brazil and the religion was distorted by Hollywood. Sticking pins in dolls were once used as a method of cursing an individual by some followers of Vodun in New Orleans; this…
In the book a break with charity by ann rinaldi the main character, Susana english looks back on 1691 and all the choices she made that had to do with the Salam witch trials. Susana was standing in the town talking to the town gossip, Sarah bibber. When Susana was standing there she saw Ann Putnam and a group of girs she despreilty wanted to be friends with go into the reverends parris passage. Susana asked sarah and found out the only go in when the reverend is gone because they were strict…