One of my favourite theories from a good book on witchcraft, is that witches of the late medieval period in Europe held remnant ancient druid knowledge. Witches, it is written, were the recipients of druids knowledge that survived after the druids disappeared underground after the attack on druid groves by the Romans. Over time practices evolved to the traditional witchcraft practices we know today.
When I first discovered modern witchcraft four years ago, I first discovered Wicca/ish stuff here on UA-cam, and believed that witch tradition stuff they were peddling. I absolutely understand the desire to have a female oriented religious tradition spanning millennia to counterbalance the patriarchy. However, I’m glad to have moved away from that narrative personally to explore the more authentic journey as a modern witch and pagan. I’m an inclusive Heathen and a witch. To just be able to define that for myself after decades of agnosticism is in large part due to your wonderful videos. The level of integrity in your content is amazing and absolutely appreciated!
I remember hearing from an academic that the worst thing you can do as a historian is perceive the people of the past through the lens of the present. Your perspective is much appreciated
Nothing I didn't know when I was first introduced to Wicca. This is why we call it Neo-paganism. It's a new interpretation of what we suppose the old folk beliefs may have been. Gardnerianism had been a tremendous influence because it offers a structure to the rituals, but I don't know anyone who believes these practices predate the twentieth century. Thank you for this in-depth analysis.
A lot of people do believe that because until the 2000's that was what we were being told. Only now the more accurate academic research was coming to light.
Not only the structure, but the rituals just 'work'. The powers passed through initiation, and the Gods present in the Circle are very real. I think people are still very biased against Wicca. There are so many other contemporary pagan and occult practices with more extraordinary claims than Gardner, but Wicca seems to be the only one that people feel the need to scrutinise all the time.
Looking forward to checking out your album but I have to watch you first. You are a great speaker, its like listening to an old friend. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this channel.
That's such a sweet comment to read. Thank you for your kind words. I'm very happy you feel that way and that you enjoy what I do. I hope you also enjoy my music hehehe. Be well, friend :D
One of the issues I've had with the Witch boom in the 1900s is use of a word that historically was always used with "evil" in English law like "1563: 5 Elizabeth 1 c.16: An Act agaynst Conjuracions Inchantmentes and Witchecraftes." And folks that claim they do witchcraft today are incapable of describing what it is. Most use it as a synonym for "magic" which seems counter productive and pointless to me personally. However folks don't want to accept this and insist that witchcraft is an ancient pagan practice. Even though most modern witches are doing modern adaptations of a combination of Hermeticism, Qabalah and Folks practices.
When I was initiated I was taught that Religion is for people who want to avoid going to Hell. Spirituality, on the other hand, is for those who have already been there.
@@GeistInTheMachine Religion is really just crystallized spirituality. Sometimes, it's reversed, with deleterious effects on nature and people who are part of nature. For example, the serpent or dragon proves the common origin of all Pagan systems, from the most ancient of times....from the dawning of antiquity. We all have Kundalini after all. Yet because of the teachings of some misguided and sexually inhibited patriarchal type Religious people, the serpent is now mainly seen as somehow evil.
I think it says more about Margaret that she assumed that a group of women on the same vibration with the earth and beyond would submit to a cruel male figure. The idea that a woman's power is in the hands of such a deity minimizes the strength that being attuned to energies provides. And it shows deep seeded cultural ideas of the time, that a woman cannot possibly stand alone, cannot possibly hold power within herself. Edit: I just got to the part where you mentioned that she possibly created this male figurehead in order to make it more digestible for society of the time. Either way, it is utter nonsense regardless of whether she did it for that purpose or because she herself could not imagine powerful women without male oversight.
I read a comment on another channel where a European woman was discussing "shamanism" and the person who commented went on and on about how she had been practicing some version of "shamanism" for the past 30 years while living in Missouri, USA. She just connected "shamanism" with animism while watching this recent video. Ironically, this person lives in the former honelands of Native tribes including the Osage and other diaspora people from the ancient village of Cahokia which was established circa 500 BCE and Missouri is adjacent to the Koster site in Illinois where paleo-Indians were living around 9,000 years ago. All were practicing ceremonies that included animism. It's true that most Native ceremonies are closed to outsiders although some non-Native people have learned certain practices but the problem is that they usually get domineering and are eventually shunned by Natives because ego is the opposite of spiritual growth. It's very understandable that Europeans would like to return to their pre-Christian pagan roots but well over a thousand years of the absence of a connection makes it almost impossible to reconnect. From my own experience with being around non-Native neo-pagan friends is that it's very difficult to break away from the church structure of a male leader, levels of experience and accomplishments, etc. It's hard to believe as a Native person from one tribe, that Europeans practiced a pan-European pagan type of belief system. I know that when I was married to someone from a distant tribe with a different language stock, I always felt like a foreigner and outsider. There are tribes in the U.S. even if our modern information and ability to travel era, that I have barely heard of, never visited and know almost nothing about although we are all considered and recognized as "Native" tribal people. We have almost nothing in common. The idea that there would have been a vast pan-pagan belief system in Europe with the broad groups, different areas of Europe and different languages is hard to believe.
Just found your channel, but after browsing titles, I watched your farewell video first. Glad you are still making content. I love everything I have seen so far.
I've been reading Ronald Hutton's "Triumph of the Moon" and his discourse has really opened my eyes to how "modern western witchcraft" was indeed recently crafted by people seeking to find spiritual depth beyond the Christian rhetoric. The result for me is I now look past the popular masonic/thelemic/wiccan influences and practices, and have started delving deeper into the academic literature and research on ancient spirituality. This is why I enjoy your channel so much, you cite your sources and provide resources for further independent research!! You're the best!! 😊
Right, it seems like modern "witches" were just mad at Mommy and Daddy, want to be spooky and liked Harry Potter too much 😐. They don't have this connection with God thru nature.
True! I started out the same but delving deeper into certain parts of witchcraft and later paganism I started feeling more spiritual with the older practices.
@@O_Ciel_Phant0mhive Why don't you just go out in Nature, observe it and make your own connections. That's what people in the past did. Our connections are different because our world and our civilization is different.
I appreciate you and all of your hard work, Arith. Thank you for another great, and educational video, my dear friend 🖤I will watch the other video referred to in this one, next 🤗 I hope things are going very well for you!!
My dear friend, I'm always happy to have your feedback and see you comment. Thank you very much, as always! All is well around here. All the best to you and yours!
Also the guy of the White Goddess book, Grove I think was his last name, made such a big influence building on Wiccan beginings besides Murray or the Aradian movement.
Excelente tema e assunto importante sempre a ser discutido e explicado! Antes de terminar de ver o vídeo já espero como sempre algo outstanding and awesome ❗️💯👍🏻 Best wishes my Bro 😊 Thanks for your existence🙏🙏🙏💙 Leonardo da Ilha do Marajó Pará Brasil
I remember when I was 14 years old, Aradia was the first witch book I got my hands on. And I actually believed Murray's hypothesis (yes, at that time wicca meant witchcraft to me). Later, as I read books by ethnographers like Carlo Ginzburg and Éva Pócs, my opinion changed quite a bit. I realised that this was the witchcraft I was looking for. It's a pity that there was no Arith Härger channel at the time to give such a good explanation on the subject.
Bonjour M. Arith, beau travail. Vous avez beaucoup de dans, de votre chaîne beaucoup demandent un livre avec l’enregistrement de leurs thèmes !? Je suis d’accord, ce serait très intéressant pour la consultation et rester pour que d’autres s’enrichissent de vos connaissances, faisons-le ? Merci 🌷
Good video Arith, yes there were "magical" folklore beliefs throughout Europe and through the centuries but they were tied to Christianity. Charms, sacred healing wells, rituals even necromancy as practiced throughout were based on Christian beliefs, same with Alchemy and other pseudosciences. We know that to draw folk in to Christianity they modelled a lot of what was already going on with a Christian twist. The men and women killed, it's interesting the further North you look the more men were also killed throughout Europe, believed in Christianity (perhaps some were atheist but they wouldn't have spoken that out loud). It seems to be that classic push back against modernisation, the romantic era where so many folk began delving into these "folk beliefs" through scholarly works etc and then we had the Victorians and they were just wild.
I often wondered if someone could look into the what the Catholic Church forbid in a certain region. Maybe that will give Clues to what was actually practiced. Like if a region practice a tradition regularly the priest would complain about the Regional practice to the pope and higher up. These letters were the ones that also helped to disassemble the culture in that area by telling the leaders of the church what to Target next.
It goes deeper than that I think. The Catholic Church once it took power, took a look at Roman Pagan World, adapted many things to be acceptably Christian, and rejected some other things. Here is the thing, Christianity inherited Greco-Roman religious baggage of an older forgotten time. The Pagan Romans and Greeks already had religious views of evil things they considered “witchcraft”. Things about the Saturnian world they did not like if you will. Just like early Christianity, somewhere in the Mediterranean past the “new order Olympian order” co-opted many things from the older religion, and suppressed the elements they were unhappy with such as human sacrifice. The old ways that were acceptable ultimately became things like the Mystery religions, such as the Eleusinian Mysteries. (I am using Olympian here for simplicity’s sake. An Egyptian perspective might view it as the context of the Osiris myth between Seth and Osiris.) This concept is also far larger than just Europe, the Mediterranean, and Christianity. You can see similar things to the older shamanist religions in Asia with the early adoption of Buddhism and early Hindu Vedic beliefs where the Shamanist religions are forced to the lowest rungs of societies that adopt the new religions. Long story short, there are isolated minority groups all over the world who cling to their old, pre-Olympian, pre-Buddhist traditions. Little pockets and hamlets of the earth where the rest of the world has little interest in visiting. Usually up in the mountains or on their islands.
Do you have other books published about witchcraft? Yeah I can relate to that feeling, I also get annoyed by fantasy and romantasy book which never ever gets the representation correctly and just pushing the goddess worship wicca
@@Erienna872 Not yet. Truth is, I AM writing a historical fantasy novel of sorts 😅, but like you I had no interest in the “goddess worship secret religion” stuff. I feel that actually does a disservice to women and men of the period who were abused. I am really interested in which TRIALS, I would say, and the process of mass psychosis that takes hold in seemingly stable communities. Sorry for the long response, but I can absolutely recommend historical books if you are looking around for more.
Im a traditional folk witch and work more with the spirits of a place, the land, the ancestors and practices to heal the enegies of the land. I also practice Druidry and work with both norse and celtic traditions. Then there is the past lifes of egyptian paganism in a lot of us. I agree there has been a lot of modern practices but at the same time if Wicca never came to be i wonder how safe i would be as a witch in England which is still a religous country. The vikings were here as was the germanic anglo saxons and the romans. lots of history in the celtic isles. We can take the history and leaen from it and will makes us better witches. Also a point many modern witches focus too much on asthetics and you really dont need us this stuff to practice and connect with the gods. New age paganism is almost corrupting the old but if we read the books the knowlege is there.
Raven Grimassi's works show a lot of religious links for ancient Greek and Roman witch cults, example the Witches of Benevento (worshippers of the Goddess, Diana). And Circe and Medea who workshipped Hecate and conjured spells in her name, as priestesses. Then we also have the accounts of Charles Leland speaking of La Vecchia Religione (see Etruscan Roman Remains, and Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling), and how he studied under witches in Tuscany who maintained threads of ancient Roman and Etruscan religious themes. Also see the witch cult of Lake Nemi, of Diana and Rex Nemorensis. His full research can be found in his books: Italian Witchcraft, Hereditary Witchcraft, and Witchcraft: A Mystery Religion.
Arith, you never cease to amaze me.. Her therory, and all accounts ofcour ancestors are lies based on old christanity,, it's written/ proven in GREEK, accounts.. We know Christians... Yet, ive always wondered why my mothers name was Ardai?
The Work of Fraziers Golden Bought isn't a work of fiction, he actually went around to many cultures and recorded what they did. Now, his conclusion may be wrong, but it's not a 22 volume work of fiction. Much of what's in the Golden Bought is valuable and has been used for further study of the cultures he was studying, and it's been found that 95% of the traditions he recorded are still practiced by indigenous people. The sun of what you're saying in this video is true, there is not ancient witchcraft religion, but some details are incorrect. Such as the 3 I've already listed within the comments.
Thank you for this video, so accurate and full of detailed explanations. I really appreciate your work, I think you are very prepared and it is truly a joy to find a new video of yours, every time.
I find this particular aspect of history endlessly fascinating, that is to say the "gaps" in historical knowledge that can come about, mostly due to the nonexistence of concrete evidence but also due to things like recontextualization due to new evidence, both of which we see here. I can see how the idea could be pretty upsetting to people who saw/felt something true in the spirit of say Wicca, or Christianity but felt a sort of betrayal/disappointment when they found out a pretty important historical fact had been found to be more fiction. Ive certainly been that person, its led me to realize that the ultimate "truth" of the (God)s can exist within an individual person, potentially any person but ultimately nowhere else. "truth" being something that can change every time we are corrected/learn something new and also a perfect timeless concept that would persist past the gentle touch of Death and on to eternity...
Haven’t gotten underway with the video because I went to band camp to look for your album Ritual and it didn’t come up. I tried using just your name and Frith was the only thing that came up. Am I missing something?
I was reading about Margaret Murray at the beginning of this week. Thanks a lot, Arith, I'm loving this series of videos this month. Forte abraco, e muito sucesso!
the "little people" thing is true in that instead of hobbits they were just typical hunter gatherers (where the male is like 150cm tall). probably a couple of those graves all around europe.. Si unite :) giants are much harder to explain, i just read that even native americans had legends about them (maybe just some taller tribe). to a 150cm tall 180cm is a giant, 200cm is a tree!
Speaking of hobbits, there's a human species that was indeed named "hobbit" when it was found. The Homo floresiensis ("Flores Man"). They inhabited the island of Flores (Indonesia) until the arrival of modern humans about 50,000 years ago. They never left, so it is highly unlikely they passed on their knowledge in magic to European witches or anyone else. Evidences point to an hostily interaction from the part of modern humans towards these little fellows, which were pushed away until they were extinct. However, myths about giants can very well come from the interaction between Neanderthals and Homo Erectus, which means, modern humans' myths on giants are not our own, but the stories Neanderthals told about the Homo Erectus to modern humans.
yep. hobbits are real :) oh, the giant thing, it´s probably because they were all cannibals.. eating human meat probably makes you taller, which of course it does. it would have probably worked out for them, if it wasn´t for all the pesky animal meat eaters! damn (diversity lost).
I have done a great deal of research to try to find more information about this very subject, but to no real avail. One would assume that such a pseudo-religion actually did exist with the advent of such tomes as the "Malleus Maleficarum". Perhaps a more comprehensive sect did once exist, although any evidence of it can only be found in fragments and loose references.The words "witchcraft" and "paganism" are very vague and can't really be specifically delineated or ascribed to any specific religion or culture.
One of my greatest grievances as a practicing Heathen is the double standard that gets applied to us in regards to "historicity." Many non-pagans think it's perfectly fine to dismiss and belittle our beliefs if they don't conform strictly to ritual forms and religious dogma for 1,000 years ago, when their own practice isn't even older than 200. It's such a double standard, and one that has no bearing on the spiritual authenticity of the practice and the practitioners working today.
The Greek sources (stories and myths) are probably some of the most reliable and extensive ones - with names such as Hecate and Medea lingering in the air. One may argue they are just stories and myths. At the same time we know that the Oracle of Delphi was regarded as one of the most important institutions in the ancient world. Then there's the problem regarding the definition of the Witch. Are the Witches practicing folk magic simply descendents of the Priestesses which belonged to the mystery cults? If so I'd probably label the Priestesses as the arch witches of old (especially since the theme is religion, witchery as a craft: organised/ritualised/initiation protocols, and not solo or small local farmer's local group gatherings). I've followed Ammon Hillman's work on youtube, and it's actually difficult not to see the common traits between the Scandinavian "witches" and the Greek "witches". Both used drugs and both induced trances in order to prophecy. They were in both cultures often mentioned as midwives, utilizing their plant medicines in many areas.
@@soulsonicfx3826 Exactly. It’s just Shamanism. In my opinion, a specific off-brand “agricultural” version of shamanism. It was the religion of the agricultural revolution, the mystery on how to make crops grow consistently. They were the religious plant cultists/weirdos of an orthodox nomadic pastoral shaman world. Witchcraft is just the derogatory European term for elements of this older religion, coming from earlier views of the Greco-Roman Olympian order of paganism on the aspects of the Saturnian world they rejected.
@soulsonicfx3826 I don’t think I am mis-understanding Arith’s main point here. After you read this and still disagree with me, let me know! This is the very first video I have watched of his channel, so I might not fully appreciate his position. I also think this might be a matter of semantics and how he (or you) defines religion, as opposed to what I define as religion. A big part of Arith’s video is discrediting the idea that there was an older single unified European “witchcraft” religion. That the modern belief of a “witchcraft” religion is essentially a romantic fantasy that is a reaction against Christianity. I am in full agreement with Arith on this. Modern paganism claiming to be the same “religion” of the ancient past that all of Europe followed before Christianity IS inaccurate. My claim says that at some point in the distant path, there was a specific set of new folk beliefs that grew out of Shamanism which I personally call “religion” for simplicities sake, but could be accurately described as “folk beliefs” just as easily. I will still call it religion in this specific case, because my position does argue that is where agricultural shamanism eventually headed. You probably are seeing this part and going “Isn’t that just Arith’s witchcraft with a different name?” My position, (which is speculative) states that the introduction of alien(outsider, not space alien) agricultural folk beliefs into non-agricultural cultures would ultimately create cultures that would seem “un-natural” by those who did not practice it. An un-natural/magical outlier in the world of Hunter-Gatherer Shamanist “Orthodoxy” if you will. Farming IS weird. Farming IS magical. These people don’t travel, yet they are able to have an endless supply of food year after year from the same empty fields where they perform their weird fertility magic and plants grow. I take my car to the mechanic, he performs his weird mechanic magic, and my car runs better. That is weird. It’s Cargo-Cult Agriculture. Anyone who wanted to harness the power of yearly crops would find it impossible not to adopt the “cult” of agriculture and all the spiritual baggage that comes with the originators. We can point to a few spots in the world where we can confidently go “agriculture started here independently”, so I think it is safe to say that the spiritual customs of those who figured out how to grow crops ended up spreading that collection of ideas, both practical and spiritual, far and wide. See Arith’s explanation at 3:40. He says “It may contain several religious concepts within it, it was never about religion. It was about actively manifesting an intention (mastery of crops for food) through a series of magical practices (early cult of agriculture) to change life. ” I think what I am saying is in alignment with that statement. It is clear that the Neolithic package spread like wildfire across Eurasia once someone somewhere figured agriculture out, so I don’t think what I am saying is a big stretch of the imagination. That is what I mean by “Saturnian World”, which is really just a nod to romanticized Greco-Roman “Olympian” pagan world view. Just like modern Wicca, the Greeks had a romanticized and inaccurate view of their “Saturnian Past” that was reflected in their mythology (Cronus), the Mystery religions (The parts of the older beliefs they adapted into their belief system) and their own ideas of witchcraft (the parts of the older belief system that they rejected/suppressed). This is not unique to the Greeks, you see the same thing all over Eurasia where Shamanist belief systems become cast to the lowest rungs of society and get replaced with newer religions. (Tibetan Shamanism becomes Bon, which becomes Buddhism for one simplification.) Another reason why Arith says the “pan-European ancient religion” makes no sense. If it did, you have to account for outside of Europe as well. Where you say that I “disagree with Arith” you might be thinking I’m just replacing “Witchcraft Religion” with “Agricultural Shaman Religion”. But there is a big difference here. I am talking about a specific point in time in the past where things converged, and then quickly spread out and changed again with each culture it contacted. With that change, it might have kept some residual common beliefs or practices. This is vastly different from an unchanging dogma of “True Pan-European Pagan Witchcraft”. If there ever was a time where conditions were right for an “old ancient religion”, I think that the closest we are going to get is the Neolithic revolution, which is clearly not a religious revolution. Religion just came with it like fries in a combo meal. They just knew some stuff those weirdos did worked, so they either talked to them and “converted”, or just copied it. Others rejected it and stayed as hunter-gatherers, or became pastoralists in regions where the plant magic didn’t work. After awhile, everyone knew what made farming work and had it figured it out. Some of those early beliefs became residual traditions that hint at this “Saturnian World.” These videos here are just one modern anthropological example. An “earlier” version of maypole traditions if you will. Portugal ua-cam.com/video/zZImI3p4e08/v-deo.html Nepal ua-cam.com/video/wS-0My_ixT0/v-deo.html Korea ua-cam.com/video/ilREFrZAReY/v-deo.html
I love Aradia. Lucifer is reliable to call upon. As a Witch. Aradia is in us all when we call up the Old Ways especially. I have a belief in our own defense we can call upon Lucifer and Aradia for divine help.I have in the past. Lucifer is very reliable as is Aradia.Thanks Arith for posting about this subject.
Very good book reviews Arith thank you. I live in Essex, England, a lot of history around here. I've never found a witch cult btw. The peculiar people were around for a while. The witch trials however, as mentioned, was a mad genocide if women, by men who created their influence. But even wives would accuse a woman if being a witch. If she seduces the husband. Centuries of iron against women, they even blamed Eve when Adam couldn't control himself. I prefer the green witch path personally. Great listening to you again . Best wishes Dawn
@@RyanEdmondsMyLifeAsRyan As you know, it was far and away men losing their minds and turning against their own women. Many postulate reasons for this from ergot poisoning to the effect of the written word on the brain. I see a hateful and organized attempt to strip women of their power in America now. It would not surprise me if the extreme members of a certain group here decided to burn women as an example again. “Breed or d i e.” Strange and terrifying.
A way to get rid of all the seers, prophetess, wise women for a patriarchal system. But I imagine that certain woman under duress and about to die would make everyone around fear them. A final rebellious act. (And may the Valkyrie summon me home 😉)
In Nepal healing traditions like shamanism, witchcraft and others are still alive. Witches have an other training, different methods and working times than shamans. Both are working on different levels.
I think it is one and the same at one point. A branch out of nomadic shamanism to form a new religion of the Neolithic revolution, the arrival of the “Saturnian World”, of Cronus, of the Sickle, of the Harvest. A conversion and initiation into the mysteries of agriculture from the outside hunter-gatherer world. A world of fields, and seasonal transhumance of the pastoral herds, a semi-migration within range of one’s productive sacred fields as a nod to the traditions of the old pastoral ways. I believe that Witchcraft is merely the exonym derogatory term of this agricultural shamanism, that ultimately symbolizes the elements of the decentralized old world order that the new “Olympian” order rejected. The “low, evil peasant magic” vs “high ceremonial state magic” of the pagan world. You see similar reactions to Asian Shamanism in relation to early Vedic Hinduism and Buddhism, where elements of the old shamanist practices were adapted, while certain aspects were rejected, with the shamans consigned to the bottom rungs of societies that adopted the new religious order. In my opinion, that is what the Sarpa Satra is ultimately about. Here is something you might find interesting from a modern anthropological standpoint. Could be coincidence, but I personally think that this just one of many hints to the Saturnian world! Galicia Portugal ua-cam.com/video/zZImI3p4e08/v-deo.html Kirat people in Nepal (Part of Kirat Mudhum Udhauli, literally “To go down”) ua-cam.com/video/wS-0My_ixT0/v-deo.html Korea ua-cam.com/video/ilREFrZAReY/v-deo.html
LeLand didn't create Aradia, he was given that information by an Italian servant who he knew. Now, whether or not she made it up it can be argued, but LeLand took it at face value because he just got done doing his research for Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune-telling. Whether he is at fault for that is irrelevant. The catalyst of what you said on this is true, but the details was off. LeLand didn't create Aradia. He was told about it.
I am a member of the Luciferian group the Temple of Ascending Flame, which involves a modern form of witchcraft that evolved out of influences such as Hermetic Qabalah, Jewish Kabbalah, Crowley, Kenneth Grant, left-handed Tantra, and the Dragon Rouge group. There's a lot of work with dark Pagan deities and the demons of the Qliphoth or Tree of Knowledge, which represents a shadow side of the Sephiroth/Tree of Life and kind of resembles medieval witch confessions in some ways. The left-handed principles of transgression and self-deification involve introducing a form of experience that has an opposite polarity to one's ingrained subconscious cultural conditioning to free oneself from mental slavery and to awaken the latent potential of atavistic subconscious instincts so that the beastly instinctual energies can be sublimated to facilitate spiritual and magical evolution. It may be relatively new and intense, but I view it as helpful for people who wish to reclaim their innate power from Christian brainwashing and modern materialism.
"Materialism" here just means "demanding actual evidence for claims". Your stuff isn't different from Christianity. You just don't have the power and 2000 years of history for it have had severe consequences.
Good video. Its not difficult to see how antisemitism was part of the witchtrials across so called Europe (one brief line of Sylvia Federici's Caliban And The Witch references this history). Blood libel accusations sound so similar 😞
Witchcraft has always existed as a fringe source of manipulative power. Every culture has always had and feared witches. Witchcraft became a religion in the 20th century and I'm fine with that. It fiils a need.
Yep, witchcraft seems to have survived. UA-cam has Ginny Metheral, a fourth generation Irish witch, at least that's what she says at the beginning of her videos.😎
This is why I don't claim to be a witch... I consider myself as a seerees or a volva, but not a witch. It's to much in connection to the Christian faith imo and not the Norse.
Murray should be remembered for her pioneering feminism and early work under difficult physical and social conditions in the domain of Egyptology, as I am sure Arith knows but others may not. Hearing about her witch hypotheses really makes me cringe and a bit sad because Murray is known by the public for that work, which frankly speaking is just pure crap, instead of her early struggles as a woman working in Egyptology. Murray made a large number of dubious claims during her research career. By any objective criterion she really was not very good at either gathering data and was especially bad at analyzing it. She is also a good example of the bad practice of becoming well known on account of promoting ideas in the popular press that do not pass rigorous academic review.
Regarding the swastikas, it's always hilarious when westerners come to Japan, look at the manji on the maps, and get puzzled🤣 Thank you for your wonderful video
So many were burned, drowned or stoned because of the zeal of religious idiots. So much knowledge was lost and that's one reason I believe why they persecuted wise women and men because the church wanted to control everyone and everything. Today the knowledge is coming back and I have never been in a coven, that is not the way I was brought up, it is an inside belief. THe Gods are in our heart and our connection to them comes from love, honor and belief in the land. Great video Arith.
I want to be a viking Right down to believing in bodily magic baby doors and lightning bolts from Thor's hammer in the sky. And if you don't believe in that, you're a fake witch.
I love the grounded reality of this channel!! Retirement took a toll on my finances, but I am so excited with my involvement in the digital market. $37k weekly has been life changing. Regardless of how bad it gets on the economy.
Impressive! Been trying to trade on my own for a while now, but it isn't going well. few months ago I lost about $8,500 in the trade. Can you please at least advise me on what to do?
Yeah!!! I started t with Maira Angelina Alexander in 2021 and now my life is good some thing to write home about!!!! I thank God the most He alone made it possible for the opportunity to come my way 🤲🤲🤲🤲
I began investing in stocks and Def earlier this year, and it is the best choice l've ever made. My portfolio is rounding up to almost a million and I have realized that when a stock makes it to the news, chances are you're quite late to the party, the idea is to get in early on blue chips before it becomes public. There are lots of life changing opportunities in the market, and maximize it.
Investing can be a powerful tool for building wealth and securing financial stability especially in this hard time. but it’s important to understand that it’s not without its challenges. The investment landscape is inherently volatile, with periods of both gains and losses. This variability is a natural part of investing and requires a clear strategy and patience to navigate effectively.
A lot of jargon and not enough literary confirmation. This video is just as you said of the personalities mentioned another narrative formatted to suit your viewers.
One of my favourite theories from a good book on witchcraft, is that witches of the late medieval period in Europe held remnant ancient druid knowledge. Witches, it is written, were the recipients of druids knowledge that survived after the druids disappeared underground after the attack on druid groves by the Romans. Over time practices evolved to the traditional witchcraft practices we know today.
Which book is it? Sounds so good
@@Erienna872 It’s called witches druids and sin eaters. Highly recommend. Enjoy 🙂
When I first discovered modern witchcraft four years ago, I first discovered Wicca/ish stuff here on UA-cam, and believed that witch tradition stuff they were peddling. I absolutely understand the desire to have a female oriented religious tradition spanning millennia to counterbalance the patriarchy. However, I’m glad to have moved away from that narrative personally to explore the more authentic journey as a modern witch and pagan. I’m an inclusive Heathen and a witch. To just be able to define that for myself after decades of agnosticism is in large part due to your wonderful videos. The level of integrity in your content is amazing and absolutely appreciated!
I remember hearing from an academic that the worst thing you can do as a historian is perceive the people of the past through the lens of the present. Your perspective is much appreciated
May blessings and the spirit be poured out upon my pagan and witch friends.
I love listening to an intelligent and knowledgeable person, don't y'all?
Your Satanic rituals & agendas are REBUKED! In Jesus’ Holy Name!
Thank you.
Thank you for another thoughtful video I’ve enjoyed many of your videos over the last months
Nothing I didn't know when I was first introduced to Wicca. This is why we call it Neo-paganism. It's a new interpretation of what we suppose the old folk beliefs may have been.
Gardnerianism had been a tremendous influence because it offers a structure to the rituals, but I don't know anyone who believes these practices predate the twentieth century.
Thank you for this in-depth analysis.
A lot of people do believe that because until the 2000's that was what we were being told. Only now the more accurate academic research was coming to light.
Not only the structure, but the rituals just 'work'.
The powers passed through initiation, and the Gods present in the Circle are very real.
I think people are still very biased against Wicca. There are so many other contemporary pagan and occult practices with more extraordinary claims than Gardner, but Wicca seems to be the only one that people feel the need to scrutinise all the time.
Looking forward to checking out your album but I have to watch you first. You are a great speaker, its like listening to an old friend. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this channel.
That's such a sweet comment to read. Thank you for your kind words. I'm very happy you feel that way and that you enjoy what I do. I hope you also enjoy my music hehehe. Be well, friend :D
One of the issues I've had with the Witch boom in the 1900s is use of a word that historically was always used with "evil" in English law like "1563: 5 Elizabeth 1 c.16: An Act agaynst Conjuracions Inchantmentes and Witchecraftes." And folks that claim they do witchcraft today are incapable of describing what it is. Most use it as a synonym for "magic" which seems counter productive and pointless to me personally. However folks don't want to accept this and insist that witchcraft is an ancient pagan practice. Even though most modern witches are doing modern adaptations of a combination of Hermeticism, Qabalah and Folks practices.
Great video Arith, thanks!
Thank you!
When I was initiated I was taught that Religion is for people who want to avoid going to Hell. Spirituality, on the other hand, is for those who have already been there.
That makes a LOT of sense.
@@GeistInTheMachine Religion is really just crystallized spirituality. Sometimes, it's reversed, with deleterious effects on nature and people who are part of nature.
For example, the serpent or dragon proves the common origin of all Pagan systems, from the most ancient of times....from the dawning of antiquity. We all have Kundalini after all. Yet because of the teachings of some misguided and sexually inhibited patriarchal type Religious people, the serpent is now mainly seen as somehow evil.
😮
@@horse433 🍎
You aint seen nothing yet if you already been
Thank you, Arith. Another great piece. Bom Sorte.
I think it says more about Margaret that she assumed that a group of women on the same vibration with the earth and beyond would submit to a cruel male figure. The idea that a woman's power is in the hands of such a deity minimizes the strength that being attuned to energies provides. And it shows deep seeded cultural ideas of the time, that a woman cannot possibly stand alone, cannot possibly hold power within herself.
Edit: I just got to the part where you mentioned that she possibly created this male figurehead in order to make it more digestible for society of the time. Either way, it is utter nonsense regardless of whether she did it for that purpose or because she herself could not imagine powerful women without male oversight.
Greetings from Tiffin, Ohio USA. Blessed be.
I read a comment on another channel where a European woman was discussing "shamanism" and the person who commented went on and on about how she had been practicing some version of "shamanism" for the past 30 years while living in Missouri, USA. She just connected "shamanism" with animism while watching this recent video. Ironically, this person lives in the former honelands of Native tribes including the Osage and other diaspora people from the ancient village of Cahokia which was established circa 500 BCE and Missouri is adjacent to the Koster site in Illinois where paleo-Indians were living around 9,000 years ago. All were practicing ceremonies that included animism. It's true that most Native ceremonies are closed to outsiders although some non-Native people have learned certain practices but the problem is that they usually get domineering and are eventually shunned by Natives because ego is the opposite of spiritual growth. It's very understandable that Europeans would like to return to their pre-Christian pagan roots but well over a thousand years of the absence of a connection makes it almost impossible to reconnect. From my own experience with being around non-Native neo-pagan friends is that it's very difficult to break away from the church structure of a male leader, levels of experience and accomplishments, etc. It's hard to believe as a Native person from one tribe, that Europeans practiced a pan-European pagan type of belief system. I know that when I was married to someone from a distant tribe with a different language stock, I always felt like a foreigner and outsider. There are tribes in the U.S. even if our modern information and ability to travel era, that I have barely heard of, never visited and know almost nothing about although we are all considered and recognized as "Native" tribal people. We have almost nothing in common. The idea that there would have been a vast pan-pagan belief system in Europe with the broad groups, different areas of Europe and different languages is hard to believe.
😊Thankyou, always interesting content.
Just found your channel, but after browsing titles, I watched your farewell video first. Glad you are still making content. I love everything I have seen so far.
Another good video with great information. Thank you!
Always appreciate you Arith :) ❤️🔥
Handsome
Thanks for keeping it real, Arith. You’re still one of my best finds during the pandemic lockdowns. 🙏🌀💚
I've been reading Ronald Hutton's "Triumph of the Moon" and his discourse has really opened my eyes to how "modern western witchcraft" was indeed recently crafted by people seeking to find spiritual depth beyond the Christian rhetoric. The result for me is I now look past the popular masonic/thelemic/wiccan influences and practices, and have started delving deeper into the academic literature and research on ancient spirituality. This is why I enjoy your channel so much, you cite your sources and provide resources for further independent research!! You're the best!! 😊
You should also question what the academia says.
Right, it seems like modern "witches" were just mad at Mommy and Daddy, want to be spooky and liked Harry Potter too much 😐. They don't have this connection with God thru nature.
True! I started out the same but delving deeper into certain parts of witchcraft and later paganism I started feeling more spiritual with the older practices.
@@O_Ciel_Phant0mhive Why don't you just go out in Nature, observe it and make your own connections. That's what people in the past did. Our connections are different because our world and our civilization is different.
So much information I was unaware of. Great video 🍻
I knew about Gardner but not Murray
I appreciate you and all of your hard work, Arith. Thank you for another great, and educational video, my dear friend 🖤I will watch the other video referred to in this one, next 🤗 I hope things are going very well for you!!
My dear friend, I'm always happy to have your feedback and see you comment. Thank you very much, as always! All is well around here. All the best to you and yours!
Great as always, thank you so much for this Sir, lot of love!
Hey! How have you been? :D Hope all is well with you. Thank you, and have a wonderful day!!!
Very nice! 🔥
Wow great idea for a definitive version as you said.
Thank you very much.
Wonderful insight and analysis! This is a very interesting topic to dissect. ❤🙏 Good thors day to you and everyone in the community.
Thank you my dear friend. Have a wonderful day!!!
@@ArithHärger 🙏
An eye opener indeed. Thank you Arith for separating the wheat from the chaff. Very interesting video. Thank you and take care.
Thank you my dear friend..be well and take care. Have a wonderful day!
Also the guy of the White Goddess book, Grove I think was his last name, made such a big influence building on Wiccan beginings besides Murray or the Aradian movement.
Excellent work! I see that at the end of your video you practice bibliomancy... :) Thank you for sharing valuable information with us!
You sir know how to know! thank you for your work peace ✌️
Excelente tema e assunto importante sempre a ser discutido e explicado!
Antes de terminar de ver o vídeo já espero como sempre algo outstanding and awesome ❗️💯👍🏻
Best wishes my Bro 😊
Thanks for your existence🙏🙏🙏💙
Leonardo da Ilha do Marajó Pará Brasil
Thank you my good friend. Always happy to know you enjoy my videos! Grande abraço!
Supliscafis indeedicus!
Always nice to find some excitement and interest in things that are found in the spaces in-between. 🌜
❤,❤,❤,❤,❤ a five heart review. Bravo. Blessings.
Big like awesome interesting watch ⌚ 👌 like and subscribed.
I remember when I was 14 years old, Aradia was the first witch book I got my hands on. And I actually believed Murray's hypothesis (yes, at that time wicca meant witchcraft to me).
Later, as I read books by ethnographers like Carlo Ginzburg and Éva Pócs, my opinion changed quite a bit. I realised that this was the witchcraft I was looking for.
It's a pity that there was no Arith Härger channel at the time to give such a good explanation on the subject.
Bonjour M. Arith, beau travail. Vous avez beaucoup de dans, de votre chaîne beaucoup demandent un livre avec l’enregistrement de leurs thèmes !? Je suis d’accord, ce serait très intéressant pour la consultation et rester pour que d’autres s’enrichissent de vos connaissances, faisons-le ? Merci 🌷
Good video Arith, yes there were "magical" folklore beliefs throughout Europe and through the centuries but they were tied to Christianity. Charms, sacred healing wells, rituals even necromancy as practiced throughout were based on Christian beliefs, same with Alchemy and other pseudosciences. We know that to draw folk in to Christianity they modelled a lot of what was already going on with a Christian twist.
The men and women killed, it's interesting the further North you look the more men were also killed throughout Europe, believed in Christianity (perhaps some were atheist but they wouldn't have spoken that out loud).
It seems to be that classic push back against modernisation, the romantic era where so many folk began delving into these "folk beliefs" through scholarly works etc and then we had the Victorians and they were just wild.
Victorians always be making shit up
I often wondered if someone could look into the what the Catholic Church forbid in a certain region. Maybe that will give Clues to what was actually practiced.
Like if a region practice a tradition regularly the priest would complain about the Regional practice to the pope and higher up.
These letters were the ones that also helped to disassemble the culture in that area by telling the leaders of the church what to Target next.
It goes deeper than that I think. The Catholic Church once it took power, took a look at Roman Pagan World, adapted many things to be acceptably Christian, and rejected some other things. Here is the thing, Christianity inherited Greco-Roman religious baggage of an older forgotten time. The Pagan Romans and Greeks already had religious views of evil things they considered “witchcraft”. Things about the Saturnian world they did not like if you will.
Just like early Christianity, somewhere in the Mediterranean past the “new order Olympian order” co-opted many things from the older religion, and suppressed the elements they were unhappy with such as human sacrifice. The old ways that were acceptable ultimately became things like the Mystery religions, such as the Eleusinian Mysteries. (I am using Olympian here for simplicity’s sake. An Egyptian perspective might view it as the context of the Osiris myth between Seth and Osiris.)
This concept is also far larger than just Europe, the Mediterranean, and Christianity. You can see similar things to the older shamanist religions in Asia with the early adoption of Buddhism and early Hindu Vedic beliefs where the Shamanist religions are forced to the lowest rungs of societies that adopt the new religions. Long story short, there are isolated minority groups all over the world who cling to their old, pre-Olympian, pre-Buddhist traditions. Little pockets and hamlets of the earth where the rest of the world has little interest in visiting. Usually up in the mountains or on their islands.
thank you Arith, .
Thank you. It's been an honour
YES! As an author writing about witchcraft, it is incredible how often these prejudices and myths appear in mainstream academic works.
Do you have other books published about witchcraft? Yeah I can relate to that feeling, I also get annoyed by fantasy and romantasy book which never ever gets the representation correctly and just pushing the goddess worship wicca
@@Erienna872 Not yet. Truth is, I AM writing a historical fantasy novel of sorts 😅, but like you I had no interest in the “goddess worship secret religion” stuff. I feel that actually does a disservice to women and men of the period who were abused. I am really interested in which TRIALS, I would say, and the process of mass psychosis that takes hold in seemingly stable communities. Sorry for the long response, but I can absolutely recommend historical books if you are looking around for more.
For the algorithm.
Im a traditional folk witch and work more with the spirits of a place, the land, the ancestors and practices to heal the enegies of the land. I also practice Druidry and work with both norse and celtic traditions. Then there is the past lifes of egyptian paganism in a lot of us. I agree there has been a lot of modern practices but at the same time if Wicca never came to be i wonder how safe i would be as a witch in England which is still a religous country. The vikings were here as was the germanic anglo saxons and the romans. lots of history in the celtic isles. We can take the history and leaen from it and will makes us better witches. Also a point many modern witches focus too much on asthetics and you really dont need us this stuff to practice and connect with the gods. New age paganism is almost corrupting the old but if we read the books the knowlege is there.
Raven Grimassi's works show a lot of religious links for ancient Greek and Roman witch cults, example the Witches of Benevento (worshippers of the Goddess, Diana). And Circe and Medea who workshipped Hecate and conjured spells in her name, as priestesses. Then we also have the accounts of Charles Leland speaking of La Vecchia Religione (see Etruscan Roman Remains, and Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling), and how he studied under witches in Tuscany who maintained threads of ancient Roman and Etruscan religious themes. Also see the witch cult of Lake Nemi, of Diana and Rex Nemorensis. His full research can be found in his books: Italian Witchcraft, Hereditary Witchcraft, and Witchcraft: A Mystery Religion.
Good morning sir.
Good as always, congratulations. Thanks
Thank you!
danke!
Arith, you never cease to amaze me.. Her therory, and all accounts ofcour ancestors are lies based on old christanity,, it's written/ proven in GREEK, accounts.. We know Christians... Yet, ive always wondered why my mothers name was Ardai?
I like the accurate way in which you speak
The Work of Fraziers Golden Bought isn't a work of fiction, he actually went around to many cultures and recorded what they did. Now, his conclusion may be wrong, but it's not a 22 volume work of fiction. Much of what's in the Golden Bought is valuable and has been used for further study of the cultures he was studying, and it's been found that 95% of the traditions he recorded are still practiced by indigenous people.
The sun of what you're saying in this video is true, there is not ancient witchcraft religion, but some details are incorrect. Such as the 3 I've already listed within the comments.
Truly great vid. Love your stuff kick on love it. ❤️❤️❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍💯💥
🎉Saluti da Italia - Russia🎉
Thank you for this video, so accurate and full of detailed explanations. I really appreciate your work, I think you are very prepared and it is truly a joy to find a new video of yours, every time.
I find this particular aspect of history endlessly fascinating, that is to say the "gaps" in historical knowledge that can come about, mostly due to the nonexistence of concrete evidence but also due to things like recontextualization due to new evidence, both of which we see here. I can see how the idea could be pretty upsetting to people who saw/felt something true in the spirit of say Wicca, or Christianity but felt a sort of betrayal/disappointment when they found out a pretty important historical fact had been found to be more fiction. Ive certainly been that person, its led me to realize that the ultimate "truth" of the (God)s can exist within an individual person, potentially any person but ultimately nowhere else. "truth" being something that can change every time we are corrected/learn something new and also a perfect timeless concept that would persist past the gentle touch of Death and on to eternity...
Haven’t gotten underway with the video because I went to band camp to look for your album Ritual and it didn’t come up. I tried using just your name and Frith was the only thing that came up. Am I missing something?
This link: varumn.bandcamp.com/
Does it work? My project is called Var Umn.
I was reading about Margaret Murray at the beginning of this week. Thanks a lot, Arith, I'm loving this series of videos this month. Forte abraco, e muito sucesso!
Thank you! Hope it was useful! Forte abraço!
TY
Thank you!
the "little people" thing is true
in that instead of hobbits they were
just typical hunter gatherers
(where the male is like 150cm
tall).
probably a couple of those graves
all around europe.. Si unite :)
giants are much harder to explain,
i just read that even native
americans had legends about them
(maybe just some taller tribe).
to a 150cm tall 180cm is a giant,
200cm is a tree!
Speaking of hobbits, there's a human species that was indeed named "hobbit" when it was found. The Homo floresiensis ("Flores Man"). They inhabited the island of Flores (Indonesia) until the arrival of modern humans about 50,000 years ago. They never left, so it is highly unlikely they passed on their knowledge in magic to European witches or anyone else. Evidences point to an hostily interaction from the part of modern humans towards these little fellows, which were pushed away until they were extinct. However, myths about giants can very well come from the interaction between Neanderthals and Homo Erectus, which means, modern humans' myths on giants are not our own, but the stories Neanderthals told about the Homo Erectus to modern humans.
yep. hobbits are real :)
oh, the giant thing, it´s probably
because they were all cannibals..
eating human meat probably
makes you taller, which of course
it does.
it would have probably worked out
for them, if it wasn´t for all the pesky
animal meat eaters!
damn (diversity lost).
May this information spread widely!
Thanks a lot for your preciuos work, so much needed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you for watching and listening. Many blessings to you!
I have done a great deal of research to try to find more information about this very subject, but to no real avail. One would assume that such a pseudo-religion actually did exist with the advent of such tomes as the "Malleus Maleficarum". Perhaps a more comprehensive sect did once exist, although any evidence of it can only be found in fragments and loose references.The words "witchcraft" and "paganism" are very vague and can't really be specifically delineated or ascribed to any specific religion or culture.
One of my greatest grievances as a practicing Heathen is the double standard that gets applied to us in regards to "historicity." Many non-pagans think it's perfectly fine to dismiss and belittle our beliefs if they don't conform strictly to ritual forms and religious dogma for 1,000 years ago, when their own practice isn't even older than 200. It's such a double standard, and one that has no bearing on the spiritual authenticity of the practice and the practitioners working today.
The Greek sources (stories and myths) are probably some of the most reliable and extensive ones - with names such as Hecate and Medea lingering in the air. One may argue they are just stories and myths. At the same time we know that the Oracle of Delphi was regarded as one of the most important institutions in the ancient world. Then there's the problem regarding the definition of the Witch. Are the Witches practicing folk magic simply descendents of the Priestesses which belonged to the mystery cults? If so I'd probably label the Priestesses as the arch witches of old (especially since the theme is religion, witchery as a craft: organised/ritualised/initiation protocols, and not solo or small local farmer's local group gatherings). I've followed Ammon Hillman's work on youtube, and it's actually difficult not to see the common traits between the Scandinavian "witches" and the Greek "witches". Both used drugs and both induced trances in order to prophecy. They were in both cultures often mentioned as midwives, utilizing their plant medicines in many areas.
Shamanism is the root of all of it, globally.
@@soulsonicfx3826 Exactly. It’s just Shamanism. In my opinion, a specific off-brand “agricultural” version of shamanism. It was the religion of the agricultural revolution, the mystery on how to make crops grow consistently. They were the religious plant cultists/weirdos of an orthodox nomadic pastoral shaman world.
Witchcraft is just the derogatory European term for elements of this older religion, coming from earlier views of the Greco-Roman Olympian order of paganism on the aspects of the Saturnian world they rejected.
@@DataBeingCollected You're saying you disagree with Arith's analysis, and his views on shamanism and folk beliefs generally.
@soulsonicfx3826 I don’t think I am mis-understanding Arith’s main point here. After you read this and still disagree with me, let me know! This is the very first video I have watched of his channel, so I might not fully appreciate his position. I also think this might be a matter of semantics and how he (or you) defines religion, as opposed to what I define as religion.
A big part of Arith’s video is discrediting the idea that there was an older single unified European “witchcraft” religion. That the modern belief of a “witchcraft” religion is essentially a romantic fantasy that is a reaction against Christianity. I am in full agreement with Arith on this. Modern paganism claiming to be the same “religion” of the ancient past that all of Europe followed before Christianity IS inaccurate.
My claim says that at some point in the distant path, there was a specific set of new folk beliefs that grew out of Shamanism which I personally call “religion” for simplicities sake, but could be accurately described as “folk beliefs” just as easily. I will still call it religion in this specific case, because my position does argue that is where agricultural shamanism eventually headed. You probably are seeing this part and going “Isn’t that just Arith’s witchcraft with a different name?”
My position, (which is speculative) states that the introduction of alien(outsider, not space alien) agricultural folk beliefs into non-agricultural cultures would ultimately create cultures that would seem “un-natural” by those who did not practice it. An un-natural/magical outlier in the world of Hunter-Gatherer Shamanist “Orthodoxy” if you will. Farming IS weird. Farming IS magical. These people don’t travel, yet they are able to have an endless supply of food year after year from the same empty fields where they perform their weird fertility magic and plants grow. I take my car to the mechanic, he performs his weird mechanic magic, and my car runs better. That is weird.
It’s Cargo-Cult Agriculture. Anyone who wanted to harness the power of yearly crops would find it impossible not to adopt the “cult” of agriculture and all the spiritual baggage that comes with the originators. We can point to a few spots in the world where we can confidently go “agriculture started here independently”, so I think it is safe to say that the spiritual customs of those who figured out how to grow crops ended up spreading that collection of ideas, both practical and spiritual, far and wide. See Arith’s explanation at 3:40. He says “It may contain several religious concepts within it, it was never about religion. It was about actively manifesting an intention (mastery of crops for food) through a series of magical practices (early cult of agriculture) to change life. ” I think what I am saying is in alignment with that statement. It is clear that the Neolithic package spread like wildfire across Eurasia once someone somewhere figured agriculture out, so I don’t think what I am saying is a big stretch of the imagination.
That is what I mean by “Saturnian World”, which is really just a nod to romanticized Greco-Roman “Olympian” pagan world view. Just like modern Wicca, the Greeks had a romanticized and inaccurate view of their “Saturnian Past” that was reflected in their mythology (Cronus), the Mystery religions (The parts of the older beliefs they adapted into their belief system) and their own ideas of witchcraft (the parts of the older belief system that they rejected/suppressed). This is not unique to the Greeks, you see the same thing all over Eurasia where Shamanist belief systems become cast to the lowest rungs of society and get replaced with newer religions. (Tibetan Shamanism becomes Bon, which becomes Buddhism for one simplification.) Another reason why Arith says the “pan-European ancient religion” makes no sense. If it did, you have to account for outside of Europe as well.
Where you say that I “disagree with Arith” you might be thinking I’m just replacing “Witchcraft Religion” with “Agricultural Shaman Religion”. But there is a big difference here. I am talking about a specific point in time in the past where things converged, and then quickly spread out and changed again with each culture it contacted. With that change, it might have kept some residual common beliefs or practices. This is vastly different from an unchanging dogma of “True Pan-European Pagan Witchcraft”. If there ever was a time where conditions were right for an “old ancient religion”, I think that the closest we are going to get is the Neolithic revolution, which is clearly not a religious revolution. Religion just came with it like fries in a combo meal. They just knew some stuff those weirdos did worked, so they either talked to them and “converted”, or just copied it. Others rejected it and stayed as hunter-gatherers, or became pastoralists in regions where the plant magic didn’t work. After awhile, everyone knew what made farming work and had it figured it out. Some of those early beliefs became residual traditions that hint at this “Saturnian World.”
These videos here are just one modern anthropological example. An “earlier” version of maypole traditions if you will.
Portugal
ua-cam.com/video/zZImI3p4e08/v-deo.html
Nepal
ua-cam.com/video/wS-0My_ixT0/v-deo.html
Korea
ua-cam.com/video/ilREFrZAReY/v-deo.html
I love Aradia. Lucifer is reliable to call upon. As a Witch. Aradia is in us all when we call up the Old Ways especially. I have a belief in our own defense we can call upon Lucifer and Aradia for divine help.I have in the past. Lucifer is very reliable as is Aradia.Thanks Arith for posting about this subject.
Witch religion do you mean, specifically? Happy Halloween...
Very good book reviews Arith thank you. I live in Essex, England, a lot of history around here. I've never found a witch cult btw. The peculiar people were around for a while. The witch trials however, as mentioned, was a mad genocide if women, by men who created their influence. But even wives would accuse a woman if being a witch. If she seduces the husband. Centuries of iron against women, they even blamed Eve when Adam couldn't control himself. I prefer the green witch path personally. Great listening to you again . Best wishes Dawn
Many many men were also persecuted as witches, let's not forget their lives, too.
@@RyanEdmondsMyLifeAsRyan couldn't forget them no. But in comparison the women suffered, even from husbands. Back then. It's improving a bit now. 😉
@@RyanEdmondsMyLifeAsRyan
As you know, it was far and away men losing their minds and turning against their own women.
Many postulate reasons for this from ergot poisoning to the effect of the written word on the brain.
I see a hateful and organized attempt to strip women of their power in America now.
It would not surprise me if the extreme members of a certain group here decided to burn women as an example again.
“Breed or d i e.”
Strange and terrifying.
A way to get rid of all the seers, prophetess, wise women for a patriarchal system. But I imagine that certain woman under duress and about to die would make everyone around fear them. A final rebellious act. (And may the Valkyrie summon me home 😉)
I know of one that's pretty close to you
In Nepal healing traditions like shamanism, witchcraft and others are still alive. Witches have an other training, different methods and working times than shamans. Both are working on different levels.
I think it is one and the same at one point.
A branch out of nomadic shamanism to form a new religion of the Neolithic revolution, the arrival of the “Saturnian World”, of Cronus, of the Sickle, of the Harvest. A conversion and initiation into the mysteries of agriculture from the outside hunter-gatherer world. A world of fields, and seasonal transhumance of the pastoral herds, a semi-migration within range of one’s productive sacred fields as a nod to the traditions of the old pastoral ways.
I believe that Witchcraft is merely the exonym derogatory term of this agricultural shamanism, that ultimately symbolizes the elements of the decentralized old world order that the new “Olympian” order rejected. The “low, evil peasant magic” vs “high ceremonial state magic” of the pagan world.
You see similar reactions to Asian Shamanism in relation to early Vedic Hinduism and Buddhism, where elements of the old shamanist practices were adapted, while certain aspects were rejected, with the shamans consigned to the bottom rungs of societies that adopted the new religious order. In my opinion, that is what the Sarpa Satra is ultimately about.
Here is something you might find interesting from a modern anthropological standpoint. Could be coincidence, but I personally think that this just one of many hints to the Saturnian world!
Galicia Portugal
ua-cam.com/video/zZImI3p4e08/v-deo.html
Kirat people in Nepal (Part of Kirat Mudhum Udhauli, literally “To go down”)
ua-cam.com/video/wS-0My_ixT0/v-deo.html
Korea
ua-cam.com/video/ilREFrZAReY/v-deo.html
If the tradition is to continually change then changes don't change it.
LeLand didn't create Aradia, he was given that information by an Italian servant who he knew. Now, whether or not she made it up it can be argued, but LeLand took it at face value because he just got done doing his research for Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune-telling. Whether he is at fault for that is irrelevant.
The catalyst of what you said on this is true, but the details was off. LeLand didn't create Aradia. He was told about it.
I am a member of the Luciferian group the Temple of Ascending Flame, which involves a modern form of witchcraft that evolved out of influences such as Hermetic Qabalah, Jewish Kabbalah, Crowley, Kenneth Grant, left-handed Tantra, and the Dragon Rouge group. There's a lot of work with dark Pagan deities and the demons of the Qliphoth or Tree of Knowledge, which represents a shadow side of the Sephiroth/Tree of Life and kind of resembles medieval witch confessions in some ways.
The left-handed principles of transgression and self-deification involve introducing a form of experience that has an opposite polarity to one's ingrained subconscious cultural conditioning to free oneself from mental slavery and to awaken the latent potential of atavistic subconscious instincts so that the beastly instinctual energies can be sublimated to facilitate spiritual and magical evolution. It may be relatively new and intense, but I view it as helpful for people who wish to reclaim their innate power from Christian brainwashing and modern materialism.
"Materialism" here just means "demanding actual evidence for claims".
Your stuff isn't different from Christianity. You just don't have the power and 2000 years of history for it have had severe consequences.
This book sounds a lot like what i had read about medieval satanism. Controled by bishops, this ties to the templars and Jesuit's.
Good video. Its not difficult to see how antisemitism was part of the witchtrials across so called Europe (one brief line of Sylvia Federici's Caliban And The Witch references this history). Blood libel accusations sound so similar 😞
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Witchcraft has always existed as a fringe source of manipulative power. Every culture has always had and feared witches. Witchcraft became a religion in the 20th century and I'm fine with that. It fiils a need.
Yep, witchcraft seems to have survived. UA-cam has Ginny Metheral, a fourth generation Irish witch, at least that's what she says at the beginning of her videos.😎
My wife learned her Craft from her Irish grandmother, so it's a thing that really happens.
ggodmmamn Which Witch is Which??
Jews suppressed Asherah, wife of YHVH, and this was carried on by Christians.
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This is why I don't claim to be a witch... I consider myself as a seerees or a volva, but not a witch. It's to much in connection to the Christian faith imo and not the Norse.
I'm just here for the man. 😅😅 just kidding, it was very educational.
7:15 - damn accent
kaballah is neither European nor the original Semitic system of magick. i wish i could say more but i have study to do.
Murray should be remembered for her pioneering feminism and early work under difficult physical and social conditions in the domain of Egyptology, as I am sure Arith knows but others may not. Hearing about her witch hypotheses really makes me cringe and a bit sad because Murray is known by the public for that work, which frankly speaking is just pure crap, instead of her early struggles as a woman working in Egyptology. Murray made a large number of dubious claims during her research career. By any objective criterion she really was not very good at either gathering data and was especially bad at analyzing it. She is also a good example of the bad practice of becoming well known on account of promoting ideas in the popular press that do not pass rigorous academic review.
Regarding the swastikas, it's always hilarious when westerners come to Japan, look at the manji on the maps, and get puzzled🤣
Thank you for your wonderful video
So many were burned, drowned or stoned because of the zeal of religious idiots. So much knowledge was lost and that's one reason I believe why they persecuted wise women and men because the church wanted to control everyone and everything. Today the knowledge is coming back and I have never been in a coven, that is not the way I was brought up, it is an inside belief. THe Gods are in our heart and our connection to them comes from love, honor and belief in the land. Great video Arith.
I want to be a viking Right down to believing in bodily magic baby doors and lightning bolts from Thor's hammer in the sky. And if you don't believe in that, you're a fake witch.
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@@alicecarmin6646 🌻🌻🌻
Como sempre :b hehehe
I love the grounded reality of this channel!!
Retirement took a toll on my finances, but I am so excited with my involvement in the digital market. $37k weekly has been life changing. Regardless of how bad it gets on the economy.
Impressive! Been trying to trade on my own for a while now, but it isn't going well. few months ago I lost about $8,500 in the trade. Can you please at least advise me on what to do?
Yeah!!!
I started t with Maira Angelina Alexander in 2021 and now my life is good some thing to write home about!!!! I thank God the most He alone made it possible for the opportunity to come my way 🤲🤲🤲🤲
I would really like to know how this actually works.
I began investing in stocks and Def earlier this year, and it is the best choice l've ever made. My portfolio is rounding up to almost a million and I have realized that when a stock makes it to the news, chances are you're quite late to the party, the idea is to get in early on blue chips before it becomes public. There are lots of life changing opportunities in the market, and maximize it.
Investing can be a powerful tool for building wealth and securing financial stability especially in this hard time. but it’s important to understand that it’s not without its challenges. The investment landscape is inherently volatile, with periods of both gains and losses. This variability is a natural part of investing and requires a clear strategy and patience to navigate effectively.
A lot of jargon and not enough literary confirmation. This video is just as you said of the personalities mentioned another narrative formatted to suit your viewers.