We all know that there were once witches in Britain and that christianity wiped them out. In the majority of modern witchcraft books we are told the witches were just friendly little old women, probably ugly with warts and just gave healing to people with herbs. The christians were evil barbaric monsters who burned these innocent old dears in bonfires, just because they were ugly.
Not much information actually remains about these early witches as there knowledge was burned with them to put an end to witchcraft once and for all. Some witches escaped however, and they smuggled out their knowledge with them and handed it down their families. So there has always been witchcraft but it has been carried out secretly in private.
Whilst at college I did my own research into early witchcraft and had a nasty discovery. I thought I'd find just ancient herbal cures and remedies but instead I discovered early witches in britain did sacrifice other human beings in rituals similar to the one in the film the wickerman. I couldn't find a lot of these ritual sacrifices but I found an oatcake ritual. The villagers would sit in a circle and pass around some oatcakes, (enough for each person), when they were told to stop they had to look at their oatcakes. One of them would be holding a burnt oatcake and this person would be used as a human sacrifice. This horrified me even more than the wickerman.
After this I decided not to continue my studies into witchcraft. I actually started to realise why the christians burnt the witches, in the same way as christian missionaries educated cannibals and heathens etc. all around the world.
Britain stopped sacrificing human beings after the witch burnings, (If the escaped witches continued human sacrificing however, I don't know), until the renaissance of witchcraft that was started by Aleister Crowley. There are lots of books by Aleister Crowley describing his style of witchcraft. From what I know about this man on a psychological level he was a very depressed person; He had been brought up in Victorian Britain by a very religious father which had made Aleister both deeply repressed and depressed. As psychology in those days wasn't as advanced as it is today, there wasn't any help for people with mental health problems. I think, (as with most depressants), this is why he sought guidance with the occult group the Golden Dawn. This didn't work for him and he was asked to leave. He then went on to travel the world and created his own occult movement, (including the resurection of witchcraft), naming himself the beast 666. I personally wonder if this was a very mentally ill man who was rebelling from his staunch religious upbringing. He was also a heroin addict, because in those days people didn't know how dangerous it was, when his addiction started I couldn't say but you can see the patterns forming of how he had such a demise. I can't read his books as he has absoloutly no respect for women at all, calling them whores.
I therefore have very limited knowledge on his religion, but believe this is what the white wolf and order of the nine angles are basing their organisations on. I have read there were a lot of deaths around Aleister Crowley which would point to human sacrifice. I can respect the fact that Aleister Crowley was a sad individual who initially set out to find a cure for his depression but as there was no advancement in psychology in those days he ended up spiralling down into a sick sad mess and made an idiot of himself. At the end of his life he realised what he'd done esoterically was a load of rubbish and doubted his own philosophy. The O.N.A. have got no excuse for what they've done.
The good thing to come out of Aleister Crowleys renaissance of witchcraft is the people who have taken it to a good place. There are good occultists, pagans, wiccans etc. who work with the laws of the universe. They have mixed heathen philosophies and remmedies with christianity and evolved the good parts of witchcraft, emitting the evil parts. Examples of this would be aromatherapy, reiki, feng shui etc. all of which are very acceptable to modern living. This is why I have an understanding for aleister crowley, even though his own life spiralled into a mess because of depression, because of him we know understand depression more and we have the benefits of holistic remedies.
Anybody with an ounce of intellegence can see this is where Aleister Crowley went wrong. For any modern person to create an organisation based on the theories of a severly depressed heroin addict is quite worrying.
Christianity has had its faults in the past but it too has evolved into a more modern religion. It possibly still isn't perfect but most vicars are trying to bring chritianity up to date. Even if the world was to erradicate all religions, to go back to pre christian witchcraft would be moronic. Living in villages that killed it's own villagers in human sacrifice - this surely would be a ridiculous demise into devolution. I think if this plan which has been set in motion by the o.n.a., got out to the general public there would probably be some kind of vigilante rebellion resulting in some type of witch burnings. Looking at the type of members that are in the ona it wouldn't be that hard to achieve. After the experiences I've had of late it actually strengthens my own christian beliefs and I totally understand why the early christians wiped out witchcraft.
Not much information actually remains about these early witches as there knowledge was burned with them to put an end to witchcraft once and for all. Some witches escaped however, and they smuggled out their knowledge with them and handed it down their families. So there has always been witchcraft but it has been carried out secretly in private.
Whilst at college I did my own research into early witchcraft and had a nasty discovery. I thought I'd find just ancient herbal cures and remedies but instead I discovered early witches in britain did sacrifice other human beings in rituals similar to the one in the film the wickerman. I couldn't find a lot of these ritual sacrifices but I found an oatcake ritual. The villagers would sit in a circle and pass around some oatcakes, (enough for each person), when they were told to stop they had to look at their oatcakes. One of them would be holding a burnt oatcake and this person would be used as a human sacrifice. This horrified me even more than the wickerman.
After this I decided not to continue my studies into witchcraft. I actually started to realise why the christians burnt the witches, in the same way as christian missionaries educated cannibals and heathens etc. all around the world.
Britain stopped sacrificing human beings after the witch burnings, (If the escaped witches continued human sacrificing however, I don't know), until the renaissance of witchcraft that was started by Aleister Crowley. There are lots of books by Aleister Crowley describing his style of witchcraft. From what I know about this man on a psychological level he was a very depressed person; He had been brought up in Victorian Britain by a very religious father which had made Aleister both deeply repressed and depressed. As psychology in those days wasn't as advanced as it is today, there wasn't any help for people with mental health problems. I think, (as with most depressants), this is why he sought guidance with the occult group the Golden Dawn. This didn't work for him and he was asked to leave. He then went on to travel the world and created his own occult movement, (including the resurection of witchcraft), naming himself the beast 666. I personally wonder if this was a very mentally ill man who was rebelling from his staunch religious upbringing. He was also a heroin addict, because in those days people didn't know how dangerous it was, when his addiction started I couldn't say but you can see the patterns forming of how he had such a demise. I can't read his books as he has absoloutly no respect for women at all, calling them whores.
I therefore have very limited knowledge on his religion, but believe this is what the white wolf and order of the nine angles are basing their organisations on. I have read there were a lot of deaths around Aleister Crowley which would point to human sacrifice. I can respect the fact that Aleister Crowley was a sad individual who initially set out to find a cure for his depression but as there was no advancement in psychology in those days he ended up spiralling down into a sick sad mess and made an idiot of himself. At the end of his life he realised what he'd done esoterically was a load of rubbish and doubted his own philosophy. The O.N.A. have got no excuse for what they've done.
The good thing to come out of Aleister Crowleys renaissance of witchcraft is the people who have taken it to a good place. There are good occultists, pagans, wiccans etc. who work with the laws of the universe. They have mixed heathen philosophies and remmedies with christianity and evolved the good parts of witchcraft, emitting the evil parts. Examples of this would be aromatherapy, reiki, feng shui etc. all of which are very acceptable to modern living. This is why I have an understanding for aleister crowley, even though his own life spiralled into a mess because of depression, because of him we know understand depression more and we have the benefits of holistic remedies.
Anybody with an ounce of intellegence can see this is where Aleister Crowley went wrong. For any modern person to create an organisation based on the theories of a severly depressed heroin addict is quite worrying.
Christianity has had its faults in the past but it too has evolved into a more modern religion. It possibly still isn't perfect but most vicars are trying to bring chritianity up to date. Even if the world was to erradicate all religions, to go back to pre christian witchcraft would be moronic. Living in villages that killed it's own villagers in human sacrifice - this surely would be a ridiculous demise into devolution. I think if this plan which has been set in motion by the o.n.a., got out to the general public there would probably be some kind of vigilante rebellion resulting in some type of witch burnings. Looking at the type of members that are in the ona it wouldn't be that hard to achieve. After the experiences I've had of late it actually strengthens my own christian beliefs and I totally understand why the early christians wiped out witchcraft.