Biblical Witchcraft

Witchcraft is biblical. Well, it's in the Bible, so depending on how you define "biblical" - witchcraft is "biblical." Not surprisingly, though, the Bible condemns any form of witchcraft, or any related thing. But what exactly did the people of the ancient Near East (Israel and their neighbors) consider witchcraft?  Well it sure wasn't the modern cultural version of witches and wizards that we picture today. 

 Putting up a picture of Wendy & Casper instead of 

Harry Potter probably gives you a clue as to how old I am.

Witchcraft and related things, as described in the Old Testament, were ways that people tried to find favor with the gods. The gods were finicky. They had to bribe them and cajole them to get things to go their way. Well, that's how it started. Witchcraft soon developed into a way to control the gods. While they did not use wands, or big black cauldrons, they did use potions, incantations, hymns and prayers. It basically boiled down to bribing the gods and stroking their egos; or pulling their puppet strings. There were also branches of spiritualism that that tried to interact with the dead instead of gods.


There is a story about a witch in the Bible, you know her as the Witch of Endor. Only... she wasn’t a witch. If you are not familiar with the story go to 1 Samuel 28 and give it a quick read. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Strange story right? Let's take a quick look at what's going on in the story.

First, she wasn't a witch, she was a person who practiced necromancy, she talked to the dead. 

"I see dead people."

These were usually old women and they are called, “ghost mistresses.”  (Now, now...not that kind of mistress. Get your mind out of the gutter.) Ghost mistresses tried to bribe the dead to come back and visit their old earthly stomping grounds. Ghost mistresses are well known in a variety of ancient near east cultures. In those cultures the dead were thought to live in the underworld – literally under your feet. So if you want to talk to them there’s one thing you've got to do…dig a hole! This "witch" didn't have a cauldron, she had a pit. Ghost mistresses did a variety of things to entreat the dead to come visit. How do you bribe the dead? What does a dead person want? Food, of course! The restaurants in the underworld aren't exactly 5 star quality. So ghost mistresses placed food in the pit, along with other things meant to entice the dead to take a little vacation.

Whether or not the ghost mistresses were successful is a whole other topic. Basically, I think it’s possible - in a way. I believe there is a spiritual realm and that for ghost mistresses to thrive in the ancient world they had to have some results of some kind. Maybe they were just charlatans or maybe demonic activity brought them some form of results. Both probably happened.

The great thing about the story of the witch of Endor... she freaked out when Samuel actually appeared. Freaked out! Even though a disguised Saul asked her to bring him up from the dead, the lady was extremely shocked. Why? She wasn't expecting it! So either the lady was a charlatan and didn't expect anything real to happen, or the real Samuel was so different from what the demonic activity usually showed her that she peed her pants.

"A ghost!!"

So did Samuel really come back as a ghost? I don't know. But I think it's great that even though Saul had sinned greatly God had a sense of humor. "Okay, Saul, you want to talk to Samuel. Fine. But you're going to regret it!" Better yet, imagine what Samuel thought. He was hanging with God in the afterlife when God turns to him and says, "Hey Samuel, are you up for a little field trip?" And people think the Old Testament is boring. Ha!

So witches existed in Bible times. But it was all about manipulating or controlling the gods. And God actually used a "witch" to deliver a message to Saul. But remember, just because God used it does not mean it receives his seal of approval. 

THEY HAVE WITCHES, TOO? WITCHCRAFT IN NON-WESTERN CULTURES

Adam Jones recently posted an entry on ThinkingThroughChristianity about the historical traditions (or, as he argued, the lack thereof!) for witchcraft in the Western world. You can read it here. Adam and I had an interesting discussion later about the role of witchcraft in non-Western cultures, and he asked me to write a little about it for as part of our October series. NOTE: This brief introductory paragraph was supposed to: 1) explain why in the world someone would write about this topic on this blog, and 2) quickly pass the blame if you find it boring!

WHAT IS ANIMISM?

In particular I want to focus on witchcraft within a non-Western worldview called "animism." Animism is usually found in today's world in tribal cultures in the Americas, Africa, or Asia. Now there is quite a bit of variety within animistic religious systems -- just as you could talk about "monotheism" as a category, but still have great variety between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- but here are some general features of an animistic worldview:

*There is no distinction between the physical world and the spiritual world. They occupy the exact same area. As a result of this, the distinction between the secular and the sacred is a false dichotomy in an animistic worldview. It also often means that there is seldom (if ever) a strictly natural reason for something. The spirit world affects every facet of daily life and permeates the physical world.

You're looking at a busted radiator and potentially a few angry spirits clogging the exhaust system.

*The spirit beings in an animistic system are amoral. What I mean is that there are not really good or evil spirits at work in the world, at least not in the sense Westerners might think about issues of good and evil. That's not to say that there aren't malevolent spirits or ones that cause more harm than good, but in other words, animistic societies aren't worried about choosing the right side (e.g. God vs. Satan in Christianity) or hoping their side wins (e.g. some dualist systems). In fact, there aren't "sides" at all. It's an understanding of the spirit world based on power and pragmatism, more than concepts of right or wrong (Which is not to say that animists aren't moral people! Don't go there!) The problem with amoral beings, of course, is that they're just as likely to be for you as against you ... and much of the spirit world in an animistic system can be quite capricious and fickle in their actions.

Think defense lawyers with [supernatural] power ties!

*The goal of interactions with the spirit world in an animistic worldview, then, is to keep daily life ordered and stable. Please the right spirits through the right actions, convince the right spirits to help you or at least leave you the heck alone, align the community with the world in a proper way -- these are the goal of animistic "religious" life.

UM, DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT WITCHES?

So why is witchcraft such a big deal in animistic cultures? Shouldn't everyone just be painting with the all the colors of the wind or [error: awkward and embarrassing stereotype not found]? Well, let's imagine that you live in a village of a couple hundred people or so. Now just to make things interesting, let's give everyone in the village a sawed-off shotgun and a ski mask, just in case they feel like solving interpersonal conflicts through means other than hugging it out. So now we have a couple of hundred people with the ability to pretty much hurt whoever they want with anonymity and impunity. Got it?

"Rumor has it you think it's funny to eat other people's lunches out of the refrigerator at work!

Now remember how spirit beings are amoral and potentially a bit capricious when it comes to how they interact with humanity? This means you have to make sure you don't tick off the spirit world ... but it also means you have to make sure you don't tick off your neighbor, either! Maybe your neighbor has more spiritual knowledge and power than you. Maybe he decides the best way to handle your conflict is to convince some spirit beings that your crops need to fail, or even that you need to die. In other words, your disgruntled neighbor might turn to manipulation of spiritual power ... or witchcraft! (Finally! A tie-in!) And since sending a spirit after someone is really an anonymous action, you never know who is trying to get you via the spirit world.

Let's see: I think I flipped off ten people on the road yesterday. This could have been Bob, or Joe, or Sally, or ...

Then there are individuals who decide that the whole disgruntled member of the community gig is pretty sweet and decide to do it full-time. This person now becomes a witch. (It's helpful to distinguish between witches and other spiritually powerful individuals in animistic societies, such as shamans, who use their power for the community ... though, don't tick them off, either, and these lines aren't always crystal clear in every society.) A witch in an animistic context, then, is someone who has decided to say, "screw the community!" and accumulates great spiritual power for their own individual purposes and desires.

Imagine someone with tremendous connections and influence in the spirit world who doesn't give a rat's behind if your village survives, and in fact is likely to work against that end in some ways? This is why animistic societies can be just as harsh (or harsher) with those suspected to be witches as their counterparts in medieval peasant society, et al. That is, if they think the witch isn't so powerful as to be not worth messing with. Then you just do your best to not get on the witch's bad side.

BRING IT ON HOME NOW!

What is interesting to me is that, despite the differing ways that witchcraft is understood in Western and non-Western cultures, there are surprising similarities:

*Witchcraft is attractive because it gives access to real power outside of traditional ways of pursuing power within society or other established means (e.g. organized religion in Western cultures). For those who don't want to be part of society or other establishments or feel rejected by society or those establishments, witchcraft becomes a way of making it through the world -- of claiming a sense of belonging, power, and purpose ... and even taking revenge as an outcast.

*Witchcraft is terrifying because it means unimaginable power wielded by someone whose motives you don't know, and which you suspect as not being the best: they sided with the wrong side (e.g. Satan in Western cultures) or they are selfish and not committed to the good of the community (animistic cultures)

Cranky, old scholars still clinging to Marxism as a catch-all interpretive framework: History's witches.

It's fascinating to me that, although various cultures and worldviews can conceive of supernatural power and beings in very different ways, it's very possible that we are all attracted to and repulsed by supernatural power (in this case, witchcraft) for somewhat universal reasons!

Witch Museum Opens in Salem...There's Just One Problem...

...there's no such thing as a witch.

Actually, the biggest problem is that there is another witch museum already in Salem, so there will be a lot of conversations like this:

"Let's go to the museum."

"Which one?"

"Yes, that's a good museum."

"I didn't name a museum."

"Sure you did. You said 'witch' museum."

"That's not a museum."

"Yes it is. You haven't been there?"

"Which museum?"

"Exactly."

But seriously, there's a problem at the outset of this thing. Here is what the museum has to say:

We are looking to create a series of exhibits that express the Witch Community, historically and as a modern movement as well. This is something that does not exist currently in this form, and it will be a way to show a different history than what most of us been taught...

There is no historical witch movement. Many, many accusations of witchcraft were made, but always fraudulently, and the fact that any modern person would believe that those accused were actually witches proves the effectiveness of those old lies.

Let's walk through history, just a bit.

In the first century A.D., the Romans defeated and completely destroyed the Druidic movement. All documents were burned and almost no trace of them exists, today. Many modern day "witches" claim to practice their art in the Druidic tradition, but the religion of the Druids is completely unknown (as is everything else about them). The Romans were busy persecuting the church at this time, and had little ideological reason to dislike the Druidic religion (unless they were Christians); the attack was motivated by the Druid's revolution against Rome.

In the 11th century, Guibert of Nogent wrote in his memoirs that Jews were skilled in witchcraft and caused local problems through their magic spells. Guibert's knowledge of Jews and Judaism, however, was (obviously) very limited, and medieval Jewish witchcraft movements are unknown to us outside of such silly accusations.

In the 14th century, King of France, Phillip IV, put the Templars on trial for worshiping a demon named "Baphomet." I wrote a paper about this, years ago, and I was terribly disappointed to learn that the charges were made up and did not reflect any actual Templar practice - that would have made a much more interesting paper. Phillip IV had used the same trick to put the previous Pope on trial and have him deposed. To this day, people associate the Templars with Devil worship even though they were totally innocent of this.

In the 17th century, we have the infamous Salem Witch Trials. The accused were put on trial by their political opponents to took their land and money after the accused were killed. In studying these trials, we see that every accuser was part of the same political/social scene using these trials to exercise their power. There is no indication of an actual movement of witches, only of innocent people being accused and bullied into a torturous death.

We should be learning from all of this. There are no witches. Never were. Every record we have of witches is either a fraudulent court case or a spook story/urban legend. We don't have records of witches writing down lists of spells or courting demons. Witches are not a historically undermined group of people who were supressed; they are a non-existent group that only existed when someone was being falsely accused. Modern types who wish to reclaim the culture of witches are actually starting something new with an attempt to make it appear to be an ancient culture, but it is not. Witchcraft is, historically speaking, simply a lie.

(I realize that some of you are bound to assume that I wrote this because you think that a Southern Baptist must protest Witchcraft. That's not it. I am just responding to some faulty history.)