Witchcraft in Western Europe

Witchcraft in Western Europe

Introduction

In conventional Western culture nowadays, witchcraft beliefs are mainly distinguished as superstition, and the image driven by the media of the female witch with the black pointed hat, green face and the broomstick is mostly found at Halloween, when kids dress as a range of supernatural figures to gather candies from neighborhood houses (Greenwood, 2000). In the past, Western witchcraft beliefs are usually linked with intense eras of witch trials in Europe. In addition, there is a rising movement of individuals who practice a Neopagan religion known as Wicca (Greenwood, 2000). The practitioners of Wicca have regained the term witchcraft and connect it with the utilization of magic for helpful purposes.

Discussion

All over the world, the term witchcraft undertakes various connotations. In Western Europe, the term witch has been utilized by women as a basis of individual religious expression and empowerment to detach themselves from conventional religions (Marwick, 1970). In other regions of the world, for instance the Arabic peninsula and sub-Saharan Africa witches and the witchcraft practice are met with rigorous opposition, execution and litigation. In both meanings, witchcraft is most normally seen as a conflict with mainstream political and religious forces. The social conditions of each country settle on the means in which the normal population acts in response to perceived or self-identified witches (Marwick, 1970).

In majority of cases, the term witch is tantamount with an outcast or someone allied with mysterious magical knowledge that can be utilized for harm or for good. Witchcraft entails a number of different practices, from healing spells to casting curses. Witches may be called for help or perhaps liable for communal hard luck. In all scenarios, the use of magic is perceived as a substitute to normal practices. The possibility for magic to break down or to be used for malicious purposes brings about a fear of witches in a number of communities (Murray, 1962). Witchcraft is perceived as a dynamic type of religion in which magic is engaged to achieve particular ends; this is at times in direct resistance to conventional socio-religious structures, wherein religion is utilized to build bindings in and among societies.

Witchcraft is usually practiced in areas and countries with a record of colonialism. Since witchcraft is a substitute to the normal religio-political system, which usually functions on a model of patriarchal hierarchy, witches tend to be females. Males who take part in witchcraft at times break or bend conventional gender roles on account of their power to function outside of conventional religious narratives (Evans-Pritchard, 1976). Consequently, individuals who self-identify as or who are named as witches all over the world tend to unduly be women, members of the perplexing community, or members of a subjugated racial group.

The role of a witchcraft as a substitute of the conventional gives it double existence as a place of discrimination and a place of power. Depending on the nation and socioeconomic conditions, witchcraft is embraced, tolerated or punished. It is in addition significant to observe the social distinctions between those who self-identify as witches and those ...