| The subject of Witchcraft has fascinated people for | | | | therefore undesirable. |
| literally thousands of years. For the first one | | | | It was around this time that Witchcraft came to be |
| thousand years of Christianity, the "new" religion of | | | | lumped in with Satanism (which was actually nothing |
| those times, traditional witchcraft existed happily | | | | more than a byproduct of Christianity) and black |
| alongside it. In fact, many of the early Christian | | | | magic. The persecution of Pagans, highlighted by the |
| priests served double duty, also being priests of the | | | | Inquisition, grew into the blackest chapter in religious |
| Old Religion and leaders of the Pagan worshipers. | | | | history. It is believed that as many as nine million |
| Religion and magic have been decisively associated | | | | people were put to death on charges of "witchcraft". |
| from humankind's very beginnings. Traditional | | | | Many of them were terribly tortured in the name of |
| Witchcraft was not originally considered a religion in | | | | the God of love and peace. It was not until the end |
| itself, but rather a practice. In Western Europe, the | | | | of the twentieth century that Pope John Paul II, on |
| Pagan religious beliefs incorporated belief in, and | | | | behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, apologized for |
| worship of, a God and Goddess who were closely | | | | this travesty of justice. |
| attuned to nature and to the earth itself. There were | | | | In 1951 England, the last laws against traditional |
| celebrations of the seasons, the passage of the sun, | | | | Witchcraft were repealed. Three years later a book |
| and the phases of the moon. Witchcraft practices | | | | was published, written by Gerald Gardner who |
| were an integral part of that Pagan religion. | | | | professed to be an actual Witch. According to |
| It was not until the start of the second thousand | | | | Gardner, the witches of old had not all been |
| years of Christianity that Witchcraft, and Paganism in | | | | exterminated, they had simply gone into hiding to |
| general, was painted in a negative light by the leaders | | | | continue their beliefs and practices without |
| of the new religion. Early Christian leaders decided | | | | harassment. This became the beginning of the |
| that the way to promote what they saw as the | | | | neo-pagan movement the resurrection of the old |
| "only true way" was to extinguish all others. Anything | | | | religion. |
| non-Christian was considered anti-christian, and | | | | |