Shinitenshi wrote:Lumping Witches in with Wiccans to me is like saying Protestants and Catholics are the same.
Even that comparison is too close, since Protestants and Catholics worship the same God.
Wiccans are one kind of witch, but not the kind that Palladium is talking about.
Just like Catholic Priests are one kind of priest, but not the kind that Palladium is talking about in their Priest OCC.
Complaining that Palladium Witches aren't like Wiccans is like complaining that Rifts Priests aren't like Catholic Priests.
"Wait a minute! Catholic priestss don't cast spells! They don't all know how to Dance! Most of them don't know Land Navigation, two different WPs, and Hand to Hand Basic! That's nothing like a Catholic Priest!"
It's a silly complaint that has no bearing in reality, and is only based on some kind of huge misunderstanding about the terms being used.
Most of the Wiccans I know do not call themselves Witches since they are not the same thing, so that is why I was confused.
The whole "Wiccans are witches" thing comes from Gerald Gardner's desire to use controversy to promote his religion back in the 1950s. England repealed the law against Witchcraft, so Gardner came out with his alleged ancient religion that was supposed to be witchcraft.
Not a bad PR move in the short run, because it allowed him to draw a large pool of people who wanted to feel persecuted and edgy. People alienated from Christianity (and let's face it, that's a heck of a lot of people) could rebel against Christianity while retaining the perception of moral high-ground by joining what was supposed to be an ancient religion that had faced long-standing persecution by the Christian majority.
The theory put forward was that the word "Witch" was a variation of the word "Wicca" or "Wicce," which simply meant "Wise One" in The Old Language. When Christianity invaded and took over Europe, they went about destroying local pagans and smearing their good name, spreading lies and misconceptions. Supposedly the old "Witches ride broomsticks" was based on an ancient fertility rite where wiccans would dance around a fire, then jump into the air with a broom to predict how high the crops would grow that year. The old "Witches have sex with Satan" came from a misunderstanding or deliberate corruption of the Wiccan Great Rite, and the wiccan god (aka "The Horned One") having a resemblance to certain Christian depictions of The Devil (who happened to look a heck of a lot like Pan, as did The Horned One).
And so on. It was all just a huge misunderstanding, deliberate or not, where the innocent Wiccans got painted as Satanists when they didn't even believe in Satan.
So when Gardner's religion of Wicca "came out of hiding," anybody who wanted to be controversial, feel persecuted, hold a grudge against Christians, and/or hold feelings of moral superiority, could go around saying, "I'm a witch!"
Which would stir up controversy and shocked exclamations, to which the "Witch" could respond by patiently explaining that everything the other person knows about witches is false, and that witches don't even believe in Satan, much less worship him, and in fact are a long-time persecuted minority of white people among white people.
Naturally, this appealed to so many people that the religion took off strong and grew pretty quickly, likely helped by getting to dance around fires at midnight and generally cavort around naked.
Please note,
this is nowhere near the entirety of Wicca, which is a perfectly legitimate religion, regardless of its origins. In fact, it is one of my top 5 favorite religions of all time, so don't feel that I'm trying to bash anybody here.
Right now we're talking about the whole Wiccan/Witch relationship, so that's what I'm talking about. If anybody wants to ask me about the good parts of Wicca, I'll have a good dealt to talk about there too; I'm pretty well-versed in the subject.
Anyway, in spite of Gardner's version of things, no actual Wiccan documents or artifacts have ever been found (to my knowledge) that predate the 1950s.
Meanwhile, Wiccans actually bear little to no resemblance to what had previously been described as Witches: Christians who made pacts with The Devil, often including sexual intercourse to seal the deal, in order to gain magical powers that they used for evil purposes.
And THIS is the kind of witch that actually DOES have some historical evidence of existing, not to mention that it makes sense within the basic nature of humanity that there would be a significant (though nowhere near as prominent as the Church wanted to believe) number of people who would rebel against Christianity and/or try to promote their own self-interest by worshiping the enemy of the Christians.
And off to the side, there emerged (or, according to them, re-emerged), the Italian school of witch craft, Stregheria, which was popularized by Raven Grimassi in the 1980s. It's not wicca, it's not Christianity. It's based more on American and European views of what ancient Greek witches might have done. There's still a Goddess that's identified with the moon, as in Wicca, and a God known as "The Horned One," but there are some significant differences between Stregheria and Wicca that make them separate entities. Like Wicca, a lot of their lore seems based on the theory that there were ancient witch-cults operating in Europe that were mistaken for Satanists by Christians, and that some of these goddess-worshiping cults go back to neolithic times, a theory put forward by Margaret Murray in her later mostly discredited writings.
Other than that, I don't know much about Stragheria, so I can't explain much more about them.
Just to make things a bit more muddled and complex, Anton LaVey jumped into the mix.
About a decade after Gardner, LaVey decided to make his own religion that could use the same basic schtick of labeling themselves with the title of a Christian Bad Guy ("Satanist," in this case), and get to feel persecuted and self-righteous when everybody "misunderstood" them and thought that they were devil worshipers, when they didn't even believe in the Devil at all. Again, they get to rebel against Christianity by doing "the opposite," but really doing pretty much the same thing.
After writing
The Satanic Bible, in which he proclaimed that there is no God or Satan at all, so everybody with any sense should follow his self-serving religion of the Ego, LaVey followed up with another book,
The Compleat Witch, which was later renamed
The Satanic Witch. In this work, LaVey gives a how-to manual for Satanist women on how to use sex and sexuality as a weapon, how to use magic for selfish purposes, and so on.
So currently, there are four main kinds of witches:
1. The Christian witch, who make pacts with the Devil and casts evil magic.
2. The Wiccans, who are not Christian, have not made pacts with anybody and who are, whatever their origins and stereotypes, generally good and moral people (well, as much as any other religion). They (in theory, anyway), only use magic for good, because the religion includes heavy repercussions for immoral activities, especially when magic is involved.
3. Other Pagan Witches, like the Strega. There are quite a few neo-pagans out there that consider themselves witches, but who aren't either Strega or Wiccans, but are so similar that I'm going to lump them in here. Their use of magic isn't as restricted as with the Wiccans, but it's not inherently evil like the Christian Witches.
4. Satanic Witches, which use magic for selfishness and manipulation, much like the Christian Witches, but who officially don't believe in God or The Devil.
Of all these types, it's pretty clear that Palladium was describing the traditional Christian Witch, who is somebody who makes pacts with evil powers in order to gain magical abilities.
That's why Palladium's Witches are typically evil or aligned with evil entities.