PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com

Goddess bless Ronald Hutton.

We all know the stereotypes: the Catholic Church, with its enforcer the Inquisition, burned witches, right?

Turns out that the Inquisition actually protected many people accused of witchcraft.

For some 300 years, between the 15^th and 17^th centuries, Christian Europe, both North and South, went wild with a massive witch-panic. One puzzling aspect of the Great European Witch-Hunt, however, has always been the huge disproportion between northern and southern Europe when it comes to executions.

The vast majority of people executed as witches in Europe during this period were executed in Northern—Protestant—Europe. Far, far fewer people were put to death as witches in the Catholic South.

In 1588, a teenaged girl brought before the Spanish Inquisition confessed to having had sex with the Devil. The previous year, a Sicilian woman confessed to having flown through the air on a billy-goat to a sabbat at which (interestingly) she worshiped a King and Queen who presided over a feast and an orgy (Hutton 200-1).

In England, such confessions would likely have merited the noose; in Germany, the stake. But the girl from Valencia, after receiving a beating, was sentenced to undergo religious instruction, and the goat-riding Siciliana was acquitted.

Why?

Hey you: witch.

How many nipples do you have?

Back in the Bad Old Days, the received wisdom was that witches have more than two. That's so we can suckle our imps.

Those of us with a Classical education, of course, think immediately of Diana of Ephesus, goddess of witches, with her ample endowments (polymasteia: the state of having many breasts). Of course, Many-breasted Earth feeds us all to this very day.

But I highly doubt that that's what the witch-finders had in mind. Humans have two nipples, animals have many. It's a comment on the witch's intrinsically bestial nature.

Family accused of killing a witch in South Africa are sentenced to 102 years in prison. The controversial new President of the Philippines agrees to a ceasefire with communist militants. And religious conservatives declare that "God might not want a woman for President." It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment on political and societal news from around the world! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Refugees face increasing legal challenges in Europe. An Indian woman turns the tables on the country's witch hunters. And the Palestinian president makes his case to the European public for his nation. It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment on political and societal news from around the world! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Women in Africa are segregated as accused witches. The reign of terror of a Russo-German to Buddhism is remembered. And the relationship between the divine, artificial intelligence, and the ego is examined. It's Faithful Friday, our weekly segment on faiths and religious communities from around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

A dentist's employees complain of religious harassment. Women in rural India are hunted as "witches." And Taiwanese relations with mainland China become uncertain with the election of a new, pro-sovereignty president. It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment on societal and political news from around the globe. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

A Neopagan leader calls on her students to teach others as she taught them. The misogyny behind Africa's witch hunts is exposed and examined. And a list details 10 of the most famous real-life magicians in history. It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly take on news about the Pagan and magical communities! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!