I wasnât at all sure how to approach this challenge or if Iâd even participate but a close friend sent me this Video about Gerald Gardner. Did you know that he and his coven stopped Hitler from crossing the sea ju nost by casting a circle, chanting and directing their energies towards Germany and Hitler? (Or so it is said anyway)
But I let the videos keep looping and I came across This video on voodoo. In this video I learned that maria laveaux was not just one woman. Her daughter also bore the same name and all of her work was then credited to her mother. However, today her grave is a place where people regularly hold rituals such as leaving an offering placing an x with red brick dust on the building and knocking 3 times in hopes that her spirit will bring them luck.
It also talks about voodoo dolls/poppets. Which are actually of congo origin and were originally wooden carvings stuffed with medicinal herbs. Slave owners would learn to fear them and prohibited them with the punishment being death should a slave be found with one resulting in some becoming creative and fashioning them into ârag dollsâ which would eventually evolve into what we refer to as a âvoodoo dollâ or âpoppetâ
Glad you liked it, @Christina4! I couldnât resist
I hadnât heard about Gerald Gardner and Hitler- what a tale, @phoenix_dawn! And I know all about letting the videos run on youTube- it can be quite addictive to explore on there Thanks for sharing your finds, it sounds like you were able to explore various moments and people in witchy history!
I thought that magic/Paganism/Witchcraft developed from England, Europe, America, and Egypt mainly, but later on when I started digging into its history, then I found that India is also contributing a lot to it.
7 Chakras: This was originated in India between 1500 and 500 BC through the oldest text called the Vedas. Evidence of chakras, spelled chakra, can also be found in the Upanishad, the Cudamini Upanishad, the Yoga-Shikka Upanishad, and the Shandilya Upanishad.
If one can balance all the chakras, then only the person becomes a spiritual Yogi with full inner peace, satisfaction, and canât feel any pain of daily material life.
He was my inspiration when Covid19 was spreading across the globe. I performed some rituals following his footsteps and my England is in a good position now. I am really grateful to him and magic for giving me this power so that I can fight for my England. @anneshakargupta
Thanks for that share Phoenix, I had heard it but thought it was an urban legend. @Princess_Tara Whenever I think of England and magic, I remember Disneyâs
âBedknobs and Broomsticksâ.
I know I was going to post my findings on Joan of Arc, but out of curiosity, I searched âWest Virginia Witchesâ and found a few articles on the âGranny Witches of Appalachiaâ.
The term âgranny witchâ is fairly new. Not all of them considered themselves witches because many of them were (and are) Protestant and included Biblical verses in their âspellsâ.
Living in the Appalachian Mountains, residents didnât have regular access to doctors, so they turned to some of the local women for treatment of their ailments or when they needed a baby delivered. These women learned much about the healing properties of herbs from their mothers and grandmothers as well as from Native Americans and escaped slaves from the South. They practiced dowsing to find water and some of them practiced divination using coffee grinds.
Nice! once again a fun challenge subject.
Knowledge = power
I think itâs of great importance that we know about the history of the world and the history of all ancestors and old ways to enrich our lives with the power of knowledge.
The History of magick: Weekly Witchy Challange
In my searching and readings, I stumbled upon a few things I found interesting, I must admit that The History of Fairie Magick is a much more pleasant discussion than the burning days⌠started reading about this in history class at high school many many moons ago and now as I grow older I often think too much and wonder how much of what they crammed down my throat is true? and how much do I want to believe? I am grateful and cherish my freedom to choose. (just saying) But for real!
Oooh another good one! For this challenge, I am reading The Witches by Stacy Schiff, which is a history of the Salem witch trials in 1692 or rather a history of that time in Salem because so many factors I didnât know about or consider were at playâŚanxiety about attacks by the French and by Native American tribes, smallpox epidemics, death in childbirth and by accidents, the lack of knowledge about science and biology (a mole might be considred an extra nipple, for example, which could be implicating) and odd factoids, like the fact that a lot of the people involved were drunk a lot of the time (they farmed drunk â alcohol was safer to drink than the water) and for Puritans, there sure was a lot of spite and fighting about property involved, not to mention messing around, infidelity and babies born out of wedlock, not the sterotypically prudish people we associate with Thanksgiving. None of them appear to have been witches in any sense of the word other than a few who had dabbled in a little fortune-telling. I havenât finished it and I probably wonât finish it completely before the challenge ends, but I intend to finish reading this a bizarre and tragic chronicle. One poor old man died after being crushed by rocks. They literally crushed him to death on purpose. It boggles the mind. They hung their former minister who had retired and moved to Maine and didnât know anything about the crazy stories people were telling. The false confessions by the accused are fascinating in their specificity and detall. I believe the accused thought if they confessed in detail, they would be spared execution, some were tortured. It is a miserable chapter in history and not five years after the executions, the judges were already admitting they were wrong. The only good thing to come out of it were important legal justice reforms.
For this challenge, I thought this interview would be good to share itâs with Janet Farr and Stewart Farr and is very informative. They both were a big part of the paganism and the craft. Janet Farr and Stewart Farr Interview
I really enjoyed this video
Blessed beâ¨
Jeannie
Valen,
I liked that they talked about how we have to face the fact that this is a real dangerous world. She had to have protection coming out saying she was a witch during that time. She had a martial artist who was her bodyguard ! It just goes to show. She had bodyguards and said that there are some fundamental born-again Christians who are in England that were so militant that they stoop to violence.
Not just against Witches but against anyone who is not of the same religion? We can look at history, and see the we must be grounded! I feel like witchcraft is getting to be more adored and I am just wrapping the light around all of us!
Doreen
Blockquote
Jeannie
Doreen Valiente has some great contributions to Witchcraft too. I found this interesting interview. Interview with Doreen Valiente
Jeannie
Blessed beâ¨
@Jeannie1 Wow what a great find! Loved how Doreen talks about Alex Sanders and others claiming that their Book of Shadows is âtraditionalâ and sheâs like âI know its not because I wrote it.â LOL! And when she talks about initiation not being needed because the power resides inside of us and isnât granted to us by someone. Also its worth watching just to hear her say "Darksome night and Shining MoonâŚ
Lol I know I thought it was funny too, because thereâs all the talk about Alexander Book of Shawdows being copied by Gerald Gardner! But then confessed shes wrote it! Lol
quote=âValen, post:39, topic:14546â]
And when she talks about initiation not being needed because the power resides inside of us and isnât granted to us by someone
[/quote]
I really liked that she was encouraging ritual to be shared itâs not like the old times where it was illegal to be a witch. She emphasized and she doesnât see why some people canât be initiated if they say there a witch then your a witch! It canât hurt bringing the old ways back because the earth can use some love because of the climate change then people will think about nature and the green world. That would be great to bring the old ways back, I think we are at a time of revival!
Ow yeah lol she uses a grain of salt for the people that didnât know they were practicing black magic when they participated in blood sacrificing and Orgies ! Lol
Love her!
My Challenge Entry on The History of Magic:
I thought it was a good choice to choose The Sanderson Sisters, more commonly known from the movie âHocus Pocusâ. But in fact it was a daunting task because I cannot find any further info about the sisters in real life. Which leaves me wondering if they were indeed ârealâ people of that time as I have read that they were, or just a fictional trio based on those witches in the era. None the lessâŚ
Many of us know the trio from the movie as Winifred, Mary, and Sarah and throughout the movie their characters delight us and make us laugh. The locations from the movie, of which many are actual places such as:
The Salemâs Pioneer Village (shown in the beginning of the movie)
Ropeâs Mansion
Old Burial Hill
Just to name a fewâŚ
The movie was not an exact telling of the time nor the effects of the Salem Witch Trials but it did do some key details of the âwitchyâ ways justice in my opinion.
I was able to find out that the sisters were âhangedâ outside their home as the movie portrays, for the disappearance of a little girl and her brother. But this was a couple years before the actual Salem Witch Trials had happened.
I also discovered that the movie was derived from a bedtime story that the producer David Kirschner would tell to his children, though it was stated the bedtime story was much darker than the movie turned out to be.
Although my research attempts into the Sanderson Sisters was unsuccessful, I do like bringing attention to this movie as it is one of my faves all through out the year. I enjoy the lighthearted energy it brings to such a dark twisted period of which people still have a misconception about as well as witch craft in general.
After All, Who doesnât love a little Hocus Pocus?
Thanks for sharing your finds, it sounds like you were able to explore various moments and people in witchy history! 
