Sunday, October 21, 2007

Trampling the Cross

Much of witchcraft is a reversal of Christanity. For instance, witches say the Catholic Mass backwards, and it becomes the Black Mass. They accept the Eucharist but underneath their tongue instead of on top--and then spit it out into the privy. In The Witch's Trinity, they pray with their hands pressed together and facing downwards rather than towards heaven. I'm actually not sure if I made up that detail or if I saw it somewhere in my research.

Old witchcraft woodcuts illustrate these reversals. Here is a new witch trampling upon the cross rather than venerating it. And please note--the witch is a male! The image comes from the Compendium Maleficarum, a book that explained everything about witches (borrowing some information from the earlier Malleus Maleficarum, another witch hunting Bible). This woodcut is from a 1610 edition, reproduced in Brian Levack's The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe. The Compendium Maleficarum was written by a Milanese monk named Francesco Maria Guazzo.

2 comments:

Linda C. McCabe said...

Erika,

I posit that it is more of the Church's belief that witches reverse Christian practices more than I would say that Wiccans engage in Black Mass.

I have a friend who is Wiccan and one day the subject about Satanism came up and she made it very clear that there is a big distinction between witches and devil worshippers.

The two are not equivalent.

I have no idea how many actual devil worshippers there have been throughout history or how many there are today. However, I do know that the two are not synonymous even though the Church would have us believe as much.

Linda

Anonymous said...

I learned from Mama Mary's messages in DIRECTIVES OF HEAVEN that rock music is Satanic because it is produced in temples which are consecrated to Satan, and recording companies that produce it are under the control of Wicca, the international organization of witches. Being a Catholic and a Marian devotee, I believe in Her messages. They are indeed satanic.