This is not something I had ever heard of and I have only done some brief digging but, here are my (protestant) 2 cents. The additional persecution of anything which resembled feminine religiosity went to interesting lengths in that devotion to Mary became suspect. Today the figure of Mary is both popular and important in the Catholic church, but to the Inquisition, it was a possible sign of overemphasizing the feminine aspect of Christianity. In the Canary Islands, Aldonca de Vargas was reported to the Inquisition for nothing more than smiling at hearing mention of Mary. But I also feel there is so much love to be found in other paths, in the connection with nature, with other teachers and deities, which is part of the reason why being a Christian alone never worked for me. Let’s suppose that an eager JP has put together a significant number of depositions – complaints in writing from your fellow villagers – and has also interrogated you, and got a confession from you. The next stage is that all this evidence is put to a jury, who decide whether to take it to trial or not.

Wiccans avoid evil and the appearance of evil at all costs. Their motto is to “harm none,” and they strive to live a peaceful, tolerant and balanced life in tune with nature and humanity. What about Easter? Yes, Easter is also based on an ancient pagan festival celebrating the Spring Equinox. The term Easter was the name of a Spring Germanic goddess – Eostre. The Easter Bunny and Easter eggs are pagan traditions as symbols of fertility (new life/Spring). It is likely that the Church tried to stomp out these ancient traditions but the people felt so strongly about them, they continued to be passed down through the generations. You can take the person out of paganism, but you can’t take paganism out of the person. Easter bunny and eggs from pagan fertility beliefs. Conclusion – This Must Be Said. And what about the Holy Trinity? As a child, it never made sense to me that three gods could be one god. I was told it was an abstract concept and I would understand one day when I grew up. Well, I’m an adult and now I see that multiple gods is multiple gods on any level. When the Council of Nicaea convened in AD 325, one of the main issues they were to decide upon was whether Christ was God and how they would instill belief in him as God. After some dispute, they settled on calling Christ the “son of God” and other writers outside of the Holy Bible made mention of the “Holy Trinity” being made up of Father God, the Son of God (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (Spirit). THREE gods. Shekinah as the Holy Spirit In later centuries, constant attempts to defeat heresy brought to light a number of figures who were difficult to reconcile with Christianity. Such figures were typically created without reference to witchcraft at all, but led to the creation of the figure of the heretic witch. If a man has laid a curse (kispu = keshaphim) upon (another) man and it is not justified, he that laid the curse shall be put to death. 2. If a man has put a spell upon (another) man and it is not justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcome him (and he is drowned), the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him." Not a word is said here of a female that weaves a spell, but probably the word "man" in the Babylonian is to be taken as including male and female (so Canon C. H. W. Johns in a private letter, dated December 22, 1912).God takes witchcraft very seriously. The penalty for practicing witchcraft under the Mosaic Law was death (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27). First Chronicles 10:13 tells us that “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance.” In the New Testament, “sorcery” is translated from the Greek word pharmakeia, from which we get our word pharmacy (Galatians 5:20; Revelation 18:23). Witchcraft and spiritism often involve the ritualistic use of magic potions and mind-controlling drugs. Using illicit drugs can open ourselves up to the invasion of demonic spirits. Engaging in a practice or taking a substance to achieve an altered state of consciousness is a form of witchcraft.

What about Paul, advising people not to get married, unless the desire of the their flesh was really burning? Being a global citizen, having traveled extensively to Kenya, China, Hong Kong, India, Bali, Dubai, Cannes, Paris, Mexico, Hawaii and throughout the US and Carribbean, Rev. Val has ahome in the Yucatan, Mexico. Within the Catholic tradition, one would be remiss to deny the pagan elements of a Catholic mass. The ritual of taking communion, with the round wafer (or bread), is an ancient practice of worshiping sun gods such as Ba’al and Osiris. The round wafer was a representation of the sun itself. When one ate the round bread or wafer, one was taking the sun into oneself. This tradition seemingly carried over into Christianity as the holy communion and taking the “Son” of God into oneself in celebration of him giving his life. Not to mention the “monstrance” used to hold the blessed sacrament is often gold and resembles the sun. Sun-day the Holy Day If you are truly considering conversion to Christianity it must also be a conversion from Wicca. From personal experience it will be very difficult (like dying) and you must pour yourself into the Scriptures (John is a good place to start) and desire for God to reveal Christ to you at the expense of everything else. He will respond! There is also some poorly understood early Church history detailing how the Nicene council was a superficially Christian, predominantly pagan device used by the pagan Constantine to consolidate pagan factions into what became the Roman Catholic Church so as to choose sides in the earliest Christian schism between gnostics and pistics. There is so much more but it appears to be a hot mess of jumbled fact, mythologized history, and baseless speculation. The statue of Peter in Rome is said to actually be the statue of Jupiter (Jo-Peter), for example.

What Is a Christian Witch?

If you are new to witchcraft in general (without Christianity & without Wicca) then I recommend reading these books: Since early times, people have sought supernatural experiences God did not endorse. The nations that surrounded the Promised Land were saturated with such practices, and God had stern words for His people concerning any involvement with them. Deuteronomy 18:9–12 says, “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.” A large majority of the Neo-Pagan population were not born into magic or the Craft. They were Catholic, Jewish, Pentecostal, Baptist… and so the list goes on. At one point in our upbringing, we began to question the parameters of our belief systems, which is how we land in an alternative belief system. Wicca and Paganism vs. Witchcraft Sun-day the Holy Day” makes the assumption that the whole word calls the same day “Sunday”. The Modern Greek word for Sunday, Greek: Κυριακή, is derived from Greek: Κύριος (Kyrios, Lord) also, due to its liturgical significance as the day commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, i.e. The Lord’s Day. In Russian the word for Sunday is Воскресенье (Voskreseniye) meaning “Resurrection”. Of course, both of these nations are heavily Eastern Orthodox, part of the oldest Christian Church.

Basically, a person who came out of another faith may still find that the foundations of that faith stir their soul. Or, sometimes a person in Neo-Paganism hooks up with ecclesiastical Christians and finds something there that resonates in their spirit. While the idea of Christian Witches may be highly debated in the Craft, it is real and viable to the practitioner. And honestly, considering all the flavors of magic, this lands firmly in the column of possibility. The Historical Mix In Rabbinic literature, the Holy Spirit was referred to as Shekinah which meant a dwelling or resting place of God (and interestingly was a feminine term). Was the Holy Spirit once a goddess of the Hebrew tribes now absorbed into the “Holy Trinity”? Baptism with “holy water” originates in the pagan concept of cleansing with water. Christianity’s Pagan Roots in Catholicism: Symbols, Holy Water, Mother Mary An entire book could be written on how Christian holidays are based on ancient pagan holidays, so I’ll be brief in this section. Christmas, celebrated on December 25th, has roots in ancient pagan holy-days such as Yule (Germanic), the Winter Solstice (which is celebrated in different ways worldwide), Yalda, and more. To make a clear connection between ancient pagan festivals and Christmas, we visit the ancient cult of Mithraism where the sun-god Mithras was born on December 25th. There is no historical evidence to confirm Jesus’ actual birth in the month of December, and scholars believe it was some time in the summer months rather than the winter.

Is there Such a Thing as a Christian Witch?

Ways to incorporate Christian witchcraft into your daily life. Daily rituals/prayers, meditation, candles, nature walks, sustainable living, public service, etc. Let us also examine the mention of the goddess Ashtart (Greek name Astarte), who’s mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. A few of the Hebrew Kings, namely Solomon, tried to instill a cult of Ashtart; though many resisted there were some who supported his endeavors. While some Hebrews believed in the one “true god”, there were still many who followed a polytheistic path…or what we refer to today as paganism. France St. Michel Church depicting the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity = Polytheism As a tiny tot in my grandmother's railroad apartment in Harlem, USA (where I lived with my younger brother, my mom and beloved grandpa) I saw spirits, communed with otherworldly entities and generally spent most of my time 'daydreaming' as they called it... (I was likely somewhere off on the astral plane) anyhoo... In Virginia, people were less frantic about witches. In fact, in Lower Norfolk County in 1655, a law was passed making it a crime to falsely accuse someone of witchcraft. Still, witchcraft was a concern. About two-dozen witch trials (mostly of women) took place in Virginia between 1626 and 1730. None of the accused were executed. Are Witches Real? At first, the title to this section was “modern reinvention” but truthfully there are bits of magic that have been part of Christianity for a very long time. So, the best way to understand all this is by talking to practitioners and see how they blend these two things together.

Second, their Patron is YHWH (usually as a three-form being). The triple God or Goddess concept also mirrors some Witchcraft and Pagan ideologies. Easter’s Pagan Origins” yes, Easter bunny, eggs, etc are a carry-over from paganism. But that is a later addition of the Western church, virtually nonexistent in the historic Christian east unless forced on them by Western influence. Only English and Germanic lands use the term “Easter”. The true term is “Pascha” – a word derived from the Aramaic word for “Passover”. In Albanian, the term is “Pashke”; Spanish is “Pascua de Resurrección”; French is “Pâques”; Norwegian is “påske”; Welsh is “Pasg”, etc. There is also, according to the Esoteric Interfaith Church, a full return to the embrace of the Feminine Divine which provides a balance that resonates with the natural. Between the years 1500 and 1660, up to 80,000 suspected witches were put to death in Europe. Around 80 percent of them were women thought to be in cahoots with the Devil and filled with lust. Germany had the highest witchcraft execution rate, while Ireland had the lowest.

Wicca and Paganism vs. Witchcraft

We don’t need to fear Satan’s power, but we should respect it and stay away from it. First John 4:4 says, “Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.” Satan can create much havoc, harm, and destruction, even in the lives of believers (1 Thessalonians 2:18; Job 1:12–18; 1 Corinthians 5:5). However, if we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no power that can ultimately defeat us (Isaiah 54:17). We are overcomers (1 John 5:4) as we “put on the whole armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11). When we give our lives to Christ, we must repent. This repentance should include renouncing any involvement with witchcraft, following the example of the early believers in Acts 19:19.