The shamans of the German people were female, and were called Wicces in Anglo-Saxon England and Völvas in Scandinavia. This knowledge comes from Norse sagas and some excavations in Birka suggests their existence. Naturally, the tradition of female shamans did not disappear immediately with the arrival of Christianity. The traditions were maintained, but the church condemned the women who practiced the ancient shamanism (and consequently elements of the old religion) as witches, and demonized them. Ultimately the Church tried to exterminate any women who could be suspected of maintaining the tradition (see witch hunt). Sorcery and witchcraft, especially from Germany, have presumably influence from the North Scandinavian part, where some individuals possessed a higher knowledge than other, especially among male noajddes (gonagas) but also females (kwepckas ). These individuals played an important cermonial, ritual or supportal role in the Old Belife (Heathenry).
The Church's successful transformation of these socially important women into the modern concept "witch" can seen in the following law:
- "We teach that every priest shall extinguish heathendom, and forbid wilweorthunga (fountain worship), and licwiglunga (incantations of the dead), and hwata (omens), and galdra (magic), and man worship, and the abominations that men exercise in various sorts of witchcraft, and in frithspottum (peace-enclosures) with elms and other trees, and with stones, and with many phantoms." (source: 16th Canon Law enacted under King Edgar in the 10th century)
The Shamans of the Germanic peoples, the so-called Wicces (Witches) or Völvas praticed the seid. They served as healers, diviners and spiritual advisors before the arrival of Christianity. As competitors to the Roman Catholic Church they were demonized and persecuted in witch hunts. Thus, little is really known about the survival of the practice of 'witchcraft' in Europe before modern times. In written records, people deemed 'witches' (not necessarily practictioners) were primarily women who practiced forms of herbal medicine, but became unpopular in their community for one reason or another and were singled out for the attentions of the Inquisition and persecuted.
Charges of heresy or witchcraft were sometimes brought against people for political reasons. The accusation of 'practicing witchcraft' was usually allied with others, especially 'having sexual intercourse with the devil'.
While it is common to classify witches into one of three categories (white witch, black witch and hedgewitch), this is not a very accurate grouping as the concepts of good and evil are foreign to witches. A witch is neither good, nor evil, neither black nor white because all acts in themselves are relative and cannot therefore be classified one way or the other.
C.f.
Witches have often been imagined to have the power to fly on broomsticks or distaffs. This mural of a naked pagan sexuality/fertility goddess on a distaff suggests that the connection may have originally been a sexual one (sticks and staffs have long been common masturbation devices, orgasm is achieved by rubbing them between the legs against the clitoris). From Jones, Prudence and Pennick, Nigel: A history of pagan Europe.
Before the advent of Christianity, wicces served as spiritual advisors and healers (see Völva or shaman).
This changed with the arrival of Christianity and the priests who regarded them as competitors. From the Middle ages and onwards to about the mid-19th century, witches were universally associated with evil, under the belief that the witch's magical powers were granted by Satan in exchange for the witch's soul. A few folk tales, however, refer to kindly witches. Many outrageous claims were made about the powers of witches, which include the ability to fly, to transform oneself or others into animals or other shapes, and to curse one's enemies. On the other hand, all these powers typically belong to those of the shaman, so these powers were associated with witches long before the arrival of Christianity.
It was extremely dangerous to be accused of being a "witch", since a common punishment was to be burnt at the stake. Both in North America and in Europe, thousands of people (mostly women), were put to death as witches at various points in history. Some of the worst witchhunts were in Germany, though there are documented cases of torture and murder in the name of stopping witchcraft in nearly every European country.
Most people who were killed as witches were probably hapless midwives, herbalists, widows, spinsters, social outcasts, or victims of revenge seekers. For example, some researchers wholly attribute the Salem witch trials in 1692 to rivalries between opposing political forces in Salem, Massachusetts. See the extensive discussion under witchhunts.
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