Who started the witch-hunts?
Jul. 31st, 2012 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marjaerwinI often encounter a meta-narrative about western religious history, where the spread of Christianity is identified with the rise of patriarchy, with intensified religious conflict, and with witch-hunting and sado-spirituality. It's taken for obvious common knowledge. It's also dreadfully wrong.
First of all, most though not all known European societies were patriarchal. In early Rome, the legal principle of patria postestas is patriarchy. Most were also patrilineal, though some, such as the Picts and the Goths at opposite ends of 'barbarian' Europe were probably at least partially matrilineal. Male-centered religion had a much wider public role than female-centered religion. In Rome, female-centered religion was tolerated within certain limited bounds. The priestesses of Vesta were allowed, or required, to remain unmarried because the first priestesses of Vesta had been the wives of the kings, and too many influential men would lose out if another man became king. The priestesses of Cybele were permitted, but subjected to a Roman male high priest. In the barbaricum, female-centered spirituality could develop further. The Weilbark cemetery at Pruszcz Gdanski might possibly represent a female-centered community.
Secondly, for reasons that should be obvious, sado-spirituality is most associated with warrior religions. Woþins-worship in Germanic-speaking Europe is an extreme example. Christianity began in opposition to warrior religion, rejecting violence and loyalty oaths. After Constantine, Christianity began to twist itself into warrior religion, beginning with violence, oaths, and the language of warrior religion [hailags instead of weihs, etc.], and culminating in sado-spiritual horrors such as penal atonement, until there was no longer any difference between Jesus and the gods of war and madness. The wrongness, it burns:
Thirdly, the witch-hunts began in pagan Europe. Jordanes attributes them to Filimer, a pagan Gothic king, but Jordanes is untrustworthy in this period of his history. In Germanic paganism, some such conflict can be inferred from the emergence of Woþins [Odin] as a new major god in the Roman era, and from the general subjection of the *Wannos [Vanir] to the *Ansos [Aesir]. In Gothic Christianity, however, there exist martyrologies of Christians killed in religious persecutions. For example, the killing of Saba and three others, by wood and water, in two separate events in two separate sources.
I would suggest that:
1. The witch-hunting began with conflict between Woþins-worship and older pagan religions.
2. The witch-hunting was expanded to include conflicts between Woþins-worship and early anti-militarist Christianity, with Christians being killed as witches.
3. The witch-hunting was taken up by later militarist pseudoChristianity, as it took up the other sado-spiritual practices of warrior religion.
First of all, most though not all known European societies were patriarchal. In early Rome, the legal principle of patria postestas is patriarchy. Most were also patrilineal, though some, such as the Picts and the Goths at opposite ends of 'barbarian' Europe were probably at least partially matrilineal. Male-centered religion had a much wider public role than female-centered religion. In Rome, female-centered religion was tolerated within certain limited bounds. The priestesses of Vesta were allowed, or required, to remain unmarried because the first priestesses of Vesta had been the wives of the kings, and too many influential men would lose out if another man became king. The priestesses of Cybele were permitted, but subjected to a Roman male high priest. In the barbaricum, female-centered spirituality could develop further. The Weilbark cemetery at Pruszcz Gdanski might possibly represent a female-centered community.
Secondly, for reasons that should be obvious, sado-spirituality is most associated with warrior religions. Woþins-worship in Germanic-speaking Europe is an extreme example. Christianity began in opposition to warrior religion, rejecting violence and loyalty oaths. After Constantine, Christianity began to twist itself into warrior religion, beginning with violence, oaths, and the language of warrior religion [hailags instead of weihs, etc.], and culminating in sado-spiritual horrors such as penal atonement, until there was no longer any difference between Jesus and the gods of war and madness. The wrongness, it burns:
scarcely any aspect of their religion so facilitated the conversion of the Germans to Christianity as the apparent similarity of their hanged god to the crucified Christ. [Neumann, quoted critically in Daly, 1978, p. 80]
Thirdly, the witch-hunts began in pagan Europe. Jordanes attributes them to Filimer, a pagan Gothic king, but Jordanes is untrustworthy in this period of his history. In Germanic paganism, some such conflict can be inferred from the emergence of Woþins [Odin] as a new major god in the Roman era, and from the general subjection of the *Wannos [Vanir] to the *Ansos [Aesir]. In Gothic Christianity, however, there exist martyrologies of Christians killed in religious persecutions. For example, the killing of Saba and three others, by wood and water, in two separate events in two separate sources.
I would suggest that:
1. The witch-hunting began with conflict between Woþins-worship and older pagan religions.
2. The witch-hunting was expanded to include conflicts between Woþins-worship and early anti-militarist Christianity, with Christians being killed as witches.
3. The witch-hunting was taken up by later militarist pseudoChristianity, as it took up the other sado-spiritual practices of warrior religion.
