Nine Annoying Historical Errors

There is, unfortunately, a variety of historical misinformation circulating the pagan community. Too often, people simply repeat what sounds good and proves a point, even if they have no clue as to historical facts behind a claim. Here are nine peeves on the subject (in no particular order).

1. Wicca has been practiced for thousands of years. This has been scrutinized time and again, and no one has been able to come up with a scrap of evidence that suggests anyone thousands of years ago was practicing anything resembling Wicca. If you have evidence, we’re all waiting for it. (read more)
2. The Witchcraft Act made it illegal to be a witch in the UK until its repeal in 1951. Please read the Witchcraft Act. It makes two things illegal: claiming to have supernatural powers and accusing other people of having them. This is the act that ended the witch-hunts in England. You could not legally tell someone you were a witch, but the law certainly did not dictate what could or couldn’t be practiced privately.
3. Pagans universally respected women. Christianity imposed misogyny. For most of history in most of the world, women were second-class citizens. The degree of separation between the sexes varied greatly, but women were rarely equal to men. Christianity certainly encouraged this second-class notion, but many of those notions were borrowed directly from (pagan) Roman culture. (read more)
4. Pagan Europe converted to Christianity at sword point. People converted for a large number of reasons, one of which was threat of violence. However, long before Christianity had enough power to convert through might, the religion had to first win over converts through such methods as missionary work and exemplary living.
5. Joan of Arc was executed for witchcraft. Joan was executed as a relapsed heretic as demonstrated by that fact that – after promising to only wear dresses – she continued to wear men’s clothing. (One might ask how said clothing got into her cell.) Witchcraft was one facet of her alleged heresy, but it was a small one. The judges were far more interested in her claims of being called by God to fight as a soldier.
6. The Church long feared pagan magic, which is why they attempted to control it through witch-hunts. Actually, for many hundreds of years the official Church position on magic was that it was imaginary and delusional, and those who thought they practiced it were “stupid and foolish,” as per the Canon Episcopi.
7. Women were burned at Salem for practicing the wrong religion. Bzzzt! Try again. This is the one I see people most often use as the litmus test on whether someone is talking completely through his or her (pointy) hat. No one was burned at Salem, and there’s no evidence anyone was practicing a religion other than the accepted form of Christianity, with the possible exception of Tituba. The Salem trials were about children supposedly being haunted and spiritually tortured by witches.
8. The Inquisition is responsible for, well, everything. Too much has been attributed to the Inquisition to list here. My final straw on this one was when the Inquisition was blamed in a book for England’s negative opinion on witches. Unfortunately for that author, the Inquisition never operated in England.
9. The Ancient Irish Potato Goddess. Ok, I don’t actually hear this one often, but it’s just too ridiculous to not get mentioned. Edain McCoy published a book about a supposedly ancient Irish form of Wicca that’s been worshipping the Ancient Irish Potato Goddess for 3000 years…which is darn impressive considering the Irish have only had potatoes for 500.