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he human race, busy surviving in adversity, delegated the mastery and transmission of essential knowledge to some of the most gifted individuals. |
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The Druids of the Celtic civilization still incarnated this versatility, and their knowledge of nature was to provide a foundation for occult practices well after the coming of Christianity. The Greeks distinguished between metaphysics and magic. Among other inspirations, we owe them the "modern witch" with Circe, the sorceress of the Odyssey, and especially the crual Medea, who associates evil and femininity. This image was to impose itself with the coming of a new character with a bright future and standing too on the ground of seduction: the devil ! |
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s it gained ground in Occident, Christianism strived to eradicate the pagan rites upheld by a few lines of implacable sorcerers. In the Middle Ages, the repression of "heretics" began tougher, often revealing political and spiritual considerations. |
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Inquisition and its reference manual, Malleus Maleficarum (the witches'
hammer -1486-), justifies the use of torture and serves as a bible
for both absurd and unanswerable indicments. The hunt is on accross the country: it sets more particularly about the weaker sex and is revived during troubled periods. These trials often serve as an outlet for human passion and rancour. Up to mass hysteria: a sinister example is the puritan frenzy of the Salem witch affair (Massachussets - 1692) with two hundred persons on trial and twenty victims. And what about the trials by water and by weighing … Two rooms are reserved for these great moments of history. |
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