Two rooms are reserved for these great moments of history.
The human race, busy surviving in adversity, delegated the mastery and transmission
of essential knowledge to some of the most gifted individuals.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 !
As 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.The Inquisition and its reference manual, Malleus Maleficarum (the
witches’ hammer -
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 -
And what about the trials by water and by weighing …
