Witches
Below are videos that I have found on witches. They are very very good and very informative..interesting and you would enjoy watching. Also learn a lot about bias, superstition, fear and prejudice….how people can be persecuted for their spiritual beliefs..when it is not necessary…. They explain how witches came about…what it was like in the olden days, what it is like now and how witches have evolved over time.
Witches have nothing to do with worshipping something negative, it is more stemming from the old religions that they are in tune with nature and the natural entities that abide there. They being in tune with nature gives them so called powers to heal, or foretell the future.
The label/term ‘witch’ comes from the English word “wicca” which means to change, to transform, to modify…people imagine them on broomsticks, with cauldrons and nasty zits on their faces, but they will find it surprising when they realize that there could be a witch amongst them. They are the modern witches!
There is quite a lot of misconception regarding witches, this video is quite unbiased and helps to explain them, their lifestyle and beliefs in an unbiased way.
They have been prejudiced against through history. Now they are finally finding the freedom and free will to practice what they wish in the United Statues and Europe. Everyone in this day and age deserve understanding and respect.
Tsem Rinpoche
Biography Channel: Witches Part 1
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Biography Channel: Witches Part 2
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Biography Channel: Witches Part 3
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Biography Channel: Witches Part 4
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Biography Channel: Witches Part 5
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Biography Channel: Witches Part 6
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The word “witch” is used in several ways.
1. Anthropologists report various concepts of witches and witchcraft across many cultures. For example, in southern Africa, people are regularly accused of being a witch (with “witch” translating various terms in local languages) and killed by their neighbors, shunned, or forced to flee. Here, “witchcraft” is a kind of social institution which permits certain people to be targeted. Sometimes, however, “witches” are described as invisible, supernatural creatures (like demons).
2. The familiar figure from Western folklore–archetypically, an old hag who wears black clothing (including a distinctive pointed hat, examples of which have actually been found buried with ancient Siberial mummies!), rides atop a flying broom, and has magical / supernatural powers. Witches in this tradition are usually (though not always) depicted as evil, and according to some accounts, have entered into a pact with Satan. The witch-hunts of the European Middle Ages, and at Salem, assumed that witches existed, as described above. Alternatively, they have been conceived as relatively benign people (again, usually old women) who practice folk magic, e.g. love potions.
3. A family of new (mostly 20th-century) religious movements found in English-speaking countries. Despite attempts by some adherents to trace their religion back to the European Middle Ages or even pre-Christian antiquity, others are aware that most elements of modrn Witchcraft were assembled by Gerald Gardner and his circle around World War II (though with some roots in 19th century traditions of ritual magic). Until recently, “Wicca” was considered a synonym for this relgion; nowadays, the former often refers to a specific initiatic chain, while the latter includes others who follow cognate traditions. Typical emphases include ritual magic, a reverence for nature as divine, and support for feminism, including worship of some sort of Mother Goddess. Though great diversity exists in belief, witches are usually duotheistic (worshipping a god and goddess), polytheistic, or pantheistic.
Witches of the third type often complain that they are confused with witches of the second type, and hence with Satanists. However, their embrace of “evil”-sounding language like “witch,” “pagan,” and “horned God” may have begun as a conscious decision in order to attract attention, or because participants enjoyed the idea of wickedness. For that matter, actual Satanists have complained that Witches, in the course of distancing themselves from Satanism, have unfairly vilified Satanism.
Many years ago, before Tibetan Buddhism was known to me, I explored quite a few spiritual paths or ‘religions’… and Wicca was one of them.
It’s very peaceful, and many things that i read in the books can somehow relate a little to Buddhism. For example, Wiccans believe in Karma too, they believe that if a person does something bad, it returns 3 fold.
Another unique thing i found about Wicca is that the rituals performed is more of to worship the Goddess within. I love how they connect everything to nature.
I do not know much about Witchcraft except for the fact that “witches” celebrated oneness with mother earth, were mainly alternative healers and believed that there is a spirit in all things and also embraced that belief of reincarnation.
There was a time when one would be labelled a Pagan if one did not belonged to a mainstream religion. It didn’t matter if one practiced good spirituality. It was more important to BELONG to a religion.
Being a “witch” was not necessarily a bad thing until a certain mainstream religion practitioners decided that it was…and from there, people were licensed to kill and murder presumably under the authority of “god”.
Essentially, the same witch hunters would have labelled Buddhists as Pagans and/or Witches, notwithstanding the fact that Buddhism started advocating compassion and tolerance over a thousands years before the “inquisition” was commissioned.
How dangerous it is for religious bigotry to exist.
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.” – Albert Einstein
My shift-leader at Carl’s Jr. is a Wicca. She is nice to me we get along well… We are both members of a religion that is not super mainstream in America, and Buddhism and Wicca are often lumped into the “strange beliefs” category by what I would call “less educated people.”
Josh, that is so funny. ….the less educated people….It is the relgion of over 1 billion ppl…heeheh
Josh, in many ways “witch hunts” are still very much alive today, in all societies. At its benign stage, it is no more than bigotry in yet another form.
However, on a more malignant level, in the “modern” witch-hunt, one group of believers deploys schismatic propaganda and fear tactics to isolate, maginalise and eliminate the practice and beliefs of another group. It is still happening all over the world.
If there is an upside, it is an opportune time for one to test the strength of one’s own faith and belief. From trials, perseverance is built, and perseverance under trial shapes the cornerstone of Faith,from whence one’s spiritual practice matures.
Witches gives me the idea of being evil. But after reading and watching the videos. For the 1st time I have a different view of witches.In fact I find similarities to our Buddhist practice where the spirits that are used goes through a medium or an Oracle. Whereas witchcraft are practiced by the Christians in Europe and America. Because witches are supposed to be evil they are condemned and put to death. But to the Buddhist we believe that it is the Protector or Deity that goes through the Oracle in trance to heal or give a blessing or a message. The difference in witches they are put to death instead. In Buddhism Oracles are very well revered.