What is Magic Now???

Midway through the class, I’m not exactly sure what magic is anymore. Is it something that people used as a scapegoat to get another women’s husband or was it actually real? Perhaps it was a little bit of both?

People had to have seen things that were actually magical, because some of the texts we’ve read are just so farfetched to just “make up”. Unless they were on some hardcore drug, I’m convinced they saw some really funky stuff that actually scared them to believe magic is real. I’m seriously scared to think of the freaky rituals people performed, especially involving babies or blood, or anything. But I honestly don’t think people could be that gullible. Nothing in the texts would pass as magic in today’s world. The world would not go on a craze claiming everyone who looked at you funny was a witch. It would more likely be considered an extremely weird cult or something emotionally disturbed people partake in.

That being said, I believe that magic is real, in some sort of way. However, I don’t believe that all the cases made in the texts we read are absolutely true. There are always people who learn how to “work the system” and can manipulate it to their digression. After a while, when people realized that this “witch” thing wasn't going away, they realized

“Hey, maybe I could use this to get back at people I don’t like. If I tell the town I saw Sarah in the field last night, and say I heard her mumbling to herself, they’ll all believe that she’s a witch.” It’s messed up to think people would do this, but you cannot tell me people did not do this. So if you don’t like someone, just call them a witch.

Clearly I can rant about this for a long time. I’m not sure what I believe in. I am Christian, but I do not exclude all possible things out there. Unexplainable things happen on a day to day basis. Surely it could be the works of God, but the act in which he does it: isn’t that magic? I wish there could be magic like that in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but who doesn’t!? But realistically, there has to be some sort of balance keeping everything together. In order to have balance there has to be “good” magic and “bad” magic. So, is there evil out there? No doubt. It’s always nice to assume there is no such thing as magic because we all fear the evil aspect of it. Ignorance is bliss I guess. 

Witches = Fear

As I was writing my position paper, it really made me think of all the different reasons people used to be claimed as witches. Of course there are the typical ways of being summed a witch, like dancing naked in the forest with a chicken or using some sort of spell to wish death upon another. I feel, however, that cases like those were actually the rarest ones to happen. Most of the time, persecutions seemed to be based on a "he said, she said" bases. "She must be a witch because she was in my field two nights ago and now my crops have died." But of course the person would forget that it had stormed the night before, but he surely remembers this girl in his field, who just loves late night walks.
It was almost like a fear "norm" that everyone had to live up to or more like keep an eye out for. This fear of witches or being a witch seriously spread faster than the Black Plague itself. Look at Trier, Germany. Hundreds of people “claimed” to be witches were either hung, burned, drowned, and the list goes on. There is no doubt that some, if not a good majority, of those people were innocent. The people of Trier were so obsessed with the idea of exterminating “witches”, they didn’t even care to second guess the accusations. Well, even if people did question the large amounts of persecutions, like arch-bishop Flade, they were accused of protecting them. And we all know if you protect a witch you must be one yourself.

As it said in Kors and Peters, “A persecution such as that at Trier demands a population that believes in the efficacy of the process by which the witches are identified and exterminated” (310).

It’s crazy to think what fear can do to people. Clearly it can make people turn on one another. Even when there was “proof” that certain people dabbled in witchcraft, how legitimate was it? Everything in a court of law needs evidence to prove the facts stated. The only actual, tangible evidence that I've seen so far is what Kors and Peters said in the “Confessions of the Chelmsford Witches”.

“…of the intentions, the diabolical pact, and the unnatural powers of the witch, uttered by his or her own tongue and signed by his or her own hand” (303).

My real question is how valid these confessions were. In the text it says that the confessions were given willingly and through torture. Well if I knew I was in deep shit and there was no way out; even if I did confess, I would surely be put to death anyway. Most of these people probably just said things or agreed with the accusations to avoid any type of torture. Better be burned now, than tortured, then just burned later. The English said how the confessions were tangible proof, but I say bullshit. The majority of the accused were poor and uneducated, they had no clue what was going on. Just because of their social status, automatically made their words lesser than words of someone rich and educated. 

It's sad to think about, but come on, it happened all the time. Fear can do some crazy stuff, no doubt. Look at the Crucible. An entire town turned on each other just because a group of (LYING) girls claimed certain people were workers of the Devil. The ironic thing is that these girls were the ones performing the rituals! Talk about a scapegoat. 

Necromancy Performers: Clerics, Necromancers, and the Lady Down the Street Baking Brownies.

Sadly I missed our last class due to working at the great store of American Eagle. The only thing magical thing there is the awesome underwear collection :)
ANYWAY. I wanted to make my statement disagreeing that clerics were the "right sort of people" to perform necromancy. Frankly, I disagree with this statement. In our book by Kieckhefer on page 152, it states necromancy was explicitly demonic magic. It also say that all other forms of magic were taken as implicitly demonic. A necromancer comes in direct contact with demons or the Devil. Clearly, necromancy was the WORST type of magic to dabble in, regardless who you were. Even though clerics were trained and taught to deal with this dark magic, this magic is so evil, no one is safe from it.
The best solution to this problem is not to use this magic. No one. No clerics, no necromancers, not even the old lady baking down the street. If no one messes with the darkness of this magic, the world would have been such a better place.
Lets say we have this great cleric that has mastered the skills of dominating necromancy. He has performed many exorcisms and is on the top of his game. This guy is good. However, in his training he learned of these mysterious "evil" books that supposedly give a necromancer even more "power". This well trained man of course gets curious and decides to read these magical books. This man has now doomed himself. On page 155 of Kieckhefer, he says that it is this curiosity that kills these "good" clerical men. Just reading and performing the rituals in these books would gain these men a one way ticket to the clerical underworld.

Clearly we know the lesson to be learned here. Don't perform necromancy.
(Insert Mean Girls quote: "You will get pregnant and die").


                                 This is totally the old woman who bakes down the street!

                                                      
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqHBhjoIt5M5GFtO9lI12eisOfd5Eq3CGCRRH7s8xD16SZbWlyB5DhGIn-JIrU2hTJGL-j6uvuwyD2x6vqhT_uF9okvPR_8gJLqXPqhLee_Fi9dRxgGT_Y-ZHbDeVEooJVL0Zy6Pm310I/s400/Crazy_Old_Lady_Peace.jpg