Witch Cults
and to raise up the earth, the conjure the waves of the sea into mountains, and mountains into waves, to raise up the spirits of the earth into the air, to draw down the very Gods from the sky, to vanquish the light of the stars, and to lighten up the deepest shadows of the Underworld."
The sacred places of the Thessalian Witches were first and foremost the triple crossroads, which were associated with the three aspects of Hecate. All crossroads were considered sacred for that matter, because they are what we call "tween places ”", they don’t belong to any one of the roads, but in some ways, it belongs to all of them. Magical traditions always respected these kinds of times and places for having a very strong magical potential. Other examples are seashores, dawn, and midnight.
Witches and Wizards of the Thessalian Cult used Magick Circles as their ritual sites, and they called up the Powers of the Four Elements. Their religion was ecstatic in nature, their rituals were joyful and and free-spirited. During the Hellenistic period, ThessalianWitches borrowed elements from magical traditions of many different cultures, Egypt were especially significant one. In classical mythology, they survived int he characters of Medeia and Circe.
Witchcraft is a special type of Lunar-cult, essentially it can be understood as Lunar religion in its purest form. Witchcraft is a Lunar-cult that is centered on magic. (to see what is lunar cult is read here http://rivendellbookshelf.blogspot.in/2016/01/the-history-of-religions-solar-and.html)
Witchcraft is not a linear Tradition. This means, that the evolution of Witchcraft does not constitute a single imaginary line in history, but Witchcraft appears in history in cycles. Since Witchcraft is in human nature, Witch cults appeared and disappeared everywhere, all the time. Witch Religions were sometimes connected with each other, sometimes they weren’t. What is important, is that they had a lot of features in common. Let us now review the most important Witch-cults of old, and see what all Witch-cults have in common.
Thessalian Witchcraft
The first known historical Witch-cult was that in Thessaly, which is located on the south-west regions of Greece. The earliest records we have about the Thessalian Witch cult come from the 8th century but there is no reason to assume that Witchcraft didn’t exist in this area long before that.
Members of the Thessalian Cult were mostly women, but there is indication of male members as well. They were famous for their magical and healing abilities.
In an ancient novel, titled the "Golden Ass or Transformations", the writer, Apuleius describes the powers of a Thessalian Witch:
"Surely she is a Witch, who has power over the heavens, power to draw down the skies
and to raise up the earth, the conjure the waves of the sea into mountains, and mountains into waves, to raise up the spirits of the earth into the air, to draw down the very Gods from the sky, to vanquish the light of the stars, and to lighten up the deepest shadows of the Underworld."
In the center of the Thessalian Witch-cult was the Goddess Hecate. She was regarded as an ancient Goddess even at that time, and people believed her to be born in Thessaly. She was worshiped as a Goddess of Witchcraft, magic, and the powers of the Underworld. Hecate is a typical "Triple Goddess” since she was many times pictured with three faces, all of them attributed to a "face" of the Moon: the Waning, Waxing, and the Full Moon. Corresponding to these, she was sometimes pictured with a head of a Dog, a Horse, and a Human. The partner of Hecate was called Pan, Pan whose name
means "Everything". His worship was popular among the peasantry, and Witches. He was pictured as half-man, half-goat, with a goat’s lower body and horns, and sometimes with a full goat’s head.
Pan symbolizes the raw masculine, half animal and half human nature, and fertile creative force. He is a typical Horned God. It is important to note, that the Bible does not give any kind of description as to how the Devil looks like, so Christians used the image of Pan to give Witches and Pagans a bad name. This is where we actually get our devil-image of popular culture from. Thessalian Witches were regarded to be masters of herbal lore, healing and poisoning. This is where their greek name came from: Pharmakis (female - Witch)/Pharmakeus (male - Wizard) (pharmakon =magickal/healing herb). Naturally Witches were already misunderstood then, and the poisoning part got a little overemphasized. People also knew, that Witches use enchantments (Epoidai) to attain their goals. It was common knowledge that Witches could bind anyone from harm using their spells.
Thessalian Witchcraft is a typical example of how Witch-cults worked in general. People feared them, but accepted their existence, because in times of trouble they would seek out their wisdom and magical help. Although it was not common at the time, there were also some Witch-trials done in this period as well. Aristophanes writes that everyone could buy the services of Witches, who would then "draw down the Moon". We have to note, that one of the most important sacred rites of modern Witchcraft, the rite of Drawing Down the Moon comes from the Thessalian Witch-cult.
The sacred places of the Thessalian Witches were first and foremost the triple crossroads, which were associated with the three aspects of Hecate. All crossroads were considered sacred for that matter, because they are what we call "tween places ”", they don’t belong to any one of the roads, but in some ways, it belongs to all of them. Magical traditions always respected these kinds of times and places for having a very strong magical potential. Other examples are seashores, dawn, and midnight.
Witches and Wizards of the Thessalian Cult used Magick Circles as their ritual sites, and they called up the Powers of the Four Elements. Their religion was ecstatic in nature, their rituals were joyful and and free-spirited. During the Hellenistic period, ThessalianWitches borrowed elements from magical traditions of many different cultures, Egypt were especially significant one. In classical mythology, they survived int he characters of Medeia and Circe.
