History of Witches - Burning the Old Gods: How the Church Used Witch Hunts to Erase Paganism

Paganism: The Roots of the Old Ways

Before Christianity spread across Europe, most people practiced forms of earth-based, polytheistic spirituality. These beliefs were rooted in:

• Seasonal festivals (like Imbolc, Beltane, and Samhain)

• Nature veneration (trees, rivers, stones, and animals as sacred)

• Goddess worship and fertility rituals

• Ancestral reverence and spiritual communication with spirits or the dead

Whether in Norse, Celtic, Slavic, or Greco-Roman lands, the Old Gods—gods of thunder, harvest, love, and death—were part of the daily rhythm of life.

But to the rising Christian Church, these deities were not just outdated… they were demonic.

The Church's Strategy: Demonize and Replace

Rather than allow coexistence, the Church moved to eradicate pagan belief systems, especially in rural areas (which is where we get the word paganus, meaning “country dweller”).

Here’s how it worked:

1. Pagan deities were rebranded as demons or devils.
   Example: The Greek horned god Pan, symbol of wild nature and joy, became a template for the Christian Devil.

2. Sacred festivals were either banned or absorbed.

   • Samhain was demonized as a night of evil spirits.

   • Yule traditions were replaced with Christmas celebrations.

   • Ostara (spring fertility) merged into Easter—with the same eggs and rabbits.

3. Local healers and seers were labeled as witches.

   • Practicing ancestral rites became heresy.

   • Rural folk still making offerings or celebrating the wheel of the year were accused of devil worship.

4. Church-sponsored witch hunts punished resistance with torture and death.

Witch Hunts as a Tool of Spiritual Erasure

The late medieval and early modern witch hunts (c. 1450–1750) were not random panics—they were deeply strategic. The Inquisition and local authorities often targeted communities still clinging to pre-Christian beliefs.

• In Germany, over 25,000 people were executed, many in areas where folk customs persisted.

• In Scotland, women who used charms or remembered the old gods were tried as witches.

• In France and Switzerland, entire villages were investigated for seasonal rites and herbal healing.

“You must not suffer a witch to live.” – Biblical verse (Exodus 22:18), frequently cited during trials

The Church justified these horrors by saying they were fighting Satan. But really, they were silencing the old ways—the gods, the festivals, and the women who kept the traditions alive.

Historical Evidence of the Erasure

• Pope Gregory I (6th century): Instructed missionaries to destroy pagan shrines and convert them into churches.

  • Pope Gregory I, in the 6th century, adopted a pragmatic approach to Christianization by instructing missionaries not to destroy pagan shrines, but rather to convert them into churches. His reasoning, particularly evident in a letter to Abbot Mellitus regarding the mission to England, was that if the temples were well-built, they should be repurposed for Christian worship. This strategy aimed to make the transition to Christianity more appealing and familiar to newly converted populations, allowing them to continue frequenting accustomed sacred spaces, albeit now consecrated to the "true God," and facilitating a smoother integration of pre-Christian practices and sites into the burgeoning Christian faith.

• Charlemagne’s Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae (782): Ordered death for those practicing pagan rites in newly Christianized regions.

  • Charlemagne's Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, issued around 782 CE, was a brutally severe legal code aimed at forcibly Christianizing the recently conquered Saxon territories. This capitulary mandated the death penalty for various pagan practices, including refusing baptism, destroying churches, and even cremating the dead in the traditional pagan manner. It effectively criminalized adherence to pre-Christian beliefs and practices, marking a stark shift towards imposing Christianity by force and demonstrating Charlemagne's resolve to integrate the Saxons into his Frankish kingdom through religious and political subjugation.

• Malleus Maleficarum (1487): A guidebook for identifying and killing witches, specifically targeted "superstitions" that were echoes of paganism.

  • Published in 1487, the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of Witches," was an infamous and highly influential guidebook that codified beliefs about witchcraft and provided detailed instructions for its identification, prosecution, and execution. Authored primarily by Heinrich Kramer, it actively sought to prove the reality of witchcraft as a diabolical heresy, rejecting earlier Church views that dismissed it as mere superstition. The text explicitly targeted practices and beliefs that were seen as "superstitions"—many of which were echoes of pre-Christian paganism and folk magic—reinterpreting them as evidence of a pact with the Devil, thereby fueling the widespread and often brutal witch hunts that followed across Europe for centuries.

• Witch trials in Livonia (modern Latvia/Estonia): Often charged people with making offerings to forest spirits—remnants of ancient Baltic religion.

  • The witch trials conducted in Livonia, encompassing modern-day Latvia and Estonia, frequently saw individuals accused of making offerings to forest spirits, a practice deeply rooted in the ancient Baltic religions that persisted in the region. These accusations highlight the clash between the encroaching Christianization and the enduring indigenous spiritual traditions, where veneration of nature deities and spirits of the land were integral to pre-Christian belief systems. For the authorities, such offerings were clear evidence of diabolical pacts and heresy, while for many locals, they represented long-standing customs for ensuring good harvests, health, and well-being, showcasing the persistent remnants of paganism under the guise of "witchcraft."

🕯️ The Spiritual Cost

What the Church couldn’t understand, it feared. What it couldn’t control, it burned.
And so it wasn't just witches who were lost in the flames—it was gods, sacred trees, ancient songs, rituals of the sun and moon, and a worldview that honored balance between the physical and spiritual.

Reclaiming the Old Gods Today

Modern witches, pagans, and spiritual seekers are not just practicing spells. We are reviving suppressed wisdom.

• When you light a candle on a solstice, you're rekindling ancient fire festivals.

• When you speak to your ancestors, you’re practicing rites they were once killed for.

• When you wear a pentacle or honor the Goddess, you reclaim what they tried to erase.

🌕 Let the Old Ways Rise Again

Witchcraft today is an act of remembrance and rebellion. It honors what was burned, buried, and banned. And it reminds us that the gods never truly died—they were just waiting for us to listen again.

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