Subject: Re: Witches
From: f3w@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mark Gellis)
Date: 1991-01-24, 10:58
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

This is one case where the dictionary is misleading.  My American Heritage
defines witch as "a woman who practices sorcery or is believed to have
dealings with the devil."  In the first place, sorcery, if it exists,
may be used for good or ill purposes (I don't want to argue about whether
or not magic exists; like the existence of God, it's not really one of
those things you can prove or disprove).  From my experience, the majority
of modern withces are concerned not with a new age cult, but with the
revival of pre-Christian forms of worship that involved natural spirits,
herb lore, etc., and which was stamped out during the spread of the
Christian faith.  Priests, fearing a rival religion, claimed (and perhaps
believed) that Wicca must be inspired by the devil.  Of course, witchcraft
could be used for evil purposes, so some witches doubtless did so, or
attempted to do so, and helped injure the reputation of the religion.
Finally, during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, male doctors came
into competition with midwives, and claimed that they were witches in
order to eliminate them.  The term witch is actually one of the most 
misused in the English language.