reetings, salutations and Merry Meet. Welcome to the Wiccan Historian. What you are viewing is the culmination of a vision I have had for many years, including a Newsletter, plus a number of revisions of the Wiccan Historian Website. For many years, I've pursued the history of religion in general, and the many aspects of Wicca/Witchcraft in particular. Ironically, I disliked history when I was in school - with a passion.

How many of us know what exactly composed what is presently referred to by Wiccans as the "Burning Times"? Sure, the majority of us familiar with the term equates it with the horror of the Inquisition. Witches were burned, hung, tortured and raped during this dark period of human history. That much most of us knows. At least a portion of what went on at the Salem Witch trials are etched in most of our minds, although it remains but a small footnote in most history books. Even non-Wiccans know about these things. But, how many of us know what the Devil's Mark is? How many of us know that no one was safe - in some cases not even the church members themselves? Many of the clergy were accused of being Witches. How many of us know this?

The Christians Holy Book, the Bible, mentions one of the names of the Christian God as Elohim. Not even many Christians know that Elohim, in Hebrew, is a masculine plural of a feminine noun, signifying the Androgyny of the Christian God. The four letters of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH (Pronounced by some as Jehovah or Yahweh), not only represented the elements (Y=Fire, H=Water, V=Air and the final H=Earth), but again, the androgyny of the Hebrew and Christian God (Y=Father, H=Mother, V=Son and the final H=Daughter).

It is not by accident that much of history is lost. "To the victor belongs the spoils," someone once said, and history is included in the spoils. In conquering many lands, the conqueror has the luxury of making the defeated lands heroes into villains, as well as the Gods and Goddesses of that land into demons and devils. Ur in Chaldea was - in its heyday - a city of philosophy, knowledge and research. Students, teachers and philosophers were paid to research and study the ancient texts and scrolls for knowledge. The city has a library that was the largest and most extensive in the known world. It was the home and birthplace of Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Christians. One could study, for example, the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (from whence came the mythology of the worldwide flood of Noah's fame), the Gods and Goddesses of the known world were written about there. Histories, plays, etc. were at Ur. When Ur finally fell to invaders, the great libraries were burned, destroying entire compilations, scrolls, books, histories . . . KNOWLEDGE! Much of what was burned is now lost to us, including the complete writings of Plato.

What is lost in history is often irretrievable. Much of what was lost at Ur as well as the library in Alexandria, Egypt as we all other major libraries of the ancient world are now gone and lost to us forever. In eliminating the books, scrolls and libraries, it allowed the historians of the conquering lands to develop new theories, legends, mythologies and histories, to replace the teachings of the conquered. Soon, the theories became the "truth" for many. Unfortunately, the same thing repeats itself throughout history, in virtually every age and era, up to and including modern day civilization. Thus, ignorance replaces knowledge. The Power of Knowledge becomes replaced by the bliss of ignorance. If you take away knowledge, the people cannot rebel, cannot think, cannot do for themselves. This is illustrated by George Orwell, in his books, Animal Farm, and 1984.

This is basically what happened in the Dark Ages. The church took away the old knowledge from its followers (many converted by the sword) and replaced it with ignorance. If the peasants remained ignorant, how can they gain knowledge, and therefore, truth? If they do not know the truth, anything could be told, including lies and distortions. This, in essence, is exactly what happened. At one time, the church of England made it a capital offense to read the Bible in the Mother tongue. The first attempts at translating the Bible into English were condemned. Masses were said entirely in Latin, but so few people knew Latin at the time, that the congregations were at the mercy of the church, who would tell the people whatever it wished, whether truth or lies. Since it was heresy to question the clergy, much was accepted without question. This was to keep the people from asking too many questions, from gaining knowledge. Eventually, over time, the Bible was allowed to be translated (erroneously, in many instances) so that it eventually was placed in the public domain, not just for the edification of the priests and bishops of the clergy, but for all to read, even PAGANS.

The sad fact of all this is the idea that "ignorance is bliss" perpetuates among our society, even with more and more historical and archeological data being published and discovered daily. With all the advances of science and technology available to us, we are still a nation - nay a world - of ignorant people. Unfortunately, Wiccans are no exception. I am not making this point to be insulting. I, myself, am ignorant about many things and subjects. Fortunately, there is a cure for this malady. It is called KNOWLEDGE. I am an ignorant person searching for the power of knowledge. That, dear reader, is what the Wiccan Historian is all about - Knowledge. With knowledge, comes Power. With knowledge we can prevent another "Burning Times". With the power of knowledge we can combat those who condemn us through the bliss of ignorance. And once we conquer the imbalance of ignorance versus knowledge, then we can attain a symmetry, with the pivotal beam between the two being understanding.

With that, the Wiccan Historian is born.
I bid thee welcome to the Wiccan Historian.

Blessed Be,
Lady Hawkwind
12/17/2000