Witchcraft has its origin in paganism. It was widely practiced in Europe under the Celts. Every village had a so called medicine woman who was in charge of the health and thus of the well-being of the community. She was called ‘Wiccan’ which means wise woman. With the emergence of Christianity in Europe these women and their practices were viewed as witchcraft and thus the outlook on these practices and way of life changed. The Roman Catholic Church under its leading Pope VIII in 1484, started the famous witch hunts. Many witches were burned at the stake, especially during the Middle ages under the auspice of the Roman Catholic police, the Inquisition. Everything and everybody that looked suspicious in their eyes was persecuted and usually lost their lives.
The Inquisition however, to obtain money for the Church accused many nobles and rich people of being a witch, people who where completely innocent, in order to obtain their wealth. Today we can hardly imagine that this could have ever taken place, but it did. Many innocent man and women were accused and subsequently condemned to be burned at the stake for being a so called witch or a heretic, when they in fact were totally innocent. We can thus conclude that in their fervor, the Inquisitors went too far. Not all countries burned their victim alive, though. In America, France, Germany and Scotland witches were usually killed before throwing their bodies into the fire as an act of mercy.
Oh, how Satan must have had the time of his life during those centuries, for the Inquisition was nothing less than his weapon to kill innocent people. Make an effort to read some chronicles of victims who fell to the Inquisition (Fox’s Book of Martyrs) and see how fierce and ruthless this office really was. They did most certainly not possess any knowledge of the Bible, nor the love of God, for if they had they would never ever had killed all these people.One sentence however they did know from the Bible. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”(Ex. 22:18). This sentence and its context was totally taken out of proportion. They found the perfect excuse to kill many people.
Even Protestants. They were condemned for either being a heretic which was even worse than being a witch and subsequently also burned at the stake. This was the easy way out for the Catholic Church to once and for all get rid of these truthful religious people. You see, the Catholic Church feared them for they were being true to the Bible and could thus expose the lies within the Catholic Church. This could under no circumstance be allowed and thus many innocent Protestants were persecuted and burned at the stakes.
Nowadays witchcraft is getting more and more popular by the day. It is not called witchcraft anymore for witchcraft has a negative connotation, but it is now called Wicca. It is most common with women but men do also practice it. One of the reasons why this form of witchcraft is so popular nowadays is due to the fact that it tries to focus on the environment, a topic that is high on the world politicians agenda. Wicca has many concepts of deities which vary from group to group. One of the most popular is that of the gentle Goddess of Mother Goddess. This goddess is presented as a mother figure who cares for her child. One of her aspects is that she does not forbid her child anything. Some of the names of this goddess are Aphrodite, Arthemis, Astarte, Athena, Diana, Hera, Isis, Gaia, Kali, Lilith, Tanit. But Wicca also has a male god which is known under several names, them being Lucifer (!!), Osiris, Pan, Thor, Zeus.
The ambiguous thing about Wiccans is, however, they do not believe in Satan. Satan has completely blinded their eyes to the reality that Wicca is actually from him. Wicca uses spells, magick, and all kinds of occult things to obtain its goal. These are Satan’s practices and part of his territory. Wiccan’s make a distinction between white magick and black magick. They even do have a gray area of magic, called the gray magic. White magic is the magic of nature and its elements, visualization and astrology), Black magic is necromancy, Voodoo and alchemy, and gray magic is sexual magic, candle magic and trances.
Wicca and the New Age belief, centers the worship of God in every person. They deny the deity of God and His existence. They think that every person has god within him or her. They believe that absolutely everything in this earth has a soul. By this I mean they do believe that trees, animals, stones etc possess a soul. They believe in reincarnation. They celebrate their Sabbaths or High Days. They also celebrate the full moon . They hold on to their eight-fold path of life which consists of trance, drugs, music or dance, rites, spells and incantations, sexual rites, scourging, ceremonial rites and meditation. (For more information about the rites and rituals, see Rites and rituals of Wicca)
We as Christians do not need to have any cycles in our lives to obtain a higher life. We have everything in Jesus Christ. You need to know that God sees all kinds of magic as evil. It is Satan’s territory. The Bible is very clear about it.
“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”(Deut 18:10-12)
“ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21)
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”(Rev.21:8)
God is very adamant about these practices. He tells us that if we do practice any of these abominations, our final destination will be the lake of fire (hell). Well, that is no nice place to be. You need to know that all practice of sorcery or witchcraft in any form has evil spirits attached to it. That is the reason why it is so dangerous. God does not want you to fall into Satan’s hands. He cares for you, He wants you to be safe and well in His loving hands. You do not need evil spirits to tell you the future. You do not need to cast spells to influence or get even at other people. Evil that is re-payed by evil will only bring more evil. Witches know this. God tells us to repay evil for good (Rom. 12:21). Never repay evil with evil. That will bring you more bondage. One of the dangers of witchcraft is that once you get into this area, you will be drawn more and more into its depths. Not everybody can handle the dangers of these depths. The more you get involved, the higher your witchcraft degrees or practices the more evil the forces are. You will be more tormented. Satan will not give his knowledge for free. He always will ask some form of sacrifice. Your soul is one, but your peace of mind is the other sacrifice. Satan is never satisfied until he has destroyed you completely. God on the other hand will always try to reach out to you because He wants you to be saved. But, and I say a but here, it is your choice. God will not interfere in your choice. He gave us all the choice to choose. Choose life instead of death.