Human relationships, say sociologists, are guided by symbolic powers. They have a great influence on people's worldview and reality. The witches they have always been and will be a link between myth and reason or between fiction and reality, as they are in the field of popular imagination that it is disseminated by the culture and customs of a people and, above all, establish a relationship and consequences in the actions of thought human.
Researchers eager for their archaeological searches have found symbols and illustrations in caves that demonstrate human worship of fertility goddesses even in the Neolithic period. Since the emergence of the first civilizations, man sought to worship gods that mixed protection, respect and divinity. Perhaps it was a way of comforting the search for what was not understood or what did not exist and which was looking for an answer.
With the advent of Christianity and its spread throughout the world, the symbolic power of many beliefs, rituals or customs came to be persecuted and labeled as heretical and sinful. Christianity proliferated a politics in which there was a right culture and a wrong culture, and as soon as "truth" should prevail over "falsehood".
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Women during the Middle Ages who had mastered medicinal herbs for the cure of illnesses were judged as heretics and sinners, because, in the Catholic conception, they tried to deceive the divine laws with rituals that went against the Church's precepts Catholic. Therefore, several women were persecuted and accused of witchcraft or witchcraft and, consequently, were murdered for the practice of their beliefs and culture.
At Middle Ages, the witches they were accused of falsifying divine control, manipulating herbs and curing diseases, for no one could change the divine course of things if not for God. Along with this accusation, witches were accused of making demonic pacts and performing supernatural things like flying through the air. It was with this symbolic imagery that accusations were legitimized and several women were killed in different cities in Europe until the arrival of the Enlightenment.
By Fabricio Santos
Graduated in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SANTOS, Fabrício Barroso dos. "Witches and Symbolic Power"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historia/bruxas.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
