Anniversary of the Salem Witchtrials

March is the anniversary month of the Salem witchtrials, and I thought I would take a moment to remember all those who have gone before.

Most people, when you mention witch trials think first of Salem in the USA, and many are unaware that the UK had it's own witch hunt nightmares in the 17th century.
This was the time of the Witchfinder General.
In 1604 James the first issued a statute against witchcraft and in the years after that hundreds of people were hunted down, tortured into confessing their guilt, and executed.
Those accused were mostly women, widows with no family to protect them, and although there were almost certainly some healers and herbalists in amongst them, most of these women were innocent.
The last execution for witchcraft in England was in 1684.

Details are few, but it is documented that things were much worse in Scotland where witchcraft was outlawed in 1563 and, in the years that followed, approximately 1,500 people were killed. The last being Janet Horne, who was tried, convicted and executed in 1722.

As we celebrate???? another year since the infamous witchtrials in Salem Massachusetts in 1692, and remember all those executed in the UK during the burning times, I thought I would ask you all a question.....

When do you think was the last time a woman was tried in court in the UK under the Witchraft Act of 1735?

If you hadn't just Googled it would you have been amazed to learn that it was 1944?
A Spiritualist and working medium the lady in question, Helen Duncan, was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. Thankfully the days of ducking stools and being burned at the stake were long behind us by then, but even so this is a ridiculous charge to be levelled at anyone in the 20th century!
Helen never recovered from the charges, and died in 1956.
Peoples attitudes to the Duncans changed drastically as news of Helen's conviction spread through her working class suburb, and neither she nor her family were ever allowed to move on from the shame of her being convicted of witchcraft. Her granddaughter recalls being called witch-spawn and devil-child even though she was only 11 at the time.

The Witchcraft Act was repealed in the UK in 1951 and in the census carried out in the UK in 2001 over 7,000 people listed Wicca as their religion.

I am grateful to this lady and all the others who died in the name of the religion I practise in complete freedom and safety.
I am so free and safe BECAUSE of these men and women. Because of their sacrifices and their beliefs I do not have to hide my religion, although I may still be persecuted by some, I cannot be prosecuted. Not for me the witch trials, ducking stools or burning stakes. I do not live in fear of discovery.
I love every one of these women, men and children for this incredible gift they have given me.

Elvin.

It may sound clichéd but I think we should all be grateful to these brave people, whatever kin we are.
They were the people who opened the door for all of us to have the freedom to be ourselves, even if it is a bound and chained freedom, without them we would have nothing.
Many Vampires would still be living in graveyards and sewers, eating rats, cats, stray dogs and wino's, and many Weres would still be in side shows and freak shows living on scraps thrown by the audience and billed as 'The Cat Woman' or 'Norman the dog faced boy'!

Blessed Be to them all.

Lady C.