The mention of magic dates back about 20-25 thousand years ago. Then it was believed that people were one with nature. While the earth was the most sacred to man, it was considered a deity, the mother of everything and everyone. For people, she was their beginning and their end.
In those early days, magic was of a completely different kind. People embodied magic in our world with the help of drawings on the walls, dances and songs. Usually they drew animals for good hunting and to increase the birth rate in the settlements. Also, hunters performed a kind of ritual in the form of a staging of a successful hunt so that energy (magic) would descend into our world and help them on the hunt. With their dances and drawings, they turned to the great mistress of the herd, as time passed, they began to turn to the Horned God, who was usually depicted with deer horns. This was done in order to emphasize the undeniable supremacy of God in the herds. After the death of animals, their bones, like human ones, were supposed to be buried in the ground for their further revival.
Nowadays, there are also settlements that honor ancient customs, for example, residents of Scandinavia such as Laplanders or Innuits. These kinds of rituals are used by shamans or sorcerers, they go into a kind of trance and ask the Mistress of the herd or fish to help them in the hunt.
The earliest mentions of shamanism date back to about 14 thousand. years BC This is the so-called Dancing Sorcerer, painted on the walls of the Les Trou Fréries cave in France. The shaman is depicted as a person with parts of different animals. The most interesting thing is that of the human parts of the body he had only legs, eyes were huge and round like those of an owl, paws looked like a lion's or a bear's, antlers, and a tail like a horse's or a wolf's.
During the Neolithic period, the first mentions of the so-called cult of the Three Goddesses appeared. This cult was associated with three lunar phases or cycles: growth, full moon and defective moon. By the way, with the help of the moon, people learned to determine the time, since the menstrual cycle in women coincided with the phases of the moon. A little later, the moon became a symbol of love and passion, as it became a harbinger of increased fertility and fertility in women. It is believed that the magic given by the moon is still used to increase fertility in some settlements. The three goddesses depicted on the stone were found in France in the cave of Abri du Roc aux Sorsiers in Anglais Sur Langlin.
Already in the Middle Ages, two concepts were formed that justified the persecution of magicians, in particular women, in those days. Due to religious prejudice and the fact that women were considered inferior to men, women were more often accused of witchcraft. Also, due to the development of medical practice in men, women healers made them great competition. Due to the fact that women-midwives gave birth painlessly, they began to survive. It was believed that Eve's children should be born in pain and suffering. Also, due to the high mortality rate during childbirth, women midwives, Christians, were accused of worshiping Satan and offering him sacrifices in the form of newborn children.
During the years when wealthy landowners appropriated neighboring communal lands, accusations of witchcraft increased due to the fact that a person accused of witchcraft was deprived of his possessions. Often they were old women, commoners, or elderly widows.
Some scholars believe that in the distant 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, behind a large number of accusations of using witchcraft, there was a goal of taking lands from people. When accused, large stones were placed on a person's chest, he either confessed to witchcraft, or died within three days. If a person confessed, then all his possessions were confiscated and his heirs were deprived of the right to these lands, and the accused was burned at the stake.
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The highest ranked mages who dealt with demons often turned out to be men, clerics, or nobles. In view of their status, they managed to hide their actions or avoid punishment, unlike ordinary people.
In 1484, the inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger wrote the famous for those times "Hammer of the Witches". It described all the tortures that can and should have been applied to people who, in their opinion, practiced magic and witchcraft. Although torture was banned in England, or rather, it was carried out only with the special permission of the king, most of the inquisitors were cruel people even towards young ladies who confessed everything to avoid torture.
Now no one will say for sure how many people were killed at that time on suspicion of witchcraft. The worst time for sorcerers was the period from the 15th to the 17th century, when at least a quarter of a million people were killed on suspicion of witchcraft, this time was called the Burning Times.
More than half of those killed were elderly women. These were ordinary people, healers, midwives and herbalists. With their death, a huge amount of knowledge was lost, and their place was taken by male doctors. They also had their own nuances, if the doctor was anything different from the others, in a strange behavior or appearance, they could also be charged with witchcraft. Older women who lived alone could be blamed for a poor harvest or the death of livestock, although this was all due to the corny low levels of hygiene, bad weather conditions, or human errors in handling animals.
After the events of the witch hunt (The Burning Times), the church not only allowed witch hunts, but more, they approved of these actions. After those events, even fairies became associated with witchcraft. It was believed that fairies live with healers and help them around the house. Because of this, elderly women, whose houses were clean and comfortable, were accused of turning to fairies for help and communicating with Satan. It was only in 1951 that the Witch Act of 1736 was changed to the False Healer Act.
The people who practiced witchcraft often were families who trusted each other and shared knowledge mostly orally. Those of them who knew how to write described rituals and spells in the Book of Shadows. This book had this name because of its secrecy. These books were often burned or buried together with her owner, in special cases she was handed over to one of the daughters.
In our time, magic is treated completely differently. People consider her to be a myth or a prejudice due to false magicians or so-called illusionists. One of the most famous illusionists is Harry Houdini. His tricks are truly magnificent and often many have the impression that he is in fact a magician.
Now, with the help of new technologies, a person can do things that would have caused him to be burned at the stake in the past. But these are all false magicians and charlatans, and in our time there are also a lot of things that a person simply cannot explain. There are people who can predict the future, read signs, see things that they simply cannot see. Also in our time there are many healers and fortune-tellers. Yes, most of them are charlatans, but there are those who really can do something.
Now more and more people are turning to the so-called non-traditional medicine, many tell incredible things after visiting people who practice this method of treatment.
In fact, magic is everywhere among us, it is a matter of faith. As we are used to saying - thoughts are material, if a person wants something very much, he will get it, can't this be attributed to magic? As stated at the beginning: magic
