Merry meet!
Just a brief sharing of a day out I undertook with a friend yesterday.
We visited Helmond where there is an exhibit on the witch trials held there back in 1595.
Now I am writing another (elaborate) post on witchcraft, what it means to me and much more. However as I have quite a lot of feelings on the subject of what witchcraft means to me, I really need to edit that post and post it in several different topics.
But for now this brief sharing of my visit to Helmond (Hell Mouth is the direct translation of this city’s name) yesterday.
Labels
I am not fond of labels and asking me what kind of witch I am I find hard to answer. It is somewhere along the lines of Traditional Urban Solitary witch. Now can you be a traditional witch in a city? I feel you can, as a traditional witches don’t hold on to traditions and established practices, but because traditions and customs of yesteryear are added to the witchcraft they know. Yet the term traditional witchcraft is questionable. There are very few witch movements that are truly traditional and have not been influenced by modern witchcraft. It is said that in fact only Stregheria (Italian witchcraft) is not, or hardly, affected.
Traditional witchcraft
Traditional witchcraft is a way for me to engage in witchcraft without major rituals. The magic is in small everyday things and there is great power in it. Traditional witchcraft is a very natural way of practicing witchcraft. Naturally as in: close to yourself, but also naturally because nature plays a major role. I don’t want to claim that all traditional witches are nature activists, but most traditional witches are concerned with nature and the environment simply because it is the basis of our existence.
My witchy way is nature oriented, combined with traditions and customs from the Netherlands and with witchcraft from other movements and countries.
Lately I have been reading up a lot on Dutch (local) traditions and legends. And I have been visiting powerful places in the Netherlands as well as places witch trials unfortunately took place. One of these places is Helmond.
Trials in Peelland
The series of witch trials in Asten that was conducted around 1595 was part of a larger series of trials in the Peel and Meierij of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This area fell under the authority of Brussels.
These processes were seen as unlawful at the time. Partly because of this, they were the reason for sharpening the legal rules in witch trials and abolishing the water test.
The accused were subjected to the water test during these processes. If they failed, they were tortured. However, they often confessed before the torture. People also died during torture. During the torture, the accused were also forced to admit that they had made a heretic alliance with the devil and had even had sexual intercourse with him and danced with him during the witch sabbaths, along with other witches. They were forced to name the names of those other witches. This created a chain of processes.
In Asten, the accused were not only poor and unpopular women, but there were also reputable and even mediated people. The latter were able to redeem themselves for big money. A total of at least 19 people would have been executed.
Did you know that witchcraft remained formally forbidden and punishable until 1953?
Why the fear and punishment?
Magic inspires many people and it empowers them. Perhaps because it uses one’s own strength instead of folding hands and asking God to get something done, now this makes people very hard to rule and control and therefor should be abolished and punished. Witches believe that their goddess and god, the feminine and masculine principle, is within themselves. And in everything around them. In every blade of grass, petal and a breath of wind. Magic is based on trust in our own creative power, free will and responsibility for our actions.
Do not fear us
Do not fear us as we know very well that we need to be careful with magic, we believe that everything we do will return to us in threefold. “Do as you will and harm none (An’ ye harm none, do what ye will – the Wiccan Rede)”
Thank you for reading and sharing this space with me. I wish you a beautiful new week and let us protect our freedom and not return to the days of the witch trial (as some gatherings have been forbidden already in The Netherlands, like going back to the dark ages) – also I notice a lot of people don’t understand what witchcraft is and shows like Sabrina are not helping our reputation. Please do you own research before judging. Better still, never judge.
Let us be at peace. Blessed be!
P.S. on Friday evening I went to see the exhibition Hockney- Van Gogh The Joy of Nature at Van Gogh museum: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/stories/hockney-van-gogh-two-painters-one-love
I enjoyed it immensely. The works of art on display, the interviews with Hockney, even the (in my eyes cold feeling) iPad drawings inspired me again to look! Even more than that, to really see. The world just seemed a little brighter and sharper when I stepped out of the museum, more intense, more alive. And it also made me want to book a ticket to visit Woldgate Woods…
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
Vincent Van Gogh
