by AntiM » Thu May 07, 2009 6:48 am
The witches at Salem were hanged for the most part. Some were crushed under rocks. Burning a human to death is tricky, messy and time-consuming. Witches were not hung on crosses as far as I've ever seen in the histories.
The women persecuted as witches in Europe were not closet pagans. They were women no one liked, or old women who had outlived their usefulness and were a burden on the community. Crazy old ladies and superstition, bitterness and neighbor feuds, made witchcraft an easy finger to point. Life was too hard and just keeping the family warm, fed and clothed took all the time a woman had; few poor women had the inclination to expend time on witchcraft. Only ladies of leisure and learning had time for hobbies like potion making and dancing nude in the forest. Like a modern book club. In fact, I've always wanted to do deep research on literacy rates and wichcraft/paganism as an intellectual choice of rebellion.
You cannot get high from moldy bread, but certain moldy grains, perhaps. The few "witches" who actually cobbled up potions used fun stuff like henbane and belladonna. The "flying" potions were applied under the arms where the psychoactive ingredients were readily absorbed. And everyone knew which mushrooms were the right ones, there were few accidental shroom trips.
Yeah, so nothing has changed.
I'm too jaded to think up a good sig-line. Need more coffee.