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Witchcraft Past and Present
of the Kabbalah that make it compatible with the beliefs and practices of
nature-orientated Wicca, but most Wiccans would find the monotheism
and strict codes of behaviour imposed by Judaism, with which the
Kabbalah is inextricably linked, hard to accept.
Some Curious Beliefs
Witchcraft, especially in its black magic form still exists in the beliefs of
many African cultures and indigenous peoples around the world. In
North America, for instance, the Navajo believe that witchcraft is an
exclusively male practice, its initiates meeting at night to make magic,
wearing nothing except a mask and jewellery. They sit among baskets of
corpses and are said to ‘converse’ with dead women.
Some African cultures hold that witches get together in cannibal covens.
They meet, it is believed in some tribes in Guinea, in graveyards, sitting
round a fire and feasting vampire-fashion off the blood of their victims.
Witches have the ability to take a person’s soul and keep it until the
victim dies. Witches here are believed to have made a pact with an evil
spirit who grants them power that they exercise through a familiar, such
as a dog, baboon or, as with witches in medieval Europe and 17th-
century North America, a cat.
The Zande, who live in the Congo area and some other central African
peoples, believe that a witch’s power comes from his or her own body.
They believe that the source of the capacity to cast evil spells is located
in the witch’s stomach and that as the witch ages, so their power
increases. The witch can activate this power simply by wishing someone
ill but the spell is made stronger by the use of potions and powerful
magic.
In other parts of Africa, witches are thought to act unconsciously and
might well be unaware of the ill that they cause until it is brought to
their attention. Those who suffer at the hands of such a witch might
have held that view until the witchcraft is turned in their direction. Then
they are quick to change their minds and claim that the witchcraft was
deliberate.
Witchcraft is still blamed in some developing parts of the world for
disease and disaster, some as major as a fatal landslide or a devastating
flood which has serious consequences for many people, others as trivial
as failure in an exam or performing badly at a job interview. In parts of
Brazil, for example, where job loss is thought to be due to witchcraft,
whoever suffered the loss participates in a ritual consultation with a
shaman, who, of course, expects to be rewarded for his efforts!
To be fair, many people who believe that witchcraft can be responsible
for misfortunes do not lay the blame at its door every time misfortune
strikes. If there is a logical explanation, it is often accepted: a badly built
shelter that blows down in a gale was obviously not strong enough to
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