The Witch-cult in Western Europe | Page 4

been a Grand Master
who was supreme over several districts.
The position of the chief woman in the cult is still somewhat obscure.
Professor Pearson sees in her the Mother-Goddess worshipped chiefly
by women. This is very probable, but at the time when the cult is
recorded the worship of the male deity appears to have superseded that
of the female, and it is only on rare occasions that the God appears in
female form to receive the homage of the worshippers. As a general
rule the woman's position, when divine, is that of the familiar or
substitute for the male god. There remains, however, the curious fact
that the chief woman was often identified with the Queen of Faerie, or
the Elfin Queen as she is sometimes called.
This connexion of the witches and fairies opens up a very wide field; at

present it is little more than speculation that the two are identical, but
there is promise that the theory may be proved at some later date when
the subject is more fully worked out. It is now a commonplace of
anthropology that the tales of fairies and elves preserve the tradition of
a dwarf race which once inhabited Northern and Western Europe.
Successive invasions drove them to the less fertile parts of each country
which they inhabited, some betook themselves to the inhospitable north
or the equally inhospitable mountains; some, however, remained in the
open heaths and moors, living as mound-dwellers, venturing out chiefly
at night and coming in contact with the ruling races only on rare
occasions. As the conqueror always regards the religion of the
conquered as superior to his own in the arts of evil magic, the dwarf
race obtained the reputation of wizards and magicians, and their god
was identified by the conquerors with the Principle of Evil. The
identification of the witches with the dwarf or fairy race would give us
a clear insight into much of the civilization of the early European
peoples, especially as regards their religious ideas.
The religious rites varied according to circumstances and the
requirements of the people. The greater number of the ceremonies
appear to have been practised for the purpose of securing fertility. Of
these the sexual ritual has been given an overwhelming and quite
unwarranted importance in the trials, for it became an obsession with
the Christian judges and recorders to investigate the smallest and most
minute details of the rite. Though in late examples the ceremony had
possibly degenerated into a Bacchanalian orgy, there is evidence to
prove that, like the same rite in other countries, it was originally a
ceremonial magic to ensure fertility. There is at present nothing to
show how much of the Witches' Mass (in which the bread, the wine,
and the candles were black) derived from the Christian ritual and how
much belonged to the Dianic cult; it is, however, possible that the
witches' service was the earlier form and influenced the Christian. The
admission ceremonies were often elaborate, and it is here that the
changes in the religion are most clearly marked; certain ceremonies
must have been introduced when another cult was superimposed and
became paramount, such as the specific renunciation of a previous
religion which was obligatory on all new candidates, and the payment

to the member who brought a new recruit into the fold. The other
rites--the feasts and dances--show that it was a joyous religion; and as
such it must have been quite incomprehensible to the gloomy
Inquisitors and Reformers who suppressed it.
Much stress has always been laid by the sceptical writers on the
undoubted fact that in many cases the witch confused dreams with
reality and believed that she had visited the Sabbath when credible
witnesses could prove that she had slept in her bed all the time. Yet
such visions are known in other religions; Christians have met their
Lord in dreams of the night and have been accounted saints for that
very reason; Mahomed, though not released from the body, had
interviews with Allah; Moses talked with God; the Egyptian Pharaohs
record similar experiences. To the devotee of a certain temperament
such visions occur, and it is only to be expected that in every case the
vision should take the form required by the religion of the worshipper.
Hence the Christian sees Christ and enters heaven; Mahomed was
caught up to the Paradise of the true believers; the anthropomorphic
Jehovah permitted only a back view to His votary; the Egyptian
Pharaohs beheld their gods alive and moving on the earth. The witch
also met her god at the actual Sabbath and again in her dreams, for that
earthly Sabbath was to her the true Paradise, where there was more
pleasure than she could express, and she believed also that the joy
which