Until the 14c the early Christian church had existed side by side with Pagan religions. The Old Religion had its roots in pre-history and was, still is, unassailable. Paganism reaches the parts of one's spirit which are replaced in other religions by repression and dogma. Paganism is so fundamental to the state of being that it could not be supplanted or suppressed by early Christian missionaries. The pagan approach is part of mankind's psychological and psychical makeup. The Early church instead combined with Pagan festivals and methods of worship even to the extent of sharing their sacred places. It is debatable whether the founding fathers of the Church had some subversive plan in mind all along , or whether they were simply pushed into taking subversive action because Christianity was losing its identit y because of the tenacity of the much older and, let's face it, much more enjoyable Pagan Tenets. In its attempt to gain control over the masses the church edicted many laws which were but the thin end of the wedge as it began to wage war on the priests of Paganism labelling their activities 'Witchcraft'. Some of these laws were obvious and crafty political manouverings but most singled out unpopular and misunderstood aspects of the Old Religion and exaggerated their intent/significance to the layman. Until the 14c the church's official view was ruled by the Canon Episcopi which writ that witchcraft was a delusion and therefore it was heresy to believe in it. Inaccuracies in the Church's own theology had already brought about a strange state of affairs in which the cult's priests were already inventing dogma to excuse the non-holistic nature of their god and were losing ground to the Pagans whose tenets were self-contained and stemmed rather from personal corroboration and common-wisdom. The concept of the Devil was one of the most important devices the church had to psychologicaly beat the masses with; yet the concept of a Devil pivots for its existence upon warped logic. This is how it goes: Jehova is the all powerful all knowing god from whence all Creation stems. If God is all-powerful then it could easily make a world which was all-good; if God wanted to make a world which was without evil and could not, then he would not be all-powerful and hence, not God. There was no alternative but for the Church to create the Devil as God's scapegoat and the more evenly matched the better. From this ecclesiastical condonation of bigotry arose the terrible blend of incestuous fundamental logic which became the dominant cornerstone of Christian paranoia. Without the Devil Christianity would simply not exist. It is important here to realise that Witches and Pagans do NOT worship the Devil. To consider the concept of a devil one must be by qualification, Christian. Paganism does not give credence to the idea that there is an autonomous evil force lurking in the cosmos waiting to devour people who do not pay homage to some callous and merciless Patriarchal being who's most tremendous elemental tantrums produce destruction so unfathomable that they are still termed 'Acts of God' by insurance companies who wish to evade their responsibilities. Witches correctly attribute the evil acts of man to man himself following from the imbalance and spiritual immaturity within the average person caused by the perpetuation of anarchistic religions which teach by example that rather than question the inconsistencies of one's own belief it is preferable to to project one's sins onto others. Pagan Gods, which the Christians so profanely slandered, were more akin to Devas or Fairies and often represented the qualities met with in life in the same way that a portion of a hologram represents its host image. These qualities were sometimes represented by animals which evinced that nature or virtue. Especially revered were all horned animals for horns are an emblem of power, virility and fecundity. It was an easy thing for the Christian hierarchy to project their own guilt and spiritual immaturity onto these minor Devas of the Pagan Tradition in an attempt to discredit the Old Religion and capture its power. So began the confusion of the Old Gods wi th the new Devil and so well was it accomplished that 999 people out of a thousand still labour under the misapprehension that Witchcraft is evil. In the 14c the unwritten holy war began to hot up and Pope Innocent VIII proclaimed the Summis Desiderantes which made it unlawful for anyone NOT to believe in the Christian idea of Witchcraft as an evil force. Whether this was a response to the corruption within society at that time (using Witchcraft as an excuse fo the excesses of the masses) or whether it was a deliberate attempt to eradicate all traces of the Old Religion which were still powerful in rural and outlying areas is open to debate but the Summis Desiderantes listed a range of things (all natural/domestic occurences) which were supposedly caused by Witchcraft. This bull and the profitability of being able to charge the estate of the victim for the tortur es perpetrated upon them directly lead to the Witchcraft Mania of the 15th a& 16th Centuries during which an estimated 13 million innocent people were horribly murdered in Europe. This outrage beats the combined crimes of Hitler, Genghis Khan and Polpot and constitutes the largest systematised act of Genocide in the history of the world; for which Christians should perpetually hang their heads in shame. All these machinations stemmed from a basic insecurity of belief which is still rampant in the Christian religion and most other orthodox beliefs. The fundamentalist psychology still exists today just as strong as it did during the Burning Times and is a direct result of the traditional methods of Christian indoctrination. In the spring of this year (1988) Geoffrey Dickens, Conservative MP for Littleborough & Saddleworth began a virulent campaign against Witchcraft. He is the parliamentary representative of the Hull based Childwatch organisation. He and the lady who runs Childwatch are ardent Christians. Dickens' allegations have gained him extensive coverage in the press (both intellectual and tabloid) and much television coverage. His claims include the following : (a) Witches are in league with the devil and actively work against Christianity. ( b) Witches by qualification sexually molest children in their rites (c) Witches undertake ritual sex in order to secretly produce babies which are then sacrificed to the Devil (d) Witches inculcate feeble willed people into their practices and then sacrifice them or, if the candidates withdraw, blackmail them and drive them to suicide. (e) Witches form a conspirational sub-society within Britain at all l evels of political power and such crimes as are alleged are committed more and more frequently as Witches gain power. (f) Some witches Call themselves white witches and dabble in magic for what they consider good purposes but they are simply mislead because the real power lies with black Witches or Satanists who form the majority. (g) In consequence all Witchcraft must be made illegal and the Witchcraft Act re-instated. Proof to back up these claims is never presented save for a handful of fundamental Christians who claim themselves to have escaped from 'black' covens after witnessing sacrifices and murders. These 'witnesses' invariably change their story depending upon their audience at the time and can strangely remember every detail of the horrible travesties they are supposed to witness whilst failing to remember where and by whom these crimes were committe d. My investigations show that these claims are erroneous. I have documented proof that police investigations into these claims have proven all of them untrue. Yet such heresay was cobbled into a sensational four page article by SHE magazine a leading and influential and previously much respected journal, and then SHE finally closed with a fact sheet on how to identify if your child showed symptoms of being under the spell of a Black Coven. To further substantiate this hysteria. Geoffrey Dickens also cites 'several' trials which are supposedly taking place now (or soon) which involve prosecution claims that those prosecuted have been sexually molesting children within a framework of Witchcraft. Dickens will not comment further because, he says, of the sub judicae laws. Some will consider it a pity that Dickens commented at all considerin g the trials have not reached a verdict and the defendents may therefore be entirely innocent of all charges. Before reading this article any Thinking person would find it difficult to believe that in our modern world ordinary people with a far better perspective and more cosmopolitan view of life than those in the 15/16 centuries could be manipulated so easily by a tissue of lies, yet a real Witch Hunt has became a reality during 1988. Ordinary people DID behave abominably in response to the propaganda. It was not fundamentalists who physically assaulted the organiser of a Psychic Fayre in Battersea. It was not fundamentalists but an ordinary housewife who, incensed with a neighbour who had been found out as a witch, threw cans at her in a local supermarket. It was not a fundamentalist but the previously good neighbour who stopped he r children and thence every other in the street from contact with my daughter. What we deal with here is the innate human capacity for bigotry fuelled by religious political propaganda. The tragedy is that such bigotry is obviously a great part of human nature and is within all of us. The irony is that Witchcraft, the very object of such hate; the very scapegoat of the masses, is in fact one of the most effective methods of exceeding these base aspects of human nature and becoming a more responsible member of humanity. That is precisely what witchcraft sets out to do; to put one's own house in order and to correct the imbalances in one's psyche by tuning in to the natural energies and tides which continually surround us. Then we are better able to contribute to society at any level. One cannot convey the pernicious nature of this period in such a short essay as this and like all prejudice the full effect and scope can only be experienced at the sharp end. However during the whole of this year, through no fault of my own and even though completely innocent of all charges I have without notice or forethought been slandered in the House of Commons and tricked and slandered in front of 9 million viewers by ITN News. Geoffrey Dickens has made several libelous statements in the press about me and my business though he has not even met me or visited my shop. Nor has he had the good grace to answer any of my letters. I have been criticised by MPs and members of children's protection groups on radio, on tv and in the national newspapers without any recourse to the facts of the matter and the sheer volume of slander and libel makes any pursuit through the courts impractical. I have had gangs of Christians protesting outside my shop and stopping customers coming in. The police, when called, mysteriously failed to attend. I have had letters requesting official investigations 'lost' in the post and have met a brick wall of silence from government departments and the major political parties when appealing for statistics and other help to get some sense and truth into this matter. These things have occurred despite the fact that the Sorcerer's Apprentice has been in existence for 15 years with an unblemished record and that for ALL of those 15 years I can prove that we have submitted ourselves to a voluntary code in that we do not sell to people under the age of 18. This term is contained within our terms of business which is printed on the back of every order form and a large notice is displayed over the door of our shop. What does the truth matter to the prejudiced? I am a pagan. It matters not to me if you are not a Pagan neither do I object to a person's belief in Christianity or any other faith, for the tenets of any other religion do not undermine my own beliefs. However, the teaching of most other world religions is such that their dogma specifically precludes other faiths. It is as if followers of the organised religions are saying " I wish to believe so much in the tenets of my religion that even if just one person does not agree with me then my religion is defaulted. The fundamentalists will find fault with anything that is not holy writ. The most laughable was the uproar in the U.S.A. when fundamentalists started the rumour that Proctor and Gamble's ancient Man in the Moon logo revealed that the firm was in cons piracy with the devil's agents. This rumour cost P & G literally millions of dollars in lost sales. You will not find that logo on any packet of soapflakes in the U.S.A. today. Sci-Fi and Fantasy Games devotees are aware that this tide of repression can occur in their neck of the woods and Dungeons and Dragons was just one Fantasy Game to be given the P & G treatment by the Fundamentalists. Unfortunately these are not isolated episodes. These antics reveal an underlying decay in the political power of Christianity and with that the more rabid do the actions of the fundamentalists become. In the name of their God everything is permitted for 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'. It simply reveals how much of a part spirituality and belief play in the minds of men and how that directly reflects in the structure of their s ociety. Britain is now a multi-racial, cosmopolitan society with many and varied beliefs and religions. At one time the church controlled the printing presses and the educational establishments and therefore controlled people's minds. The New Age counteracts that repression. With the advent of the universities the Church lost its grip on the control of the intelligentsia ; students were free to investigate other paths and beliefs and Christianity fares no better than most. Now left wing councils in areas where the dominant religion is not Christian but perhaps Islam or Sikh are flouting the provinces of the Education Act which makes it encumbent upon all local authorities to hold a Christian assembly daily and promulgate the Christian religion. The current 'Fathers of the Church' cannot complain about this for fear of losing support i n other areas and so the power of the Church is being eroded faster and faster and as it recedes so does the Christian paranoia and insecurity rise more to the fore. The most radical and fundamental change to affect the church now is that of the ordination of women. It is entirely impossible for such changes to be made to a 2,000 years old Patriarchal system whose whole theology revolves around the superiority of the male. The conflict is a result of the attempt to use unfamiliar (in terms of the 2000 year hierarchy of Christianity) democratic processes to establish the political strategy of the church . The Anglican church will not exist intact if a decision is made to accept priestesses. Assuming the mantle of what, after all, was their birthright anyhow the Priestesses will discover what Paganism has known for millen ia; that women hold the power of creativity and that God, if any gender at all, is female first and foremost; they will become Pagan. In the rabid death throes of an outgrown religion those who were insecure will become manic and will project the cause of their own religions downfall onto 'the witches' and 'the devil' as they did in the 15/16c. The current liberality of approach to alternative beliefs and possibilities which so much aids the genius of invention and originality is not a permanent fixture. Humanity has not outgrown its own sins and the veneer of civilisations is no thicker now than it was six hundred years ago. All new age people should beware for their own future. The chilling news is that hardly any of the 13 million people who died at the stake during the Burning Times were witches. They were ordinary folk, like yourself, who g ot caught up in a whirlwind of hate and terror which nobody had forseen. You haven't that excuse this time.