Origins of Modern Witchcraft: The Evolution of a World Religion - Softcover

Moura, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1567186483 ISBN 13: 9781567186482

Publisher: Llewellyn Publications, 2000

Synopsis

Christianity began at the start of the common era. Judaism began a few thousand years before that. Religion in Egypt and Sumer go maybe a few thousand years before that.
But what came before? Most people don't know that civilization began at Sind, a fertile area in modern Pakistan. Their ancient religion, the worship of Shiva and Shakti, is the oldest religion known. It spread throughout the world and it, reactions to it, or a combination of the two are the basis for all religion in the world today.
Does this sound surprising? Historian and former history teacher Ann Moura has been able to trace civilization and religion into the past by over 100,000 years! She presents this information in Origins of Modern Witchcraft.
The author reveals that virtually every aspect of modern Witchcraft can be traced back to the ancient Sind religion. Much of the same can be found in modern Hinduism, but Hinduism has had many Vedic ideas – including orthodoxy and caste – added to the original faith.
Even so, the notion of the triple goddess (a Maiden, Mother, and Crone) comes straight from the older religion. The idea of the God being horned is derived from an image of Shiva. Many of the mythic images we associate with Greece and Rome originally came from the Sind religion.
But this goes beyond Wicca to other religions. You'll see that Christ was a version of Krishna and "original sin" was a development of those who hated the original religion. It means that something was evil because it originally came from Sind.
Controversial? You bet! This book is destined to be one of the most controversial books published this or any other year! But the author has listed all of her sources. Now is your chance to read the evidence for yourself and discover the real ancient sources for your beliefs. Get your copy today!

About this title

About the Author

Ann Moura has been a practitioner of Green Witchcraft for over forty years. She holds both a B.A. and an M.A. in History. Maura lives in Florida where she runs her own metaphysical store, presents public rituals, and teaches classes on the Craft. Visit her online at www.annmourasgarden.com or at www.lunasolesoterica.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

The Cradle of Civilization
Rocked First in India

 

Great Lady, Great Lord, united in the Dance of Life, Death,
and New Life, stretch out your hands to the people of your
creation that we may put our hands into yours to be pulled up from the depths of ignorance into the Light of Wisdom.
Look gently upon us, for we are one with you, in form and energy, and you are found within us all, So Mote It Be.

―Ann Moura, Book of Shadows

 

 

Witchcraft, the Craft, the Old Religion, Wicca, and Neo-Paganism are all familiar names for the modern revival of an ancient world-view. Its roots are sunk deep in the shamanistic and naturalistic expressions of universal interconnection found in the earliest known spiritual traditions of humankind. Over time, the Craft evolved to reflect, and deflect, changes in society, economy, politics, and the new religions that supported these innovations. Through all these alterations, the Old Religion never lost its deeper awareness of the interrelationship of all life on Earth and our place among the stars.

Awareness of the motion of universal bodies such as meteors and comets; conscious of nebulas, galaxies, black holes, and the possibility of life on other planets we look at exploring all force us to realize that we can no longer consider ourselves isolated from the rest of the universe. Our need to recognize that we are part of the greater patterns of universal life is what turns us back to the natural spirituality and practical wisdom of our ancestors, intellectually updated, and grounded in the scientific realities of our world. The Old Religion was never intended to be irrational, but is a rational expression of the universe as it was rationally and spiritually known at the time. Witchcraft and Wicca are, after all, the root words for science (German) and wisdom (Anglo-Saxon). The unification of the mind and the spirit with the body is what makes the practitioner of the Craft a whole being.

Witchcraft has evolved over time, adapting to the changes of societies and cultures, finding resistance and persecution with the formation of unfriendly and unsympathetic political bodies, yet persevering nevertheless because the truths of the ancient forces are everlasting and immanent. Today, the ogham symbol “straif,” the blackthorn: strife, that has for so long been representative of the situation of the Craft and the practitioners of the Craft, is being turned around to become the whitethorn: overcoming coercion. Political forces are now being turned around to grant legal and judicial support to the followers of this most ancient of spiritual paths.

To find our Pagan roots, we need to walk backward through time, sorting through the cultural and social changes, the political statements, the actions of protest and desperation, to find the distilled central core of the Old Religion. This is the trek of the Seeker―a life-long path, first walked backward, in order to turn around and move forward with renewed vigor. To find the lost heritage, identify its threads, and trace those threads back to the present, we need to go as far back in our history as we currently can―to our very beginnings.

Human history is reevaluated with each generation, and often the result is colored by the political, cultural, social, and religious demands of the time period. The study of deciphering what is real and what is format is addressed in the field of historiography, and it is through this means that the threads of history might be unraveled for the Seeker. When politics and religion combine, as has been the case in western history for over a thousand years, education and knowledge suffer. The Seeker must be especially diligent in pursuit of wisdom, and look beyond the ordinary texts found in schools for mass consumption. Instead, research is the means for striking out on a new path. The recent discoveries of various archeaologists and historians must be hunted down if we want to find the true origins of civilization. We are left to take up our lantern like the Hermit of the tarot cards, to seek out the path, and perhaps light the way for those who follow. This ninth card of the Major Arcana of the tarot is often portrayed with a robed aesthetic, a staff in one hand and a lantern in the other held up to light the way to a new path he creates, diverging from a more traveled one.

 

Edition details

• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1567186483
• ISBN 13: 9781567186482
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336