Ronald Hutton Vs The Witch Of Endor

The main part of this post consists of a list, spanning over 400 years, of primary sources attesting to the use of the English word "Witch" (or in some cases an equivalent word in another European language) to refer to someone whose magical workings are beneficial to others, including especially persons who perform healing, mediumship, or divination, or who can provide protection against (and/or relief from) malefic magic ("curses").

Several of the works cited are inspired by the Biblical story of the so-called "Witch of Endor," who is portrayed as a medium/prophetess/necromancer. When Jerome wrote the Vulgate (Latin) version of the Bible he referred to her as "mulier habens pythonem in Aendor" at I Sam. 28:7. The modern Webster's Online Dictionary (here) tells us that a "pythoness" (the most direct rendering in English of "mulier habens pythonem") is:

1. A witch with powers of divination.[Wordnet]

2. (Greek mythology) the priestess of Apollo at Delphi who transmitted the oracles.[Wordnet]

3. The priestess who gave oracular answers at Delphi in Greece.[Websters]

4. Any woman supposed to have a spirit of divination; a sort of witch.[Websters].

The important thing about all four of these definitions above is that they have not so much as a whiff of maleficium about them. Even more importantly is the fact that pythoness unambiguously refers back to pre-Christian magico-religious practices and beliefs that were revered and respected by ancient Pagans and that played a central and highly prestigious role in their mainstream/traditional religious cults. Therefore the list below strongly argues against Ronald Hutton's claim that two of the primary characteristics of a Witch are that she is a person who (1) "cause[s] misfortune or injury to other humans", and (2) "earns general social disapproval, usually of a very strong kind". The list also argues against one of the secondary characteristics of Witches according to Hutton, namely that they perform their magic "from motives of malice and spite." (See Hutton 2004, Hutton 2011, and also: Ronald Hutton: Witches Are "Inherently Evil").

* c. 1510 Jacob Cornelisz Van Oostsanen (1477-1533) "Saul bij Heks van Endor" (painting)
* 1584 Reginald Scot (c. 1538 - 1599; In his Discoverie of Witchcraft Scot has multiple references to "white witches" and he also equates "witch" with "wise woman".

* 1597 DAEMONOLOGIE by King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England) attests to the fact that not only "that Pythonisse that Saul consulted with", but also "these wise men of Pharaohs, that counterfeited Moyses miracles" and "Simon Magus in the new Testament" were at the time commonly thought of and referred to as Witches.

* c. 1600 William Perkins (1558-1602) Perkins once delivered a sermon titled "The Good Witch Must Also Die."
* 1635 Matthias Stom - "Saul en de heks van Endor" (painting)
* 1649 "Divels Delusions" (account of the trial of John Palmer, et al, ) Two of those whose trial is recounted herein were at first thought to be "good witches", but were later convicted as "black witches." (see Wallace Notestein's 1909 A history of witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718, Appendix A.5.)
* 1656 Thomas Ady's Candle in the Dark contains multiple references to "good witches", whom Ady explicitly equates with "cunning" persons, and whom Ady portrays as healers, soothsayers, and also as providing protection against curses.
* 1688 "Saul e la pitonessa di Endor" by Salvator Rosa (painting)

* 1702 Cotton Mather (1663-1728) Mather refers, matter-of-factly, to the "Witch of Endor" in his Magnalia Christi Americana, in Chapter XXVIII (on the life of Samuel Whiting). Mathers also refers to her as an "enchantress".

* 1739 Georg Friedrich H"andel SAUL An Oratorio; or Sacred Drama, words by Charles Jennens. The "Witch of Endor" appears as a character in Act Three, Scene Two.

* 1754 Saulus Consulit Sagam An earlier engraving by Gerard Hoet was reproduced in Robert Goadley's "An Illustration of the Holy Scriptures, by Notes and Exposition". This book was published in Sherborne, in 132 parts, between 1754 and 1759. "It also shows that representations of the Witch of Endor as attractive and young existed throughout the eighteenth century." (quoted from here) The caption that appears in Goadley's edition is multilingual and refers to the Witch as "Sagam", "Divineresse", "Tooveresse", "Zauberin", as well as simply "Witch" and also using her Hebrew appellation from the First Book of Samuel,, baalath ob, "the mistress of the Obidiah or Pythonic spirit - one who had a familiar spirit, whom she could invoke when she pleased, and receive answers from him relative to futurity," according to Adam Clarke's commentary on the Whole Bible (1832).

* c 1760 John Wesley in his commentary on Exodus 22:18, "Thous shalt not suffer a witch to live," portrays Witchcraft as a full-blown religious alternative to Christianity (albeit framed by a boilerplate Satanic gloss): "Witchcraft not only gives that honour to the devil which is due to God alone, but bids defiance to the divine providence, wages war with God's government, puts his work into the devil's hand expecting him to do good and evil." Wesley's focus is on malefic magic "whereby hurt shall be done to any person", but he also states plainly that "pretending to tell where goods lost or stolen may be found, is an iniquity punishable by the judge, and the second offence with death."
* c. 1830 Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832; Scott wrote about "Agnes Simpson, or Sampson, called the Wise Wife of Keith... seems to have been a kind of white witch, affecting to cure diseases by words and charms..." Sampson was executed in 1591. See Letter IX in Collected Works, volume I)
* 1866 Gustave Dor'e (1832-83) Sa"ul et la sorci`ere d'En Dor (engraving).
* 1895 Arden Holt's "Fancy Dresses Described; Or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls" includes (figure 48) a "White Witch" Fancy Dress. [found at sexywitch]

* 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum, featuring two, count 'em two, Good Witches.

* 1921 "Charming Little Witch" Halloween postcard from 1921 reads:

Though witches weird on Hallowe'en

I must admit alarm me,

I know a little witch like you

Who never fails to charm me.

The Challenge Of Raising Teens

Pam and I have been leading a class for the last few weeks for the parents of teen-agers. Called "The Age of Opportunity," we're reading through Paul Tripp's book by the same title and learning together a little more about being better parents.

Our latest topic was how we help our teens respond to the surrounding culture. "Culture" is simply the sum total of the stuff around us: school, friends, career choices, social media, movies, internet, styles, thought patterns, behaviors and all the rest of the ways we rub up against the world outside ourselves and our homes. While evangelical Christians (at least) focus on the unbiblical values and lifestyle choices that the culture is continuously bombarding us with, the reality is that culture really affects us in more subtle ways:

1. Culture determines the PACE of our lives. We don't usually choose how fast our slow our home lives are. Instead, the demands of the surrounding culture determine that. And we are almost always caught up in it. For modern families, the pace is almost always too fast. Every day is filled to overflowing with stuff that has to be done "today;" with school projects, special activities, get-togethers with friends, jobs, conferences, sports practice, music practice, and so many other things that just to list them all makes me tired. And we're living at such a fast pace, it's no wonder that families today feel overwhelmed.

2. Culture determines the AGENDA of our lives. School success. Professional success. Financial stability. Maintaining our place in the pecking order of our surrounding society. These are all parts of the agenda dictated to us by our culture. The Bible speaks otherwise, of course, and says the agenda we as created beings were designed for is to bring glory to our Maker, through His Son Jesus. But the culture around is so strong and seductive, so insistent and demanding, that it often has much more clout in our lives than the biblical one.

3. Culture determines the RELATIONAL PATTERNS of our lives. How we relate and respond to one another is more often the result of cultural values than biblical ones. For instance, our culture's pervasive sexuality invariably affects the way our teens relate to one another. Teen-age boys end up viewing girls as sex objects instead of friends. In another direction, the cultural acceptance in students' lives today of bullying is best understood as an issue of power. The strong are able to dominate the weak because relational patterns have been skewed by a secularized culture. Biblical values teach exactly the opposite.

4. Culture determines the IMPORTANCE OF SPIRITUAL TRUTHS. Our secular culture focuses almost entirely on materialism: what you have, what you do, what others think of you. The notion that spiritual truths-things that are unseen and immaterial-are superior to material ones is so far off the radar of the surrounding culture that its laughable. Apart from whatever constitutional issues may be involved, for instance, the prayers that at one time were expected at the beginning of high school football games are now generally forbidden. Why would anyone want to invoke an invisible God's blessing on a sports event? It's much more important to pay attention to blocking, tackling and a passing scheme able to penetrate the opponent's defense. The unmistakable message to our students, of course, is that the material world they can see and touch and hear is much more substantial and real than the invisible world of the Spirit. Spiritual truths are second class to material ones.

The task of Christian parents is to create a culture in their own home that, while not ignoring the realities of the culture their teens live in, is substantial and authentic enough to provide a real alternative. Not all Christian homes are alike in how they respond to that challenge. Some choose a course that is more separatist and overtly religious. Others are more laid back and easy-going. Most are somewhere in between. Some are methodical in their approach and carefully chart out a course for their children's spiritual growth. Others depend on a more serendipitous style and use the inevitable crises of teen life as teaching tools, to help their children integrate biblical truths into their lives.

However it's done, though, parents have to pay attention to the culture around them, and how it impacts the lives of their teens. If parents don't provide a framework for their teens' spiritual growth, the surrounding culture will most certainly supply its own.

Reference: mysteryvoodoo.blogspot.com

A Concise Adamic History

WHY THE SERPENT IS THE EMBLEM OF THE HOUSE OF ENKI

A long, long time ago (in a galaxy not so far away - in fact, in the Milky Way itself), there was a "rebellion" amongst the Archangelic Host, as a result of which certain Aspects of the All-Being One "separated" from Source and began an experimental evolutionary spiral which eventually led them into the Metatronic Waveform Universe (where geometric structures, i.e. forms, take on a significance of their own).

Over countless aeons, these "Sons of God" (or, rather, SUNS of God) came to be known collectively as the Hosts of Lucifer - the Most Brilliant Lieutenant of the Most High.

Anyway, to fast-forward a little.... out of these so-called Luciferic Intelligences many technically proficient races evolved, and they began to colonize and inhabit suitable planets in various star systems. As they gained mastery over the elements and ways to apply their arcane knowledge, there was a corresponding loss of ability to FEEL. Cold logic gradually replaced the warmth of love pure and simple in these worlds.

Some of these technology-using races, like the Nibiruans (who had modified an entire planet into a bionic starship) eventually found themselves with serious environmental and atmospheric problems. Of course, they came up with a scientific solution: they needed gold particles to build a radiation shield around Nibiru. Lots and lots of gold particles - which their geological surveys found in abundance on the 7th planet (counting towards the Sun from Pluto) - which they called Ki (Firm Lands). Later Ki became Ge, and then Gaia-Terra, and so on.

And so about 440,000 years ago, Anu the God-King of Nibiru despatched his quarrelsome sons Ea and Enlil to Ki - their mission was to establish a base on this mineral-rich planet and dig for precious metals. Enlil (Lord of the Winds) was in charge of the orbiting station, while Ea (Lord of the Waters) landed on Ki to begin exploring and exploiting her mineral resources. Once the first Nibiruan Earth base - Eridu - had been established, Ea became known as Enki (Lord of the Firm Lands) while Ki became identified with Eridu (Erde/Eretz/Aratha/Earth) - the Sumerian word for "cultivated land."

More Nibiruans arrived on Ki - and they became known in Sumerian as the Anunnaki (Those Who From Heaven To Ki Descended), and in Hebrew as the Nefilim (Those Who Descended From The Sky).

For 144,000 Earth Years they toiled (1 Nibiruan Year = 3,600 Earth Years, so it was actually only 40 years to the Anunnaki) - until the atmosphere and magnetic field of the planet made them feel disgruntled and dissatisfied with their lot (this is the origin of the Greek myth of the Lotos-Eaters, retold in Tennyson's poem). The Anunnaki miners went on strike - and Enlil and Enki got into a huge argument about what to do.

Enlil was all for punishing the "mutineers" while Enki sympathized with his workers. He knew what a tough job theirs was. Finally, their half-sister Ninhursag had to intervene. She was a brilliant geneticist and healer, and she remembered that on some other colonies, android workers had been successfully created to perform menial tasks. At this, Enki's eyes lit up. He had spent a great deal of time studying the flora and fauna on Ki - and he had been observing a simian species that was well on its way to becoming hominid. Perhaps they could be genetically modified.....?

After repeated attempts, Enki and Ninhursag finally created the first Adama - an ape-angel hybrid. Fallen angels though they be, the space-orbiting Nibiruans - known as the Igigi or Watchers - who occasionally landed on Earth were described as Angels or God's Emissaries in the scriptures.

At first the Adama was sterile and was cloned in batches, a tedious process indeed. Eventually, Enki and Ninhursag came up with a self-reproducing model - and, voila! they had created our ancestors, Adam and Eve!

To the first humans, of course, the Anunnaki were literally Gods, Makers. In Hebrew the word God is usually the plural form Elohim (from which the Arabic form of Allah derives) - only much later did the "gods" divide up the colonized Earth into tribal zones - each tribe being subservient to a single, "jealous" God - like Abraham's Yahweh or Jehovah (known to the Greeks as Zeus and to the Romans as Jove or Jupiter).

Again, we must fast-forward to a period when the rival gods Enki and Enlil each had their own children, who unfortunately inherited their fathers' intense sibling rivalry. Enki was of somewhat different lineage from his half-brother Enlil (a full-blooded Nibiruan with "angelic" golden locks). Anu had taken a subsidiary wife named Id (or Ida) on Earth from amongst an ancient star tribe known as the Snake People. They were a subterranean species, dwelling in complex underground cities in the 4th Dimension and working with electromagnetic fields and crystals.

From this union Enki was born, and although he arrived before his half-brother Enlil, the latter took precedence in the Nibiruan succession because Enlil's mother Antu was Anu's half-sister (this genetic tradition was subsequently practised amongst the royal families of Akkadia, Babylon, Mitanni, Egypt and Assyria, and even amongst the Inca and Azteca). Anyway, these Sky Gods had countless offspring with their own kind as well as with the Lulus (a pet name for the domestic worker race evolved from the prototype Adama slave-android).

Enki, Lord of the Firm Lands, took on his mother's family emblem, the Serpent. Enlil, Lord of the Winds, had as his emblem, the Eagle.

Enki had four sons who were candidates for his dynastic succession: Ningishzidda (whose mother was of the Snake Race), Marduk, Nergal, and Dumuzi (or Tammuz). It was Marduk whose overweening ambition and arrogance made him vie for the Rulership of Egypt against his elder brother Ningishzidda. (In Egypt Marduk called himself RA and Ningishzidda was THOTH, god of scribes and esoteric wisdom). Not satisfied with being the Overlord of Egypt, Ra/Marduk plotted against the sons of Enlil and before long there were horrendous wars amongst the divine rulers of the entire planet - culminating in a nuclear attack on the Anunnaki spaceport in the Sinai Peninsula which caused untold havoc and misery for centuries - and which accounts for the arid conditions throughout the Middle East.

Once, and once only, Marduk was nearly destroyed when Enlil's granddaughter Inanna trapped him in the Ekur (the Great Pyramid) and ordered that he be buried alive. But after a while the Elder gods relented and released Marduk. From that moment Marduk became a fanatical Goddess-hater (his rise to power marked the beginning of a New Patriarchal Era wherein women were mercilessly oppressed, raped, and burnt as "witches").

Ra became known as Amen-Ra (Ra the Unseen) and relocated to Babylon where, as Marduk, he claimed supremacy over all the other gods, declaring war even against his own grandfather Anu. Such was Marduk's ruthlessness and singleminded will to rule that he eventually prevailed, causing Anu and Antu to flee Nibiru, which Marduk then captured and turned into a "Death Star" which enabled him to take virtual control of the Pleiades (of which our Solar System is part).

Today, Marduk has insinuated his influence into every facet of corporate existence - for he feeds on the negative emotional discharge of humans. FEAR, GUILT, ANXIETY, HATE, VIOLENCE, PAIN, WORRY, MISERY are Marduk's staple diet. As the masses of humanity succumb to a feeling of helplessness or powerlessness, Marduk's legions are thereby strengthened. The strength of the tyrant comes from the life force of his followers, which he sucks vampire-like from them via seemingly "legal" means.

In the old days, Marduk manipulated through brute force and raw terror. These days, he uses Advertising, PR, and his absolute control of Mass Media to achieve his ends... except in some countries (we don't have to name), where Marduk's principle of MIGHT IS RIGHT still manifests on the crude level of brute force.

Please bear in mind that 'Marduk' is an Archetype - a general principle that can operate through any number of willing or unwilling, conscious or unconscious human agents. Marduk's domains are ideological. He rules all the world's financial, military, academic and religious institutions (which includes, of course, the chief religion of our time, Mammonism - the worship of Money).

Through his vassal princes - the media moguls - Marduk has almost absolute control of the planet's mass communications systems - and therefore humanity's collective unconscious, the Matrix of Apparent Reality in which we enact our petty melodramas.

However, the Internet - thank Goodness - is still more or less uncontrollable (despite Echelon - an electronic surveillance system programmed to police the Information Superhighway). And remember: so long as we accept full responsibility for the way we experience and interpret the sensory data we call Reality, no one can hijack our higher evolutionary destiny. Not for long, in any case!

"[Here's a badly written but informative essay on our extraterrestrial origins.]"

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