The history of witches goes back a very long time to a pre christian age and the days of worshipping nature and the goddess. Ancient peoples lived by the cycles of nature, by observing these cycles they knew when to plant crops and when to harvest etc. As a result rituals and celebrations evolved along with beliefs that everything had a spirit.
When Christianity came along these children of nature were considered to be pagans and witches and therefore evil. What I have tried to look at in my book is what exactly were these people doing that caused so much outrage. We are generally taught of the stereotypical witch, the old hag dressed in black flying on a broomstick. She is usually poor with a cat for company. However out of the thousands accused, a percentage were men, in Iceland most of those executed were men. They were mostly healers with a knowledge of herbs, astrologers, midwives, fortune tellers. Many were poor people in the wrong place at the wrong time while others were from wealthy families. Some were old, others were children. What they had in common was to be accused of crimes they couldn't possibly have committed, such as weather magic, causing illness by bewitchment, flying on broomsticks, turning themselves into animals. Many would just admit to these impossibilities than suffer the ordeal of being tortured. Methods of torture included sleep deprivation, continual walking, thumbscrews, the rack and many more. One woman confessed to killing her own children, even though they were alive and well. Once a confession was secured the victim was usually decapitated and burned at the stake or sometimes burned alive. Witch hunters began to appear, offering their services to towns and villages of ridding the area of witches and making a good living in the process. How many people were killed depends on what source you read, some say fifty thousand, others say two hundred and fifty thousand.
Children of Nature is available from www.amazon.co.uk or as a download to Kindle
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