Origins of the Word Witch and the Mediterranean Cults

With the spread of Celtic, Germanic, Italian/Etruscan, Greek, and other cultures across Europe, we see the next development within witchcraft, that of taking on cultural symbolism, including language. We see the origins of the word witch in Anglo-Saxon culture, and other words evolved in other cultures to describe the tribal magical worker. The word witch in old English has its origins in the word wicce. It would be wrong to say that witchcraft is of purely Anglo-Saxon origin just because witch is an Anglo-Saxon word. Witch is a modern descriptive word that crosses cultural barriers, and this is important to remember. It has several interpretations. It can mean "to bend and shape" (as in the forces of nature); others say it means "wise". Of course, this is the feminine declension of the word, the male being wicca, the word that became adopted by the modern witchcraft movement in the early 1950s, but it’s meaning is intrinsically no different than the word witch. This is important to remember as in recent years some in the Neo-Pagan community have felt it necessary to define these words differently (more on this later in this chapter). It is Christianity that turned the word wicce into wych, then wytch, and finally into our modern word, witch. The use of the feminine word rather than the masculine came about because of the underlying misogyny of the early Christian Church. Women were seen to be at the root of all evil ever since Eve took the apple of the Tree of Knowledge. The idea of women being in prominent, responsible positions and dealing with spiritual forces was repugnant to the Church. Not surprising that they adopted the feminine rather than the masculine word, as they considered all female mysteries to be inherently evil.

Similar words for witch exist in other cultures. The Old Norse used the word "vitki", a word that obviously has similar etymological roots as the words wicce and/or Wicca. The Italians use the word Strega. According to Raven Grimassi, a noted author on the subject of Italian witchcraft, its origins are very different to that of the word witch:

"The word Strega is derived from both lore and language. The cultural roots extend back to the Latin word strix, which indicates an owl (and particularly a screech owl). In archaic Roman religion there was a mythological creature called a striga. The striga was a type of vampire woman that could transform into an owl. The death of infants in their sleep (as well as the disappearance of babies) was blamed on the striga. This brought a supernatural connection to both words, and so strix and striga came to be interchangeable. In time the Latin word striga evolved into the Italian word stregare, which means to enchant. Then, over the course of time a female witch came to be called a Strega, literally an enchantress."

Raven has also recently discovered that there is a relationship between the earliest known word for a witch, the Greek word pharmakis2(a herbalist who prepares potions) and the Italian word strigare, which means "to extract". He believes that the word strega may, in fact, have had its origins from this word rather than the word strix. This, of course, seems to link Italian witchcraft directly back with the origins we mentioned earlier in this chapter.

We once believed that there was no such thing as hereditary witchcraft, as we had seen no proof, but our contact with members of the Strega tradition has convinced us otherwise. The survivals of witchcraft into the modern era in the hereditary form are very much linked to the early days of Christianity and its absorption of three other cults in the Mediterranean. Within the Roman Empire during the early part of the first millennia a new cult appeared in Rome: Mithraism. It has its origins in Persia and, ultimately, in Zoroastrianism. Mithraism was a mystery religion that believed in an entity of Good and an entity of Evil who was in conflict with each other on the spiritual plane, and who manifests as the personalities of Mithras and Ahriman. It was widely adopted by Roman military officers and spread through the empire; a Mithraic temple has even been found and excavated in London. As the Roman officers settled in the new provinces of the farflung empire, they became traders and the cult changed from being militaristic to that of business. It is not surprising that many aspects of modern Freemasonry have similarities to Mithraism. The new, young, and open Christianity absorbed the idea of dualism from the older cult. This was achieved because many of the converts in Britain and mainland Europe were settled Roman officers who were already practicing Mithraism. But the biggest challenge to early Christianity was from another cult that would be difficult to absorb.

The cult of Artemis/Isis was centered in Ephesus in Asia Minor, which is now known as Turkey. Its rituals and practices are some of the best recorded ceremonies of ancient times. Visitors there describe a haze of incense that permanently settled as fog above the city. It was truly the Pagan Vatican of its time with pilgrims coming from all over the known world, there to worship and pay homage to the "Great Goddess". The cult had begun to develop into a more structured multi-national religion absorbing many of the other principle national goddesses that existed around the Mediterranean basin; the Egyptian Isis, the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar, the Roman Diana, Selene, and others all became identified as one Great Goddess, their symbolism absorbed.3

This cult remained a thorn in the side of Christianity for four centuries. Women in Greek, Roman, and European culture generally refused to give up worship of the Great Goddess, and there was no replacement within Christianity. The misogynistic views and teachings of St. Paul of Tarsus made it difficult for Christianity to absorb it. The problem was finally resolved in 440 A.D. at the Council of Ephesus, when the doctrine of Panagia Theotokos—the All-Holy Virgin Mother of God—was declared, thereby incorporating the Great Goddess into Roman Catholicism and the Greek and Russian Orthodox Christian religions. Unknowingly, they had planted a seed that allowed the survivals of goddess and Pagan practice under the very eyes of the Christian hierarchy right up until today, allowing the survival of hereditary witchcraft. Some authors and historians have pointed to the idea that witchcraft has its very origins in the Goddess cult of Artemis/Isis, and we would not argue this point with them.