Thecla's "Identity"

Lee Berman · 11 Apr 2013, 11:54 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:54:15 -0400
Subject: (urth) Thecla's "Identity"
Message-ID: <BLU175-W29491BF8B71DBEA43CB268CFC00 at phx.gbl>

>Ross Arlen Tieken: Magical practices, belief in dwarves and fairies, and strange rituals that  
>have nothing to do with Christianity lasted until very late, and were only really stamped out
>by the enterprising nature of mercantilism and Protestantism that really exorcised anything Pagan.

Thanks for that post and perspective, Ross.

My own introduction to paganism came from a 70's pop anthropology book by Marvin Harris called
Pigs, Cows, Wars and Witches. It is pretty interesting  and there is a section on pagan
witch cults and how bacchanalic groups of medieval/renaissance era European women would sneak
out into the woods, often with a goat-headed Pan-inspired male leader, and apply an extract of 
atropine to their genitals (application often with a broomstick), and receive hallucinations of
flight and intercourse with demons.  A few scenes in BotNS echo this. The book also explored the 
economic benefits of witch hunting, as the hunters and inquisitor panels granted themselves the 
privilege of confiscating the property of anyone they found guilty.

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