Since the beginning of humanity, there has been the figure of the healer .In many civilizations, women took care of their family and community, attended to births and sought the health of their relatives through the collection and use of numerous medicinal plants.From ancient Rome and Greece, to the Hebrew and Aztec culture, women have been healers or midwives.But, over the course of history, they began to look with evil eyes to the healer and even the witch's or sorceress's mark for practicing black magic and making pacts with the devil.
Content Index
Who Was a healer in antiquity?
Jeanne Achterber says that women have always been a healer:
« A large number of diverse, widely located cultures, they have had myths since ancient times in which women were the only guardians of the magical arts ”.
It is tas healers or healers practiced doctors, midwives and anatomists, but also practiced abortions, acted as nurses and collected medicinal herbs.
Many female figures and deities throughout history They have been linked to the art of healing.And also to the spells .This is the case of the Greek goddess Circe , famous for her knowledge of herbalism and medicine.And more known even for turning Ulysses sailors into pigs, as the Odyssey tells us.
However, the relationship between women and supernatural forces did not cause further disturbance until well into the Low Middle Ages.That is when many women began to be criticized, and even attacked.By enacting laws that prohibited the exercise The medicine of all those who did not have studies, health care remained in the hands of men, although it is true that we must also highlight the influence that the Church had in the process that would end up discrediting the figure of the curandera, for which the witchcraft ceased to be considered beneficial and the black magic dominated the white magic .
From healers to spell practitioners and black magic
In the beginning, the use of spells, medicinal plants, rituals, or the invocation of the gods and forces of nature, were not limited to men.In fact, several female figures of Christianity dedicated themselves to medicine.Such is the case of Santa Fabiola (4th century), a divorced convert to Christianity who dedicated her life to the care of the sick.San Jeronimo wrote about Fabiola that « has been the first one that has built a hospital to welcome all the sick people he found in the streets: corroded noses, empty eyes, dry hands and feet, swollen bellies, skeletal legs, rotten meats with an anthill of worms...How many times, personally she has loaded leprosy patients...She fed them and made those living bodies drink a cup of broth ...".
Explains Ute Seydel that with the rise of Christianity in Europe, contact with the supernatural forces became a unique exercise of the man, so that the woman could only aspire to be a nun and lost priestly possibilities.As for the figure of the curandera, it should be emphasized that while it is true that women were still in charge of caring for their families-and the nuns taking care of the sick-, there were too many cases in which they were accused of witchcraft your relationship Ion with cults, spells, medicinal herbs, and even for their work as midwives.
The most remarkable thing is that many of those accused of witchcraft were emancipated women , who did not depend on any man And that, in many cases, they developed home remedies.The fact that they were healing healers, raised the suspicion of some religious, who saw their knowledge as a solid proof of a pact with the devil.And, according to the logic of that time, if women could not go to college, they could hardly acquire the knowledge they possessed.This assumption cost the lives of thousands of women, who were convicted and burned at the stake in the midst of a climate of fear and superstition.
The cult of the Virgin and the hatching of the witches
The figure of the Virgin as we know her today It dates back to the fourth and fifth centuries.The resistance of Christianity because the Virgin was venerated is related to a supposed feminine evil of Eve that led to original sin.Finally, despite from the resistance of the Church, the cult of the Virgin was adopted, representing the charitable, protective and virginal woman.
This idealization of women opened l at the door of a phenomenon that has dragged to this day: the condemnation of the woman that has nothing to do with this pattern.And it is that woman, the witch , who represents the bad , which began to be associated with the devil.
Anna Goldin, the last European condemned for black magic
The accusations of witchcraft dilated for several centuries in the history of the old continent.In fact, Anna Goldin is considered the last witch in Europe.She was executed for witchcraft in Switzerland, no less than in the year in 1782.The day she began working at the Tschudi's house, the life of this servant rushed to condemnation.Soon after working there, she was accused of having tried to poison one of the daughters of the Tschudi marriage by means of a spell.In the midst of the uproar that generated this unusual case for the time, Goldin was tortured in such a way that she finally accepted for confessing that she was a witch.Illustration, not only raised controversy then, but has been claimed in recent years.As a symbol of justice, ten years ago opened in Glaris, the hometown of Goldin, a museum in his honor.
If you were interested in this article, discover:
-Linda Hazzard, healer and serial killer
-Fairy Godmother.A special kind of fairy
Comments
Post a Comment