BELIEF IN WITCHES AND SUPPRESSION OF THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE

In this study, we look into the historical roots of the witch-hunt. Fo r a period of 540 years, between 1241 and 1782, the burning of witches has been well documented. During these 540 years witch-hunts were sim ply the culmination of a passionate hostility against femininity as su ch within western culture. As can clearly be seen in the texts of the great medieval theologians, the humiliation and degradation of the fem ale sex - and the condemnation (or diabolization) of sexuality as well as antisexual prejudices - originate from a pre-Christian, heathen-my thological way of thinking, which was largely established by the medie val curch as a form of syncretism and the notions of which persist eve n today. In those days the compulsive regulation of sexuality and the threat of the torments of hell, if one did not obey these rules, initi ated the vicious circle of failure, guilt and fear in people's minds a nd so made it impossible to overcome the Oedipus complex. This regress ion to the 'anal stage of development' prepared the ground for sado-ma sochistic destructiveness, which was (supported by superstition) proje cted outwards onto the so-called witches.