Saxon Superstition

Much of the differences in culture have to do with superstitions. Many of today’s traditions and superstitions date back thousands of years. It is

There is also a supernatural belief in the spirits of the forest. Some villages today have four pairs of crosses and four jaguar spirits at the village's four entrances, in order to keep evil away. It is still believed that evil winds loose in the world cause disease and sickness.

Joshua Mark’s article provides various accounts of ghosts and spirits in cultures worldwide, beliefs that originated in the ancient world. In particular, he presents a comprehensive outlook of ghosts and spirits found in the cultures and religions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, India, and the Mesoamerica and Celtic regions. Each type of ghost is explained in reference to their believed origination and their intended purpose, whether it be to assist or wreak havoc. This is legitimized by Mark’s frequent references to each culture’s respective poems and holy texts, which serve as proof of the presented material. Moreover, Mark presents each culture’s beliefs regarding the afterlife, much of which pertains to the journey of the soul

The reputation of witchcraft has become more respectful since the Middle Ages, making life a lot easier in today’s society. In contrast, the Middle Ages society’s moral views were based upon the opinion of the Church and not of the people. “The transformation was largely the result of the action of Christian thought upon pagan sorcery and religion. Augustine, the most influential Christian theologian, argued that pagan magic, religion, and sorcery were all invented by the Devil for the purpose of luring humanity away from Christian truth” (Russell 39). With the Catholic Church having an enormous amount of power, the Church was able to demolish the Old Religion’s magnanimous ideas. According to the author of “The Rise of Satanism in the Middle Ages”, “To the Church, the devils solidified into one- Satan, enemy of Christ’s work here on Earth. The Old Religion offered release from oppression and unrelenting drudgery.” The author of “The Rise of Satanism in the Middle Ages” further explains that, “The penitential books developed the mystical concept that all virgins were the brides of Jesus Christ. Therefore, any man who seduced a virgin was not only committing fornication, but, at the same time, the more serious sexual crime of adultery. Christ was cast into the role

To begin with, it is an important determent to know that it is women who are practicing witchcraft among these societies. The Tibetan and Kathmandu Village believe that “Women carry the hereditary to witchery” and “Women among lower social class is linked to witchcraft” (Gellner, 1994; Levine, 1982). In the Tibetan Nyinba, the beginning of this belief was linked to “the assumption of a female phenomenon”

In some traditions, they are believed to be evil and dishonest devil worshippers or possessed by wicked

The people also believed that the diviners (tahi) had a responsibility of unveiling the causes of misfortunes or outbreaks in the community. The diviners were also believed to have powers that channeled the ancestral spirits and supernatural forces, which affected the lives of the people in the community. There was also a belief that offending the ancestors would lead to misfortunes such as: bad luck, diseases or even death. In

The history of witchcraft goes back for centuries, differentiating from culture to culture. A concrete definition is unwritten but the main concept of witchcraft is the belief in magic and its powers. It is a form of sorcery, “the magical manipulation of supernormal forces through the casting of spells and the conjuring or invoking of spirits, for either good or bad purposes” (Guiley 378). Witchcraft is usually associated with the devil and considered harmful. However, in the ancient world, witch doctors used spells and chanting to cure illness or misfortune. The concept of witchcraft evolves from Assyrian, Babylonian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman ancient beliefs. They were known to be knowledgeable in herbal medicine and potions. Contemporary Paganism, also called Neopaganism, revitalizes pre Christian beliefs. Those who follow now paganism “try to reproduce some of the sacred ways of earlier European peoples, such as the celts in the British isles or the ancient Scandinavians” (Fisher 478).

Note also that many beliefs and rituals may vary from one group to the next depending on their demographic location. Information regarding this investigation was obtained from various internet sources, books, and scholarly published journals.

There has been a revival in interest in the druids. People have begun to search for what the druids looked like. Early depictions show them wearing a knee-length tunic and a hooded cloak. They were barefooted and carried a book, mistletoe and a staff. The chief sources anyone has on the druids originated from Julius Caesar and the Romans. Much information comes from archaeological remains and literature from early monks. Analogies can also be drawn from the Hindu people. One such analogy would be the idea of reincarnation. The Hindu people believed that the atman was merely reborn until it reached it final plateau. The druids believed that clouds were a gathering of souls waiting to be reborn so that they could find the answer to get to the next evolution. (crystalinks)

Throughout English’s etymological progression many words have been created, utilized to their fullest capability, and then forgotten. Some words, like “affuage”, which means “the right to cut wood in a forest for a family fire”, simply have lost relevance in modern society. Other words have been replaced with a more efficient word, such as “fallaciloquence” being replaced with flattery. Additional archaic words still exist, however, usually only in idioms, as in the case of “sleight of hand”. Often miswritten as “slight of hand”, “sleight” is a word of Middle English origin meaning “sneaky” or “crafty”. Very few people today realize the common misnomer of the idiom, making “sleight” even rarer today. Verbs are not excluded from annihilation either, as hundreds of verbs have either been eliminated from Modern English or have transitioned into different forms and meanings. Some verbs, which originated as “strong verbs”, irregular verbs which have past tense forms without the requirement of an ending, have become “weak verbs”, or verbs that require endings like “-ed”, “-en”, or “-t”. In earlier versions of English, the language contained a higher prevalence of strong verbs compared to weak verbs. However, throughout the centuries there has been a clear decline of strong verbs. Many strong verbs became weak verbs or disappeared completely, as when the language developed and the number of English speakers grew, many strong verbs became rigid in their uses, and the unpracticed,

Through the sixteenth and seventeenth century, witchcraft persecutions were widespread throughout various areas of the world. Behind these persecutions, there were many different ideas about what a witch was, and what they were capable of doing. In many children's books, witches are seen travelling by broomstick, cooking forest animals in stew, or casting spells-- spells which may have been for evil or for good. In such books, the capabilities of witches appear to be endless. Therefore, this magic certainly appears to be fictional. However, long ago, there was widespread belief of witches who were able to perform such magic. This leads us to the importance of thinking about what type of people would believe in this unusual idea.

They have a special link to religion and rituals. Rituals were or still are believed to evoke a certain magic, which helps the summoner with his needs, for example, the growth of his crops or the achievement of prosperity.

a) The clock tells time, but also tells the date and position of the sun and moon in the sky (Santora, 2018).

This image was associated with the ancient artwork of the pharaohs. This image is a circular disk with rays terminating in hands reaching down toward the royal family, Sometimes, although not always, the hands clutch Ankhs (Beyer, 2017). The sun rays passing through the symbol and to the pharaohs was belied blessed the family of the pharaohs