History of Magic in the Early Americas

By: Michael OConnor

We all have herd about the Salem Witch Hunt, and we all know what Magic is,
but where did it come from? How did it go from something used in every day life, to
something so feared, and hated in america. Well Let me tell you. As we go on a journey
from the great plains of America before they where discovered, before the white man
every set foot on them. This will tell you how the native people of America used plants,
herbs, and the mystics to communicate with ancestors, predict their future, and even
talk to the dead. We will also discuss the history of european magic and why it became
so hated, and then we will talk about how they merged and became shunned from
society and became a subculture in a new world supposed to be based on freedom.
In the begging there was a native people in the Americas, a very sophisticated
people, they farmed, hunted, had families, and had high members of society. They had
a way to communicate with each other and with the world around them. The Native
Americans where a people that believed in many gods, and spirits. A religion today that
is not very much practiced anymore. They where a simple people that focused on the
main parts of their life, and the ones around them. They relied on the sun, the rain and
the earth around them to keep them alive. They used what we call today rituals, to keep
the forces happy, dancing in honor of the sun, rain, moon, and water, was a way for all
of them to keep things owing and for the people to remain happy and fed.
But dancing isnt the only thing they did, Native americans had their own type of
magic, a way to make the spirits feel welcome and at peace. A very simple magic, not
as complex as magic is, or once was. Some practitioners of the craft today dont even
recognize the power of the native american shamans.
Native magic is said to be passed down threw blood, as in a linage of a family. It
isnt something you can learn, although you can practice it for your self and see if
anything happens. Before settlers came to America, the tribes of the Native Indians
where a close knit people, and the Shaman, or also known as medicine man, or healer
in todays cultures, was chosen by the previous shaman. The gift of pleasing the spirits
and making good with the forces and energy of the earth was a hard ship and it was
believed that only people skilled in the art could do it correctly.
The magic of the natives was mainly based on herbs, spices, what we know
today as hallucinational drugs, burning of wood and different powders. One very
common and well known form was smoke reading, fairly depicted in some of the most
classic tales of Disney, and other ctional stories. Smoke readings done by the shaman
was very hard and took years to master, much like reading tea leaves or looking into a
crystal. The shaman would look deep into the smoke of an open re and see the
different swirls, and shapes and try to make sense of it all. Different shapes meant
different things.
Another common form of Native American magic was different types of weeds,
and grasses, and herbs that would bring on powerful hallucinations, this was to believed
to cause dreams and unlock the mystery of what is to come. Many now in modern day
culture tell us that it was the drugs that made them trip out and see things that werent
normal, they didnt predict the future they where just getting high. Although back then
they believed hole heartedly that they where seeing the future, and who knows maybe
they did.
Native americans also proved sacrice to the gods around them, not by humans.
No they where much more civil then that. They believed in that the energy they had was
sacred and shouldnt be taken lightly. They would offer food, like animals, crops and
other forms of good eats and burn then, they believed that the smell, and ash of the
burning nourishment would appease the gods and make the harsh winters more livable,
and make the growing season more fertile.
Magic in Europe was very different from the native american practicing. They
where focussed on herbs yes, but there was much more to a witches practice back
then. They summoned spirits, and if you believe in it, used it to cast darkness, bring
light, prophecies, and bring spiritual advice to leaders like kings, queens and emperors.
Magic in Europe wasnt as spiritual as the Natives to the new world. The magic in
europe was very candle based, and they used things like tea leaves and runes, a clay
shape with an ancient language written on them. They also used herbs for healing and
and took care of women in child birth.
Then christianity took hold and drove these people who where healers and good
doers underground and labeled them witches. Now there is many theories of why they
did this. The church will tell you its the work of the devil and that witches are evil. Those
who are close to the culture will tell you the truth. People relied on there mid-wives in
the ancient times, they where respected and they where powerful beings in the areas. A
good mid-wife inuences the women and the women inuences there husbands,
husbands of people who are powerful, and they run the country. Now the church isnt
stupid and the church isnt blind to what is going on. So they asked them selves how do
we get rid of the people who hold power over us and inuence the people. So they
created the malleus malecarum. Now this book had great inuences on the people,
they took two birds out with one stone. The malleus malecarum is a book on how to
identify, capture, and kill witches, or in the truth, free thinking women, men and anyone
who wouldnt go with the church, and they stopped future generations from practicing
the old ways and worshiping the old gods. People might ask how? How did the church
accomplish such a feat? Well it was a vision, a picture they painted, of a ery place
where you will suffer and burn with a horned end that will torture you for all eternity.
With a little fear, you can make any one do anything.
This enslaved the minds of people to believe things like herbs, berries, and teas
where evil and they would be put to death and burn for all eternity. So they began the
witch hunts in Europe that would wipe out more people and kids, then most wars and
diseases in history. The church commissioned and funded people to learn the ways of
the malleus malecarum and travel the country and burn every one who doesnt believe
in one all powerful god. There competition, for what is the catholic church but a
business, and a business is focused on what? Money, and a business will do what ever
possibly to protect that business, even kill 2.8 million men, women, and children, some
as young as the age of two.
Now with this knowledge, belief, and fear, the settlers of the New World would
take it with them to there new colonies and there new lives. When they came to the new
world they faced hard shapes, hunger, and death of new borns and other things that
caused a family pain. With the fear of evil driven into their vanes from the past they look
for someone to blame.
They look to scripture and what they have been taught and they start blaming the
devil for hard winters and lack of food. With all the hard ships they faced they start
believing that the devil couldnt be causing everything and start looking for new blame,
thats where witches and the indians came into blame. By now they knew the indians
where different and worshiped weird gods, such as animals. In the settlers minds things
that are endish, or devil orientated in their minds. They start saying that witches are in
league with the devil and causing the things they are experiencing. Also the Native
savages are using their ways to cause death to the people, so in this state of mind a
panic breaks out with in the smaller colonies.
Now when the panic breaks out they start to grow more weary and more fearful
of everything that is happening. They start looking for someone to blame, the need
things to change.
Then terror broke in a small northern village, just north of Boston. Salem Village
was one of the rst to break. The village was experiencing horrible things in the village,
a few children have died, people falling under hallucinations, and crops and food
sources are dyeing. So under the pressure of starvation and childrens death the start
blaming the women of the town. The rst to accused was a black slave, Tituba, from
Barbados. She was a women skilled in her native ways, ways that where unorthodox to
the church.
The Salem Witch Hunt lasted more then a year, 16 men and woman where killed,
hundreds of people where imprisoned and it caused the turning of house holds through
out the village. The local government even brought in a specialist to interrogate victims,
the accused and the families, to nd out exactly what is really going on in Salem.
Many high respected members of Salem Village where murdered for no just
cause, merrily on the fact that girls in the village claimed they where being attacked.
The events in Salem spiked other events in New england like this, how ever they
werent as bad as what happened in Salem Village in 1692. Amherst had their own
witch hunt, along with Connecticut, Rhode Island and few of the southern Colonies as
well. Although they werent as big, lasted as long, or created as much history, they still
happened, and they changed america, maybe for the better.
The events in Salem are a lasting History in this country, a black stain on its soul.
But, the events did have a lasting effect on the country and the events caused things to
happen, maybe more then some people want to believe.
Freedom of Religion, the right to practice what ever religion your heart desires,
all most every historian will link that amendment to Britain and how they forced
Cathotalism on its people, and how what ever religion you practiced had to be part of
the country. How ever, personally I believe, along with the witch community, it was our
fore fathers way of accepting the Mid-wives, the slaves traditions, and the other people
who practiced un-orthodox ways of living. It was a way to show us that we belonged in
this country, we where accepted.
So magic may be a myth, but Herbologist, and people who see the future are
real, and they link our history. As well as along with the rest of the world, it denes us
and creates a history so dark, some people dare to ask.