I get exasperated by neon-pagans insisting what amounts to “all cultures have a belief in anti-social magic workers, EXCEPT Western Europe, where a nefarious They PRETENDED to believe in them as a pretext for something else. “
Yes, the fantasy story with the "religion" that is "Totally Evil Christianity that does nothing but persecute The Innocent Happy Spellcasting Pagans because Evil" got so very tiresome so long ago. I'd like to see a story like that involving Inquisitor Salazar with one of the few Spanish witch hunts.
Where it's the inquisitor being sent in to investigate the accused witches. And the local royal court interferes with him because this is one of the few things they still have power over since being forcibly united into the larger kingdom, and nobody's going to tell THEM they can't burn some witches.
Or for that matter some of the other cases where Catholic clergy tried to stop a local lynching "because witches". Though in real life they often failed, as the locals would finally just beat the priests or monks up and kill the accused anyway.
A confessed witch accuses another woman of being the sabbat. The other woman says that she was asleep in bed. “Ah! That was a diabolical illusion!”
The Inquisitor cuts in with the observation that one of them was an illusion, but the devil could have created an illusion of the woman at the sabbat, so — is there any reason to give credence to one rather than the other?
Then there was the Inquisitor that chased the "confessed" witch around the cell because she claimed that she had "passed through a keyhole" and he "wanted" to see her do it himself.
IE He really didn't believe her story about "passing through a keyhole". 😉
This reminds me of stories from furry fandom where you had people seemingly seriously claiming that they were honest to gosh werewolves. But whenever someone challenged them to transform and prove it they always had an excuse. "I can't when people are watching, not even over a video link. No, I can't go into that empty room with only one door, close it, transform, and let you open it. Why? Because reasons."
They all also seemed convinced that real pagans and "indigenous" (I.e., non-white) people would worship at their feet as soon as they revealed their lycanthropy, rather than killing them.
I get exasperated by neon-pagans insisting what amounts to “all cultures have a belief in anti-social magic workers, EXCEPT Western Europe, where a nefarious They PRETENDED to believe in them as a pretext for something else. “
Thinking things through is important.
Yes, the fantasy story with the "religion" that is "Totally Evil Christianity that does nothing but persecute The Innocent Happy Spellcasting Pagans because Evil" got so very tiresome so long ago. I'd like to see a story like that involving Inquisitor Salazar with one of the few Spanish witch hunts.
Where it's the inquisitor being sent in to investigate the accused witches. And the local royal court interferes with him because this is one of the few things they still have power over since being forcibly united into the larger kingdom, and nobody's going to tell THEM they can't burn some witches.
Or for that matter some of the other cases where Catholic clergy tried to stop a local lynching "because witches". Though in real life they often failed, as the locals would finally just beat the priests or monks up and kill the accused anyway.
A confessed witch accuses another woman of being the sabbat. The other woman says that she was asleep in bed. “Ah! That was a diabolical illusion!”
The Inquisitor cuts in with the observation that one of them was an illusion, but the devil could have created an illusion of the woman at the sabbat, so — is there any reason to give credence to one rather than the other?
Then there was the Inquisitor that chased the "confessed" witch around the cell because she claimed that she had "passed through a keyhole" and he "wanted" to see her do it himself.
IE He really didn't believe her story about "passing through a keyhole". 😉
With a stick. Reminding her that she could escape him through the keyhole.
Alas, I've never heard whether the cure succeeded.
This reminds me of stories from furry fandom where you had people seemingly seriously claiming that they were honest to gosh werewolves. But whenever someone challenged them to transform and prove it they always had an excuse. "I can't when people are watching, not even over a video link. No, I can't go into that empty room with only one door, close it, transform, and let you open it. Why? Because reasons."
They all also seemed convinced that real pagans and "indigenous" (I.e., non-white) people would worship at their feet as soon as they revealed their lycanthropy, rather than killing them.
What? Not because the moon isn't full?
At least they manage to avoid aping the movies that much.
I suppose they knew that classic werewolves could change whenever they pleased. So I have to give them credit for that much.
Also it's clearly a curse if it's only the full moon and then they have to. Less cool that way.