Primal Awareness by Rob Wildwood

Author:Rob Wildwood [Wildwood, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78535-657-5
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2018-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

13

Reformation

By Medieval times it was assumed that the entire population had become Christianised, but despite the persecutions of the Church many pagan practices did still survive, and continued on with a thin veneer of Christianity. Holy wells were still visited for cures, as were other sites such as sacred stones, caves, or holy mountains. Only now people would pray to the local saint instead of the local spirits. Saints had replaced gods and spirits in the popular imagination, although in many ways they still served the same function. People would visit the shrines of saints to receive cures and blessings from their holy relics. In these places they felt a direct connection with the saint, just as they would have felt a direct connection with the gods and spirits of old.

The Protestant Reformation put an end to all this, as all such practices were denounced as pagan superstition. Holy wells and sacred relics were destroyed and people were forbidden from worshipping at such ‘pagan’ shrines. The only appropriate place to worship now and to ask for help and guidance was in the church, praying to God. Anyone showing the slightest inclination towards pagan beliefs or practices, magic or witchcraft, could be tortured until they confessed to dealings with the Devil. Condemned witches and heretics were then publicly executed, either by burning or hanging. The separation of the people from the spirits of nature was now complete as all such beliefs became branded as witchcraft and devil worship, and so through fear of recriminations and fear of the devil people avoided such practices, and so they faded from memory over the generations.

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