SW>  DB> Witchcraft trials destroyed a shamen heritage of millennia. 
 SW>  
 SW> I think it would be somewhat irresponsible to lay all the blame at 
 SW> the feet of the witch-trials.  Conversion to Christianity, both forced 
 SW> and voluntary, contributed to it a great deal, as did the extreme 
 SW> secrecy of those who knew of the heritage in the first place.  Aside 
 SW> from that, the vast majority of "witches" tortured and killed during 
 SW> this time were falsely accused.  The Knights Templar come immediately 
 SW> to mind, though I don't recall if Witchcraft was included in the long 
 SW> list of charges against them... 
 SW> Of course, all of these things are still tied together by one common 
 SW> thread: Christianity.  But yet again, it would be irresponsible to 
 SW> place all the blame on a faceless religion.  Somebody had to make the 
 SW> accusations, somebody had to carry out the execution, and everybody 
 SW> who 
 SW> knew better had to have kept quiet...  People want/ed scapegoats, 
 SW> and the government/Church gives/gave them what they want/ed... 
 SW> Back then it was witches and demons, today it is Communists or bigots 
 SW> or whatever suits the need and the people will readily accept... 
Campbell suggest that all the religions do that, not just the 
Christian. but he makes a distinction between the faith and the 
power structure built on orthodoxy, which is actually the problem. 
 
Reminds me of Socrates, who was *not* charged by the Dionysian 
priesthood, but the civil power structure, who saw a threat to the 
very lucrative hotel business in Athens serving the needs of these 
'Mystai' in town for Komos, and the rites at Eleusis. 
 
Neitzsche makes the point that Dionysianism lacked any dogma as it 
was *entirely* seen as allegorical.  The gospel of Dionysus wasn't 
a work of literature, like the Bible, Bagavad Gita, Upshanishads, 
or the Koran, to be defended with blood, but works of *theatre*, 
as from Euripedes, Sophocles, Aristophanes... Anyone who would say 
that the mythology of Dionysus is literal history doesn't get it. 
 
Like saying that Ravenwing is a thing with black feathers. 
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