in their afterlife. Also, the dead were often buried near or even underneath the family’s home so that the deceased could stay close. In these early times witches believed that each part of nature, such as rain, streams, rivers, thunder etc. had their own individual god. They believed that one god controlled the rain, a different god controlled the wind, and most importantly a god controlled the hunt. They gave each thing in nature a god and they call this “Animism”, which is defined as “to assign gods to naturally occurring events”. The God of the Hunt was the most important of all. In ancients rituals they used something called Sympathetic Magik. An example of this is when the tribe needed to have a successful hunt, they would create life-like versions of the animal they wished to kill and acted out how they believed the hunt would take place. They greatly believed that this act would positively help them on their hunt and give them great success. Besides their great love for the God of the Hunt, they also heavily praised the Goddess of Fertility. It was extremely important that the people of these tribes reproduce because they felt very strongly about the balance of their lives and tribe. The Goddess of Fertility did not only represent the reproduction of their people, but also of the earth and its animals. Today, modern witches call themselves followers of the old religion. Both males and females call themselves Witches now. The men never call themselves Warlocks because it is known to mean traitor, and its also considered an insult in these modern times. Today’s witches believe that every god that has been worshiped does exist but prefer to worship only two: The Great Mother and The Horned God. From these two they now believe that all the other gods were created. The belief is that the Great Mother gave birth to the universe and also to the Horned God. The Horned God is considered L...
