Be not deceived by apparent progress: systemic witchcraft still plagues our society.
In December 1484, the Pope issued the “Witches Bull,” sanctioning the “correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising” of witches:
“Many persons of both sexes … have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations, spells, conjurations, and other accursed charms and crafts, enormities and horrid offences, have slain infants yet in the mother’s womb, as also the offspring of cattle …”
Over 200 years of witch-hunting ensued until ended by the Enlightenment.
Yet witch-hunter psychology is very much with us, in contemporary forms. While real racism, real sexism, and real ethnocentrism exist, we must beware of those who attach adjectives—hidden, implicit, systemic—and claim apparent occult powers to discern them where no one else can. They are our modern witch-hunters, motivated by the same stew of ignorance, resentment, sadism, and power-lust.