Reading a rather interesting (and somewhat lengthy) essay about the history of the history of witch trials, witch beliefs, relationship to any actual paganism, etc. at the moment... see it here.
"It will be shown, in fact, that almost all of the 'common wisdom' about Witches and the Witch trials is woefully incomplete, seriously misleading, or simply false. What the public thinks it knows about the history of Witchcraft -- and by 'the public,' we should here include most modern Pagans -- is not at all what actually happened."
"It will be shown, in fact, that almost all of the 'common wisdom' about Witches and the Witch trials is woefully incomplete, seriously misleading, or simply false. What the public thinks it knows about the history of Witchcraft -- and by 'the public,' we should here include most modern Pagans -- is not at all what actually happened."