BURN NO MORE – The Death Toll

Most of us think of intentionally burning people as one of the worst humanitarian offenses possible, and a horrifying barbarian violation of human rights, but there were days when this method of execution was chosen exactly for its capacity to inflict a high degree of pain, and it was applied mostly to women. Unfortunately we witness an increase of incidents in several areas of the planet - many are targeting women and some accusations shockingly are of alleged witchcraft.

The horror of witch-hunting profoundly disturbed me when the lore about being burnt at the stake had somehow reached me in my childhood years. I didn’t grow up celebrating Halloween, so I was unaware of the more playful iconography that nowadays accompanies the crucial moment in time balanced between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice, but I knew something was in the air as the family gathered to honor the Day of the Dead.

During those late October/early November days I felt an inexplicable current of ancestral kinship mixed with fear, at least this is how I can describe those feelings now. It was a time when seldom seen relatives appeared, and the existence of a few “controversial” yet reluctantly regarded female ancestors was mentioned. After all, their graves were right there in front of our eyes.

I was not so much scared of the so-called dangers a “witch” could pose rather I became a little queasy at the thought of being burnt myself. There was a message buried somewhere in my consciousness, a warning, a not so veiled threat: stay on the accepted path or this could happen to you. Underneath there might have also been another undercurrent whispering of other various dangers related to being female.

There has been so much confusion around the term “witch”, used to mean so many different things. It is a word exploited politically, reclaimed with pride in modern times, attached to archetypal energies where it can be either vilified or glorified.

I believe that both the attraction to, even the reverence for, the mystery that surrounds “witches” and the fear of being targeted as “one of them” are both deeply rooted in our DNA. I also believe that the “mystery” is actually knowledge and wisdom often accompanied with a tendency to stray from the “norm”. As I grew older I encountered this fear in my own dreams and then in the dreams of clients in my psychotherapy practice. Sadly I still find these insidious fears confirmed in the news. We don’t seem to have left the witch-hunting times completely behind us.

I found a report from 2014 when an indigenous woman was burned alive in Paraguay, where this behavior has historically been quite unusual. She was accused of witchcraft. Local prosecutors charged nine men in the village with first-degree murder. If you search the news yourself you will find more such horrors.
A report by the UN Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people worldwide are accused of being witches every year. The UN says they are often abused, cast out of their families and communities and sometimes killed.
It might be of interest to you to read the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ Reports addressing alleged witchcraft and its persecution.

When I was a teenager I researched the history of witch-hunting in the library. Useless to say, I was appalled by what I discovered. In the school textbooks the burnings were at the most a footnote. As I read, I found the emerging political, historical, social, and religious implications staggering.

It is not possible to ascertain the exact number of executions related to alleged witchcraft in Europe and in the Americas, and modern scholars reach different conclusions that range between two and five hundred thousands - which is a considerable toll given the world population at those times.

The worst years of witch-hunting stretch between 1500 and 1660. So much happened in those crucial decades when the confluence of religious, social, economic, and cultural factors contributed to the persecutions we are talking about here. The upheaval caused by the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and Thirty Years' War created a climate of fear and suspicion. Economic changes and social dislocation further fueled tensions. These elements, combined with deep-seated superstitions and the use of judicial torture, led to the widespread persecution of individuals accused of witchcraft. Understanding these historical contexts helps us to comprehend the complex dynamics that contributed to one of history's most tragic episodes of mass hysteria and injustice.

Descartes died in 1650; his brilliant logical mind is still influencing contemporary philosophy, but he was a man who refused to trust his own senses. He laid the foundation of modern rationalism and is well known for his motto “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I exist). His philosophy heralded the Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789) whose values eventually opened the way to the industrial revolution, where technological advancement and progress became (and in so many ways still are) the ultimate goals regardless of the price and consequences.

In other words, Descartes' philosophical contributions, particularly his skepticism of sensory perception, marked a departure from the traditional reliance on mystical, sensory-based, and intuitive knowledge that had been prevalent for centuries. Reason and the mind became the pathways for understanding existence and meeting its challenges.
The emphasis shifted onto reason, science, and intellectual pursuits based on empirical evidence and scientific inquiry. There is much to be grateful for this shift towards rationalism and empiricism, but in my view it was too radically judgmental and it went too far leading to the gradual erosion of ancient practices and knowledge that were certainly influenced by superstitions, but had their own validity. The baby was thrown away with the bath water, and a demeaning stigma got attached to it. 

This paved the way for the rapid technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution which often came at the expense of traditional knowledge. Nature-based remedies and other forms of ancient wisdom were increasingly marginalized and dismissed as relics of a “dark” era in favor of modern scientific approaches that often were not “scientific” at all. The shift occurred also in the broader cultural and social field, where the mystical and spiritual dimensions of life were sidelined in favor of a more mechanistic and materialistic worldview.

What’s wrong with this, and how do witches fit in here?

Answering is not simple. I have been trying to understand what those persecuted individuals stood for in those times. I will keep writing about the many questions that emerge around the dynamics of domination versus collaboration, and reflect on how this persecution towards women and the feminine is still perpetrated in various ways on our planet. I confess that this research sees me at times lost and deeply saddened. I have a difficult time relating to the twisted and venomous “logic” of the demonization of the feminine.

Interesting historical “coincidences”

For now I will only say that women were, among other things, repositories of pragmatic medical knowledge due to an unbroken relationship with nature that must have felt threatening to the ways religious and political systems were reorganizing themselves after the locally focalized medieval times.

While the first official “university” was founded in Bologna (my Alma Mater) in 1088, the European spreading of such concentrated places of learning moved very slowly for the following 400 hundred years. In the beginning of the 1500s their still small number (29) doubled, and 18 more were added by 1625. These apparently unrelated events make me wonder about the emotional and psychological environment of those years.

It is even harder to estimate the impact of these developments and persecutions on the psyche of the general population, and the associated loss of organic wisdom, experience, commitment to the preservation of nature, and the death of a world view more akin to what nowadays is referred to as an “indigenous perspective” regarding our place in nature and our relationship to it.

I greatly value knowledge, and I value wisdom even more. I value education and I hold in great esteem the institutions of higher learning. But I cannot be blind to some distortions that have brought us to the environmental crisis and the social imbalances we experience today. I would never want to see access to education and information shrink, but I think that from a philosophical standpoint we are approaching a time when integration of different perspectives is necessary to our survival.

The Statistics

Some say that in these 160 most active years, Europe saw between 50,000 and 80,000, others say between 200,000 and 500,000 suspected “witches” executed. The research is still evolving. Numbers count, but the message sent to everyone’s psyche counts even more. About 80% of those killed were women. Execution rates varied greatly by country, from a high of about 26,000 in Germany (which had the higher concentration of Universities, followed by Italy) to about 10,000 in France, 1,000 in England, and only four in Ireland (again these numbers are still under scrutiny). The lower death tolls in England and Ireland seem to be owed in part to those countries’ better procedural safeguards for defendants. The estimated population of Germany between the 1500 and the 1600 is a little bit over 10 millions (I compiled this information from several online sites, and textbooks, you may click here as well ).

According to new discoveries, confirmed by one of the most important historical trial’s research, common methods of execution for those convicted were hanging, drowning and burning. Burning was often favored, particularly in Europe, as it was considered a more painful way to die. Prosecutors in the American colonies generally preferred hanging in cases of witchcraft (you may visit Wikipedia for more statistical details). On Wikipedia you can also find a list of names and dates.

I shared elsewhere the dream that visited me regarding bringing healing to the psychological and physical disruption created in the human psyche by this efficient persecution – in particular in women’s psyche. Central to the messages I received in dreams and in visioning, is the importance of activating healing through the ancestral line, addressing specifically those who have suffered this kind of imputations, persecutions, and death sentences - without forgetting to address the perpetrators, past and present, to awaken them to the consequences of their choices and invite them to change.

While traditional talk therapy is proven beneficial in addressing many inner challenges, it usually falls short in dislodging the deep-seated roots and consequences of trauma. Trauma's impact is multi-faceted, it affects body, mind, and spirit - at a personal and collective level. A ritualistic, creative, and intuitive approach that engages the deepest and most ancient layers of the psyche reaches our soul beyond words. I find it most effective in overcoming the impact of trauma.

Activating healing in the present moment and intentionally stretching it towards the past while combining it with the intent and determination to put a stop to these practices in the future is a statement of personal and collective empowerment. Imagination is an underused and often misunderstood powerful healing tool that can have a direct and effective impact on all the dimensions of being from the physical, to the emotional and spiritual. I am grateful to see some modern therapeutic approaches finally open to ancient shamanic practices that for centuries (if not millenia) have engaged imagination and creativity for healing and transformative purposes.

In the BURN NO MORE event, we move from history to ceremony in a sacred, creative, generous, and profound way rooted in the reality of a historical understanding and in the awareness of the current cultural, social, and political environments. The two perspectives combine beautifully to honor the memory of those who suffered, and ignite pathways for healing and change by integrating historical research and knowledge of trauma epigenetic dynamics with the power of imagination, rituals, and hands-on creativity.

If you are interested in participating in the Healing Ritual: Burn No More, which I host every year close to Halloween, please check my website or write for questions.

Any information you may wish to share, books, thoughts, questions, websites or publications are most welcome.

Mariabruna

* This blog is a revised and expanded edition of a 2015 Newsletter entitled “The Death Toll”. Mariabruna’s blogs are copyrighted.

Summer 2024 edition in honor of Gentile Budrioli, also known as Gentile Cimieri, an Italian woman who lived during the late 15th century. She was born in Bologna, Italy, where she married a notary named Andrea Budrioli, which indicates that she was part of a respectable and relatively affluent family.
She was known to practice as an astrologer, healer, herbalist, and midwife - which put her at risk of being accused of witchcraft, especially because she might have become too influential.
Gentile was accused of practicing witchcraft, of invoking demons and practicing maleficium, harmful magic intended to cause injury or death.
She was executed on 14 July 1498, burned at the stake in Bologna, Italy.