For all the controversy and debate over what William Shakespeare really meant, what actually motivated him, and what his essential message was, he could perhaps better be called the Apostle Will! The range of possible interpretations for his plays rivals biblical proportions. What follows then is not an attempt to offer a definitive interpretation on any of his works, but merely an added critical contextual element which, it seems to me, is too often ignored. I should say perhaps that in this endeavor my frame of reference is a bit biased, coming as I do from a tradition which has long held mixed opinions concerning the man they often call "Lyin' Willie." That background is Welsh Traditionalist Wiccacrafte. Albeit I am not currently an active participant in the Crafte of my ancestors, I have studied it extensively, largely through the tutelage of my Wiccan preceptor whom, due to vows of secrecy, I can only refer to as 'Old Man Witty.' His teachings on this subject shall therefore guide me in conjunction with my readings and lessons at the university [JFK U].
Going under the assumption that Shakespeare wrote all or most of the plays credited to him, he is deservedly the most celebrated of all English writers, but who he was and the nature of his 'philosophia prima' remains uncertain. As might be expected, he is oft hailed as being the virtual personification of one's own philosophy of life, regardless of what that might be. To the Pessimist, he is a Pessimist; to the Nihilist, a Nihilist. Likewise to the Wiccans he was, if not Wiccan, at least very knowledgeable and personally interested in the ancient ways. To even begin to understand him we must consider his age: 1564 to 1616.
Conditions which began long before Shakespeare's birth erupted during his life and exercised a most profound influence on his development and beliefs. These events turned the Continent, and the Isle of Britain, upside down. At the heart of the turmoil was what is generally known as the "Most Holy Inquisitions." Those times are still fearfully remembered as the "Burning Times" by the Wicca Note #1. To think that the Wiccacrafte and its persecution exercised little or no influence on the Bard seems inconceivably naive. The Witch hunts were among the most compelling and well known events taking place during his illustrious life. If he did not know of them, if his life remained untouched by this 'sacred genocide,' Shakespeare would be comparable to a well-educated citizen of Berkeley in the sixties being completely unaware and unaffected by the U.S. war against the people of Vietnam! It simply couldn't have been. Let us then, briefly consider the Britain of his time as regards the christian assault on the Old Religion.
Due to the nature of the Burning Times (i.e. the 173 years of legal English persecution from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of George II), there are precious few documents extant of pre-christian Euro-British religion, the Greeks somewhat excepted. Scholarship on the subject has been so tainted by christian Note #2 pressure and social influences that much of what is published is little more than church propaganda and is, therefore, largely unreliable and wholly suspect. What follows then is difficult to reference or document, and in most cases I won't even try. In order to grasp this view of Shakespeare therefore it is important to have a basic comprehension of what led up to the Burning Times and the teachings which so enraged the christian church. In this way we will see that the Wicca certainly had a most profound influence on the Bard, and that Shakespeare himself was, in a very real way, a most tragic victim of the Burning Times.
It is easy to romanticize the distant past, especially when so little historical data exists concerning it. There are some who try to make pre-christian Britain sound positively utopian. I am oft accused of being among them (!), and may herein, though that is neither my intention nor my belief. Undoubtedly it was not, at least not to the degree some would have us believe. What the Misty Isles did have however, was a Nature based religious, spiritual and cultural system which, from the scant secular evidence we have coupled with revealed Wiccan traditions, worked for the majority of people until it was brutally and systematically destroyed by vile and crude christian invaders.
The name of the religion is perhaps the first issue which should be addressed. It appears to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, though according to Old Man Witty it was given us by the Little People as a tribute, and means "Crafte of the Wise": 'wicca' meaning wisdom and 'crafte' or craft Note #3. The modern word Witch, here capitalized since it refers to a historically valid religion, is merely a bastardization of the term Wicca (Herein I spell "Christian" in small letters as an acknowledgement of the global discrimination which still, with few exceptions, refuses to acknowledge either the historicity or validity of this faith which was ancient before Moses ever left his home in Ur).
Despite the common belief of the masses and some current feminist claims, Wiccacrafte was never a 'feminist religion' (as that term is normally employed). The Old Religion was and is a nature based, aboriginal belief system based upon the universal role of fertility and gender interaction. As it is essentially a fertility cult, the idea that the Crafte is or ever was a 'Goddess religion' is patently absurd and denies any knowledge of Pagan religion in general and Wiccan religion in particular.
In overly simplified terms, according to the Wicca life is established and maintained on three basic principles: female, male, and their interplay. The feminine aspect is viewed as the negative polarity, the fertile Earth from which all emerges and is nurtured. The masculine is the positive pole, the seed-giving Sky Father Who nurtures the Mother and all that arises from Her Sacred Womb Note #4. Each is utterly dependent upon the other. This is the essential Crafte teaching, though some variation does exist.
The cycle of the year is essential to the exercise of the Old Religion and is based upon this interplay. The year begins with Samhain (November eve or Halloween). On this day the Horned One, the Great God, begins His rule of the earth. His reign continues until Beltain (May Eve) when everyone dances around His erect phallus (the May Pole) to celebrate the return of the Goddess. The Great Goddess then rules until the following Samhain. The Goddess therefore controls Midsummer (June 21), Lughnasadh (August Eve) and the Autumn Equinox (September 21). The God reigns over Yule (December 21), Imbolc (February Eve) and the Spring Equinox (March 21). It should be understood that during the Goddess' reign the God is still present and vice-versa. As the universe is based upon Their polarity, at no time is either Power alone.
Even as Shakespeare witnessed the christian usurpation of individual Wiccan liberties, so too we now are witnessing the decline of christendom. In the past twenty years especially the christian stranglehold upon the collective throat of society has been forcibly loosened. It appears that the Reaganesque turn to conservatism which characterized the eighties is also waning [this was written in 1989]. In this position we have the opportunity and responsibility to develop the next social belief system. We can choose to create a society of science-intoxicated zombies where philosophy and personal realization have no place and where white-coated lab technicians become the new priesthood, a police state of Orwellian proportions (which seems not unlikely at the present moment), or we can reclaim the good from our Wiccan past, couple it with the positives of modern scientific understanding, and establish a truly neo-Pagan society which is environmentally sound and spiritually interconnected. With modern technology and the high level of education (or what remains of it) this generation could establish something akin to a utopia. It's up to us.
Gender interdependency is essential to the ancient and present practice of the Wiccacrafte Note #5. It was the christian church which robbed women of their equality and dignity. By Shakespeare's time women were not even allowed to appear on stage. The roles of women therefore were always played, by christian decree, by youthful [often homosexual] males. Today, as women again become equal partners in contemporary society, recognition of gender harmony is again becoming unavoidable. For too long society has existed as a bird with only one wing. The other wing, the feminine, was long ago disfigured by the christian 'church fathers.' That wing, personified as the Goddess, is now returning to vibrant health and the patriarchy is being forced to surrender a portion of its exclusivity. Today women are demanding equal respect and position. No longer will they bow before the patriarchy. However, in order to right the wrongs of society it is very important that women not repeat the mistakes of their male predecessors; they must not seek to elevate the Goddess at the expense of the God. A matriarchy would be no more balanced, no more just, than the patriarchy.
All too often we forget that women are not the only victims of christian-imposed male rule. The return of the Goddess is just as important for males as it is for women, perhaps even more so. Men have suffered, and continue to suffer terribly under the patriarchy. We are not allowed to manifest our human potentials any more than women are. With the arrival of the patriarchy we were cut off from our intuitive, loving sides. Our self-worth is determined not by the heart, by creativity nor by our capacity to love, but upon our ability to earn material compensation, to meet the financial needs of 'our' families and by our ability to be macho; to 'keep a stiff upper lip.' The Goddess, Who dwells within the heart of every man, has been exiled and we have all become incomplete. During the Bard's life these roles were being solidified and everyone, male and female alike, were becoming gender-defined slaves.
Under the patriarchy, what is now being called male bonding was viewed as a moral and mental weakness (and still is in many quarters). The greatest of all 'sins' was for a man to love another man. One could be 'drinking buddies' or 'co-workers,' but honest love, physical or otherwise, was strictly condemned as weakness, as 'effeminate behavior.' With this rise of homophobia we were all severed from our hearts, torn from the arms of our Mother and Father and left utterly abandoned.
The basic Crafte view concerning homosexuality, male or female, is based on Nature. The Earth is filled and maintained by gender-based energy interactions. In order for there to be procreation a female and a male must be involved. The polarity of female and male energy therefore forms the basis of physical existence and all Crafte traditions. For this reason, under ideal circumstances, Wiccans seek an even number of men and women for their Circles Note #6. There is, however, much more to sex than procreation.
On this point the Crafte is diametrically opposed to christian doctrine. Within the Crafte, sex is viewed as a joyous celebration of life, not just a way to continue the species. It may be freely engaged in by all, without regard to gender or other superfluous considerations. A Wiccan friend explained to me that, "relationships are the main course of life. Sex is the dessert; and I enjoy a wide variety of dishes." The Crafte likewise has no problem with group sex or any other type which involves the mutual consent of adults Note #7. This may seem appalling to many who grew up under the influence of christian puritanism, however think about it. On what basis do we legislate morality? Why has society concluded that certain parts of the human body must be hidden? Why must women cover their breasts while men need not? Why must we hide our genitalia under clothing even on days when common sense says nudity is more appropriate? Why are men and women condemned who choose to physically express their love with those of their own gender? There is no reason other than christian frigidity and control. Likewise, why are there so many sexual crimes? Why do advertisers find it beneficial to taunt our sexual passions to sell their wares? Why are sexual frustrations so common in mental illness? Why do movies receive 'PG' or 'R' ratings when they are filled with crime, violence, torture and death whereas a bit of skin, especially the penis, results in an automatic 'X' [now NC-17] rating? Why does pornography sell so well? Why is it that in many video rental stores sexually explicit 'adult videos' often surpass all others despite their characteristically poor quality and lack of plot? Again, it is because of christianity which says it is better to torture an innocent person, to wage genocide against civilian populations, or to massacre aboriginal peoples, than it is to lay nude in the sun or share love with another person (not to mention oneself!) without a piece of paper and license from the government. Is this too harsh? I think not. When we honor ourselves and our bodies we honor others. When we condemn ourselves as 'vile sinners' we condemn the world.
It should be noted that not all Wiccans are this liberal in their thinking. The traditionalists are also the product of the christian reign. Furthermore, there are certain 'Wiccan Tenets' which many hold which may modify such views. Among these is the living of a balanced life. Many Wiccans argue that group sex and the like tends to lead to excess [and/or disease] and should therefore be avoided. For most of us the Crafte is relatively new and our participation in it developed out of our basic questioning of society. As the years go by many of us are 'mellowing' in our opinions and practices as well, especially in the presence of diseases such as HIV. Such issues must be decided on an individual basis.
To love is natural. Sexual roles are learned, though the inclination to love is always there, even when it is suppressed. Children, male or female, learn very quickly from society what is and is not acceptable behavior. Today many women and men are declaring their independence from the oppressive patriarchy. The reemergence of the Crafte therefore is a great boon to everyone. Attempts to co-opt it by this group or that is therefore unconscionable. Men and women need the Goddess, women and men need the God. Our spiritual images and myths must reflect this reawakening if we, both female and male, are to enjoy freedom. So far as we know, no traditional people have incorporated the male and female polarities so well as the Wiccans. We therefore have much to learn from the Wise Ones and their presentation of the Goddess, as well as the Great God.
When we watch or read Shakespeare we should consider this and not understand it from a patriarchal christian perspective, but from a futuristic one of gender balance. The Wiccan way of life was already fading when the Bard wrote, and he sought to reflect those beliefs as best he could under the circumstances. We are now seeing a partial (at least) return to many of those views, and so therefore we may see the Bard as being ahead of his times, not as a product of our christian past.
Wiccans seek to live in harmony with nature. The green earth is the Body of the Mother and the rain-giving sky is the celestial Form of the Father. If life is to continue, the Wiccans understand fully, both Parents are absolutely essential. Even as half the year, depending on where you live, is ruled by light and warmth, so too the Goddess takes preeminence in the summer cycle. Similarly, the God is in the ascendancy during the cold winter months, the other half of the year. Life then is the interplay and foreplay of the Mother and Father.
Within the family tradition of Welsh Traditionalist Wiccacrafte into which I am initiated, and all other traditional forms I am aware of, the male and female polarities are always equally honored Note #8. Old Man Witty once commented, concerning certain sexist Neo-Wiccan groups, that "Wicca is a fertility cult. You can't have fertility and leave out the women or the men. If either one is missing, it's not the Crafte of the Wise, it's the crafte of the self-deceived. A Witch is a Witch, female or male" Note #9.
Our images of the Goddess and the God are based much more than we would care to admit on the old christian presentation of Them. Due in good measure to christianity, some Neo-Wiccans and other Neo-Pagans would have us believe that the Crafte, and all other indigenous traditions, were concerned exclusively or primarily with the feminine aspect of nature. T.M. Luhrmann has noted however that whereas in England one is hard pressed to find a 'feminist coven,' they are quite prevalent in the United States Note #10. This indicates that 'feminist Wicca' is largely an invention of the feminist elements within the neo-Pagan movement, not the out-flowing of traditional Wiccan or Pagan views or beliefs.
Despite the fact that some prominent feminists and other Neo-Wiccan authors are now rejecting the literary and anthropological works of people such as Murray, Gardner, Buckland and Leek, in many ways these authors and reclaimers of the Old Religion, despite their obvious weaknesses, are closer to the heart of the Crafte than many Neo-Wiccans care to admit. As the English Wiccan Sybil Leek Note #11 has observed,
The current fallacious view that the Wiccan God is nothing more than a sex toy of the Great Goddess underestimates the diversity and insight of the Old Religion, not to mention its essential premises. It also confines its reemergence to a minority status, that being specifically to the domain of 'post modern feminism.' To hail the Goddess while ignoring the God, or placing Him in a subservient role, not only excludes most men from reclaiming the ancestral Faith, it also restricts women from receiving what the Crafte conceptions of the Lord has to offer them. While creativity resides at the heart of the Crafte, and while dogmatism finds no welcome there, if the essential nature of the movement is removed what remains is something other than the Crafte. This is not to say it has no value, but simply that it is not Wicca, even as christianity without Jesus would not be christianity. As the neo-Pagan NROOGD (New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn) has explained, "A Witch above all worships the Triple Goddess and her Consort, The Horned God, in one form or another. A Witch works Magick within a definite code of ethics. A Witch acknowledges and uses the male-female polarity in his/her rites" Note #14. Here, as almost everywhere in the Crafte and often in the neo-Crafte, the absolute necessity of the God is stated.
When considering the Crafte and its conceptions of the Lady and the Lord, the christian allegations of 'devil worship' are often overlooked as religious excesses on the part of the medieval church. It is often concluded that the whole affair was fabricated due to religious and political considerations and exaggerations. Yet this allegation, more than any other, is what finally led to the Witch trials and the brutal persecution of the Old Religion by the new. It was not the Wiccan Goddess which outraged the christians, but the oft-Horned God. The allegations must have originally been based upon fact, albeit facts which were misunderstood and/or threatening to the christian hierarchy. As with the God, the very existence of male Witches was often denied or minimized in order to make the Crafte look like nothing more than a "social club for disenfranchised, bored housewives" Note #15.
The well-read christian extremist Montague Summers has pointed out that:
Such statements, if religious biases are acknowledged, demonstrates that the Wiccan people worshipped their God long before the coming of christianity. When the christians began calling the Wiccan God by the name of their own counter-deity, Satan, the Wiccans accepted the name change, not realizing the profound implications of that transition. After all, the God and Goddess had always been known by countless names. This was nothing new. When the Romans came to the Isles many Greek and Roman Deity Names accompanied them. It was largely because of this unfortunate acceptance that the Witch trials were able to 'prove' that the Wiccans were 'devil worshipers.' The question "Do you worship the Devil?" would usually find the reply, "Why yes, of course, and proudly so." Little did they understand, in the early phases, what this name change entailed.
In the christian bible no description of the devil is offered, beyond his being the most beautiful of all angels Note #17. There is no description of his having cloven hooves, a horned head, pitchfork etc. All these attributes were added after the christians came in contact with the worshipers of the Horned One. Bill Garrett, a religion professor at John F. Kennedy University, has noted that, "If you want to understand the old gods, you must study Demonology." This is sad but true.
The Wiccans could have accepted the basic idea of Jesus crucified, had it been packaged differently. In reality, the major difference between the Horned God of the Wiccans and the christian god was that "The Christian believes that God died once for all, whereas the more primitive belief is that the god is perpetually incarnate on the Earth and may therefore be put to death over and over again" Note #18.
Assuming that the christian allegations were groundless, the existence and importance of the Wiccan God is often dismissed by contemporary intellectuals and students of religion as merely a propaganda tool of an unenlightened church. Since the stories, legends and folk beliefs in the Goddess persisted, and since the christians had encountered similar beliefs throughout their world conquests, those aspects of the Old Religion were allowed to remain more intact Note #19. In this way the Crafte wrongly came to be viewed as an exclusively Goddess religion Note #20.
In an attempt to destabilize Crafte tradition and destroy individual faith in the Wicca [the wise leaders among the people] Witches were characterized as elderly female hags. Groundless rumors were spread that they were baby killers, cattle poisoners etc. These are the same allegations made by the Pagan Romans against the early christians before christian ascendency there. Once the papacy had crushed their enemies in Rome, the new religion leveled the same allegations against the Jews, Cathars, Waldensians, Knights Templar, Wiccans and others Note #21. In fact, during the Burning Times, it is said, when the christians were seeking to kill Jews, the Wiccans hid them in their basements. When christians were thirsty for Witch blood, the Jews hid us. Throughout the Burning Times, Jews and Wiccans had close political, social and even religious ties (hence, we see the similarities such as the Jewish Shabbat and the Witch's Sabbat, the Star of David and the Pentacle, etc.)
The Sacred Cauldron, which for ages had been viewed as the source of health and well being, was condemned by the church as the 'devil's pot.' When it became evident that the christians could not destroy the Pagan people's faith in the Sacred Cauldron of Cerridwen, it, and many of the legends which surround it, were co-opted, christianized, and the holy grail traditions were born. Through an examination of those legends one has perhaps the best historically available look at the ancient Wiccan religion.
Anyone who questioned the authority of the Grand Inquisitors, or their British counterparts, were instantly accused of heresy, promptly found guilty, after torture, and killed. Shakespeare obviously knew this and so his presentation of Witches and other matters of the Old Religion of necessity were worded to avoid the wrath of the christian rulers. This caution limited his artistic creativity and expression tremendously. When Shakespeare is read or watched, with this understanding, one sees frequent references and situations that, one can easily imagine, would touch the heart of a predominantly Wiccan audience while leaving the playwright plenty of room for denial should his intentions be questioned. In the Bard's plays, Wiccans could draw solace and reflect upon the Old Ways in a safe environment. Attendance of directly Wiccan plays, and they did exist according to tradition, could result in torture and death.
Did such peaceful communities as the village of Blaenkych, which I will present below, actually exist? The answer is irrelevant. If they exist within the mind's eye, if they exist within the consciousness of society, or moreover, if they can exist, then they are as real as the allegedly great civilizations of our own time. Indeed, if they exist within the realm of possibility, they may be actualized within the realm of our daily experience. We normally say, "I'll believe it when I see it," but in reality, the Wiccans remind us, we'll see it when we believe it. For fundamentalist christians, for instance, the world really is filled with evil sinners and the devil really is everywhere present, seeking to damn the souls of our 'evil age,' just ask them! In the same way, by inculcating within our consciousness a world in which the Goddess and Her Eternal Consort are equally honored, we can reinitiate the glorious Wiccan Age. To the degree that that period was glorious, and to the degree that it really existed, it can be reclaimed. To the degree that it proceeded from the human imagination, it can be imagined anew. It's up to us.
The Burning Times, that period in which the Old Religion was driven underground in Europe and North America by christian religious and political intolerance, did not happen all at once. It was a slow process, which, in the end, forced the traditional peoples to conceal their beliefs and practices for centuries, confining them mainly to family traditions and remembrances. As a result, throughout the Crafte of the Wise there exists an indeterminate number of diverse though inter-related traditions. The full breadth of the religion therefore remains unknown. Unfortunately, as the younger generations are becoming increasingly disinterested in the lore of their ancestors, much of this information is being lost with the death of aged Wiccans. What is sadly certain is that what is commonly known as Paganism today, with all the lore and tradition it possesses, has but a slight portion of the Wiccacrafte and much of what remains will be forever lost in our generation if something is not done quickly to recover it.
As christianity entered Europe, and the Isle of Britain, it attached itself to the cities and political rulers. The cities were therefore converted fairly quickly and with little resistance by order of politically-converted rulers. The countryside however was a very different matter. As christian intolerance increased in the cities those who refused to convert to the "death cult" fled to the heath, where they became known as Heathens. In time the rulers sought to extend their control to those regions, and hence their religion, causing violent confrontations between the Old Religion and the new.
In many ways Britain was more tolerant than the Continent. For a very long time the church enacted laws against the Crafte, but seldom enforced them. As a result British Wiccans lived their lives with comparatively little difficulty while Continental Pagans, Wiccans and others, suffered fierce opposition. The Wiccan people living under English rule bid their time, hoping the christian invaders would fall and go away. By the twelfth century, however it became obvious that that would not happen. People throughout the Continent and the Isles became bolder. Many of their sacred Rites were brought into the open again and Wiccan leaders such as Helen Philipps, of Pembroke, Mrs. Robinson, of Kidderminster and Mabel Brigge, of York, boldly proclaimed the rebirth of the Old Religion and the death of the new.
William the Conqueror subdued England in 1066 after the Battle of Hastings with, according to the De Getis Herwardi Saxonis, the help of English Wiccans. Despite this, the Crafte was not made free and many Wiccans fled to my ancestral homeland, Wales. In Wales and the Isle of Mann the Old Religion continued to flourish long after it was forced underground in England, Ireland and Scotland.
Although William managed to force Welsh leaders to pay him tribute, the people remained virtually independent. As years past Henry I, Henry II, Richard I, John and Henry III all sought to destroy the Wiccan Welsh homeland without success. Then, in the thirteenth century, the Welsh hero and prince Llewellyn unsuccessfully rebelled against Edward I and Wales fell. It was then that Edward I proclaimed his eldest son Prince of Wales in 1284. Since that time, as is known, the successor to the British throne has always held this title and the Welsh people have remained within the greater British Commonwealth. Despite the English conquest however, the Welsh have managed to maintain their mother tongue and many of the old Rites have been packaged as harmless customs and thus survived to our day. As these public Rites are conducted, many of the participants know their origins and continue to observe them as sacred Rites. Likewise, the Old Religion is still quite popular in Wales, although it remains largely underground.
Beginning in the thirteenth century therefore the christian rulers moved to quell the spread of the 'Wiccan heresy' and force their subjects to disavow their religion. On the Continent, this attempt culminated in the Inquisitions. Fortunate for the British Wiccans, England never invited the Inquisition authorities to the Isles. It is for this reason that despite the fierce persecution that took place throughout Britain, it never had the force or success it did in the rest of Europe. This is also, why today there is more hereditary Witchcraft in the Isles than in the rest of Europe combined.
As Philip the Fair, King of France, intensified his attack on the Knights Templar (accusing them of sodomy, blasphemy, and idolatry) a small contingent of Inquisitors were admitted into England as a concession to examine the English members of that Order. Since torture was not allowed, however they had no significant influence or success. Torture was widely employed in Britain later however, especially Witch-dunking, but it required the decree of a Royal Prerogative that was not granted the Inquisitors.
In 1542 a very severe anti-Wiccan statute was enacted, but again, it had little direct impact. It was later repealed by Edward VI as one of his first royal acts.Note #22 A similar law was issued in 1563 that had far darker results.
It was not until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that serious persecution began in the land of Shakespeare. When Mary Tudor ascended the throne, many radical Protestants were forced to flee to Calvinistic strongholds such as Strasburg, Geneva and Zurich. In those towns Witch persecution was raging and it is believed by many that when these people returned to England they brought back with them their fear and hatred of Witches. Regardless of the accuracy of this view, beginning in 1563 Witch persecution in England began in earnest.
Considering the fierceness of Witch persecution on the Continent and the relative peace in England, the Wiccans, assuming they had, if not the support then at least the tolerance of their British neighbors, continued to 'come out of the broom closet' as the Protestant exiles returned. This resulted in what no doubt seemed to be a major revival of the Old Religion, but which was, in reality, merely a public reaffirmation of the vast support and popularity of the religion. Partly because of this, christian bigots such as John Jewel, the Bishop of Salisbury and one of Queen Elizabeth's advisors, maintained that the number of Wiccans in the land had grown out of control. In a sermon he presented before the Queen at some point between November 1559 and March 1560, he spoke against the perils of Witchcraft. He warned that:
The Elizabethan Act of 1563 was replaced by a much stronger Witchcraft act in 1604, due to the desire of James I (the same King James who ordered the creation of a new bible, known as the authorized King James Version). In 1590, a conspiracy was discovered in which a Coven of Wiccans sought to destroy James due to his persecution of the Old Religion. The Wiccans of North Berwick, who often met in the church parish itself, began a bold plot to restore the Old Ways through the auspices of Francis, the Scottish Earl of Bothwell and cousin of King James. This noble attempt failed however and the Wiccan Earl was executed for Witchcraft and sedition in January of 1591 on the Castle Hill in Edinburgh.
As time passed more and more British Wiccans were executed. The last English execution for the crime of Witchcraft was that of Alice Molland, who died by hanging at Exeter in 1684. In 1712 Jane Wenham, of Walkern, in Hertfordshire was tried, convicted and sentenced to death, but she was spared due to a pardon from the Queen.
The issue was not yet resolved however. In 1717 a Jane Clarke, along with her son and daughter, were accused at Leicester. They were subjected to the standard tortures.
The Witchcraft Act of 1736 finally removed the crime of Witchcraft from the Statute Book. Legal English Witch persecution therefore lasted 173 years, from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of George II. Will Shakespeare lived from 1564-1616 so the fierce persecutions raged from 1563, a year before his birth, to 1736, well after his death. The Bard's entire life, therefore, was lived in the face of this bloody persecution.
No one can be certain of course, but it is quite possible that over 20 million people died because of the christian church's attack on its European predecessor. The numbers in the British Isles were undoubtedly less as the Burning Times did not reach, even at their worst, the fury of that elsewhere. Despite this however, thousands of people died in Britain on this and related charges. For the most part, all that was required was a single witness. The courts cared little about who that witness was, a business rival, a spurned lover, a child, any person could have any other person put to death by a single accusation without regard to evidence of any kind. The fact that Shakespeare, living under these conditions, made any statements at all concerning the Old Religion is amazing. Certainly, the Witches of Macbeth are depicted as old hags, but his symbolism implied little of the Devil and spoke greatly of their knowledge and abilities. Throughout his plays, Shakespeare says just enough to reflect not only his knowledge of their existence, but also his admiration for them.
As I said above, some refer to Shakespeare as Lyin' Willie. One reason for this is that it is obvious from his works that he knew a fair amount about the Crafte, yet in his ten histories he supports the christian hierarchy's positions and seems more concerned with courting the approval of Queen Elizabeth than reporting the truth. Note #23 He seldom if ever makes it clear that the Wiccan rulers were generally more just than their counterparts; this is particularly true in the case of Henry of Richmond and the Wiccan Richard of Gloster, whom Wiccans say was a good and just ruler. In fact, he does not even make it clear that much of the political turmoil of his day was the result of the brutal christian subjugation of the Wiccan populace.
These accusations, it seems to me, are valid in many ways. Undoubtedly, those Wiccans who lived during his time and were repeatedly disappointed by their portrayal in his plays had cause for dissatisfaction with the Bard. By the same token, however, it seems only fair to understand that had Shakespeare gone farther in his defense of the Wiccan Cause he would have been killed and his plays destroyed. The fact that he repeatedly acknowledges their existence as a substantial community is a great contribution. Had it not been for people such as Shakespeare, modern opinion would undoubtedly have viewed the British Witches in the same light they view the Salem Witches, that they were merely the product of mass hysteria (an inaccurate opinion of course). Thanks to Will Shakespeare however, the world knows that during his time, at least, real Witches did exist. As for Salem, Wiccan tradition holds that by that point the American Witches were too wise and sophisticated to be caught. The people who were killed in this country as Witches were primarily cowan Note #24 innocents who were framed, eccentric or mentally ill who understood little of what was going on. Personally, I consider the Bard to be a most heroic man and one who was in all likelihood a Wiccan himself.
In support of this view are a number of interesting facts but no proof. For example, Will's father, John Shakespeare, was a man with a promising future. He began his adult life as a humble glove-maker and farmer. Soon after marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of a powerful landowner in 1557, he became a member of the governing body of Stratford. In 1558 he became a constable, in 1561 one of two chamberlains, in 1565 an alderman, and in 1568 a bailiff, the town's highest political office. Then, with seemingly everything going for him, he simply dropped out of politics. Unlike most men in his position, no public record was made of the birth of John Shakespeare's eldest son (Will). It was as if this prominent man had never existed. This is a great mystery unless one considers the growing Witch persecution at the time. It seems quite likely that he resigned out of either fear or compulsion. Again, we don't know.
Old Man Witty told me that Will Shakespeare was a Wiccan who traded the Old Religion for success on the christian stage, yet sought to aid its continuance as best he could. I of course do not know, but I like Witty's answer. In any case, when seeking to understand his plays it is essential to keep in mind the prevalence of Wiccacrafte during his life.
The End