Those who practice Wicca or witchcraft...is this article insane?

Question

http://www.wmur.com/news/14526508/detail.html

read this news article and tell me what you think. I was a practicing pagan for years and never even considered stealing a body from a grave.

Is the statement they make totally absurd or what?

Answer 1

""The body's certainly missing," said Lt. Darren Remillard."

I LOVE that!!! LMAO!

Answer 2

It's not a Wiccan, but it might be some teenagers wearing black thinking they're Satanic Witches or something similar. Not all witches are 'good'... And it's amazing what angry fourteen year old emo boys will do to gain 'power'. I have heard before that digging up the hand of a corpse is supposed to give you the powers of a witch... An old superstition from the middle ages. Sometimes people take these things too seriously. Even then though you only needed a hand... Not the whole freaking body. What are they going to do with that body? *shudder* actually dont answer that....

Answer 3

I don't know that I would call it absurd - I'm sure there ARE people out there who believe digging up a body will give them some sort of power. The article (and the police) don't try to tie it to any specific group or religion - just the generic "witchcraft". Perhaps they have had some issue with this kind of belief before.

How they came to the conclusion that "witchcraft" was the motive, however, I can't begin to guess. Perhaps just because it was Halloween. It seems a kind of random assumption, though.

Answer 4

FFS. Manchester's not exactly a small town - it's a sizable enough city to have an airport considered the "better alternative" to Boston's Logan Airport. Can't say I'm surprised there's a large enough Pagan population there to cause a ruckus over a claim like that.

Then again, this is the news media, and they're typically about 20 years behind when it comes to non-mainstream religions.

Sounds like they're just rehashing old superstitions more than anything.

Answer 5

I think it's ridiculous! I'm not a Wiccan, but I know that most Wiccans wouldn't steal a body from its grave. If anything, most Wiccans would probably say that it would bring bad karma to the graverobber. My guess is that the people who came up with this little theory don't know anything about Wicca or any of the other pagan religions, and since they can't figure out any other possible explanation, they have to pin the blame on someone, so they choose the Wiccans.

Answer 6

definitely not a Wiccan or real witchcraft practioner but certianly could be a Satanist group, necromancy practioner or even someone just dabbling in dark magick after reading a lot of books on black spells or even some nutter who watched too many horror movies with no particular beliefs just wanting the bones for some spell
the other option being a teenage or college initiation rite where in order to get into some sorority or secret club or some such thing they were dared to do it to "pass the test" to gain entry into the club

Answer 7

Um in the article the guy says that he backed away from claiming it was pagans because of the outcry.

Frankly, with the bad information out there it could be kids thinking they are doing some ritual.

Answer 8

It's completely absurd, of course.

But we have to remember, that most people link mental illness with things such as "witchcraft" because they do not understand them. An insane person could believe that a corpse is capable of granting them some superntaural power.

Answer 9

I am not Wiccan but that looks to me like some stupid kids doing this for a prank
but nothing to do with witchcraft and especially not Wicca
I doubt that very very much

Answer 10

I am laughing so hard right now, though I shouldn't. I can just HEAR this backwoods stupid redneck cop "Well yes ma'am we think it those witches we got 'round here. They are eeeevil."
Freaking idiot. It could be linked to a cult type thing, but it has nothig to do with PAGANS. I practice ancestor worship and wouldn't do that. EEEEWWWWWWWW