@Centaurea

In fact one of the earlier medieval Popes issued a bull telling people to let those poor deluded folks (i.e.the "witches") alone because there was no such thing as witchcraft.

That doesn't mean they were any less nasty to "heretics".

The witch-hunting hysteria maps almost exactly to post-Reformation Protestant countries. Maybe it had something to do with the vehement Protestant stripping away of protective layers of saints and Church bureaucracy, and demanding that every man stand on his own face to face with God. That's not exactly a comfortable position....

from Voltaire. To note, it's missing its final sentence:

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
- Voltaire -

The dictionary definition of "superstition", according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (one of my favorite books about language, ever since the first edition was published in the late 1960s):

n.
An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.

n.
A belief, practice, or rite irrationally maintained by ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance.

The Roman Catholic Church, as well as its Protestant post-Reformation counterparts, have always railed mightily against "magic" and "the occult". "Astrology is the work of the Devil! Kill the astrologers!" their priests would shriek, right before serving Communion wafers and wine that were - and still are by Catholics - considered to be literally the body and blood of a man who allegedly lived in ancient North Africa around the time of Augustus Caesar.

We know what the medieval oligarchic powers that be (also known as the Roman Catholic Church) did to so-called witches and other folks, such as herbalists, who failed to fall in line and thus threatened the medieval powers that be. This also included early astronomers such Galileo and Copernicus, whom the Catholic Church targeted because of their espousal of heliocentrism.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Same old same old. TPTB in 2019 accuse others of doing what they themselves are doing. Scapegoating, projecting, gaslighting, distracting, brainwashing. We've been ruled by mentally disordered sociopaths and psychopaths for a very long time now.

In my opinion, there's something that's "too long dominated the earth", but I'm not sure I'd agree with Voltaire about what that something is. Are religious institutions necessarily the "wise mother"? Is technology necessarily the "wise mother"? Is it possible for things that can't be observed or measured by currently existing scientific instruments to exist and have value nonetheless?

What makes something or someone "wise"? What makes something or someone "mad"? Is it a good thing or bad, to be wise or mad?

Which witch is which?

Irrational though it may be, I'll be enjoying the big ol' Harvest Moon this Friday the 13th.