Customer Reviews

Women & Spirituality: Burning Times [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I highly recommend this video to anyone who is willing to consider that everything they've been told isn't necessarily true. As a graduate student who conducted extensive, and original, research and has written several academically accepted works explaining the causes, contributors, correlatives and contemporary manifestations of American "witchcraft," wicce and paganism, I found this video (and the 3 in the series) more historically accurate overall than the vast majority of currently published materials addressing this subject. Many of the points brought up in this video counter the mythology we call "common wisdom," and, sadly, some uneducated critics may find themselves unwilling to consider many of the facts addressed in this video, and in the others in this series. In the interest of truth-telling, I strongly suggest that these (and all!) presented facts be researched before acceptance - or dismissal.

I am no expert in the history of Wicca, so I can not speak to the points that another reviewer has contended are historical inaccuracies. Nor do I know anything about the "Goddess", whomever she may be. However, when viewed from the perspective of a behavioral scientist "The Burning Times" makes an extremely instructive statement about the nature of power relationships during the dark and medeval ages. Furthermore, the documentary indicates that it is possible that the repricussions of the historical persecution of women by the church are very relevant to the status of women in today's society.

The "Burning Times" is a well-crafted historical account of the Witchcraft Hysteria that swept Europe during the later Dark and Middle Ages. The thesis of the film is that the rampant burning of people suspected of witchcraft was brought to bear by the Catholic church in an effort to exert its power over the people of Europe.

Of particular interest is the commentator's statement that most of the people accused of witchcraft were women; who presented a clear and present danger to the church by acting as midwives and medical practicioners. As such, the church saw them as a threat because of their influences on ideas about procreation and conception; a domain that the church still believes that it should have power over. Women, according to the film, had been the primary recipients of knowledge about reproductive matters through oral tradition. It is implied that the church didn't like this.

Another relevant point that the film makes with regard to power is largely economic. The narrator contends that either church or state would benefit from the burning of "witches" by laying claim to thier estates after they were excecuted. Thus, due to it's profitability, witch-hunting became somewhat of a "science".

In sum, I'm not sure if the makers of "Burning Times" realized the powerful Sociological statements that they were making. However, the film is very thought-provoking, and forces the viewer interested in such matters (power and subjugation) to question how much impact the "witch-hysteria" had on the role of women in today's society. Remember, women were not even allowed to vote in America 100 years ago.

By the way, an excellent celtic sound-track adds to the enjoyability of the film.

As a professor of healing and consciousness this video is a very important part of a section that I teach called Anthropology of the Wise Woman tradition. It speaks to the place in the feminine collective unconscious that is incredibly wounded from what has happened to our foremothers through this horrific genocide. It speaks of the devasting consequences of what happened to women over a multitude of generations, and ultimately how women of modern times are still carrying this wounding in their psyches. I have had many female students have amazing breakthroughs in working with this deep place of wounding after watching this video and our dialogue around it.

It is true that there might be some factual inaccuracies found throughout the video. However, the notes that were taken during these times were not always accurate and sometimes not taken at all. I feel that the benefit of looking at this material in the beautiful and sometimes shocking way that is presented in this video, far outweighs any inaccuracies. For it frees the European feminine spirit that was horrifically suppressed by the suppression of our wisdom and truth. The important information that is presented here is rarely spoken of in traditional historical settings.

Although this video may not actually get every detail about the burning times completely accurate, I saw it as part of a feminist healing class and feel that it helped to educate my class members very effectively. As a practicing witch who fell in love with Paganism through learning about its persecution, I found this video to be very thorough and know that it serves its purpose well -- to educate not scholars of women's. witches' and healers' persecution, but to engage and educate the general populace about the "women's holocaust." To this end, the video deserves five stars and my commendations. Where what city was and how old that cross was seems more than slightly irrelevant in favor of being able to get larger, more significant points across to the relatively unknowledgeable (in respect to witch trials) viewer. Blessed be.

Greetings! I originally saw this video almost 10 years ago around Halloween with a group discussing the Burning Times. The movie was so engaging, beautiful, and informative that a few years later I had to buy it for my own collection. I've since used it to inform and help others -- a must have!

This is a fantastic movie..It helps you understand the basis of the theory that "it is the victors who write history." Our whole vision of European history was told by those who conquered the women who were the healers of the world, the midwives and shamans. The people who perished, were the people the world so desperately needs NOW in these unbalanced times of "Domination and Power" worship...versus cooperation with the more feminine cycles of our earth and our lives, which is how people lived peacefully for thousands and thousands of years.
THANK GOD THIS MOVIE WAS MADE!!!

If you don't have a background in European witch trial history, this film is enthralling. Unfortunately, the film is filled with half-truths and outright falsehoods. As a witchcraze historian, I was appalled at some of the untruths being hailed as fact.

For example, the narration says the German town of Trier, a hotspot for witch executions, is in France when shops in the film are clearly marked with German signs. And, according to historian/film critic Jack Kapicka, "the narration then says that a stone Christian cross in the market square was erected in 1132 (historians place it in 958) as the 'symbol of a new religious cult that was sweeping across Europe,' which ignores the Christian presence in the town dating back to martyrs in 286, and its first bishop, St.Agritius, who died in 333."

To make matters worse, the number of people listed as dying in the craze is exorbitantly high. Current estimates of the death toll rank around 60,000 to 200,000--nowhere near the hyperbolic assertations of 9,000,000.

The movie is also misleading to people with little knowledge of the neopagan movement. The film leads people to believe Wicca is almost strictly a women's religion, and that Wiccans worship only a Goddess.

If you're looking for good information on the witch crazes, I recommend you check out Best Witches or my own site The Witching Hours.

The truth is out there, but it's not in this movie.

I had the opportunity to view this video in a university class on witchcraft. It is full of half truths and in some cases false info. It is a very good video styalistically, but is unfortunately inaccurate with its content. The study of witchcraft persecutions has very little to do with black magic or demoic arts as this video does point out. On the whole the video is a lesson in unintentional or intentional propaganda. It is hard to tell how the authors of this tape were able to gain the evidence to back up their claims. The number of people they cite as being executed seems inflated and inaccurate. Buy the book "Witches and Neighbors". This is a scholarly account of the hunts and puts them into perspective. The connections that this video makes between Christianity, Paganism, and modern Wicca are very loosley developed and unreliable. I encourage you to view this video with a skeptical and questioning mind. Witchcraft trials are exciting and contriversial. This video is both.