...there's no such thing as a witch.
Actually, the biggest problem is that there is another witch museum already in Salem, so there will be a lot of conversations like this:
"Let's go to the museum."
"Which one?"
"Yes, that's a good museum."
"I didn't name a museum."
"Sure you did. You said 'witch' museum."
"That's not a museum."
"Yes it is. You haven't been there?"
"Which museum?"
"Exactly."
But seriously, there's a problem at the outset of this thing.
Here is what the museum has to say:
We are looking to create a series of exhibits that express the Witch Community, historically and as a modern movement as well. This is something that does not exist currently in this form, and it will be a way to show a different history than what most of us been taught...
There is no historical witch movement. Many, many accusations of witchcraft were made, but always fraudulently, and the fact that any modern person would believe that those accused were actually witches proves the effectiveness of those old lies.
Let's walk through history, just a bit.
In the first century A.D., the Romans defeated and completely destroyed the Druidic movement. All documents were burned and almost no trace of them exists, today. Many modern day "witches" claim to practice their art in the Druidic tradition, but the religion of the Druids is completely unknown (as is everything else about them). The Romans were busy persecuting the church at this time, and had little ideological reason to dislike the Druidic religion (unless they were Christians); the attack was motivated by the Druid's revolution against Rome.
In the 11th century, Guibert of Nogent wrote in his memoirs that Jews were skilled in witchcraft and caused local problems through their magic spells. Guibert's knowledge of Jews and Judaism, however, was (obviously) very limited, and medieval Jewish witchcraft movements are unknown to us outside of such silly accusations.
In the 14th century, King of France, Phillip IV, put the Templars on trial for worshiping a demon named "Baphomet." I wrote a paper about this, years ago, and I was terribly disappointed to learn that the charges were made up and did not reflect any actual Templar practice - that would have made a much more interesting paper. Phillip IV had used the same trick to put the previous Pope on trial and have him deposed. To this day, people associate the Templars with Devil worship even though they were totally innocent of this.
In the 17th century, we have the infamous Salem Witch Trials. The accused were put on trial by their political opponents to took their land and money after the accused were killed. In studying these trials, we see that every accuser was part of the same political/social scene using these trials to exercise their power. There is no indication of an actual movement of witches, only of innocent people being accused and bullied into a torturous death.
We should be learning from all of this. There are no witches. Never were. Every record we have of witches is either a fraudulent court case or a spook story/urban legend. We don't have records of witches writing down lists of spells or courting demons. Witches are not a historically undermined group of people who were supressed; they are a non-existent group that only existed when someone was being falsely accused. Modern types who wish to reclaim the culture of witches are actually starting something new with an attempt to make it appear to be an ancient culture, but it is not. Witchcraft is, historically speaking, simply a lie.
(I realize that some of you are bound to assume that I wrote this because you think that a Southern Baptist must protest Witchcraft. That's not it. I am just responding to some faulty history.)
Just on the heels of my post about Mexican witches is this list of ten famous witches burned by the church. I suspect there's more than simply a suspicion of witchcraft behind these killings (it was rarely so simple), but it's still an interesting list.