Haunting Word and History: Taphephobia, and Witches

he central figure in this 1876 illustration of the courtroom is usually identified as Mary Walcott.

With Halloween 2 days away, I came across a word that describes a serious fear about a gruesome death, that many people suffered throughout history, especially those accused wrongly of being "witches." 

HAUNTING WORD OF THE DAY:   taphephobia

[taf-uh-foh-bee-uh] 

noun, Psychiatry.

1.  an abnormal fear of being buried alive.

Sadly, throughout history and in Europe and America, people were burned at the stake for witchcraft. The witches were accused by religious people who claimed the witches made deals with the devil.

 

Suspected Witches Burned Alive in Kenya (UK Daily Mail)

Apparently it still happens in countries like Kenya. According to an article in the U.K. Daily Mail on Nov. 4, 2012, in 2009 there was an uproar after a video emerged on the internet showing five people burned in the village of Nyamataro, Kisii, in the east of Kenya, over witchcraft allegations. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227693/Elderly-Kenyans-burned-alive-witches-refusing-desirable-coastline-land.html#ixzz3pgL9qFr5

 

A Look at History of Burning Witches at a Stake:  In the U.S. the town of Salem, Massachusetts became infamous for its witch trials, but the accusations went back hundreds of years before that in Europe.

 

SALEM WITCH TRIALS:  The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of 20 people, most of them women, and with some of their families murdered after their persecution. 

  Historians agree that the episode is one of the nation's most notorious cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations and lapses in due process.  LEARN MORE at the Salem Witch Museum: https://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/ 

  (I've been there- and it's a fascinating and twisted history)

 

A LOOK AT EUROPEAN HISTORY: 

Malleus Maleficarum, Swiss Inquisition, Pope`s Guard, Templars & Burning "Witches"

WHAT WAS THE Malleus Maleficarum?

The Malleus Maleficarum (1486) is the best known of the witch-hunt manuals. It was first submitted to the University of Cologne on May 9th, 1487.  While general consensus is that The Catholic Church banned the book in 1490 by placing it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“List of Prohibited Books”), the first Index was, in fact, produced in 1559 under the direction of Pope Paul IV. MORE: http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/ 

 

Questions about the Paranormal? For answers about many questions you may have about ghosts, spirits or the afterlife, check out my book "Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead" by Rob Gutro. I wrote the book to answer all questions on the paranormal, and used personal experiences or shared stories to convey answers to questions and provide proof. 

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