At the present time, witchcraft or things of that general ilk, aren’t something that most people see as being some sort of a real menace that thus needs to be dealt with. In fact, when most people think of witchcraft, they picture this as something that happened a long, long time ago, in which, apparently within certain communities, there was a general hysteria, that led to those that were perceived as being a danger, or of not conforming to societal norms, to be targeted as aiders and abettors of witchcraft, or to be witches, themselves.
Further to the point, when witchcraft was being persecuted, it was never really about targeting just one particular person as the witch; but rather, the structure of such societal targeting, led to the general understanding that there was never just one witch, and hence never just one bad apple, but instead there must be an assembly of witches, or a coven, with these witches enacting secret codes and exhibiting certain behaviors while also instigating specific evil spells against innocent people, that necessitated that society, in order to protect itself from this menace, must vigorously then prosecute to the death these alleged witches and therefore their coven.
However, when we dig deeper, there are several rather disturbing things about this persecution of witchcraft covens that tends to be forgotten or overlooked. The very first thing to acknowledge, is that when a coven of witches are executed, this means that their material assets, will be distributed, and most likely distributed to those that are in authority, and hence these well-positioned people have something to gain, as well as typically being also the very same people that were often the leaders of such persecution. Additionally, to the point, for those that desire to get rid of a rival, there is seldom a better way to do so, then to label that rival, as being a clear and present danger to the society, as in witchcraft, which thus serves to provide the person or entity instigating such a charge with the benefit of no longer having to deal with that disgraced and discarded rival. Finally, most of those that were charged with witchcraft, were females, of which, in patriarchal societies, there is a strong inclination from those patriarchs to keep a tight grip upon that power, and thus to make sure that anything or anybody that might challenge that power, be dealt in a way and manner that anyone else, would seriously have to think twice about doing so.
Basically, we find that there are often plenty of people within societies, that are the leaders of such, who when they discern that they may well be successfully challenged by another, will do whatever that they have to do, to not only stop that opponent or other entity, but also to take from the other their land, their position, their assets, and claim it thus as their own, when they are consequently successful in accomplishing their persecution of the other. In other words, when it comes to witchcraft, or other labels of this sort, which are structured to separate society into an “us v. them” type of mindset, the objective is twofold, the first is to eliminate the opponent, and the second is to take what was theirs as one’s own.