Did Medieval Witches Really Worship a Horned God? The Theory That Fooled the World

Was there an organized witchcraft religion in medieval Europe? Source: mak_alexandra / Adobe Stock.

For centuries, the smoke from burning pyres carried the screams of accused witches across European skies, with tens of thousands executed between 1450 and 1789 AD. But what if these weren’t random acts of superstition? What if the Church was actually trying to stamp out an ancient pagan religion that had secretly survived Christianity’s spread across Europe? This tantalizing theory captivated the Western world throughout the 20th century, appearing in encyclopedias and even inspiring modern Wicca. There was just one problem - it was almost entirely false. This is the story of the Witch-Cult Hypothesis, and how one Egyptologist’s controversial books created a myth that still enchants and deceives us today.