PROJECT HYPATIA

Quantum physics is now proving what witches have been saying for millennia(e.g. the interconnectedness of everything), and yet the existence of witches is to this day doubted by the authorities, punished and discriminated against by society at large.
In the end of the 4th century AD a tragedy took place which
had far reaching consequences to the world of scientific enquiry, intellectual and religious freedom. The
beautiful, wise, compassionate and well-loved Hypatia of Alexandria, at the venerable age of 60, was dragged from her carriage and brutally killed by Nitrian Monks (a fanatical sect of Christian Brethren, supporters of the Patriarch of Alexandria, Cyril) under the guidance of
a certain Peter the Reader or Magistrate.

In 321 CE Emperor Constantine had converted to Christianity, making it the official state religion. Constantine did not tolerate any form of egalitarianism; the Christian theology supported his egotistical ideal
that as in heaven, there should be one ruler on earth. Christianity became the dominant religion in the Empire, but in Alexandria there were many factions and sects. This city of learning became the melting pot of power and religious sectarianism.

Hypatia moved in high government circles and was seen by the Christian authorities as plotting, through her social influences, to steer people away from the Christian teachings, towards the Neo-platonic ideals she
openly followed and taught. Hypatia taught all; Christian, Jew and Pagan alike. Neo-Platonism and the Pythagorean philosophy were taught by Hypatia to encourage the use of logic and reason, in order to counteract the teachings of blind faith; of Christian ideology.
The teachings of Pythagoras were seen to be just as worthy as those of Jesus, and therefore in direct competition with them. Being a philosopher, a mathematician and an astrologer in 4th Century Alexandria was a perilous affair. The Council of Laodicea, in 364 CE, had made divination illegal and mathematics (the language of the gods), astrology and astronomy were declared as forbidden diabolical sciences.

With the death of Bishop Theophilus, followed by the death of Hypatia's influential Christian student, Synesius of Cyrene, Hypatia became extremely vulnerable under the rule of the new Patriarch, Cyril. He actively started a besmirching campaign against her, portraying her as being a contemptible infernal messenger. The Christian authorities saw Hypatia's political alliances as
hostile and threatening to the church. Orestes, also a pupil of Hypatia, was the Civil Governor and the political rival of the ecclesiastical Cyril. The ecclesiastical and secular authorities engaged in warfare for political dominance. These circumstances made Hypatia politically suspect. It was said that her teachings were the driving force behind Oreste's political opposition to the Christian authorities. Her eloquence and her intellectual prominence were seen by Cyril as being subversive and as instigation against the Church's authority in Alexandria. Hypatia became the focal point in the riots which ensued between the Pagans and Christians.
People were reminded that Hypatia was the daughter of the philosopher Theon, who had done extensive studies on mathematics, magic, written volumes on the interpretation of dreams, and that they were often visited by astrologers. By association, if nothing else, father and
daughter were evil and sympathetically aligned with the practices of the black arts and divination.

Mistakenly, many began regarding Hypatia as a witch who beguiled and enchanted people with her so-called magical and satanical powers.
On the day of her death, in the Spring of 414 CE, Hypatia was forcefully taken from her carriage, publicly beaten, dragged into a Christian Church, stripped naked at the altar and her flesh was scraped off her bones by
the use of sharpened oyster shells. The mob tore her apart, limb for limb, and burned her remains in a place in the city called Cinaron.

Bishop John of Nikiu in his Chronicles praised the Alexandrian Patriarch, Cyril, for finally having destroyed the last vestiges of Pagan idolatry in Alexandria.

In a time when being a female and a non-believer in Alexandria was dangerous, Hypatia came to symbolize learning and science, which were identified
with Pagandom. She advocated that it was important to
educate girls and boys alike and that fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths and miracles as nothing more than poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as the truth was, according to her, a heinous thing, for the pristine and innocent mind of the child would accept these and not be able to unlearn them, excepting through painstaking processes and very powerful and selective
introspection.
Hypatia had brought Egypt nearer to understanding the ancient Mysteries.
Her Theurgical knowledge restored the practical values of the Mysteries. She demonstrated that it was possible to unite the personal Self with the all-comprising Self and that all religious paths shared similar truths. Hypatia was
murdered by a mob that felt threatened by her eloquence, learning, and her depth of universal knowledge and understanding. Her death marked the end of Alexandria as a major centre of learning and plunged the world into the Dark Ages which enveloped the world in clouds of
ignorance and superstition for over a thousand years.

Hypatia urged people to be free thinkers and to believe in freedom of speech. According to her, every human being should reserve the right to think, for even thinking incorrectly, was better than not thinking at all. She admonished the authorities by equating the fettering of the mind through fear of punishment in the life hereafter with the base use of violence and force. She further stated that all the formal, prison religions which promoted dogma, were delusive and should never be
accepted by self-respecting people. She astutely pointed out that superstition was intangible and therefore irrefutable, but that truth was merely a point of view and therefore changeable.
Inevitably her words incensed the priests and politicians of the time.

I believe that the SAPC has a valuable role to play in gathering opinion and cooperation amongst Pagans towards the rehabilitation of the word "Witch", and also in empowering constructive action to counter anti-witchcraft propaganda.
In our country old women and men are still "necklaced" and
executed by mobs for being witches, families still disown their heretical relatives who chose to walk an occult
path, university professors still argue the validity of our ownership of the word "witch".

Project Hypatia proposes education, inter-faith discussions which aim at eradicating misinformation, and the members of the SAPC would be free to approach this in the way they collectively decide.
Does anyone have any ideas to contribute towards pH?

Morgause and Aurelius