IT was monotheism, in all of its controversies, that gave way to ‘holy’ scriptures that forbade humankind to acquire any kind of knowledge outside of the parameters that clergy prescribed. What is: many scripture passages, like the Garden of Eden story, that warned humankind to gain knowledge. Now that’s only an explanation that men in power used to subdue the masses that were held in ignorance. A littoral explanation of, mainly, fundamentalistic christianity, ignoring the huge amount of interpretations commonly known within Judaism. All for the upholding of christian dogmatics, hermeneutics and theology.
Then cane the Middle Ages, with the, still held in high esteem, Maleus Malificarum , which set the tone for persecutions of ‘so called’ witches, the majority of them being christian, women or just being a persona non grata, old or demonized simply for not fitting in.
Yes, the wise ones, healers, expellers (pellets in Cornish), wayside witches and folk magicians were always there. Just as everywhere else the good had to suffer because of the bad ones, but just look at church history that killed around 600 million innocent people.
The clergy raised there finger, working about, what the deemed to be ‘forbidden knowledge’. A lot of these ‘forbidden books’ are still under lock and key within the Vatican. But many of these books like the Picatrix, the Red Dragon, the lesser and greater key of Salomon, the Kymbalion, the works of Abramelin the Mage, High Magic by Eliphas Levi and later works, inspired by the former, by Aleister Crowley, Anton Szandor LaVey (like the Satanic Bible ao), Michael W. Ford, found there way into the bookshelves and practice of many.
With the popularized Wiccan movement also came works from the Clan of Tubal-Cain and books about Traditional Witchcraft (British from the publisher Troy Books UK and books about the American Appalachian Witchcraft. People can find out Magic for themselves without restriction.
Morghain’s Traditional Witchcraft 