Old Religion = Witch Cult / Dianic Cult?

The new religion in this legend is very clearly catholicism, but figuring out what EXACTLY the old religion is has been more of a struggle. It is clear that it is based in ritual connected to nature but something I have read is a theory that this religion itself, which we have all discussed as being very stereotypically 'feminine' was arguably a witch cult; more specifically The Dianic Cult (this information is also referenced in Gini's research package, Casey!).

"According to Margaret Murray's 1921 book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, the witch-cult had been a pre-Christian, nature-based religion that the Christian authorities had labelled "witchcraft" and persecuted. She claimed that the religion had been based around sexual polarity as the key force behind nature, and they displayed this by having male and females practising together in their rituals.^[19] Murray claimed that the deity of the Witches could appear in both male, or female form, who had been seen as the Roman deities Diana and Dianus. For this reason she called it the Dianic cult.^[20] However, Murray noted that over the centuries, Diana's role in the faith had diminished, and Dianus, who was depicted as a horned god, became the main deity, explaining why in the accounts of the witch persecutions, worship of a goddess was not mentioned". 

Interesting that we connect the old religion to much to the feminine but Murray does not disregard male participation in it. 

"Murray followed her initial book with The God of the Witches in 1933 [pretext to our Jehanne], which was similar to her previous book but was more populist in tone. She added new research on the subject of the Horned God, which she claimed was a deity worshipped in the paleolithic and depicted on rock paintings, and also by many ancient peoples, such as the Celts with their horned deity Cernunnos, and the Greeks with their Pan."


 And all theorizing aside about what that old religion is, do we really know to what religion Joan belonged to (new or old?). She consistently refers to her King of Heaven but do we really know if she is referring to Christ? The voices are saints, saints that she has named herself based on her Christian understanding but how do we know who these voices really were? They could very well be from this pagan witch-cult for all we know. But, this is just a theory. 


Ps, MORE TO COME. As I mentioned to Gini I have been very busy with work stuff the past month and haven't been able to work on this much. However, I have research regarding old vs. new religion and the hundred years war from before my busy period at work that I have not posted to the blog, my apologies. I am just unsure of how to post my disjointed scraps of information here in a comprehensive way. But don't worry, I promise you'll see the research! :P Thanks for patience, all.