Gypsies

Considered as the traditional companions of werewolves and other creatures of the night, gypsies have not been well regarded since they began their migration to Europe around the year 1000. At best they were considered thieves, fortune tellers, and cheats. At worst they were condemned as witches who worshiped Diana, the chief nemesis of the Christian clergy in the Middle Ages. In the common mind it was believed that all gypsies were descended from the union of the first gypsy woman with Satan. In 1500, the Diet of Augsburg ruled that Christians could kill gypsies without legal penalty. The same ruling decreed that gypsies had no legal rights whatsoever.

During the Middle Ages, thousands of gypsies were burned at the stake as witches and in punishment for the popular belief that it was gypsy smiths who forged the nails that bound Christ to the cross. Gypsies fared no better in the twentieth century when the Nazis identified them as "nonhuman" and killed an estimated 400,000 of them in the death camps.

Although even today many gypsies prefer to treat their true origins with mystery, most scholars agree that they are likely of Hindu roots, rather than Egyptian, as many non gypsies suppose. Generally, gypsies believe in past lives, the concept of karma, and the triune goddess of fate. Gypsy fortune tellers are known as Vedavica, literally, a reader of the Vedas, for they seem to regard the tarot cards as their own interpretation of the sacred Hindu writings.

Sources: Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.