Welcome to the Witching Hour Part 3: A History of Terror

In 1487, Heinrich Kramer wrote one of the best selling books in Europe. Thank's in large part to Gutenberg's printing press, this book became the second bestseller (the Bible being number one) for nearly 200 years. That book was called Malleus Maleficarum or Hammer of Witches.

Famous for kicking off one of the most terrifying chapters of modern human history, Malleus Maleficarum was the spark of a moral a panic among the Christian people of Europe. It raised the crime of witchcraft and sorcery to the level of heresy, which allowed for the torture and eventual death sentence by burning at the stake for any who were accused.

It was also condemned by many Church officials shortly after it's publication for it's unethical and illegal procedures. 

That, of course, didn't stop it's popularity and soon "witch hysteria" was it's own type of plague on the people of Europe. Between the 16th and 18th centuries anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 people were burned at the stake for witchcraft in Europe. The hysteria peaked during Europe's religious wars of 1580 to 1630, when many Protestant and Catholic communities were pitted against each other on their interpretation of Christianity. In 1735, Britain would pass the Witchcraft Act, finally putting an end to the hysteria in Europe (though there is at least one report of an execution as late as 1782).

Once accused of being a witch, there was little a person could do to refute the charges. Torture was an acceptable form of interrogation and anything a person said while being tortured was admissible in court. They'd be asked over and over again to name others who were also witches and to end the pain they would name anyone who came to mind. Finally, the accused would be burned at the stake.

Not only could the accused be tortured for information, they could be put through "tests" that were pretty much set up for people to fail. Several famous ones included looking for witch marks (moles, birthmarks, or scars) that would indicate a pact with the Devil had been made, being stuck with pins to see if a person would bleed (in theory witches wouldn't bleed if stuck with a pin in certain places), and the ever infamous "swimming test" where a person was bound, sometimes with a Bible tied around the victim's neck, to see if a body of water would reject the victim. If the person drowned during the "swimming test" then they weren't a witch. They were still dead, but at least they weren't a witch. Those who floated during the test were immediately found to be a witch and sentenced to death.

An example of the weight test where a witch was weighed against a Bible

It's fairly safe to assume that once a person was accused of being a witch during this hysteria, it was a death sentence.

Like any point in time when people are at their most vulnerable, there were those who took advantage of the hysteria to make a little profit. Witch hunters would go to a town and offer to rid the villagers of the evil witches who were causing all sorts of unfortunate things to happen, for a small fee of course. Their victims were usually people whom the other villagers weren't fond of. Beggars, the disabled, mid-wives, the elderly, and people who were generally seen as non-conformist were all prime targets to be accused of witchcraft. For each person "caught" by the Witch Hunter, the village would pay them a finder's fee.

Needless to say, the people who were accused of witchcraft were no more witches than I am from the planet Jupiter.

This is the history of witchcraft and witch hysteria that I am most familiar with. It's the narrative that pops up on most documentaries that come out around Halloween and has shaped a lot of my culture's understanding of what a witch is.

However, witchcraft, sorcery, shamanism, and magick (or magik - spelled with a "k" at the end) has existed in one form or another since humans started telling stories. Many pre-Christian religions incorporated types of shamanism and magick into their practices (including Europe). Examples can be found in Greek and Roman mythology, old Norse and Druid religious practices, and most folklore found throughout the world (again I am most familiar with western history and ideas on the subject).

Furthermore, some practices of "witchcraft", folk magic, and magick were incorporated into Christian practices, such as the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of Powwowing (a word co-opted from the Native American tribes originally from the area, but has nothing to do with Native American Religious practice) or Voodoo, which was brought over by slaves from Africa and has been known to be incorporated into Catholic practices in the Caribbean islands and southern regions of the United States.

To put it bluntly, there's a lot for me to write about on the subject of witches, especially in the United States. 

For the most part, witches and witchcraft are placed firmly in the categories of evil, other, and dangerous. Witches, from the point of view of Christians, are to be feared. They are in league with the Devil and want to bring about ruin and destruction. Even today some people immediately associate witches with the worst parts of humanity. They are perversions of how a person should behave.

It is irksome to try correcting and educating people who spout these claims. It doesn't help that Hollywood loves to exaggerate and misrepresent the culture and practices surrounding modern witchcraft and magick (see pretty much any movie featuring Voodoo in the early 20th century as an example), though there have been changes since the 1990s.

There is one key item that I haven't gone into in this post.

When we think of witches, what is the image that comes to mind?

Usually I picture a woman, dressed in all black, with a pointed hat, and a broomstick. There might be a cat or a raven around too, but it's that image of a woman that really takes center stage. In fact, who are some of our most famous witches in pop culture? There's Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Halliwell sisters, the Sanderson sisters, Sam from Bewitched, and Harry Potter. Only one of the aforementioned characters is a guy, the rest are women.

Women have historically been the disproportionate victims of witch hysteria.

Burning the witches.

But I think I want to save that historical dive for my next post in two weeks time (next weekend is a holiday for me so no updates). Get ready for it guys!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Witching Hour Part 2: A Child's Introduction

Was anyone else disappointed by J K Rowling's portrayal of the Harry Potter Universe in America? I know that it's her Universe and she has creative license, but I felt that it lacked a true understanding of American culture and pretty much erased/misappropriated pre-Colombian culture all together (i.e. Native American culture).

Also why is the Wizarding World's American Central Government in New York? Our Capital is Washington D.C.! If you don't want to put it there at least have the Capital in Arlington, Alexandria (which makes the most sense), or at the very least Baltimore. She could have even picked a city that has a lot of ties to Native American history (like saying screw it, Mexican Wizards and American Wizards get along and their capitol is Mexico City). New York just feels super cliche.

I could go on forever about why I have so many feelings regarding J K Rowling's decisions on Wizards in America, but that's not what this post is about.

It's about my introduction to the ideas and power of witches.

Harry Potter was a major influence on my early childhood. I remember my mother reading me the first three books, going to a midnight party for the fourth book's release at Borders Books, and reading the final book in under 72 hours. I dreamed about being able to go to Hogwarts and which house I'd end up in (Hufflepuff). I loved these books (and still do).

Harry Potter wasn't my first introduction to the magic users known as witches and wizards. I had several picture and short chapter books that I had been introduced to before and during the Harry Potter craze.

To be perfectly clear, most of the media I was consuming was definitely based on European ideas of witches and witchcraft. Hardly any of it extended beyond the tropes found in European fairy tales and folklore. So, much like J K Rowling, my understanding of magic and "witches" of other cultures is severely lacking or warped by Hollywood's misappropriation.

Still, it didn't stop me from becoming curious about the witches I was introduced to.

One of the first picture books I remember my mother reading to me about witches was Strega Nona (translated as Grandma Witch or Granny Witch). Strega Nona had a magical cooking pot that could produce as much pasta as she needed, so long as she preformed the spell correctly. One night a young man called Big Anthony tries out Strega Nona's cooking pot, while she's conveniently away, and ends up creating so much pasta that it covers the entire village. When Strega Nona returns, she makes Big Anthony eat all of the pasta he created.

It was a fun and silly picture book.

Other books weren't nearly as silly or light hearted. The Witches by Roald Dahl absolutely terrified me as a child. At that time, I couldn't imagine anyone being that horrible in real life, especially to children . Bony Legs was another book about a scary witch, who had a more than passing resemblance to the Russian folk witch Baba Yaga, who wanted to eat a little girl who had wandered into her house. My grandmother had given me that book and I loved how resourceful and kind the main character Sasha was. It was a good balance of scary and adventure for young me.

Finally there were the Bailey School Kids books which featured stories about magical and mythical beings who shouldn't be real, but quite possibly were. One was Witches Don't Do Back-flips which told the story about a gym teacher who might have also been a witch.

Those are just the books I read. There were also plenty of movies and TV shows such as Charmed, Practical Magic, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Craft, the Halloween Town movies, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Scooby Doo and the Witches Ghost, and the classic The Wizard of Oz. Each had varying degrees of good witches (who always won in the end) and bad witches.

What did I take away from this? Well as Dumbledore said "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." Witches aren't good or evil by virtue of them being witches. They just have really cool abilities that they can choose to use for good or evil purposes.

This gave me hundreds of hours of possible imaginative scenarios to play out. I loved the idea of being a good witch who could help others solve their problems or getting back at bullies. There were a lot of imaginative quests where I, the good witch, would defeat the evil witch (they usually involved lots of sparklers on the 4th of July).

I never thought of witches as evil by virtue of them being witches.

However, historically, this wasn't the case. Witches were often feared, hated, hunted, and always thought of as evil.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to the Witching Hour Part 1: A Spark of Interest

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take a long weekend up to Salem, Massachusetts: Witch Capitol of the United States. For my readers who are unfamiliar with Salem Massachusetts, following a series of "unexplainable incidents" in February 1692  a witch panic erupted in the God fearing Puritan colonies in Massachusetts. More than 150 people were accused of witchcraft and consorting with the devil. 19 of those accused were hanged, while one person was pressed to death (heavy stones were placed on them until they died). The panic didn't end until someone accused the Governor's wife in May 1693, which finally prompted the Governor to end the madness and pardon everyone who was still in jail.

Nearly 400 years of history and most people only talk about the witch trails when it comes to Salem, MA. For a very long time, the city and surrounding county tried to forget the panic ever occurred. Only one of the teenage girls ever apologized for her actions during the hysteria (sources aren't super clear what happened to all of them) and nearly everyone who was accused of being a witch lost everything.

Memorial park for the victims of the Salem Witch Trials

It wasn't until the tourism industry started making a little money, and then a lot of money, that the city began to acknowledge the 15 month panic. Now you can't walk through the main tourist districts without running into half a dozen shops dedicated to witchcraft and silly tourist traps dedicated to the trails. There's even a play reenactment of the trail of one of the accused witches twice a day for $25 per person.

I do think the city is worth a visit and the history is fascinating (though I hear October is insane), but I don't want to spend this entire post talking about my last weekend getaway.

No, what I want to focus on are the topics of witches and witchcraft.

Okay, I know it's not quite fall...let alone October, but I want to start writing about this topic now so that I don't accidentally keep up these posts until November (there's a lot to write about). Witches and witchcraft in history and popular culture are pretty interesting, plus there are several religions which incorporate witchcraft into their rituals.

Witches within European history and folklore are often wicked individuals who consorted with the devil. They hex people and try to entice others to sign their soul away. They were the cause of illness, injury, and all sorts of unfortunate, yet unexplainable, catastrophes. They are to be feared.

To be clear, no everyone who practiced magic was considered an evil witch (at least before Christianity became the dominate practice in Europe). There were quite a few religions that had wise men and women preform spells to ensure a good harvest or success in battle. The Greeks even had a goddess named Hekate who was dedicated to those who practiced magic, witchcraft, and sorcery.

More recently, we've had a kind of revival for witches in popular culture. The Sanderson Sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus and Ursula, the sea witch from The Little Mermaid, seem to embody the wicked witch stereotype, but then we have the good witches like Hermione Grander from Harry Potter and Halliwell Sisters from the 2000s show Charmed.

There are people today who practice witchcraft and have proudly adopted the moniker of Witch. The Wicca religion is notable for having many rituals that involve witchcraft. Others simply find spiritual meaning and focus practicing their craft.

There's a lot to explore when it comes to the topic of witches, witchcraft, and magick (the type spelled with a "k" at the end). There's a lot of information in the New Age section of the bookstore and online (though there's also a lot of misinformation there) on the modern practice of witchcraft. It's also a good idea to speak to people who actually practice witchcraft.

So sit back, relax, put on some creepy music, and let's learn about witches.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Gothic: the Appeal of Darkness

The Gothic genre is filled with tales of mystery, macabre, and dark atemosphere. There are plenty of ghosts, monsters, and victims. Though not exclusively tied to the horror genre, most Gothic tales include elements of horror (as I have written in previous blog posts), but why?

What attracts us to that dark atemosphere?

I can only answer this question for myself. Personally, I find the dark side of life to be just as fascinating and beautiful as the dramatic and comedic, sometimes even more so. However, there’s one element that shines through above all else in Gothic tales and that’s mortality. Horror and Gothic stories bring audiences to the edge of death, whether through tragedy, mayhem, or the supernatural.

Everyone dies - it’s a guarantee of life - but we don’t often like to acknowledge it.

Young people often think they’re invincible, that the seductive hands of death won’t touch them for a long long time. Why should the young worry about death? Yet in the Gothic genre, it is the youth who are often facing the most horrific and tragic of situations. They must confront their mortality before the end of the story...or succumb to it.

I haven’t a clue how older people feel about death. I doubt that there is a collective feeling on the subject. Some might welcome it at the end of their lives, others might continue to fear it. I’d rather think of death as the end of one journey and the start of the other. The older individuals in the Gothic stories I’ve read were occasionally the victims of the younger generation’s ambition, such as in A Tale Tale Heart. There are other older people in these stories who help guide the younger generation, such as Van Helsing in Dracula.

Death is the overly dramatic lurker in these stories. It’s not quiet. Most characters know that it’s around, but not how to avoid it.

But death isn’t the only dark figure lurking around. The more Gothic tales I read, the more I feel like I’m being drawn into a twisted fairy tale. Ghosts, ghouls, and fairies all have the potential to pop up in Gothic tales. Magic, spells, and curses all seem more real in the Gothic setting. If I were to guess why, it would be because the main setting of these tales feels so different from my modern world.

Things weren’t nearly as clean and sterile as they are now. Indoor plumbing wasn’t common until the 1900s. Medical sciences are constantly improving, they feel so much more advanced than a hundred years ago, let alone two hundred. We know so much more now than ever before in human history.

I often feel that our modern world takes some of the mystery out of life, whereas the height of the Gothic period seems so very mysterious by comparison. I don’t know if people in the 1800s felt that way as well. Especially since they would have felt that their society was the panicle of modern science and technology.

Yet, superstitions and interest in the supernatural remain, even to today. People continue to try to spot the paranormal during historical ghost tours in some of the world’s oldest cities and as does the fear of crossing a black cat. Some people might laugh at the idea of witches casting spells in today’s modern world, but witchcraft has grown a large following since the early 1900s. Scientists agree that Earth is billions of years old, but some people are still convinced that the earth is actually flat.

I’m very curious as to how the decades surrounding the new millennia will be remembered. What will people a hundred years from now think about our superstitions and omens. Will they think the vampire craze of the mid 2000s meant that people actually thought vampires were sparkly?

But getting back to the topic at hand...

Darkness doesn’t have to be frightening. It can be a chance to conqure the unknown or hide within its mysterious embrace.

Humans have this uncanny need to be both uniquely special and a member of a group. Understanding the mysteries of the unknown, being able to see in the dark so to speak, can make us feel like we’ve stumbled onto information that is only meant for a select worthy few. It can make someone feel more knowledgeable and thus more powerful.

Sure, embracing the darkness in life can mark you as an outsider, but most people don’t go it alone. They have friends who are also interested in these topics, who want to know these secrets. People form their own group who accept their interests and share in their knowledge.

Regardless, it can be fun to Hear stories about the darker side of life...as long as I don’t live them.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please, like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope,you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.