Welcome to the Darker Side of Things

Halloween is fast approaching! Have you guys picked out a costume yet?

Halloween has always held a special place in my heart. The decorations, the costumes, and the TV specials were always fun this time of year. I loved dressing up for Halloween (still do when I can). I always had to be either something dead or scary. One year, when I was dressed as a vampire, I scared my next door neighbor so bad that he refused to go trick or treating. I think he was barely one or two years old at the time.

Though I love most things about the season, I’m not a huge fan of haunted houses. Don’t get me wrong, the decorations and costumes are fantastic, but I can’t deal with the sensory overload that sometimes happens to me with the flashing lights and loud noises. Plus I really hate jump scares - they’re not actually scary, just startling.

It’s the Halloween aesthetic that I truest find beautiful. The leaves are changing colors, then falling to the ground. The air smells crisp and a little smoky at times. There’s an ever lingering reminder that with life eventually comes death.

I love it.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you’d have notice that I really like witches and the Gothic aesthetic. I’m a big sucker for movies like Sleepy Hallow and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (even with the silly accents and over sexual tones). I read the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe and H. P. Lovecraft over and over again.

Death is the overarching theme of the season with some villainy and chaos on the side. I think there’s a reason the Sanderson sisters are so fondly remembered even though they are planning on murdering children in the movie Hocus Pocus. They’re everything fun and evil about the season. They’re threatening, but not too threatening.

For a while now, I’ve been working on creating a collection of poems that I feel fit into the Gothic style. I’ve written about 30 poems so far and, though I’m n where near close yet, I would like to try to get them published next year. I might even include some ink drawings.

A lot of these poems focus on death and what comes after. I take great joy in playing with expectations such as using limericks, tropically a playful or funny poem style, and use that format as though it were on a gravestone.

I’ve been told by a few people that my work can be delightfully demented.

Or maybe I was using that term to describe my sense of writing style. I don’t always like it when something is scary to be scary or depressing to be depressing. That isn’t how I am always able to work through my emotions. I often twist and bend these expressions to where it might take a bit to realize exactly what I’m writing about.

Death can be absurdly funny, like in the movies Scream, Scary Movie, and Final Destination. There’s a part of me that’s satisfied when the villain is killed off for good to triumph, like in Hocus Pocus or pretty much every Disney Villain ever.

There’s nothing wrong with being fascinated with the darker side of things. True crime stories and ghost hunting shows are still popular. There’s a mortician who hosts a YouTube channel and explains different things about her job (it’s called “Ask a Mortician”. People still visit sites of mass destruction, murder, and battlefields whether as reminders of the past or to satisfy a morbid need.

I’m not sure where my fascination with the darkness in life comes from. It could be that I need to have some kind of exposure to the worst side of nature so that I can appreciate the best.

It’s hard to know what to do with extreme negativity when you’re not regularly exposed to it. How do you empathize with an experience you’ve never lived through, but know that other people have? How is it possible to understand another person’s pain when you can’t comprehend where that pain came from?

Seeking out darkness isn’t bad. I find that it’s just another way for me to make peace with the experiences I’ve witness and lived through.

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 8: The Power of the Witch

"Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

This quote comes from the movie The Witch: A New England Folk Tale when the devil, disguised as the goat Black Phillip, offers to make a pack with the eldest daughter, and only survivor to the end of the movie, Thomasin for her to become a witch.

Thomasin as the beginning of the movie (left) and when she becomes a witch at the end (right)

One would think selling her soul at the end of the movie would equal a bad ending for this movie, but I don't think it does. For most of the movie, Thomasin has been bullied, blamed for things beyond her control, and alienated from the rest of her family. Her brother begins to lust after her feminine form. Her father allows her to take the blame for a theft he committed. She is constantly facing her mother's wrath for things she couldn't control.

When Thomasin joins the witches, whom we've seen commit terrible crimes like murdering a baby, she's smiling and excited. It's the first time in the movie she looks truly happy instead of board, angry, or scared. It's as though Thomasin has found herself as a witch.

Thomasin gains freedom by becoming a witch. There are a few draw backs, like her soul is damned to hell and she has to murder babies in order to fly, but for the first time in her Puritan life she is allowed to make decisions for herself.

Maybe The Witch isn't the best example for this post, but it is a powerful scene. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It's a slow burn horror movie with minimum jump scares and a lot of psychological mind twists. It's on Netflix for the 2018 October season.

Witches are feared. They can curse you to fall ill, hex your farm so that you have a lousy crop, and maybe they'll even turn you into a newt (don't worry, you'll get better eventually). Witches have powers that aren't very well understood. You definitely don't want to anger a witch.

Witches have power.

They're often thought of as independent and self-sufficient, especially when they live far from the village. Witches can heal you with the right potion or poison your worst enemy - for a price. They're knowledgeable and wise.

People don't want to mess with a witch.

So is it any wonder that some people, especially those who don't feel powerful, might find the art of witchcraft appealing?

Modern witchcraft focuses a lot on finding harmony with the world and self-empowerment. It's not derived from the forces of evil or the devil. It's tapping into the natural energy that makes up the universe to do magick.

For women in particular, it's a type of empowerment that doesn't derive from a relationship to a man.

As progressive as the American culture appears to be, there are still a lot of carryovers from bygone eras. One particularly tough cultural paradigm that girls can't seem to shake is how much our society hates anything preteen and teenage girls love. Yeah, a lot of what they obsess over is stupid, but is it really worth the levels of hate the Internet has come up with. I've been a witness and occasional participant in the hate: "Twilight, the worst thing ever", "why does anyone like Justin Bieber", "Brittany Spears isn't even that good of a singer".

Society hates that preteen and teenage girls where clothes that aren't "appropriate", except that's all the stores offer. We hate that they wear makeup, even if grown women are pretty much expected to wear it all the time. We're constantly telling them they are a distraction to boys, despite the fact that boys should have self-control.

It's not like preteen and teenage boys don't have questionable taste in media or dress. Society just doesn't fixate on it quite as much.

Women and girls are still talked about being "someone's ______" when rape is discussed. They're blamed for being in a situation, instead of  supported. Most big budget movies (even if they aren't romance) still have a guy and a girl getting together at the end - the girl's personality and story line need not be included.

So is it any wonder that the idea of becoming a witch is appealing to girls in particular. That little boom in the 90s and (hopeful) resurgence now of powerful women as witches isn't coming from no-where. There's a hunger for powerful women roles that aren't connected to anyone else.

Shared by Chaos Witch on Facebook originally posted by penfairy.

"Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

Yeah, I kind of do. Having some illusion of power over my life would be nice. Feeling that I have everything together and knowing things will turn out alright would be great.

Because right now I'm angry, scared, anxious, depressed, confused, and hurt.

My interest in witchcraft originally stemmed from my interest in the unknown. It has since grown for many different reasons. I like a lot of the philosophy, learning about herbal remedies is interesting, and the connection with nature.

Feeling empowered is a nice bonus.

I'm not saying I'm a witch, that's still very much up for debate, and not everything in this series of posts applies to all witches (Wiccans and other witches might not agree with a lot of what I've written). I've been on a journey for spiritual enlightenment and tranquility for a while. This has been a stop on a very long journey that is still in progress.

And part of me still feels like a six year old child reading Harry Potter for the first time and hoping I get a letter to Hogwarts. Part of me still believes in fairy tales, magick, ghosts, and monsters that live under the bed. It's my way of dealing with the real world and everything it has to throw at me.

If you or anyone you know is interested in witchcraft, Wicca, or magick, I have a few books that I recommend checking out. I've already mentioned The Modern Guide to Witchcraft by Sky Alexander, but other books you might want to check out include:

• The Green Witch - You're Complete Guide to The Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More by Arin Murphy-Hiscock
• Wiccapedia - A Modern-Day White Witch's Guide by Shawn Robbins and Leanna Greenaway
• Magical Herbalism - The Secret Craft of the Wise by Scott Cunningham

And for anyone who's interested in the less religious and spiritual side of witchcraft please check out: 

• Basic Witches - How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with your Coven by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman

Thank you for joining me on this series. I do hope to one day write a novel or novella (series?) involving modern witches, but until then I'll keep reading and researching everything I can find.

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 Witching Hour Part 7: Season of the Witch

Tomorrow is October 1st.

Which in my books means that it's the start of Halloween. Yep, that's right. Halloween is basically an entire month. If Christmas can be a month and a half long (or longer if you go by the radio stations), then Halloween should have an entire month all on it's own!

Haunted houses, corn mazes, creepy decorations (or as I like to think...new house decor), and pumpkin spice flavored everything. Don't try to tell me you guys don't like reading about pumpkin spice and everything nice. My first post to reach over 100 hits was Welcome to Pumpkin Overload and it was all thanks to you awesome readers.

I feel honored that one of my most popular blog posts is about how much I love pumpkin flavored everything.

I love Halloween. I'm not a huge fan of scary things (even if I do write horror), but I love the dark atmosphere. It's a different kind of beautiful.

Plus it's the default season for all things witches!

If my mom ever dressed up for Halloween it was usually as a witch. She'd set up a cauldron with a fog machine inside on the front stoop of our house to pass out candy. It was a lot of fun watching little kids slowly approach our house, uncertain if a real witch lived there or not.

My mom isn't a witch, but for all of the real witches out there. Halloween is also the witch's New Year or start or their yearly cycle. Called Samhain (pronounced SOW-een), it's supposed to be a solemn and sacred day for witches. For some it's a day to remember those who have passed on, for others it's a day to try and contact the spirit world.

Though Samhain is one of the more well known holidays for witches and Wicca, there are actually quite a few spread out over the year. Last week, I wished everyone a happy Mabon, which is the celebration of the Autumn/Fall Equinox. It's also the last holiday in the Wicca or Witch's Year. There are a total of 8 holidays which correspond to the seasons.

Image originally from this site here.

They are:

• Samhain - which I already discussed above as the magickal new year. above
• Yule - or the celebration of the Winter Solstice or the festival of lights. Some people may have heard of a Yule Log or gone to a Yule celebration (my university held a Yule Log ceremony every year) which is when a log is passed around for everyone to touch, then it is light up and you can toss a sprig of holly on the fire to burn your troubles or bad luck away. Another way to celebrate Yule is to light candles after sunset.
• Imbolc - this holiday is typically celebrated at the beginning of February. It is a fertility holiday and represents the promise that spring is soon to arrive and with it the start of the growing season. 
• Ostara - the Spring Equinox. This is the official start of the growing season. From what I've read, decorating eggs (much like Christians do for Easter) is customary.
• Beltane - also known as May Day. It's the second fertility holiday. It is a celebration of spring time nature and is meant to honor the Earth. May Day is a none witch version of the same celebration. I've been to May Day celebrations in Pennsylvania and they are a ton of fun.
• Midsummer - or the celebration of the Summer Solstice. It's the longest day of the year and a period of plenty. Midsummer is associated with Earth spirits like elves and fairies. It is also considered a great time for love spells and magick.
• Lughnassadh or Lammas - is the start of the harvest season (specifically the harvest of grains) and is celebrated around the start of August.
• Mabon -  finally we come back to Mabon or the Autumn/Fall Equinox. From this point until the Winter Solstice, the days grow shorter and the harvest festival. It's a time for balance and giving thanks.

It just goes to show that October and Halloween aren't the only times to be a witch. Witches practice magick the whole year long. They also don't have to celebrate any of these holidays if they want to. The 8 holidays I mentioned above are very much based in the Wicca tradition and religion.

A witch doesn't have to celebrate a holiday or season if they don't want to.

These holidays are also very much based on the seasonal rotation of the northern hemisphere. I'm not as familiar with how witches in the southern hemisphere practice, but if I understand correctly, it's not too different from how witches in the northern hemisphere do. Information on these holidays can be found all over the Internet, but I used The Modern Guide to Witchcraft: Your Complete Guide to Witches, Covens & Spells by Skye Alexander as my reference.

So this October season, remember that for some people (especially witches) this season is very important and sacred. In fact Halloween or All Hallows Eve is just before two important Christian Holidays which also honors the day: All Saints Day and All Souls Day. It isn't just about dressing up in costumes and scaring each other silly. It's about remembering those we loved and lost over the years. It's about the ending of a cycle and the promise of rebirth.

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 Witching Hour Part 6: Today's Witches

Fall has finally arrived!

The equinox was yesterday in the northern hemisphere (Saturday September 22nd for those of you not reading this post on the day it was published), so now we get to fully celebrate all things fall. In my case, a month and a half long Halloween binge!

Yesterday also marked the Sabbat known as Mabon or The Second Harvest Celebration for many of today's Witch and Pagan communities. A Sabbat is essentially a modern Pagan and/or Witch's holy day or holiday. Depending on which tradition a Pagan or Witch follows, the practitioner might celebrate all of some of these holidays.

Picture from: this site

Today I'm not going to go over the Sabbats (I'm saving that for another post). Instead, I want to write about how Witches continue to practice into the modern age and the many different types of Witches out there.

Here's an important fact about the Witch community: anyone can be a witch.

There's no specific gender, identity, or religious requirements. Witches can be men, women or non-binary people. You can be religious, spiritual, secular, or even atheist to practice Witchcraft. There are solitary practitioners or a Witch can find a coven to join.

What binds Witches together?

Witches are bound by their practice of magick (the type of magick spelled with a "k"). From what I have come to understand, Witches draw power from the world around them as well as from within themselves. They have a preference for and connection with nature, but some don't mind using technology with their spell work. Some invoke gods, goddesses, angels, or spirits in their craft, but it isn't necessary.

One of the more well known practitioners of magick and witchcraft today are Wiccans. People who follow the Wicca faith also incorporate magick into their religious rituals. Most of my research on witchcraft, spell casting, and magickal rituals has been from Wicca sources. They have their own traditions and holidays such as the Sabbats I mentioned earlier in this post. There are also different sects or paths of Wicca a person can follow (click here for more on the different types of Wicca).

But you don't have to be a follower of Wicca to become a Witch.

Wicca happens to be one of the more well known religions that coincides with witchcraft. However, some Witches prefer a more spiritual or secular path to their practice. I hear it can ruffle feathers, especially if the person or group of people are misappropriating other cultures (please don't do this if you are curious about practicing witchcraft). However, there do seem to be some merits to striking it out on your own if organized religion isn't for the practitioner.

Personally, my curiosity has lead me to a lot of books about witchcraft, Wicca, and magick. I tend to prefer the solitary and connection with nature aspects of the practice. There's a lot of meditation and good philosophy involved with my spiritual empowerment.

One stand-out aspect of many modern Witch's paths involves the Rule of Three. The Rule of Three is basically the philosophy that whatever energy is put out into the world will be reflected back three times fold. It's meant as a reminder to use magick for good or positive things rather than curses or hexes. Putting something negative into the world such as a curse or a hex on another person could result in three times the amount of negative things happening to the caster.

I like this type kind of philosophy. It's a reminder to do good things in life.

Other than the Wicca, there are several other types of witches. I have a few listed below:

• The Eclectic Witch - combines different magickal traditions and witchcraft styles into their own practice. Their practice is the most likely to change over time.
• Hereditary Witch - much like Sally and Jillian Owens from the movie Practical Magic, these are practitioners who pass their knowledge down from generation to generation. They often practice as a family and have their own unique traditions. 
• Hedge Witch - these witches often work in the natural and spiritual world.
• Kitchen Witch - a witch that mainly practices in their kitchen. Their spell work is often incorporated into their cooking. They likely have an herb or vegetable garden which they cultivate their own ingredients from.
• Green Witch - these witches heavily relay on the natural world around them.They're often most in tune with the seasons and try to work their spells and rituals outside as much as possible.
• Cosmic Witches - these witches prefer working with astrology and astronomy into their spell work. Most of their rituals incorporate the moon and planets.

There are more types of witches that I haven't listed. Witchcraft and magick are as varied and unique as the many cultures that have influenced them. 

Credit for this picture goes to this site.

I do ask that if you are interested in looking into more research or spells, that you don't appropriate another culture. Just because someone on the Internet says it's okay to do something doesn't mean that it is. Some practices and traditions are sacred and should be treated as such. Further more, some plants are on the endangered or threatened species list and shouldn't be used.

If you are curious about learning more on witchcraft, check out published books and/or ask real witches about their practice. Though you can start on the Internet, take everything you read there with a grain of salt.

Blessed be!

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 5: Teen Witch Craze

I recently started watching the Netflix show Worst Witch. It’s about preteen girls learning how to become witches at a magical boarding school. Within the first episode there are magical potions, flying on broom sticks, and a battle between a good witch and a bad witch. So far, I’ve really enjoyed the show.

This isn’t the first incarnation of Worst Witch. Originally a book series, Worst Witch has had a total of four TV iterations (one being a spin off) with the fist being the 1985 TV movie. It’s clear that the story of Mildred Hubble is popular and has resonated with a lot of people.

Worst Witch is just one example of the trope that a young child discovers they have magical powers and must now learn how to control them all while avoiding evil witches and wizards. Harry Potter is another well known example of this trope.

However, it isn’t the only story line out there featuring witches. Tales of sisterhood and coming of age are also popular tropes to show up in Witch related media. At least the witch related media aimed at young women and children tend to have these story lines. Harry Potter is the odd one out as it is generally considered for all people.

That’s not to say that men and boys can’t like women driven story lines, especially of the magical variety. These stories just aren’t targeted to them the same way they are targeted to women. The 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s saw a lot of witch media hit the big and small screen that was almost explicitly for young women.

In 1989, the movie Teen Witch hit theaters. It was trying to capitalize on the genre of teen flicks with a supernatural or paranormal undertone that became popular with the release of Teen Wolf in 1985. The same year that Teen Witch hit theaters, Studio Ghibli released the animated movie Kiki's Delivery Service in Japan. Kiki's Delivery Service also featured a young witch teenage witch (Kiki is 13 in the movie) trying to make her way in the world. The Craft and Sabrina the Teenage Witch both became cultural icons in 1996 and were quickly followed by the movie Practical Magic (1998) and the TV series Charmed (1998 - 2006).

The look so cool and powerful!

Disney Channel took notice of the rising popularity in witches, especially for young girls, to create several made for TV movies including: The Halloweentown series and the Twitches movies.

It would be silly of me to not include the rise in popularity of Harry Potter in the 1990s that has lasted all the way to today. We now have two popular movie franchises, an official play, multiple unofficial plays, and more books than my bookshelf at home can hold. More importantly, we have the characters of Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, and Tonks who were pivotal in shaping the confidence of many young girls looking for literary role models.

Of course we still had the movies and TV shows featuring evil witches. Hocus Pocus (1993) is still one of the most iconic Halloween movies for kids who grew up in the 90s. The Witches of Eastwick (1987) had an all star cast with plenty of nasty shenanigans and still ended with the ladies taking on the big bad guy in a show of sisterhood. Then there’s the 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book The Witches which gave young me many a nightmare. At least the movie ends a lot happier than the book where the children are stuck as mice instead being turned back into children by a nice witch.

My point is that there has been a lot more media in the past 4 decades featuring witches in a positive light than a negative one. Sure we had the Bewitched series from 1964 to 1972 which I think helped spring board the “good witch” stories we eventually got. However, the horror industry of that era continuously used the “bad witch” trope in their sploitation movies (most of which are hilariously bad).

Now “bad witch” movies aren’t the norm.

Occasionally we’ll see a Blair Witch (1999 and 2016) or The Witch: A New England Folktale (2015), but these types of scary movies are now few and far between. Most Witch media now is fun, happy, and how to be a good witch. Witches are seen as teachers of empowerment instead of a people to be feared.

Is it any wonder that some girls went through a witch phase in middle or high school? Having magical powers isn’t just about solving your problems or getting revenge against the mean girl at school. In fact, the petty, mean, or dangerous spells usually resulted in an important lesson on not misusing magic and the consequences of selfish acts. Magic in these shows is about finding a sense of self empowerment and feeling good about your own abilities. At least that’s what I got out of the books, movies, and TV shows I consumed.

It’s also why I love idea of being a witch.

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 y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week!

Welcome to the Witching Hour Part 4: Women Witches

 "All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which in women is insatiable." - Malleus Maleficarum

What is the first image that comes to mind when you picture a Witch? Or more specifically, who comes to mind?

For most the answer is a woman dressed all in black with a pointed hat. She might be old and oddly disfigured or young and beautiful with a voluptuous figure. Maybe she's pouring ingredients into a cauldron or flying on a broomstick. She might even have a black cat skulking around somewhere.

The stereotypical witch from western culture is nearly always a woman.

I swear this woman turned me into a newt.

That doesn't mean that men or non-binary people can't be witches. Some of you might have pictured Harry Potter or Merlin, except that they usually have the moniker of wizard attached to them.

To be fair, the words wizard and witch are often used to signify a magic practitioner's gender. However, they don't necessarily mean the same thing. Depending on the magical system, a wizard's magic might be very different than a witch's magic while at the same time keeping the gender barrier (such as in Sir Terry Pratchett's Disc World series). In other cases men and women can be either a wizard or a witch depending on how they use/acquire their magical ability. Other words that are known to be used interchangeably (with some regards to gender) are: sorceress, sorcerer, warlock (unpopular because it also means oath-breaker), enchanter, enchantress, and mage. You can find more information on magical title by clicking here.

Please note that a magician is typically someone who does magic tricks such as slight of hand, illusions, or misdirection. The title magician is rarely used to mean a practitioner or magic/magick.

For the purposes of this blog post, I'll be using the term witch to refer to people accused during the witch trials that plagued Europe and North America between the 1400 and 1700s.

Historically, witches could be either male or female, but let's be honest with ourselves. Most people accused and executed for witchcraft were women. According to the sources I could find, women made up between 75-85% of the people accused of witchcraft during the height of the North American and European witch hunts. A few accounts have even suggested that there wouldn't be a single woman left in a village once a witch hunt was concluded - having all been burned at the stake (sadly I can't find the source of this one).

In 1922, a Swedish-Danish man, Benjamin Christensen, created a silent dramatized documentary called Haxan. In his 7 part series of shorts, it shows the history of witchcraft as he researched it. Most of it is on how women were portrayed and accused of being witches. The seventh part fast-forwards to modern times (well 1920s modern times) about how institutionalizing women for mental problems (like hysteria) is similar to the witch trials of old. That last part feels incredibly insulting for many reasons, but the rest of it is pretty interesting to watch if only for the silly shenanigans that happen when you decide to join the devil (lots of debauchery and orgies apparently).

If you're interested the nearly 2 hour movie is in the public domain and you can watch it with English subtitles on YouTube. If you don't feel like sitting through a silent movie for 2 hours, there's a fabulously hillarious silent review that's only 15 minutes by Kyle from the YouTube show Brows Held High which you can watch here.

I think the guy in the center wants my soul guys!!!

Though the gender bias towards women witches wasn't the case in all countries where hunts occurred. Historians have noted that men were more often accused in Iceland, Finland, Estonia and Russia. (Here's where I found a lot of this information.)

However, this doesn't stop the fact that women were disproportionately affected by witch hunts (and by affected I mean tortured and then murdered). Women with property, but no husband, women who were healers and midwives, women who were poor or handicapped or just had a general displeasing disposition were prime targets to have accusations thrown at them.

Some might attribute this bias as part of the Madonna and Whore complex. It divides women into two categories. The first being the virtuous pure woman who can do no wrong like The Holy Mother Mary. The second being the vile sinful temptress who will bring down mankind a la Eve. Either a woman knows her place in society or she's evil and going to bring about the ruin of civilization. There is no in-between. 

One famous example is Bridget Bishop from the Salem Witch Trials. She was a widow and had inherited the ownership of a tavern and apple orchard (which stood in front of Salem prison) upon her husband's death. Now women in colonial America didn't really own anything. Any property she might possess was immediately transferred to her husband upon marriage. As Mrs. Bishop refused to find herself a new husband and liked to dress in a manor that was considered scandalous for the time, she was often met with disapproval from her Puritan neighbors (the anti-fun that they were).

It really didn't help that she had a lovely apple orchard worth a pretty penny that stood right in front of Salem prison (did I already mention that?).

Bridget Bishop wasn't the first person in Salem to be accused of witchcraft, but she was the first person executed. In fact, her trial and sentencing were all sped up just so the powers-that-be could confiscate and properly redistribute her land all the faster. There was some talk that they hurried her trial along so that they could expand the prison (it was overflowing with people accused of witchcraft), but that expansion never happened.

Taken one step further, many of the things witches could be accused of were often considered more famine in nature. Altering one's appearance - known as putting on a glamour - to appear more attractive and enchant someone with their "new" beauty into a relationship. Today women are still more likely than men to wear makeup and be accused of misleading a man when she's not as attractive without it. Potion making can resemble cooking (again more associated with women's work than men's) and are used for enchanting, healing, or poisoning. Interestingly enough, poisoning was considered a women's preferred method of murder for centuries (Agatha Christie novels are full of this stereotype).

Oh, and don't forget women's right to control their bodies, especially when it comes to reproduction. It's a "controversial" fight well into modern times. The Malleus Maleficarum makes several references to witches preventing conception and causing abortions. Who would be most interested in this knowledge? Women. Who would most likely know the folklore and practice around it? Women.

Women stood a lot to lose from an accusation of being a witch. How could they protect themselves from having the finger pointed at them?

They accused their neighbors first.

Something that tends to get glossed over in the history books is that women were just as likely as men to accuse someone of witchcraft. In fact women accused of witchcraft had to be looked over by other women for signs of the "devil's mark" (imperfections on the skin such as a birth mark or scar), it wasn't proper for a man to do it. Women could even be the most vocal against an accused person, especially if there was a known rivalry between the two.

She's a witch! And she's a witch! THEY'RE ALL WITCHES!

Remember how I keep bringing up Salem? Well the trials began because of two young girls. It isn't clear exactly why they started accusing people of witchcraft (likely to stay out of trouble from some misdeed), but eventually these two girls expanded to include more and more of their friends and neighbors. Certainly they were egged on by the power-that-be, but it was young women and girls who primarily targeted other women.

Things clearly haven't changed much over the centuries. Women seem to always be pitted against each other for one reason or another.

So how did we go from evil witch to beloved fixture of the fall season, popular book heroine, and nose twitching TV icon? Furthermore, where do modern practicing witches fit into all of this?

Yeah, that's right, witches still exist and they don't need anyone's approval but their own.

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 y'all like hearing from me.

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.