Witches

And so we end the month on the fun note of witches. Fun?  True, for centuries wise women, later known as witches, were persecuted and indeed killed due to their knowledge of herbs and medicines even in countries without Christianity. Once the Christian church got going it became almost a mania In Europe, the panic over witchcraft was supported by the Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic clergyman. It taught the persecution of witches and was greatly promoted by the new technology of the printing press. It saw 29 printings before 1669, second only to the Bible. The book says that three elements are necessary for witchcraft. These are the evil intentions of the witch, the help of the Devil, and the permission of God.

In the mid 1600’s the wave of witch burnings in England (and Europe) were dying down while the rise in witch hunting escalated dramatically in colonial America. Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” is a remarkable play on the story and a recent book by Stacy Schiff “the Witches Salem, 1692” is a great documentary on how the whole story rolled out. It appears that the fear of witch craft was rampant from the beginning of the British settlements. Cotton Mather the highly influential pastor of New England wrote about a witch in 1689 and was very involved in the Salem Witch Hunts. Puritanism at its height and a deplorable representation of what religion can do to people’s common sense.

While some men were accused of witch craft it was most often women who were accused and killed. An analysis of the data appears to give strong evidence that often the underlying reasons were not so much out of fear but out of economics! 

“Heather Marsh has tied the persecution of witches to the fight of church and industry to control "the power of life and death" at a time when industry needed more workers. She also argues the persecution of witches was a fight for centralized power over the peasant rebellions and the ownership of knowledge by medicine and science which forbade the earlier teaching or practices by women and indigenous cultures. She writes that the persecution of witches has colored misogyny since the 1400s. Silvia Federici tied the witch hunts to a history of the female body in the transition to capitalism.” (Wikipedia)

The 20^th century has found ways to make witches more charming however. “Bewitched” debuted in 1964 and what little girl didn’t twitch her nose to make magic happen? “Charmed” debuted in 1998 and quickly became popular. “Practical Magic” by Alice Hoffmann was turned into the highly successful film with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. And most famous of all J.K. Rowling created the Harry Potter series which started a whole generation of adults as well as children to become in love with magic. There is a dark side to witches but these days the art of Wicca and white magic is what makes witching fun.

I think every little girl in America and Canada has been a witch at least once on Halloween – if they haven’t, how terribly sad!

So I end Women’s Legacy theme with the thought that whoever or whatever women might be one thing we all have somewhere in our souls is a little bit of magic.

“I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves,

who bring light into the world." —Meryl Streep