The Power of the Witch

 

Hi. My name is Carol. I’m a former Southern Baptist, and I’m finding my way back to the practices of my ancestors, following the path that is rooted in my DNA. On this podcast, I’ll share the history of the folk magic of the region, and share my practice as I learn and grow in knowledge. We’ll talk to people from all walks of life who follow different paths of spirituality, looking for the commonalities, and the way we are more alike than different. If you’re searching for a way to connect to spirit, pick up your walking stick and let's get to exploring. 

Witchcraft has been around for a long time. Scholars have pinpointed the 1400’s through the 1700’s as the time of witchcraft, based on laws that were enforced which made witchcraft a crime punishable by death, but the practice has been around since the beginning of human history. Witches are mentioned in the book of Samuel in the Bible, which was believed to be written somewhere between 931 BC and 721 BC. This passage tells of the Witch of Endor, who king Saul petitioned to bring back the spirit of Samuel. The famous verse “thou shall not suffer a witch to live” is found in Exodus. The bible is chock full of witch hate. 

Today I want to give a little backstory into the history of witchcraft, how it became associated with evil in the past, and how modern practitioners are reclaiming ownership of the word. 

The reason so much attention is placed on the roughly 300 years beginning in the 1400’s is due to the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, that was written by Heinrich Kramer and Joseph Sprenger in 1486. This book labeled witches as heretics, imbuing them with all kinds of powers. It detailed four reasons why witchcraft was the worst of all the heresies, saying that witches devoted their bodies and souls to the devil, had intercourse with incubi, renounced the Christian faith, and sacrificed unbaptized infants to Satan. The book gave tips on how to identify witches, how to torture them, and how to put them to death. 

This book is actually a treatise written by  women hating clergymen who were determined to keep men firmly in the driver’s seat of society, and keep women in their place. It led to centuries of hysteria that murdered countless women across Europe, and had a direct influence on the witch trials of Salem, and continues to spread this influence in modern Christianity today. We may not be burning witches today, but the Evangelical church’s opinion of women hasn’t strayed too far from the ideologies of the past. Recently, evangelical pastor Lance Wallnau tweeted that Donald Trump’s trainwreck meltdown at the presidential debate was a result of ABC news using occult powers and witchcraft to empower Kamala Harris, and make Trump look weak. As a witch, I can promise you that ABC, Vice President Harris, or anyone else didn’t have to do anything to make Trump look weak. He handled that just fine on his own.

Evangelicals are obsessed with witches. Sermons, blog posts, and magazine articles warn of the dangers of witchcraft. They say that witches consort with the devil, that we use demons to manipulate, intimidate, and dominate people, themes that come straight from the Malleus Maleficarum.  They claim that witches plot and scheme to gain control of people so they can damn them to hell.

Ok then.

In my practice, I meditate to connect with my ancestors and guides, I use spellwork to bring focus to my intentions, and I spend time in nature to feel my connection to the universe. Trust me, the last thing on my mind is controlling anybody. I can barely control myself. And I’m sure not trying to damn people to a place I don’t even believe exists. 

All of this points to a conclusion that I’m sure we all understand. Misogyny. 

Fia Forsstrom, a Swedish spiritual singer and songwriter, penned the following: 

It was not witches who burned.

It was women.

Women who were seen as

Too beautiful

Too outspoken

Had too much water in the well (yes, seriously)

Who had a birthmark

Women who were too skilled with herbal medicine

Too loud

Too quiet

Too much red in her hair

Women who had a strong nature connection

Women who danced

Women who sung

or anything else, really.

ANY WOMAN WAS AT RISK BURNING IN THE SIXTEEN HUNDREDS

Sisters testified and turned on each other when their babies were held under ice.

Children were tortured to confess their experiences with “witches” by being fake executed in ovens.

Women were held under water and if they floated, they were guilty and executed.

If they sunk and drowned they were innocent.

Women were thrown off cliffs.

Women were put in deep holes in the ground.

The start of this madness was years of famine, war between religions and lots of fear. The churches said that witches, demons and the devil did exist and women were nothing but trouble. As we see even today, there is often a scapegoat created, and the chaos escalated in Sweden when the Bible became law and everything that did not line up with what the church said became lethal. The Bible fanaticism killed thousands of women. Everything connected to a woman became feared, especially her sexuality. It became labeled as dark and dangerous and was the core of the witch trials throughout the world.

Why do I write this?

Because I think the usage of words is important, especially when we are doing the work to pull these murky, repressed and forgotten about stories to the surface. Because knowing our history is important when we are building the new world. When we are doing the healing work of our lineages and as women. To give the women who were slaughtered a voice, to give them redress and a chance of peace.

It was not witches who burned.

It was women.

There is so much hype surrounding the witch trials, both in Europe and in the American colonies. It’s human nature to attach meaning to everything, to seek out a reason for drought, famine, and disaster. It’s also much easier to assign blame to people you fear, and for many men between the 1400s-1700’s, women were easy targets. We still are. 

Misogyny is fear based. Men are afraid of us, even though they will never admit it. Because men understand that when women realize their power, especially when we unite as a collective, we are a force that cannot be stopped.

Toxic masculine identity is based on being better than others, especially women, and this is based on fear of anything viewed as a feminine trait. Toxic masculinity can only exist by excluding things viewed as “girly”. Emotion, nurturing, caring. They tell their boys to “man up”, to “stop throwing like a girl”, which trains the next generation to believe that in order to be a man, they must dominate women. By doing this, it robs boys of discovering and nurturing their true selves, of developing their emotions. It teaches them that the emotions they feel are wrong, so they bottle them, push them down, ignore them. But at some point those emotions surface, and often the target of that emotional backlash is women. 

My husband was raised in a strict patriarchal household. His Cambodian parents accepted the gender roles of their society with no argument. Women cooked and cleaned, and raised the kids. Men made the money, paid the bills, and emotionally checked out of everything. This mirrors my own upbringing in Evangelical Appalachia. My husband struggles to express his feelings, and he struggles with the gender roles he was raised with, especially since he’s married to a very independent woman, but he’s trying to break the pattern. 

His youngest child, my stepson, is a bright light in a sometimes very dark world. He’s the happiest kid I’ve ever met. He loves makeup, dolls, high heels. He’s the happiest when he’s creating new hairstyles for his Barbie’s, or trying to master a cut crease. And my husband, who was raised to believe all of those things aren’t manly, not only allows his son to express himself, he encourages it. When his son wants to get his nails done at a salon, we take him. When he wants to go out to dinner in a full face of makeup, my husband tells him it’s beautiful. Because my husband knows that by allowing his son to express himself and to explore his interests, he’s actually reinforcing a well rounded, more complete personality to take hold. Will my stepson always love makeup and high heels? Who knows? But the one thing he will always remember is that his father supported him through all phases of his life and allowed him to chart his own path. 

Take that, patriarchy.

Before there was witchcraft, there were belief systems, traditions, and cultural practices of peoples around the world. Throughout history, cultures formed around spiritual practices, and those practices were often protected by spiritual leaders. These leaders were depended upon for healing, for counsel, for the success of crops. They led their people to a deeper understanding of their beliefs, they ushered the dead to the afterlife, and they cared for those left behind. The rise of christianity, which promoted a monotheistic belief system, began to label those who worshiped other gods as heretics, as followers of the devil. Empires rose and persecuted cultures out of existence, all in the name of the Christian god. In many of these cultures, women were the spiritual leaders, the healers of their communities. These women held positions of power. Their people revered them. In many cultures, goddesses were worshiped. So to the men of the invading forces, these women must be evil, and they must be eliminated. The Malleus Maleficarum echoed the patriarchal views of Christianity, and gave men the ammunition they needed to eliminate the scourge of women they deemed as too powerful. They took it upon themselves to put women in their places, which was as servants to the big, powerful men.

But today, the witch isn’t taking it anymore. We are a diverse group containing many types of practices and belief systems. Some of us connect with the power of the seas, some with plants, and others with fire. Some of us chant and dance under the full moon, while others quietly meditate in front of a solitary candle. Some grow herbs for spells, some speak with their ancestors, and others use tarot and pendulums. Some worship gods and goddesses, and some are atheist. The umbrella of the witch is massive, big enough to cover us all, even though our practices are varied and unique. Some of us don’t even consider ourselves witches, but we are connected just the same. 

And ultimately, this is where the witch gains her power. Witchcraft is a melting pot of people across the globe who find connection with each other, no matter how varied our practices are. 

Modern witchcraft is a rallying cry to change our society, to be inclusive, to allow everyone a seat at the table. It’s a way to take our power back, to realize our potential, and to set right the way of the world. So whether you have an altar, carry crystals in your pocket, or dance under a full moon, you are welcome under the witch’s umbrella. There’s plenty of room.

I want to pivot to a new segment I’m calling “The Witch Dictionary”, where I’ll share terms that beginner witches may not be familiar with, as well as festivals that are celebrated by witches around the world. And since Mabon is Sunday, September 22, I thought it would be a good place to start.

The term Mabon was coined in the 1970s by Aiden Kelly, a Wiccan practitioner who also gave us the Wheel of the Year, or the eight pagan festivals celebrated by tons of modern practitioners of witchcraft. Mabon is the last holiday in the Wheel of the year, and marks the autumn equinox. Even though Mabon has modern roots, it takes inspiration from ancient Celts and other cultures who celebrated the autumn equinox. Mabon is a time to give thanks to the earth for the bounty of the waning summer season, a time to celebrate with a feast, and show gratitude for abundant harvest as we prepare for the coming winter. Think of it as thanksgiving without the pilgrims. In my home, I’m hosting a potluck with my kids. I’ll honor my Appalachian heritage by making soup beans and cornbread, and we will drink apple cider and eat pumpkin pie. We will light a bonfire, and offer thanks to our ancestors for the bounty we enjoy. The point is to come together and honor the ones who came before us, to thank the Earth for supplying our needs, and to prepare our hearts and minds for the long winter nights to come. It reminds us of our ancestors, how they depended upon one another, how they worked together to survive, and how they celebrated together. It encourages us to turn off our phones and look at the night sky, to tell stories around the campfire, to reconnect to humanity. So if you are interested in witchcraft but don’t know where to start, invite a few friends over this weekend for some pie and cider and welcome in Autumn. You may want to leave a piece of pie for your ancestors, too. They would appreciate it.

Thank you so much for joining me on the first episode of Solitary Magic. I hope I’ve given you a little more insight on what witchcraft is, and have inspired you to come along on this journey with me. I’ll link my socials in the description, so connect with me. If you have questions, or you would like to hear me talk about something on the podcast, let me know. I would love to hear from you. So until next time;

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your fields.

Until we meet again,

May the Goddess hold you

in the hollow of her hands.