I think! And I always have a piece of string!
July 20, 2016 9:56 AM   Subscribe

 
Hey, I have an idea. How about consulting actual scholarship by actual historians who work on witchcraft prosecutions, rather than taking the word of Andrea Dworkin et al.? The "responsible estimate" of nine million deaths is a much debated issue among specialists, but you'd never know any of that from the article. I mean, at least it doesn't cite Margaret Murray and all that associated nonsense, but seriously, how about Robin Briggs or Lyndal Roper or Stuart Clark or any of the other excellent historians working on this subject?
posted by pleasant_confusion at 10:22 AM on July 20, 2016 [31 favorites]


Oh I love these articles. So much. Thank you.

They remind me of (and contextualize) my teenage years writing and trading zines containing poems, magic spells, odes to cotton menstrual pads, and vegan banana brownie recipes. I still keep a bowl of crystals and two Tarot decks on my bedside table.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:31 AM on July 20, 2016 [5 favorites]


It's mostly headology.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:32 AM on July 20, 2016 [40 favorites]


Angelique the witch was a beloved breakout character on the 1960s Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Housewives and coeds were really ready for a powerful female character who couldn't even be kept down after death by immolation.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:37 AM on July 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
posted by nicebookrack at 11:00 AM on July 20, 2016 [14 favorites]


How about consulting actual scholarship by actual historians who work on witchcraft prosecutions, rather than taking the word of Andrea Dworkin et al.?

Because that is not at all the point of the article?
posted by beerperson at 11:05 AM on July 20, 2016 [14 favorites]


I love everything about this.
posted by griphus at 11:15 AM on July 20, 2016 [4 favorites]


Uh, to be clear the "this" being the continued fascination with the occult and use of it for personal empowerment by women. Obviously not the Witch Trial/Sexual Assault thing.
posted by griphus at 11:17 AM on July 20, 2016 [7 favorites]


And yet, I love the dead accuracy of that comparison, too.
posted by sunset in snow country at 11:22 AM on July 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


On the one hand, that is not at all the point of the article.

On the other hand, if the point (one of the points) of Tumblr witches is to reclaim witch power for the POC/poor/disabled/queer/etc embracing it on Tumblr and to decolonize the overwhelmingly white and sexist roots of Wicca and neopaganism, then it is ABSOLUTELY important to discuss and discover modern witchery in the context of actual history scholarship that is real and carefully studied and complicated. Use romantic bullshit to decorate your witch self, not to decorate history.
posted by nicebookrack at 11:23 AM on July 20, 2016 [16 favorites]


Andrea Dworkin was so ahead of her time. I adore her and she is more relevant today than ever.

Now I'll read the article - but first comment was a gut-punch. Dworkin is like, my hero.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 11:28 AM on July 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


Is this the 90s again when every teenage girl (myself included) thought The Craft was dope and was busy collecting .txt files of Aleister Crowley and Gardner's Book of Shadows?
posted by sukeban at 11:34 AM on July 20, 2016 [12 favorites]


(I got better even if I still have an embarrassing amount of late 90s MP3s of Inkubus Sukkubus)
posted by sukeban at 11:36 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


light as a feather... stiff as a board...
posted by Mchelly at 11:56 AM on July 20, 2016 [5 favorites]


Meh. Fortune-telling is fun. My logic and intellect (words that have definitely never been used against women) are unimpaired, but thanks for your concern.

I also think the point is less "MAGICK IS SO EMPOWERING" and more "here's something that many/most adolescent girls are already drawn to, let's explore why." But don't let that get in the way of your outrage.
posted by sunset in snow country at 12:01 PM on July 20, 2016 [18 favorites]


Mod note: A few comments removed. It's really, really okay to just skip the thread if your primary reaction to this is to tell people they shouldn't like it because it's doing feminism wrong or whatever instead of engaging with the actual substance of the content.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:05 PM on July 20, 2016 [12 favorites]


I never really thought about it, but yes, it does seem like every adolescent girl (myself included) experiments with witchcraft. Much like the first article says, it really was a way to feel like I had some power in a world where I really had none at all.

The Craft remains for me a beautiful nostalgia moment, as it also heralded the one and only time I was in a same-sex relationship. (Talking about painting and witches, drinking terrible red wine out of thriftstore china cups, listening to Bikini Kill. Ah, youth.)
posted by Kitteh at 12:07 PM on July 20, 2016 [15 favorites]


Pardon the gender stereotypes, (but that's what it was like growing up) I always thought that witches were to young girls what superheroes like Superman were to young boys. You had magical powers, you could fly through the air and you had a cape. As a child I loved the book "Little Witch".
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 12:24 PM on July 20, 2016 [11 favorites]


I think that at this point we could read this classic short speech by Terry Pratchett:
While I was plundering the fantasy world for the next cliche to pulls a few laughs from, I found one which was so deeply ingrained that you hardly notice it is there at all. In fact it struck me so vividly that I actually began to look at it seriously.

That's the generally very clear division between magic done by women and magic done by men.

Let's talk about wizards and witches. There is a tendency to talk of them in one breath, as though they were simply different sexual labels for the same job. It isn't true. In the fantasy world there is no such thing as a male witch. Warlocks, I hear you cry, but it's true. Oh, I'll accept you can postulate them for a particular story, but I'm talking here about the general tendency. There certainly isn't such a thing as a female wizard.

Sorceress? Just a better class of witch. Enchantress? Just a witch with good legs. The fantasy world. in fact, is overdue for a visit from the Equal Opportunities people because, in the fantasy world, magic done by women is usually of poor quality, third-rate, negative stuff, while the wizards are usually cerebral, clever, powerful, and wise.

Strangely enough, that's also the case in this world. You don't have to believe in magic to notice that.

Wizards get to do a better class of magic, while witches give you warts.
posted by sukeban at 12:27 PM on July 20, 2016 [61 favorites]


It's not surprising that witchcraft keeps coming back. I think it's because the dominant religions of the Western world-- Judaism and Christianity-- are in essence patriarchal.* There is an urge to reclaim feminine spiritual power, however you define that. Also, as one of the articles mentioned, this power is not dependent on looking like a Disney princess or being sexy in a conventional way. So much "power" sold to adolescent girls is about conforming to ideas of being sexy (but not too sexy)... being a witch allows a girl to define power for herself.

*Yes, I know there a lot of cool Jewish and Christian feminists. But the religious experience of most adolescent girls doesn't include exposure to the feminine divine, or feminist critiques of the religion that they were raised in.
posted by tuesdayschild at 12:37 PM on July 20, 2016 [24 favorites]


Sukeban, I almost included that in this post!
posted by ChuraChura at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2016 [8 favorites]


"One doesn't become a witch to run round being harmful, or to run round being helpful either, a district visitor on a broomstick. It's to escape all that-- to have a life of one's own, not an existence doled out to you by others, charitable refuse of their thoughts, so many ounces of stale bread of life a day." - Sylvia Townsend Warner
posted by thetortoise at 3:49 PM on July 20, 2016 [13 favorites]




I am finding myself, as I coast through my 30s at speed, drawn back to witch-ness. Not wicca, for all its arse-about seasons and calling on animals and spirits that are pestilent doom here on the actual earth beneath my actual feet (being Aussie gives you an odd view on paganism I think). More...talismans and headology and being 'not nice'. I've been re-reading the Witch series by PTerry and yeah, I'm finding much more solace in Mistress Weatherwax and Tiffany than I did, all those years ago, in The Craft or The Book of Stars.

The thing that started this was just before I hit my 30s, on the way to work, I finally read The Sea and Little Fishes by Pratchett. i hated that job. Hated it. I recognised Lettice Earwig in my supervisor but the story made me realise I had to choose my path. And for all that I look more like a Nanny Ogg type, and that's the line of women I come from too, with their ferocious pragmatism and kindness and earthiness, I'm not as much like them. I think my kid is. But for me, this felt more right:

"Nanny's own thoughts, as she scurried home in relief, were that Granny Weatherwax was not an advertisement for witchcraft. Oh, she was one of the best at it, no doubt about that. At a certain kind, certainly. But a girl starting out in life might well say to herself, is this it? You worked hard and denied yourself things and what you got at the end of it was hard work and self-denial? Granny wasn't exactly friendless, but what she commanded mostly was respect. People learned to respect storm clouds, too. They refreshed the ground. You needed them. But they weren't nice."

I have Problem Glyphs decorating my cubicle, with art postcards next to them, and cards from my daughter. Pride of place is a portrait she drew of me as a very strident horse. At home it's the one she drew of me as a dragon. I have my conference lanyards stuck up there too, a constant refrain to remind myself that I have achieved and I will achieve and I can do this. The world doesn't like a woman with pride, it isn't nice to know your place and claim it. It isn't nice to take up space and be hungry. So I am not nice.
posted by geek anachronism at 5:04 PM on July 20, 2016 [30 favorites]


I had something of a personal revelation this morning while driving to work, as I realized the basis of one of my driving habits was rooted in power, specifically why I will go far out of my way to avoid putting myself into a situation where I am forced to rely on another driver to let me pull out in front of them. There are certain corner stores and gas stations I won't go to because there is no easy way out. I admit it is a weird thing to get fussed over, and I am also aware that I carry far too much resentment of other drivers who boldly nudge their way into traffic, not even having the humility or decency to feel like beggars as they do so.

Anyhoo.

Since pondering this personal oddity this morning, this is the third article about power I have randomly come across. The gathering of power, the limits of power, the taking possession of. It's as if the universe is trying to get something through. Synchronicity is a gas! I must admit that I am growing witchier by the day. I see the theme, have not yet grasped just quite how it applies.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:56 PM on July 20, 2016 [6 favorites]


That was a terrific article, thank you. I also liked how it called out the ways in which "witchiness", new--paganism, etc can also be very normative - I think there's an element of taking ownership there.

Worth also, I think, considering that whilst it can be seen as very normative now, its was not necessarily as normative during its (faked, largely; supposed, mostly) quasi-Victorian genesis, where some of those ideas about women would have been viewed quite differently.

I would have loved if the piece had focused more on the diversity of witchcraft and how it manifests differently in different cultures, and yet retains many similar aspects. I think this makes sense if one contextualises it as partly a response to that other-cross cultural phenomenon - the patriarchy.

Indeed, I think witchcraft and the frenzied, panicked reaction to it can well be viewed within that context - the idea of women, young women (!) creating a shadow discourse and conspiracy, woven underneath, around, even through the patriarchy as secret empowerment that is inaccessible to men, would be terrifying to most of them.

In this respect, I think the malleability and enduring nature of 'witchcraft' makes a lot of sense. There is something almost gnostic, or negativist about it. Which again makes sense when viewed as a response the positivist, 'rationalist' patriarchal discourse. There is a lot of feminist writing which talks about the holes in history filled by women, the power exercised by them - and discounted by men - through 'secret places' and 'secret' things, traditionally feminines spaces that are uncontrollable, and unknowable by men.

A lot of this discourse, hidden in plain sight as it were, is defined by what it isn't, rather than what it is. What it isn't is male space, discourse, themes, controlled or mediated by and through men. Beyond that, it can take a thousand forms - really the spirit of rebellion and power is the only commonality. That would be, and is, terrifying I think to a lot of men, here as in Angola etc etc (witness the mass hysteria around witches making men's penises "disappear", the metaphor couldn't be more clear. Women have been murdered for this idea...)

Really interesting stuff, apologies if I'm rambling.
posted by smoke at 6:15 PM on July 20, 2016 [9 favorites]


I was more of a pre-teen witch fan - although my fascination might've carried over into junior high.

I had, and adored, this book: The Active Enzyme Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch. That 70s cover sums up everything I loved about witches (a cat familiar being very high on the list.)

I'm trying to think of some of the other witchy books I loved. There was The Witches of Worm and The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Seems like there must've been others.
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:38 PM on July 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


I liked the article, though I thought it would have been improved by including less mainstream modern reinterpretations of witchcraft that pull from santaria, brujisma, and so on.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:06 PM on July 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


Yoko Ono - Yes, I'm a Witch

I am listening to this for the first time right now. I don't really know what to say about it but I feel like it ties in somehow. Yoko is my favorite witchy woman.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:05 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Sorceress? Just a better class of witch. Enchantress? Just a witch with good legs. The fantasy world. in fact, is overdue for a visit from the Equal Opportunities people because, in the fantasy world, magic done by women is usually of poor quality, third-rate, negative stuff, while the wizards are usually cerebral, clever, powerful, and wise.

Strangely enough, that's also the case in this world. You don't have to believe in magic to notice that.

Wizards get to do a better class of magic, while witches give you warts.
Back in 1968 even Ursula K. LeGuin fell into line behind this; I don't recall the precise context for it in a Wizard of Earthsea, but I was shocked when one character quoted with approval an old saw, 'weak as women's magic', and another responded with 'wicked as women's magic'.

And she caught some flak for that, too; Tehanu, some years later is, among many other things, a kind of corrective.
posted by jamjam at 10:18 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


I had, and adored, this book: The Active Enzyme Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch.

OMG! I loved that book! I had no memory of it at all until just now, reading your comment, and holy cow I am now regressing to middle school... Have you reread it recently? Does it hold up?
posted by Mchelly at 6:09 AM on July 21, 2016


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