What everyone must be asking…

So many of you probably wonder if I believe witches are real or if in any shape or form ever existed. Well in fact today they actually do (paganism and Wicca), but most people probably think when someone first is gonna write about Witches we are gonna hear too much of their opinion, see that they put witches with other mythical creatures (vampires, werewolves) , and use shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch to back up their opinion.

That was never my intention and actually I do believe witches are real. Not in the magical sense so much as the historical sense. We can look back as far as the 1500’s and read up on witch hunts, trials, executions and see its written not just in English, but other languages. We can also see it occurs throughout so many religions, especially the most popular religions and groups. History is a great tool to use in my argument and it is also a very strong one. Yes many morals and beliefs brought the term witch into the dictionary but that is because people hated when other people didn’t believe in what they did. Minorities (religious) back in the 1500’s didn’t have much say and in fact were the outcasts of society so people wished to get rid of them and is what would eventually lead to the executions and hunts.

Thanks for a great semester everyone! I had so much fun reading and writing for everyone! Hope you enjoyed some of the great facts I found on a subject they definitely don’t teach you in any class! 🙂

Witches in our World Today

Paganism and Wicca.

These two religions incorporate what people back during the Salem Trials would have deemed “witches”.

It might seem crazy to think that these religions exist today, but they do. They are derived from Christianity and have approximately 1 million people practicing worldwide that are accounted for. Many people are sworn to secrecy or are afraid of being persecuted for their different religious beliefs so there is a large portion of the world population that is swept under the rug.

We do not hear of green ugly ladies riding broom sticks and casting evil spells on other humans. We may hear of the Pagans making a stance on who they are and how they have the rights to practice their religion despite federal  laws that may or may not be in place. In the United States Pagans are free of persecution by the government, but many still fear persecution from their community. People often leave this off resumes or applications so that they aren’t discarded from receiving a job solely on the fact they are a religious minority.

Warlocks

By definition a warlock is a male witch or a male that practices witchcraft.

Many male witches actually occurred throughout history and it can commonly be mistake that only women can be witches.

One of the first men to ever be accused of being a witch was John Proctor. During the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 John Proctor was a successful farmer who was singled out for his discrepancy with the girls that reported that witches had hurt them. He was sure they were lying. Then his servant Warren was experiencing fits and spasms and he beat her until they subsided. The women then posted on the town meeting house that the girls were essentially lying to the towns government. However, it wasn’t until Proctors third wife Elizabeth, who was pregnant, was accused of witchcraft that John himself became a prime suspect alongside his servant Warren. The couple were convicted, arrested and put on trial. They were both found guilty of witchcraft and consequently were sent to the gallows.

Spells and Powers

One of the most common powers that witches are known to use are spells. Spells can be phrases, words, formulas or even a combo of all of these. Reciting a certain incantation several times are very useful to a witch for they believe it draws in more energy. Sometimes spells can include binding something such as wax or herbs to draw in more power. Other objects such as amulets, potions or concoctions are used in a ritual.

Witches also believe in Necromancy which is the practice conjuring spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy. However, others believe it is used to call out to the dead for other reasons.

Covens

A coven is a group of witches , preferably 13, that meet regularly. The word was promoted by an English woman named Margaret Murray in 1921. Covens take place today in Neopaganism or “Wicca” for congregations of witches to meet and share the same beliefs. Also Online covens are on the rise because of he increased technological use in this world and the spread of Paganism and Wicca through technology. One of the first online Wicca covens ever created is called Coven of the Far Flung Net and it was established in 1998 by the Church of Universal Eclectic Wicca. Literature and even pop culture have begun to adapt the term Coven into their cinematic themes. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth we encounter 3 “weird” sisters that are witches and in more recent times American Horror Story has had a full season solely focused on a coven of witches. I highly recommend looking into checking these works of art out and getting some insight into what a Coven is. Although the literature or film maybe dramatic in many aspects its still interesting to learn about.

The Inevitable: Salem Witch Trials

A quick run through:

Took place in Colonial Massachusetts from 1692-1693.

The religious views of the time consisted of Puritan beliefs and the following of the Protestant Church.

The initial crime: Two young girls claimed they were poked and prodded by 3 women named Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Titbuta.

Things to keep in mind: Family feuds took place between the parents of the young girls and the families of the accused.

Good was accused because of her “disgusting” appearance and her lack of Puritan beliefs.

Osborne was accused because of her remarriage to her indentured servant showed her lack of beliefs in the church.

Tibuta was accused because she was a slave and her difference in ethnicity with the other villagers.

Some believed them to be witches and other kept their mouths shut in order to not point out the family feuds that could have caused this.

Following these women 36 others were additionally accused of witchcraft and had warrants placed in their names. Any women that defended the accused was then accused of being a witch as well. The Puritans then realized that some of the accused were full members of the church and that membership could not save you. Therefore any family members associated with the accused were also convicted. Even Sarah Good’s 4 year old daughter was questioned and interrogated like the others.

Many of these MEN and women were executed by hanging, including Sarah Good and her family. Others would be beaten or stoned to death.

Blair Witch Project: Myth or Fact?

The Blair Witch Project was a movie that came out in 1999 that was claimed to be a true story about 3 young adults that traveled into the Black Hills of Burkittsville, Maryland to seek out the legend known as the Blair Witch. The three were later claimed “missing” and their footage of what took place before their disappearance was found in 1994. The question is though how true is this story? Is it a urban legend? Maybe a lie to scare people from going into abandoned woods? Or is it true that these events occurred?

This one article holds to believe the whole story was a scam. The evidence does prove to be true when first looking up claims to the Blair Witch Project that these events are true and the victims that fell to this event actually existed. Fake names, posts, blogs and articles were made to provide evidence that this event took place and as always the public believed every piece of it. That is until some people became skeptical and decided to investigate further. The findings were shocking. The Blair Witch Project was uncovered as being fake and the truth became lies.

HOWEVER, another question that is asked is that does the legend of The Blair Witch actually exist???

The assumed legend was that a witch was convicted and hung in the Black woods of Burkittsville, Maryland where her body was left to decay. In 1786 a young girl named Robin entered the woods and became lost. She was approached by a women whose feet did not touch the ground and led her to the basement of a house. The witch said she would return soon, but when night fall came the witch never returned and the girl became frightened and ran through the woods to return home. When she made it home the first search party was still in the woods and never returned. A second search party was then conducted for the first and all the people were found dead in the formation of a star with their organ cut out of them.

Then in the late 1940’s a hermit named Rustin Parr kidnapped 8 children and murdered all of them except for one which he let go in the basement of the old house in the woods. Parr was pled guilty and claimed the old woman told him to do it.

Choose to believe what you wish, but take into account ALL the evidence.

My Take on the 9 Reasons You Might Have Been Suspected of Witchcraft

WARNING: I found this lovely article online that was written by Marilynne Roach for the HuffPost Book Blog.

I thought these 9 Reasons were very interesting and the details of how she picked these reasons are made in a clear introduction into the history of 1692 that you can look at here.

THE 9 REASONS

1.You are female

• this is still typical today when we watch movies, shows or dress up for halloween

2.You are middle-aged

• Not old, but certainly not young and beautiful

3.You are associated or related to a known suspect of witchcraft

• makes sense with the way laws were carried out then

4.You are of a English Puritan background

• I find this one odd..

5. You are married and have little to no children

• Most cases show that there are no children with those accused,but if they did have a child they were also convicted as a witch.

6. You are contentious and stubborn with the rules and morals of society

• If you can’t be like everyone else then you are therefore deemed a witch.

7. You have committed or have been accused of other crimes

• Once a criminal always a criminal?

8. You are of a low social class

• if you were poor, rude, disliked by neighbors and community

9. A confessed witch accuses you of being a witch

• I mean how could they not back in 1692?

 

If witch trials were given today instead of in 1692 things might have gone differently. Now that there is a Constitution in place and a justice system with many tiers, accused witches could have gone free in this world as of today. These stereotypes back then led to their deaths and today witches are costumes and presumed “magical”.

 

Halloween: Witches and their Sidekicks

Starting off with halloween, witches are known for bringing death, inflicting pain and associating with the devil, but why is it they are now a common logo for halloween? It all started way before Christianity became the religion that dominated Europe and Asia. Where many people had different morals and some worshiped more than one god (polytheistic). Those who were polytheistic were called Pagans and Pagans were eventually dominated by the Christians who gave them the all or nothing choice. Convert or die. Celts who were European pagans had a number one holiday called Samhain which is todays Halloween. Samhain for pagans was the end of one year and the beginning of a new year and celebrated the ancestors who has passed, believing that the world between the living and the dead was the thinnest. Essentially they believed their relatives and ancestors could comeback to earth for the day.

The pairing of cats with witches was not always a thing. It started in Egypt where they believed gods and goddesses could embody cats. This then spread across Europe and Asia where cultures paired the witch and cat together due to the mysterious odds of a cat and the occult they bring. When pairing these two together it became synonymous that the cat was a servant sent by the devil to help the witch.

 

How to Kill a Witch 101

WARNING:This is not a tutorial!!!!!

Unfortunately you can’t kill a witch by pouring water on them like in the Wizard of Oz. However, throughout the 16th-18th centuries witches were killed in different ways. Certain countries and cultures had different traditions in which witches were to be killed when convicted. The most common forms were hanging, drowning and burning. Europe generally would burn their convicted witches at the stake, which is seen as the most painful way to die. In Colonial America, cases of witchcraft were usually dealt with by hanging those accused. I found a list of some of the witches that had been executed throughout the 16th-18th centuries. It lists the name of the accused, their years of life, their location, and how they were executed. A reoccurring pattern I kept seeing on the list was that the Swedish mainly killed their accused witches by beheading them. Beheading is a very old form of execution for those who have committed a crime and the years these witches were beheaded were within the 1500’s up until the very early 1600’s. There are no recorded beheading’s of witches after that and no reason as to why the change occurs. The list doesn’t actually claim any of the witches were executed by drowning so I went to find more research on the execution form of drowning. In Europe during the middle ages drowning was used as a form of capital punishment. It was used to determine the whether or not a woman was a witch and if the alleged woman drowned she was innocent and if she didn’t she was deemed a witch.  During this time drowning was seen as the least brutal execution style and therefore is why is was used for women.