The Story of Witches E-Book

Willow Winsham

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 220

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The witch – malevolent, magical, multi-faceted - has walked among us for centuries. Demonic and deviant or liberated and revered, in this enchantingly illustrated book, Willow Winsham explores the many guises of the witch across folklore, history and superstition. From Hekate to Baba Yaga, from shape-shifting hares to Macbeth, the book starts with a rich dive into the ideas of the witch in myth, legend and fairytale. Next follows an exploration of popular belief and superstition during the witch trials across Europe and the United States, one of the most tumultuous and bloody of our collective history. The last section brings us to more recent times, exploring how how the image and identity of the witch has been reclaimed and reinvented, the significance of the Wheel of the Year, the advent of Wicca and modern Witchcraft and beyond. Finally and most crucially, we are left with the vital question: what have we learned from the past and what is the best way to approach our – often terrible – shared history of the witch?

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction:The World of the Witch

Part One:

From Hekate to Baba Yaga: Witches of Fairy Tale, Myth and Legend

Goddess of Witches: The Many Faces of Hekate

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble: The Witches of Macbeth

From Dame Gothel to Hansel and Gretel: Witches in Folk and Fairy Tales

The Witch with the Chicken-Legged Hut: Baba Yaga

Milk Magic: Butter Stealing and Milk Thieves

I Shall Go Into a Hare: The Hare and the Witch

From Alewives to the Wicked Witch of the West: Why Do Witches Wear Pointed Hats?

Perchta the Belly Slitter and other Midwinter Witches

Part Two:

The Witch Among Us: The Witch Trials and Beyond

Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch To Live

The Hammer of Witches: Malleus Maleficarum

Baby Fat and Sex with Satan: The Witches’ Sabbath

In the Devil’s Name

From Midsummer to Halloween: When Witches Meet

Taking to the Skies: Witches and Broomsticks

Pricking and Swimming: A Discovery of Witches

Imps and Demons: The Witch’s Familiar

Protection and Charms: How to Foil a Witch

Scratch the Witch

Part Three:

The Witch Cult and Beyond: The Many Paths of the Witch Today

Margaret Murray and the Myth of the Witch Cult

The Advent of Wicca

Robert Cochrane and Traditional Witchcraft

The Mother of Modern Witchcraft: Doreen Valiente

King of the Witches: Alexandrian Wicca

Dianic Wicca

The Reclaiming Tradition: Starhawk and The Spiral Dance

Solitary Practitioners: The Way of the Hedge Witch

Maiden, Mother, Crone: The Great Goddess

From Cernunnos to the Green Man: The Horned God

The Wheel of the Year

Gerald Gardner and Operation Cone of Power

A Dark Heritage: Remembering Our Witches

Acknowledgements

Select Bibliography

Index

Introduction:

The World of the Witch

The witch – malevolent, magical, multi-faceted – has walked among us for centuries.

An integral and often deeply troubling feature of our shared human experience, it is rare indeed to find a nation or culture without some concept of the witch. In our stories and superstitions, our traditions and our very history, the witch has been with us: at times lurking in the shadows, at others thrust into the limelight, but always, inescapably, present.

In the most basic terms, the word ‘witch’ has historically been used to mean one who causes harm to others through evil magic. Like the very spells witches are said to wield, words have power, and ‘witch’ has been used in many ways: as a slur; a way to denigrate, control and coerce; as a weaponized label thrust upon countless individuals without their consent, to name but a few. The villain of many a story, real or imagined, the terrifying truth of the witch is that she is both one of us, yet not: she is human, but also far from it.

This book explores the ever-evolving image of and beliefs surrounding the witch. There have been countless valuable volumes written about all aspects of witchcraft history and folklore, and it would take many, many more words than are available here to cover the history of the witch in its entirety. Instead, the pages that follow delve into the key aspects of witches: how they were viewed, treated and written about, both by those on the outside and by the witches themselves.

From Hekate to Baba Yaga, from shape-shifting hares to the witches of Macbeth, Part One is a rich dive into the many ideas and depictions of witches across folklore, myth and legend, fairy tale and superstition. Part Two delves into the tumultuous and bloody period of the witch trials, exploring the lives of those involved and the beliefs and experiences that made up one of the darkest periods of our collective history. What exactly was the Witches’ Sabbath? How did a witch bottle help identify a witch? Just how many people accused as witches lost their lives at the stake or gallows, and why? Part Three brings us through more recent times, looking in particular at how the image and identity of the witch has been reclaimed and reinvented, from the ideas of Margaret Murray and the witch cult, to the advent of Wicca and modern witchcraft and beyond.

Finally and most crucially comes the vital question: what have we learned from the past and what is the best way to approach our – often terrible – shared history of the witch?

Author’s Note: Due to the inevitable constraints of word count and space, it is impossible to do justice to the full wealth of witch and witchcraft-related belief across the globe. Therefore, the decision has been taken to focus primarily on material from Europe and the USA.

From Hekate to Baba Yaga: Witches of Fairy Tale, Myth and Legend

Humankind has always loved to tell stories. Before the written word, these stories were an essential mode of communication, an intrinsic necessity in order to pass on beliefs, traditions and warnings from one generation to the next. The first recorded fairy tale is believed to date back to 6,000 years ago, and it is clear that this is only the tip of the iceberg in our storytelling heritage.

Within this tradition of myths, legends and tales, witches have terrified, titillated and entertained us for millennia. Passed down by word of mouth and then on into the written record, tales of witches – powerful, cunning and often deadly – have held a timeless fascination for us. From the biblical Witch of Endor to the Arthurian Morgan Le Fay, from the witch in Hansel and Gretel to Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, otherworldly, with supernatural powers and abilities, the witch plays many roles. A figure of fear, the end point of a quest, an enemy to overcome, a warning: again and again, the witch confronts us through our superstitions, fairy tales, cautionary tales and legends, holding up a mirror to us as individuals and humankind as a whole. From ancient goddesses to fairy-tale stepmothers, the witch has been presented in a variety of forms, the only constant being that she is never far away.

It is also through this shared body of tales that we come closest to knowing the people of the past; what our distant ancestors thought, believed, did and feared. Through them we can glimpse how witches were viewed and treated, and the part the witch played in the minds and lives of everyday people.

Goddess of Witches:

The Many Faces of Hekate

Of all the deities of the ancient world, none can rival the Greek goddess Hekate for her position as most associated with witches and witchcraft. The goddess of darkness and magic, sacrifices and crossroads, today Hekate is the very embodiment of the witch, capturing the imagination of academics, writers and members of the Neopagan community alike.

Considering her later reputation, Hekate’s beginnings are surprisingly tame by comparison. The goddess’s origins are not found in Ancient Greece at all, and it is believed that her roots lie in Caria, a region of what is now modern-day Turkey. She was then assimilated into the Greek pantheon and in early Greek writings between 800 and 479 BCE, Hekate was a benign figure, not yet associated with magic and witchery.

In Hesiod’s Theogony, c. 700 BCE, Hekate was said to be the daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria. Despite the Titans being overthrown by the Olympian gods, Zeus, their king, favoured Hekate greatly and she received her share of honour. A benign and helpful goddess, Hekate was frequently prayed to, with many asking for her favour.

The first seeds of Hekate’s current identity are sown in Homer’s Hymn to Demeter. Written in the late 7th or early 6th century BCE. In it the goddess is explicitly linked to the Underworld – according to the text, the ‘tender-hearted’ Hekate witnessed the abduction of Persephone and became the girl’s attendant to escort her from the upper to the lower world, and back again. From this point, Hekate quickly became established as a liminal goddess: a guide during periods of transition, and by the Classical and Hellenistic periods, she became clearly associated with ghosts and magic. This Hekate strikes a terrifying figure indeed: haunting crossroads with her hounds and glowing torches, she is at one with the shadows, a chthonic goddess of the night. In the 1st century CE, Virgil uses ‘Hekate’s Grove’ to describe the entrance to Hell, and the goddess also came to be associated with necromancy and sorcery, further cementing her reputation.

Hekate was originally portrayed as a single figure, but from the 5th century BCE was increasingly depicted as a triple goddess with each of her three faces looking in a different direction. This is a reflection of her connection to crossroads, and her strong association with boundaries or borders of many kinds, such as the thresholds between places, realms or events. This further strengthened her link with the dead, as restless spirits, often those who had died before their time or in a violent and bloody manner, were said to gather at crossroads. It was believed that such spirits – and Hekate herself who ruled over them – needed to be appeased, and so deipna – suppers of cakes, bread, garlic and cheese – were left as offerings at crossroads for the goddess in the hope that she would give protection in return.

In Euripides’s play Medea, dating to the 5th century BCE, Hekate is shown clearly as a patron of vengeful magic and the Underworld, both furthering her connection with witches and bringing this reputation to a wider audience. Hekate is also invoked in curse tablets starting from this time, and examples include requests to bring an individual to ruin, or requesting that she, along with other deities, inflict someone with madness.

Witches are often said to possess the ability to transform others, and throughout ancient writings Hekate is linked with several instances of human-into-animal transformation. According to On the Characteristics of Animals by Aelian (from around the turn of the 2nd century BCE), Hekate, incensed by the sorceress Gale – well known for her inability to control her behaviour and her unnatural sexual appetites – turns her into a foul-smelling polecat.

Another human-to-polecat transformation linked to Hekate was that of Galinthias, who was transformed by the goddess Hera in punishment for her intervention during the birth of the demigod Herakles. Hera’s husband Zeus had got the mortal Alkmene pregnant. Angry at her husband’s infidelity, Hera instructed the Moirai – the Fates in Greek mythology – to withhold their customary help during her labour. Accordingly, the Moirai stood by the suffering woman’s bedside with their arms folded, ignoring her increasing torment. Galinthias, Alkmene’s friend or servant, was unable to stand the sight any longer, and tricked the Fates by saying that Alkmene had given birth to a boy – in their surprise, they unfolded their arms, thus allowing Alkmene to give birth at last. For her mercy, Galinthias paid a terrible price: Hera turned her into a polecat. In this story, Hekate was the saviour of the piece, as she was said to have taken pity on poor Galinthias in her new form and adopted her as a servant.

Hekate was also associated with dogs or hounds, and she is sometimes depicted with either a single dog or a whole pack. One tale suggests that her canine companion was in fact the Trojan Queen Hekabe or Hecuba. After the fall of Troy, the distraught queen leapt into the sea, seeking to end her life; there Hekate transformed her into dog form, and she remained with the goddess from then on.

In modern Wicca today, Hekate is said to represent the Great Goddess in her Crone form. She is a popular deity, invoked for guidance and protection, in particular where transitions are concerned. Hekate is still associated with witchcraft, the moon, crossroads and the Underworld, and rituals are performed in her name, in particular on the nights of the new moon and the Gaelic seasonal festival of Samhain.

Hekate hasn’t just been a source of inspiration in the art world, but also makes appearances across theatre, television and literature. One of her earliest cameos is in one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays: Macbeth. There she is portrayed as the merciless leader of the witches. Appearing in two scenes, she first rebukes the three witches for sharing prophecies with Macbeth without her say so, and, later, she returns to commend them on the spells they have cast. It is thought that Hekate may not have been an original character in the play, but that her scenes were added during the editing of the First Folio, potentially by the English playwright Thomas Middleton.

In more recent times, Hekate has continued to fascinate, with portrayals of the goddess varying in their degree of creative license. Among others, she is referenced in three episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and in the 1998 film Practical Magic starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and is clearly considered a powerful witch in both. In the TV show Charmed, she is portrayed as Queen of the Underworld, a figure that is more demon than goddess. In literature, Hekate appears several times throughout Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, in which the background assigned to the goddess is largely faithful to her original roots.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble:

The Witches of Macbeth

Fair is foul, and foul is fairHover through the fog and filthy air . . .

The image of Macbeth meeting the three witches who foretell his future greatness and equally spectacular downfall is deeply ingrained in the popular consciousness. Who exactly were these mysterious beings, and what were their origins?

Macbeth was first performed in or around 1606, at a time when witches were a hot topic throughout Europe. In Holinshed’s Chronicles, the original source material used by Shakespeare that was published around 30 years earlier, the witches are described as ‘three women in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of elder world’. Likewise in Macbeth, in appearance the characters are very witch-like indeed: withered and wrinkled, with chapped fingers, and thin, ‘skinny’ lips; they are clearly identifiable to both contemporaries and modern audiences as the well-known hag-like witch figure. The actions they discuss would have also been clearly recognizable to contemporary audiences as those of witches: one says she has been killing swine, while another admits to plaguing the sailor husband of a woman who denied her, sending storms and sickness to him in revenge. These were common accusations against witches throughout the period and beyond.

The iconic cauldron scene further supports the identification of the three sisters as witches. Among the myriad gruesome ingredients mentioned is ‘finger of birth-strangled babe’, alluding to the fact that witches were said to use the bodies of unbaptized children in their wicked concoctions. ‘Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark’ and ‘slips of yew’ were also closely associated with witchcraft, as were the many other ingredients listed such as toads and frogs. It appears therefore that the three are witches, through and through.

The matter may not, however, be so clear-cut. Although listed as witches, in the text of the First Folio edition of 1623 the women are referred to as ‘weyward’ or ‘weyard’ sisters, a fact that has sparked debate regarding the exact identity of Macbeth’s ‘witches’. The first explanation is the simplest: wayward, meaning obstinate, unruly and stubborn, simply describes the witch-like personalities of the three. Some, however, highlight that ‘weyard’ actually pertains to ‘wyrd’, implying a somewhat different origin. Wyrd was an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian term meaning fateful or having to do with fate and, in Old Norse, one of the Norns – or Fates, of whom there were also three – is often named Wyrd. It is suggested therefore that the three sisters were in fact actually goddesses or beings of fate and destiny; the prophetic role they take on in the play likewise hinting at this dual identity. Holinshed also refers to the three women as ‘weird’, stating that ‘the common opinion was that these women were either the Weird Sisters... the goddesses of destiny, or else some nymphs or fairies endued with knowledge of prophecy by their necromantical science,’ and Shakespeare’s witches likewise retain some of this function, performing several acts of prophecy throughout the play.

Whether witch or fate or something in between, the ‘Weird Sisters’ have long exerted a powerful hold over our imaginations, and have been depicted in a variety of ways in both works of art and fiction. There have been at least 40 film adaptations of the play, and the witches have been adapted to various different cultures, such as their portrayal as voodoo priestesses in the 1948 film by Orson Welles. The witches were also utilized for political satire: in 1791 James Gillray parodied the famous painting of the witches by Henry Fuseli in a piece called Weird Sisters; Ministers of Darkness; Minions of the Moon, in which he inserted the then home secretary, prime minister and lord chancellor in place of the witches.

Macbeth’s witches also feature in one of the best-known superstitions of the theatre. According to popular belief, the play itself is cursed, and it all stems back to these characters. As legend has it, the Witches’ incantations included by Shakespeare were actually real spells and this so angered a local coven that real witches cursed the play. As a result, the first actor cast as Lady Macbeth is said to have died before opening night, forcing Shakespeare to play the part himself. Thus began a long line of tragedies and mishaps ascribed to the power of the curse: from Laurence Olivier narrowly escaping death when a stage weight of over 11kg (25lb) nearly landed on him, to the 1849 Astor Place Riot in New York between two rival companies over the correct interpretation of Macbeth, which resulted in the death of at least 22 people.

From Dame Gothel to Hansel and Gretel:

Witches in Folk and Fairy Tales

Fairy tales and folk tales are, for many of us, our first introduction to the idea of witches. Whether being read ‘Hansel and Gretel’ as a bedtime story, or watching a production of The Snow Queen on stage, witches and witch-like characters are introduced into our subconscious from our earliest days. Details may vary from place to place, from culture to culture, but the main characteristics of the witch within these tales are remarkably consistent and provide a fascinating insight into our deepest, darkest fears and imaginings.

One thing that is immediately clear is that witches in such tales are nearly always women. This is unsurprising, and reflects the fact that historically, in many areas, it was mainly women who were accused of witchcraft. Although a significant number of men were in fact also named as witches, in the fictional realm male characters that practise harmful magic are instead usually called wizards or sorcerers, and are viewed differently as a consequence by both readers and other characters within the story.

Although fairy and folk tales have diverse plots and messages, it is possible to loosely identify several broad ‘types’ when it comes to the witch. The most common witch type is that of the evil, malevolent witch, using her powers for nefarious purposes. Inherently bad, the actions of this witch are selfishly motivated, and she has little or no redeeming features. In such tales, the outward appearance of the witch usually matches their ugly inner selves: old and haggard, with a hooked nose and dressed in rags, they are, quite simply, the stereotypical fairy-tale witch that we have come to expect.

One well-known example is the witch from ‘Hansel and Gretel’, as recorded in Kinder und Hausmärchen or Grimms’ Fairy Tales, first published in 1812. Living in the middle of the forest in her house made of bread, with cake for a roof and clear sugar windows, she lures the unsuspecting children into her lair with the promise of help, but with the plan to fatten them up and eat them. The idea of the cannibal-witch was a prevalent popular belief, and this very real fear is often reflected in such tales, further illustrating the evil nature of the witch.

Deceit is another common trait. In the Romanian tale, ‘The Morning Star and the Evening Star’, the young Siminok encounters a wicked witch in the woods while looking for his lost brother. She promises him aid but, unsurprisingly to the reader, goes back on her word, threatening – in another case of the cannibal-witch trope – to eat him. However, the young man is well prepared for her treachery, and the witch is torn apart by his dogs in a satisfying triumph of good over evil.

There are countless other examples of the stereotypical evil witch, and in these tales the witch frequently represents the epitome of all evil, in stark contrast to the pure and good hero or heroine. These witches most often come to a bad end, which is considered a necessary and just punishment for their wicked ways.

Another familiar trait of the fairy-tale witch is that of shape-shifting. While generally portrayed as old and ugly, in ‘Hansel and Gretel’ the witch is able to alter her appearance to be more pleasant in order to trick her young victims. In the Russian fairy tale ‘The White Duck’, the king tells his new wife not to leave her quarters while he is away on a journey. The queen is tempted outside, however, by a wicked witch who transforms her into a duck, while changing her own appearance into that of the queen so that she can take her place.

There are also many instances of a witch changing the form of another character. Márya Tsarévna’s witch-like stepmother in ‘The Dun Cow’ employs transformative magic to change the girl into a goose so that her own daughter can marry the handsome prince. Márya is transformed in turn into a frog, a lizard, various insects, and finally a spindle before, thanks to the determination of the prince, she regains her human form. In ‘The Fair Angiola’, an Italian tale by Thomas Frederick Crane, the witch transforms Angiola’s face into that of a dog. Unusually, at the end of the story the witch is merciful and removes the enchantment. In ‘The Twelve Wild Ducks’ from Norway, a wicked witch transforms the 12 sons of the queen into wild ducks. They are ultimately saved by their devoted sister, who remains silent for seven years while sewing 12 shirts from nettle leaves, thus freeing them from the enchantment and the witch’s power. This idea is the theme of several other tales that follow a broadly similar storyline, including Hans Christian Andersen’s popular ‘The Wild Swans’.

Self-serving and duplicitous by nature, a witch is often seen to make a bargain with the protagonist or another character. At these times, the witch preys on an individual’s weakness or need, granting help in return for a terrible price. In the Danish tale ‘The White Dove’, two princes promise their unborn younger sibling to a witch in return for saving their lives at sea, a bargain made in the face of great peril that they would live to regret once the immediate danger was past.

Fairy-tale witches are often shunned by their local community and therefore are often found living in remote locations such as in caves or forests, further reinforcing the image of the witch as ‘other’ and outside of normal, civilized society. Perhaps most famously, Baba Yaga, the popular witch featured in many Slavic tales, lives deep in the forest in her chicken-legged hut. In the German ‘Jorinde and Joringel’, the titular characters discover a witch’s castle after venturing through a mysterious forest. This isolated location is a useful plot device, and often the protagonist must find the witch in order to complete their quest or journey; or sometimes, it is upon discovering a witch in her out-of-the-way abode that a quest is issued.

When portrayed as evil, with few or no redeeming features, the witch often meets a bad end. In some versions of ‘The Three Golden Hairs’, the witch’s power is broken when the protagonist manages to pluck the three golden hairs that are the seat of all her power. The witch then vanishes and the child she has stolen is rescued, a demonstrable triumph of good over evil. In ‘The Witch in the Stone Boat’ from Iceland, a village is under the power of an evil witch. Erik, the brave protagonist – armed with a charm from a ‘wise old woman’ in his village – is victorious and the witch is defeated. Some conclusions are particularly apt: in ‘Hansel and Gretel’ the witch meets her end in the very oven where she had planned to cook the children, while in ‘The Golden Bird’ the witch dies when her own tree falls on her.