Why the Witch?

Halloween is coming!

And with it, fun costumes that bring out the romance in people--in the older sense of the word.

Boston Legal has a typically heavy-handed but insightful episode where Christian parents and Wiccan parents sue a school for having a Halloween party, where the principal dresses up as a Wizard of Oz-type witch.

The Christians are upset at the paganism. The Wiccans are upset are the offensive costume. Both parties are cloying and judgmental and preachy.

The judge throws the case out of court. Halloween is fun! Get over it!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure the case being thrown out would happen nowadays. In any case, here is more info about the witch (re-post from Votaries):

But what about those witches?

1. The Puritans, including many accused witches, truly believed in magic. They truly believed that witches were a threat to social order and health. Think about it: how would you feel if your neighbor could actually control the weather, crops, and livestock? Oh, wait, the environmentalists do believe that! 

2. Although most accused witches were female, witchcraft was also practiced by men, and some male witches were accused, and some were hung (but yes, women were the bulk of the accused and executed).

3. Witches (male and female) tended to be accused in batches (this was true in Europe as well). Arthur Miller was right: communities require a zealous McCarthy-type to get witch trials started at all. 

Absent a zealot McCarthy-type, witch accusations tended to occur in small communities between particular individuals (gives one a whole new respect for civil lawsuits!).

4. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was more likely for a woman to die in childbirth than to be accused of being a witch. (Check out Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization by Dan Burton and David Grandy.)

5. Witches were NOT, collectively, sweet, wise, herb-collecting midwifes. In her excellent book The Witch Throughout History, Diane Purkiss tackles the New Age image of the sweet, wise, herb-collecting midwife witch.

Many midwifes were not only not witches, they helped to identify witches. Whatever anyone likes to tell you, the environmental/Wiccan stuff is a late development.

6. The push to stop witchcraft trials came from Puritan ministers (who were bothered by the lack of tangible evidence), not from "enlightened" outsiders. Prolific blatherers like Increase Mather attempted to focus attention on the theological principle rather than on the accused: "It is then evidence that the devil himself did that mischief [not the self-accusing woman]. It must, moreover, be sadly confessed, that many innocent persons have been put to death under the notion of witchcraft, whereby much innocent blood hath been shed." Of course, Mather then goes on to paint Catholics as more likely to burn witches than Protestants. This is incorrect. Inquisition or not, Protestant countries hung/burned as many if not more witches than Catholic countries. So, Mather is a two steps forward, three steps back politically correct kind of guy.

Now, none of my points make up for what bothers us moderns: innocent people being tried and convicted on what we consider false testimony. Just, let's not forget, such behavior is still going on, especially by people who passionately believe they are "saving" communities.

In terms of folklore, the popular image of the witch--female, crone, pointy hat, broom (Wicked Witch of the West)--appeared very early on. And, whether I like it or not, the image of the witch as a sweet, peace loving, herbal collector has gained sway in popular culture. The Wiccans are right about one thing: beliefs in witches and magic lasted long after the Puritans morphed into gentler (but just as noisy) religions. Stories about magic and witches were collected from the Schoharie Hills (New York) as late as the 1930s:

Mrs. Elisha Case used to be witched. She would sit in a chair with one knee uplifted, the foot off the floor, hours at a time. When her folks asked her why she sat like that, because of course it was "an awful hard position to keep," she said she couldn't help it. Her family sent a lock of hair, her name, and her age to Dr. Jake Brink, and he cured her.

In the early 20th century, the witch as enchantress gained a great deal of sway. Bewitched is the best of the positive examples. And Frozen.

Hey, the witch is powerful, fun, and wears recognizable clothes: either all black or floor-length glamorous!

Currently, Elsa (the enchantress) carries more attractive and romantic power than the Wicked Witch.

Both originate in a past that is still very much with us.