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Why Are We Afraid of Witches?

Everyone knows what a witch is. She's got green skin, her chin and her nose almost meet, and one or both of them sports a wart. She wears a black, pointed hat with unkempt hair straggling beneath it. She stirs up evil-smelling potions with ingredients named "eye of newt" and "salamander oil."

Or maybe she's a sexy siren, like the witches depicted in the popular TV shows Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Sabrina the Teenaged Witch. Her incantations and potions result in flashy colored lights, vanquished demons, and instant makeovers. She worships some kind of Goddess, and she might be a lesbian.

She's dangerous. She's powerful. She can fuck you up, so you better not mess with her.

Like most stereotypes, these images of witches are distorted, generalized, and inaccurate. But stereotypes often contain within them a grain of truth. And the image of a terrifying, powerful woman with connections to the "otherworld" does indeed bear a resemblance to both ancient and modern witches. We'll explore the myths and realities of modern witches later. But for the time being, let's take a closer look at the connotations of this most powerful and polarized of words. Let's take a closer look at why we are afraid of witches.

Like many words in the English language, the meaning and connotations of the word witch have evolved and changed over the centuries. Merriam-Webster online offers the following etymological references:

Middle English wicche, from Old English wicca, masculine, wizard & wicce, feminine, witch; akin to Middle High German wicken to bewitch, Old English wigle divination, and perhaps to Old High German wIh, holy

Please note that the majority of these references do not, in fact, explain the cultural meanings of these words, but merely repeat the modern word with all its connotations intact. The last two, however, with their translations of "divination" and "holy," offer clues as to the original meanings of the word.

Rather like the change of language itself, the change in attitudes toward witches took place over many centuries.

Modern pagans point to the Anglo-Saxon word wic (to bend, to twist, or to shape) as the root of the words witch and Wicca. Wic also gives us the modern word wicker, which gives one a sense of the bending, twisting, and shaping those old pagans were describing. Wic also bears a close resemblance to the word wise. In various early literary references, the words witch and wise woman were used synonymously.

These references suggest that at one time, the Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic/Celtic tribes believed that a class of people in their societies were capable of bending, twisting, and shaping reality. Not breaking it or cutting it down, but bending it like the reeds and weaving it into something resembling the firm but flexible structure of a piece of wicker furniture.

Like the shamans of old, the place these wicce held in society varied location to location, as did their customs and rituals. They were, however, generally held in some esteem by their neighbors. They offered an entrance into another world, not one that was frightening and spooky, but one that was more difficult to see or contact. Folk wisdom and archaeological evidence both suggest that these wicce often possessed knowledge of herbs and healing, and performed a function very similar to Native American shamans, African witch doctors, and Latin American curanderos/as.

So when did witchcraft become synonymous with devil worship, baby-killing, and other heinous crimes against nature? When did witches change from wise women to evil creatures? It didn't happen suddenly. Rather like the change of language itself, the change in attitudes toward village wise women (and men) took place over many centuries and seems to be related to the rise in popularity of a new cult with its origins far to the south and east of modern-day Britain, Germany and France.

Today known as Christianity, the followers of this new religion endured centuries of oppression and persecution within the Roman empire before eventually rising to power and supremacy in Rome, and later through the rest of Europe. The ancient Roman empire was the first to expose some of the Celtic and Germanic tribes to the concept of patriarchy. Please note that I say some of the Celtic and Germanic tribes, since there were as many different kinds of Celts and Germanics as there are Native Americans.

I'm not here to argue that men are better than women or that women are better than men. Frankly, I think it's like arguing that apples are better than oranges. They're both just fruit.

Let's take a moment to think about the word "patriarchy," a term bandied about a great deal by feminists and other lefties and often used as a scapegoat for all the ills of the modern age. If you don't fall into the former camp, please pause a moment before closing this window and moving on to the Yahoo or eBay websites. What exactly is patriarchy, and why do some seem to regard it in the same light they do witchcraft?

Patriarchy is "social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power." (Ibid.) I'm not here to argue that men are better than women or that women are better than men. Frankly, I think it's like arguing that apples are better than oranges; some folks prefer one over the other, but that doesn't mean that God loves an apple more than an orange. They're both just fruit.

Nor am I going to try to convince you that patriarchy is to blame for poisoning our planet, high infant mortality in Africa, or the high price of gasoline. That's for another essay. I do want to point out, though, that there is a correlation between the rise of patriarchy and Christianity across Europe and the vilification of witches and other "uppity women." And that eventually this vilification led to the public execution of untold numbers of men, women, children, and even barnyard animals across Europe and the New World.

The logic of Christian misogyny went something like this: God is Holy and God is made of the Spirit. Temptations of the flesh are evil and will lead us to hell. Our basic struggle is to rise above the flesh, forsaking it altogether. (Please note that medieval monks and nuns went to some serious extremes to forsake the pleasures of the flesh, including subsisting on bread and water, self-flagellation, and going about barefoot in the wintertime.) Since women are responsible for bringing us into the world, they are therefore to blame for our tendency toward evil. Therefore, women are naturally closer to the temptations of the flesh, and more susceptible to the Devil.

You can find evidence of this and other lines of reasoning supporting men's spiritual supremacy throughout centuries of church literature. Most notorious is the Malleus Maleficarum (literally: the Hammer of Evil-Doers, or Witches), the product of the fevered imagination of a couple of Italian monks, and the favorite reference of Inquisitors.

A great deal has been written about The Burning Times, as pagans refer to the witch-trials that swept through Europe and the New World. Some of the historical facts of this period remain in dispute, but what is clear is that any woman who aspired to an education, a trade, or (gasp!) a position of authority within a community risked being accused as a witch. Men and children were not spared, either—nor, in some cases, were animals. In France, entire towns fell before the zeal of the Inquisitors.

This ugly period of history, however, does not grant modern Pagans any sort of moral superiority over their Christian fellows. Just as it's preposterous to suppose that either men or women (apples or oranges) are inherently evil, so too is it absurd to argue that any religious tradition is inherently evil. Some modern pagans describe themselves as "recovering Catholics" or "recovering Christians," often because of their own personal experience of other Christians. The basic teachings of Christ—and of the Hebrew prophets before him—were admirable. How can you argue with "Thou shalt not kill" or "Love thy neighbor as thyself"?

Is any particular religion evil? Or do humans possess the capacity for evil within themselves?

In general, one finds that the aims and teachings of any religious tradition are well-intended. Zeus, Jesus, Mohammed, and Odin (to name a few) all had good advice. Their followers would gather together to connect with God (or whatever they chose to call that Divine Force from which we came and to which we return) and to build a working, supportive community. Unfortunately, these same followers also used their imperfect human logic to dream up throwing Christians to the lions in the Coliseum, the Crusades, the September 11 bombings, and The World Church of the Creator. Does that mean that Roman paganism, Christianity, Islam, and Odinism are evil religions? Or does it mean that human beings possess within them the capacity to do horrible things to themselves, one another, and the very earth they walk upon?

Witches are no more evil than Christians, Muslims, or Jews. We are, however, a little harder to define than Muslims, Jews, Christians, or even Buddhists. We don't even agree on what we like to be called. Some of us prefer the term "witch." Others want to be called pagans, heathens, Goddess-worshipers, Wiccans, shamans, or any of thousands of terms that describe particular pagan traditions. Some of us hate the word "witch" and some of us claim it proudly. Some of us don't even consider ourselves pagans, and some of us are saying, "Why does that bitch keep referring to us?" Who gave her the right to speak for me? I'm a [insert word here], not a [insert other word here].

To those people, I say write your own damn essay.

For more information about Wiccans, witches, pagans, and other related folks, visit my successor's site at About.com.

Bright blessings,