Today seen as a symbol of evil and represented by frightening images, these women were once considered guardians of life and death, playing an essential role in European peasant communities during the Middle Ages.
Witch. What image comes to your mind when you read that word?
It is not uncommon to imagine the witch as an older woman, endowed with a large, warty nose, wearing tattered clothes and a pointed hat, alongside her black cat, regarded as guardian spirits of the Art of Witches, and her cauldron, inevitably linked to evil. The image of the witch as a woman sitting on a flying broomstick, especially on full moon nights, who cast spells and transformed people into animals and who was wicked, is also very popular. Some authors use the term to designate wise women who possess knowledge about nature and possibly magic.
But where does this peculiar figure come from? Does every witch resemble the one you thought of? You might be surprised to learn that witches did exist in the real world. But they were not exactly as we describe.
Some witches gained notoriety, such as the so-called Salem Witches, the Witch of Évora, and Dame Alice Kytler (an English witch). They are also quite popular in fiction literature, such as in the books of the popular Harry Potter series, in the works of Marion Zimmer Bradley (author of The Mists of Avalon, which deals with a vast community of witches and wizards, most of whom prefer to avoid black magic), or the Mayfair witches trilogy by Anne Rice.
Nowadays, these ancient superstitions have softened, due to greater tolerance among religions, religious syncretism, and the dissemination of paganism. Gerald Gardner, the father of Wicca, the religion of modern pagan witchcraft, formed by people who are witches but who use the “Art of the Wise” or the “Old Religion” mixed with practices and knowledge from other traditions. The classification of magic as black and white does not exist for witches, as they are based on concepts of good and evil, which are not part of their beliefs; therefore, as they often say, all magic is gray. The Art of Witches, as it was practiced in ancient times, is called ‘traditional witchcraft, surviving to this day in select, often hidden groups.
The American scholar of mythology and religion Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) explains that, since the earliest times in history, women have been seen as the magical and mysterious force of nature, and this feminine power has awakened one of the greatest concerns of the masculine being: how to break it, control it, and use it for their own ends.
Etimology
It is believed to come from the Italian brucia (burn), from the verb bruciare (to burn), or from brixtia, which comes from the name of the Gallic goddess Bricta. There is also a possible relation to some proto-Celtic words, such as brixtom and brixtu – both with meanings associated with magic or spell. In the ancient Celtic-French language, in the case of the Larzac Tablet, the adepts used the term brixtia for “witchcraft”.
History
For intellectuals, these events were nothing more than popular imagination, dreams, nightmares, and thus they refused to admit the existence of witches. However, among many peoples, it was not so: the edicts of the Salian Franks spoke of the Strix as if it actually existed. The penitentials attested to the belief in these lustful women. In the early 11th century, Burcard, the Bishop of Worms, asked priests to question penitents to discover if they were followers of Satan and if they had the power to kill baptized Christians with invisible weapons.
Until the 13th century, the Church did not severely condemn this type of belief. But in the 14th and 15th centuries, the concept of magical practices, heresies, and witchcraft became confused in popular judgment due to ignorance. Generally, women were the ones accused. Heretics, Cathars, and Templars were violently condemned by the Inquisition, taking precedence over Jews and Muslims, who were the main targets of the first inquisition (13th century). Curiously, it was precisely from the first inquisition that Christian iconography began to represent the “Fallen Archangel” no longer as an archangel but with the appearance of pagan gods, such as Pan and Cernunnos. This fact would lead, centuries later, to the assumption that witches were worshippers of the Devil. In the Bible, it is reported that the Devil can take on various forms; therefore, they related him to their gods.
The movement to repress witchcraft, which began in the Middle Ages, reached greater intensity in the 15th century and, in the second half of the 17th century, its flame diminished.
In 1233, Pope Gregory IX admitted the existence of the sabbat and esbat. Pope John XXII, in 1326, authorized the persecution of witches under the guise of heresy. The Council of Basel (1431-1449) appealed for the suppression of all evils that seemed to ruin the Church.
A psychosis set in. Communities in central-western France accused their members of witchcraft. In Aquitaine (1453), an epidemic caused many deaths that were attributed to the women of the region, preferably the very thin and ugly ones. Imprisoned, subjected to interrogations and tortured, some ended up confessing their crimes against children and were condemned to the stake by the municipal council. Those who did not confess were often lynched and burned by the crowd, irritated by the lack of condemnation. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII promulgated the bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, confirming the existence of witchcraft.
In 1484, the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”) guided the witch hunt with even greater violence than previous works, associating heresy and magic with witchcraft.
The Inquisition, instituted to combat heresy, aggravated the mob of followers inspired by Satan. There was, moreover, a sexist component. Witches existed, but it was mostly women who were burned at the medieval stakes.
Witchcraft
Witchcraft had already been mentioned since the early centuries of our era. Authors like the Greek philosopher Lucius Apuleius (123-170) alluded to a creature that appeared in the form of an owl (Hecate). It is precisely from there that the image of the witch as an old woman comes, having the cauldron where she mixed the ingredients of her brews. In their communities, they were not seen as evil or wicked by nature; they were called ‘wise women’. Be that as it may, among the peasant populations of Europe, they were the healers, the counselors, the guardians of life and death.
Witches in Culture
If, after the 18th century, the Inquisition had already ended, the image of the witch constructed during that period remained. However, in response to changes in context, alternative representations of witches began to emerge.
We know, through cinema and television, an enormous variety of witches with grotesque and caricatured features, or just with characteristics distant from the beauty standard seen in princesses, evoking a sense of ‘ugliness’. Among these characteristics attributed to ugliness, we can cite old age and a large, warty nose, in witches like the one from the story of Snow White; skin of non-white color, like the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz; excess weight, which we can see in the character Ursula from Disney, and in the witch Onilda from the Spanish animated series of the same name.
Meeting the desires of a male audience that sexualizes women at any opportunity, many representations of hypersexualized witches also emerged, such as in the classic film Elvira. But one characteristic that seems to be constant among a good part of the witches in pop culture is wickedness.
In recent years, some stories have been transforming famous witches into anti-heroes, that is, characters who engage in morally negative acts but are motivated by good intentions or mere chance. The book Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, which became an award-winning Broadway musical, gives us another version of The Wizard of Oz, from the perspective of the witches (the bad and the good). It is also worth mentioning the witch Maleficent from Disney, who has had two films and the chance to tell her story and be better understood.
Even so, the image of the wicked witch is still so strong that if a child goes to a party dressed as Glinda (the good witch from The Wizard of Oz), she will certainly be mistaken for a fairy or princess.
Despite the change in the image of witches, their versions coexist, relate to each other, and feed back into one another. And, over the years, witches have also changed. These women who made the world happen since the dawn of humanity are now spread across all areas of knowledge of nature. If something has remained constant, it has been the difficulty of man to share the protagonism of history and the perverse attempts to artificially maintain his ‘moral, intellectual, and biological superiority’.
Children’s Literature
Since the emergence of children’s literature in the 18th century, the witch is a striking figure in children’s stories. Other enchanted and frightening beings, such as monsters, wolves, dragons, goblins, have also always been present in oral tradition tales.
The witch constitutes one of the most popular creations of the imagination – a symbol of contact with nature, the power of the feminine, and the desire for transformations. With a pinch of good and evil, they are represented with pointed hats, warts on their noses, and mysterious powers. They are horrendous, wicked creatures that fly on a broom and love to brew magical potions. This character is part of childhood across all times, in different cultures. In more modern narratives, she appears as more fun, clumsy beings who are not that bad after all.
In Brazil, the representation appears with the character Cuca, from Monteiro Lobato.
Fairy tales, in particular, speak in a universal and symbolic language. In them, we find an infinite richness that dispenses explanations, as they are assimilated and digested according to the needs of the child’s soul.
The stories give children a repertoire that contributes to their reading of the world. According to psychologists, psychiatrists, educators, and other specialists, in the figure of the witch, children find a way to deal with and confront their fears.
Halloween
Halloween is on October 31. Its tradition is quite strong in countries like the United States, Ireland, and Canada, where children dressed in frightening costumes go door to door to collect candy.
There are symbols of Halloween that are always present because they refer to the dark: carved pumpkins, witches, vampires, bats, spiders, ghosts, skulls, black cats, candles, zombies, and the colors orange, black, and purple.
Carved pumpkins with lit candles serve to light the way for the dead. Their use arises from the modification of an Irish legend, the legend of Jack O’ Lantern, the soul of a man who was neither accepted in heaven nor hell and who thus wandered the earth, lighting the nights with a turnip.
Saci Day
In 2003, Federal Law No. 2,762 established the celebration of Saci Day on October 31. This is because the introduction of Halloween in Brazil received much criticism, especially from the Catholic Church, which accused the celebration of being pagan and not educational.
In light of this, Saci Day was introduced to distance the tradition from the witches’ festival and instead celebrate Brazilian folklore.
The Saci, a mischievous boy with one leg, is one of the most emblematic figures of Brazilian folklore.
On this day, many educational institutions propose activities related to this folkloric figure.
The idea is to promote the story of Brazilian folklore, as many do not know the legends that involve the imagination of our country.
Despite the initiative, Saci Day is still not widely celebrated by Brazilians.
Since the officialization of the date in Brazil, schools usually hold events related to the figure of Saci.
Among the proposed activities, we suggest:
• Making a Saci doll;
• Making red hats;
• Reading legends;
• Theatrical performances;
• Games: Saci hunt, creating horse manes with wool and setting up a circuit with them to see who is the fastest to tie knots;
• Singing songs.
Sources: cienciahoje.org.br, wikipedia, educamaisbrasil.com.br