The Witch in Literature
Witchcraft to the Middle Ages
Sep 1, 2009 Christopher Mansour
The story of witchcraft and the witch herself is etched across time. No figure is more celebrated and reviled than the witch. Pagan theologian Isaac Bonewits sadly acknowledges that modern perspectives on "the craft" are mostly faulty (8). People, and religio-political agencies, label the witch according to their own intentions (8); some celebrate faiths like Wicca, others defame it. But what is certain is that history rightly or wrongly depicts the story of two witchcrafts--one benign, the other malevolent. No sincere attempt, argues Bonewits, has yet tracked its actual history.
Paleopagan Witchcraft and the Definition of Witch
The word "witch" has evolved from the Middle English word "wycche"(Bonewits 9), which in turn comes from the Old English words "wicce (feminine) and wicca (masculine)"(9). The "plural noun was wiccan" and "all these words refer to agents or performers of wiccian,...[or] sorcery"(Bonewits 9). The current word, witch, did not evolve until after its Middle English counterpart (9). For Ancient Indo-European cultures, the witch is one who magically manipulates objects or situations in her/his favour (Bonewits 10). A witch--like Isis or Circe--could vacillate between good and evil.
Witchcraft originated some "30,000 years ago in the Paleolithic period"(Brosier n.pag). Humanity, awestruck by nature's sublime power, sought ways to venerate the "spirits or gods" who controlled everything. "Animism--the belief in nature spirits", became the “earliest”(Brosier n.pag) religious expression. The Russian folktale "Vasilisa and the Witch", written under later conceptions of the witch, reflects the human fear of unknown forces and the need for magical protection. Upon her mother’s death, Vasilisa is bequeathed a magic doll. She must ever “keep it near" so that it "always protect[s] [her] from harm"(Kaye 194).
The Belief in Magic
Out of the veneration of nature, argues Brosier, comes "the concept of magic...., the idea that [a ritual]...can...bring about certain changes" or create a new "reality"(n.pag). Humans could finally act without the support of gods or spirits; they could even "influence" natural forces. Vasilisa's magic doll represents her mother's magical attempt to defend Vasilisa against a dangerous step family and the evil witch, Baba Yaga. It becomes the totem representation of that wellspring of maternal knowledge and power called 'mother'. Vasilisa's mother, by story's end, creates the reality she wishes for her child.
The belief in nature's maternal divinity led many cultures to revere women, and it is primarily women who utilized this magic (Brosier n.pag). Bonewits defines the classical witch as one with "real or apparent herbal, magical, and prophetic knowledge or powers"(12) who uses them "for good or ill--as she chooses"(Bonewits 13). For example, Vasilisa "never could have accomplished all her chores"(Kaye 195) doled by the wicked stepmother. A kind of imp-guardian fueled by scraps of food,the doll offers its motherly "advice" to Vasilisa as she "played in shady places and picked flowers"(195). It effectively safeguards her solitary, and tragic, childhood.
The Historical Witches
Who, then, were the first witches? Isis and Circe, amongst other Egyptian and Greek goddesses, frequently use magic to manipulate events. Isis uses magic for good and bad ends; her magic serpent "[sank] its fangs into the ankle of Ra"(Dee 41) so she could blackmail him into giving her the powers of creation. Later, her magic "awake[ns] [Osiris] from death"(44) and restores "justice and wisdom" to Egypt. Circe transforms Scylla into a multi-headed monster because Glaucus favours her.
Bonewits points to a different origin. The Celtic societies of mystic women who lived in groups on secluded islands, which were full of willows, the sacred trees of witchcraft, are the most likely candidates (15). But these were in addition to the solitary female "mystics" said to live reclusively "in the woods"(15).
The Witch's Role in Early Societies
No definite history of witchcraft's origin exists because of the "deliberate" suppression of "much of the evidence"(Bonewits 9). The Churches Catholic and Protestant, with their "reglious, economic, and/or political axes to grind"(9), destroyed much of the information and perceived the older religions as threats to Christianity's influence. One thing is certain: witches were never religious authorities, as say, the druids were. The druids use magic for religious motives.
In contrast, for "good or ill", the witch serves different motives (Bonewits 10-11). Like the willow, she "bends" forms to her will and thus signifies chaos. Celts and Euro-Mediterranean tribes had mystic healers, seers, diviners, midwives, and clergy (Bonewits 12). Each of these different roles could employ magic and the common folk could rely on "folk magic"(13). The witch, then, separate from these roles, was a specialized magic worker.
The prophetic powers of Vasilisa's doll harken back to ancient divination. As the stepmother finds excuses to "send her stepchild into the woods, hoping that Baba Yaga would...gobble her up"(Kaye 195), the doll compensates; it instinctively knows "which paths to take to avoid the witch"(195).
Witches During the Dark and Medieval Ages
Shortly before and after the medieval periods, the classical witch's role changed very little (Bonewits 13). She is most often "a peasant woman" with a mental repository of "old country wisdom and superstitions"(13) that evolved from Pagan beliefs and practices. She is still revered for her gifts and ministrations, but during the rise of Christianity, is made out to be "frightening and resented"(Bonewits 13).
Emblematic of this moment is Baba Yaga riding out before Vasilisa "in the bowl of a huge mortar which she pounded with an enormous pestle"(Kaye 196). The mortar and pestle herald the medieval witch as a loremaster with power over the natural forces. Yet all of this heralds a time of ambivalence regarding witches and witchcraft. An ambivalence heralding disaster!
Works Cited
Bonewits, Isaac. Witchcraft: A Concise History. 2001. Pocket PC Press. 10 Aug. 2009.
Brosier, Dan. Address. "A History of Witches." Unitarian Universalist Church of Elgin. Elgin, Illinois. 31
Oct. 2004.
Dee, Jonathan. Chronicles of Ancient Egypt. London: Prospero Books, 1998.
Kaye, Marvin, ed. Witches and Warlocks: Tales of Black Magic, Old & New. Garden City:
Guild America Books, 1989.
Witch Practicing Magic
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Vasilisa
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Circe
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