What Does It Mean To Be A Witch?
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What Does It Actually Mean To Be A Witch?
By: Laurie Rihiimaki | Feb. 11, 2019
The term, ‘witch’ gets thrown around in everyday life soaked with a long history of negative connotation.‘Witch’ derives from the Old English noun, ‘wicca’ meaning a male witch and ‘wice’ meaning a female witch or sorceress. However, this negative stigma has recently been viewed as outdated and tired. So, what does it mean to be a witch?
Definition of A Witch
In general, witches today can be defined in three ways: someone who actively practices magical rituals or spells, someone who has a spiritual connection such as a psychic medium or a tarot reader, or someone who worships the Pagan gods.
The reality of what it means to be a witch today carries many traditions of the Pagan religion; something which was previously thought to be tied to the devil or satanic rituals. Modern day witchcraft often includes the lighting of candles, meditation, yoga, incense, the smudging of sage, crystals, dream analysis, and other rituals connected to Pagan roots.
However, witchcraft is simply about using the power of the universe and the mind to attract wants and desires. It’s about being in tune with Earth’s natural resources and using them to mystically quench a spiritual thirst.
How to Spot A Witch
Spotting a witch today compared to the 1600s is an entirely different puzzle. Nowadays, it’s rather easy to determine who’s a witch because they are generally proud of their mystical practice. We now know you can’t simply label someone a witch based on their physical appearance or outspokenness.
But, in the late-1500s to mid-1600s in Eastern Europe and early colonial America, witches were named purely based on societal suspicion. For example, if a woman was outspoken, she was a witch. If she owned land or had a great deal of assets, she was a witch. If a woman was widowed or a spinster, she was considered out of the ordinary, therefore, she was deemed a witch.
After the label ‘witch’ was plastered on a woman in the community, there were many ways to theoretically prove her connection to the feared and mysterious craft. One of these tests included the bizarre witch cake; a rye flour cake baked with the urine of the accused, which was then fed to a local dog that the community observed to determine if it showed the same behaviors as the ‘witch.’ People believed the urine would transmit satanic juices to the dog because of its supposed association with the devil.
There were many other devised strategies to determine the presence of a witch in the community including:
- Weighing the accused against a stack of bibles
- Asking them to recite the Lord’s prayer
- Counting the number of pets they had
- Counting the number of marriages they had
- Asking them if they had dreams that included Native Americans or their culture
- Observing if they talk to themselves
These tests and many others determined a community member’s right to continuing living.
The accused was also searched for the physical mark of a witch, including birthmarks, scars, or extra nipples. These mysterious physical marks, which we now discern as common biological features, were considered signs of the devil’s presence. The accused were pricked with knives on these marks; if the mark did not bleed, they were deemed a witch.
The Destigmatization of Witches
Witchcraft is not as highly feared as it once was. There are no widespread witch hunts or constant fear associated with the neighborhood spinsters and widows. The destigmatization of witches is seen more and more in our everyday lives as popular stores sell tarot cards and crystals. While smudging with sage and owning a spell book is a trending lifestyle add-on visible all over Instagram.
While this destigmatization of witches may seem trendy on the surface, as it’s popularly marketed, the spread of witch-awareness is closely related to a greater cause: the women’s empowerment movement rapidly spreading across the world.
Today, people recognize the need for a change in energy relating to the female’s place in society, but often women are feared for being strong-willed and outspoken. Then, like now, powerful women or those with important titles often face greater challenges than their male counterparts. In the 1600s they were burned at the stake or stoned to death; today, they can face belittlement of their accomplishments, their morality questioned, or reputations intentionally tarnished.
With that being said, one could argue that witchcraft is a necessary addition to modern society as it illuminates the daily struggles of women on various levels. With that feminist insight in mind, it’s vital to remember that witchcraft is not just one single thing across the board. It’s certainly not just the performance of spell casting or the donning of crystals. It’s an understanding of one’s own spirituality. And, at this period in time, which is faced with drastically polarizing viewpoints, it is essential to have beliefs that we can mold to our own specific needs.
Peruvian School Closes After Ouija Board Session Summons Spirits
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Ouija boards can be pretty divisive – some consider them a toy, while others vehemently believe they can invoke spirits from the other side. But even if you fall within the former belief, some bizarre news out of Peru has locals believing in demonic possession from the use of a Ouija board and a book of black magic at a remote university.
The San José de Saramuro school, a local college in a jungle town three hours outside of Iquitos, shut down after 27 students became hysteric from Ouija spiritism, according to Peruvian news organization RPP Noticias. The occult grimoire was brought into school by one teacher’s daughter for the unexpectedly dark show and tell.
According to reports, teachers heard screams from the classroom before finding students writhing around on the floor, unable to form coherent sentences. Word spread around school that students were possessed by a demonic force. Parents brought their kids to churches until they calmed down and their possession subsided, and the school decided to close its doors for a week.
Now, let’s give these kids the benefit of the doubt, but is there a possibility this may have been a concerted effort to get out of school for a week? Or maybe something along the lines of a senior prank?
This is especially plausible when you consider the fact that a similar event occurred just two years ago at another school in Peru, in a near-identical situation; girl brings Ouija board to school, tries to contact dead spirits thought to be buried in a mass grave below school, mass hysteria ensues, demonic possession blamed.
But in this 2016 case, students reported hallucinations of a “tall man in black with a beard” chasing them and, in some cases, strangling them. In videos aired on a Peruvian news channel, one can see students convulsing, crying, and screaming en masse, as first responders and fellow students try to calm them. According to reports, the school brought in doctors, priests, holy men, and anyone with a modicum of expertise in these situations to quell the chaos, while parents, again, took their children to churches until they calmed down.
And while this too could be the product of collusion amongst a group of teens wanting to play hooky, there is also a paranormal phenomenon in which people report seeing shadow people, or a Black Hat Man, who attempts to strangle them. Could there be a connection?
This same shadowy apparition was reportedly seen in a Malaysian school, shortly after it was the Peruvian incident in 2016. In this case, not only were students privy to sightings of the terrifying entity, but even teachers corroborated their sightings, saying they felt a “heavy” or “supernatural” presence.
Cases like these are often labelled as instances of mass hysteria – a collective behavior in which one person’s hallucinations, real or contrived, can make others believe they are seeing or feeling the same thing without there actually being any physical or real stimulus. This sets off a chain reaction in which some part of our brain makes us go along with the crowd and become panicked without any realistic foundation.
Could this be a case of mass hysteria or is there a supernatural phenomenon at play haunting these students through a Ouija medium?
For more on the spiritism surrounding Ouija boards watch this episode of Beyond Belief with expert Karen A. Dahlman: