Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Witchcraft Bestseller)

by Pam Grossman

Circe to Hermione, from Morgan le Fay to Marie Laveau,

I do know this for sure though: show me your witches, and I’ll show you your feelings about women. The fact that the resurgence of feminism and the popularity of the witch are ascending at the same time is no coincidence: the two are reflections of each other.

riot grrrls

Wise Child by Monica Furlong,

Now, I identify both as a witch and with the archetype of the witch overall, and I use the term fluidly. At any given time, I might use the word witch to signify my spiritual beliefs, my supernatural interests, or my role as an unapologetically complex, dynamic female in a world that prefers its women to be smiling and still. I use it with equal parts sincerity and salt: with a bow to a rich and often painful history of worldwide witchcraft, and a wink to other members of our not-so-secret society of people who fight from the fringes for the liberty to be our weirdest and most wondrous selves. Magic is made in the margins.

To be clear: you don’t have to practice witchcraft or any other alternative form of spirituality to awaken your own inner witch.

Aeaea;

the witch is a shining and shadowy symbol of female power and a force for subverting the status quo.

The witch is the ultimate feminist icon because she is a fully rounded symbol of female oppression and liberation. She shows us how to tap into our own might and magic, despite the many who try to strip us of our power.

predilection

diaphanous

allay

parlance

“chaos magic,” which sounds rather alarming but simply refers to a kind of postmodern “whatever works” approach that blends images and techniques from different religions or genres, sometimes in unorthodox or even humorous ways.

both light and darkness can offer great gifts.

the word witch signifies that we are people who actively embody the paradox of having a transcendent experience while feeling more deeply connected to ourselves and each other, here on earth.

Ronald Hutton’s book The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present,

Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction,

The Irresistible Fairy Tale:

Drawing Down the Moon:

Books such as Charles Godfrey Leland’s Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough, Margaret Murray’s The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, Robert Graves’s The White Goddess, and Marija Gimbutas’s The Language of the Goddess,

Jules Michelet’s 1862 book La Sorcière.

title Satanism and Witchcraft,

1973 via Mushi Production’s psychedelic animated adult film Kanashimi no Belladonna (or Belladonna of Sadness), which was rereleased in theaters in 2016.

L. FRANK Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Matilda Joslyn Gage.

behind a curtain, perhaps). Interestingly, the Theosophical Society was started by another mighty woman, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky,

Gage writes: “Whatever the pretext made for witchcraft persecution we have abundant proof that the so-called ‘witch’ was among the most profoundly scientific persons of the age. The church having forbidden its offices and all external methods of knowledge to woman, was profoundly stirred with indignation at her having through her own wisdom, penetrated into some of the most deeply subtle secrets of nature: and it was a subject of debate during the middle ages if learning for woman was not an additional capacity for evil, as owing to her, knowledge had first been introduced in the world.”

Kristen J. Sollée puts it in her book Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive:

Gage embraced a reclamation of the divine feminine as her spiritual practice, and is the first known suffragist to reclaim the word ‘witch.’ . . . Without Gage, witches might still be viewed as solely evil in popular culture.”

elocution,

libidinous

hermetically

chthonic

Margaret Hamilton appearing on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1975,

Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,

Wicked is also being developed into a nonmusical television show by ABC,

I want to wear the pointy hat and the crown. To live as vividly as I can, as I am.

taxonomized,

liminal

transmogrification

tumescent,

mezuzah-style.

deportment

castigated

dirigible

Sunny, the Nigerian-American protagonist of Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch,

Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s comic series Black Magick,

Adolescent witches have to learn control and discernment, just as teen girls must with their burgeoning sexuality and protean senses of self.

The teen witch is a key ready for ignition, a match with a promise to inflame.