The stereotype fails to capture a feminist history
Halloween seems like as good an opportunity as any to reflect on the increasing popularity of witchcraft — or at the very least, the perception of witchcraft championed by many people who valorize its aesthetic on platforms like Instagram. Of course, the roots of this rising visibility of witchcraft can also be traced back throughout the last few decades through TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Witches of East End, the Vampire Diaries, and beyond, for example.
But while witchcraft is seemingly gaining visibility, it is often greatly misrepresented in popular culture. Before my senior year of high school, I had never heard that witchcraft can, and does, represent a historical and still widespread spiritual practice. One acquaintance’s suggestion that she practiced “witchcraft,” for example, initially struck me as a joke.
The more I read about the occult, however, the more I realized how the practice coincides with radical feminism. As such, I present a series of true/ false statements about witchcraft for you this Halloween.
FALSE: Witches worship Satan.
Witches follow many occult traditions, but I will focus on Wicca for the purpose of this conversation because it is the tradition about which I am most knowledgeable. Wicca is considered one Pagan practice among the many Pagan religions that pre-date Christianity. Upon the emergence of Christianity, missionaries sought to fabricate a compelling reason for people to turn away from Pagan ways and towards Christianity. The Christian church thus created the concept of Satan and equated him with Pagan worship and witchcraft, specifically. Christian colonization generated mass fear among people regarding Pagan people’s alleged evil natures and dangerous intentions. [[LINKS]]
In reality, there is no concept of ultimate evil or a figure such as Satan in the tradition of Wicca. Rather, Wiccans focus their efforts on energy flow throughout the universe and the ways in which they can harness that energy for ultimate good.
TRUE: Witches cast spells.
Spellwork is a deeply essential part of witchcraft. Although the media misrepresents spellwork as a practice involving toxic and lethal materials, witches primarily work with direct products of the earth. Invoking extensive knowledge of herbs, crystals, stones, incense, and other forms of natural life, witches use particular objects for particular purposes. The purpose of a spell is to communicate a specific intention with the universe, whether it be healing from past traumas, releasing anger, opening new paths to success, protecting oneself from potential harm, etc.
FALSE: Witches put curses on people.
In popular culture, witches are most famously known for hexes (or curses) that they can allegedly place onto other people. In the Wiccan tradition, however, this is simply impossible. The Wiccan rede(?) says, “For the good of all, and to harm none.” Within the framework of Wiccan practice, any attempt to inflict psychological or magical harm onto another being is essentially null.
TRUE: Halloween is the time of the Wiccan New Year.
Many witches follow the Yule Calendar, which marks days that hold intense, spiritual significance to Pagan peoples, including solstices, equinoxes, harvest points, and transitional times between the seasons. Samhain falls on the thirty first of October, but through the Christianization of many Pagan traditions, it has come to be known as “Halloween.”
The Pagan roots of this holiday remain with us today, as cultures across the globe continue to obsess over notions of magic, ghoulish creatures from other realms, and, ultimately, death. Witches believe that Samhain is the time at which the veils between the worlds are thinnest, allowing friends and ancestors to make contact with one another. It is also a crucial time for remembering and honoring the estimated millions of people tortured, burned, and executed for the “crime” of witchcraft under Christian rule.
FALSE: Witchcraft exists in predominantly white spaces.
Pagan religions have historically existed in myriad forms all across the globe. For example, some traditions that are akin to Wicca include Vodou and Santeria. People of color, and specifically femmes of color, are among the most active and public figures of modern witchcraft. Princess Nokia, a revolutionary artist originally from New York City, raps about her experiences as “Black a-Rican bruja straight out from the Yoruba.” Drawing upon her practices that mix Arawak, African, and Cuban influences, she proudly claims herself to be a “bruja” and narrates some of her spiritual practices.
Another very related example is the feminist skate crew in the Bronx known as “BRUJAS.” One skater, Gil, explains, “We are intersectional feminists who are interested in spirituality and the tradition of brujería [witchcraft] in our culture.” Taking on the white supremacist, patriarchal world of skating, these femmes of color are revolutionizing the skate scene and the larger world, engaging in crucial activist efforts: They are fighting for the complete deconstruction of white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy. These are just two of many examples of femmes of color personally engaging in and massively popularizing witchcraft practices.
TRUE: Witchcraft and feminism are deeply connected.
It is essential to understand that before the spread of Christianity and the onset of capitalism, most cultures observed nature-based or pagan religions. The purposes of these spiritualities, therefore, entirely predate the current system of free-market capitalist economy that depends upon other systems of oppression such as sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, imperialism, etc.
Furthermore, instead of perceiving the body to be a site of labor power to serve capitalist, imperialist enterprise, witches see the body as an incredibly dynamic entity of immense spiritual power. The fundamental beliefs of witchcraft — equality, honoring the earth and its resources, access to holistic medical treatment, etc. — are deeply connected to radical politics we witness today. A good example of this profound connection is the current Standing Rock Pipeline Protest. This protest, which resists a long history of genocide, environmental racism, and exploitative corporations through community building, activism, spiritual practice, and ultimately decolonization, may not be directly connected to these beliefs, but represents them well.
One of the most popular, reactionary defenses feminists use in everyday dialog is the insistence that “we’re not witches.” The fact that we often push away such an identity is not at all coincidental, but based on the historical persecution of “the witch” figure. What I find ironic is that feminists today and witches throughout the Burning Times have both been primarily targeted for the same reasons: their defiance of hegemonic structures, claims to self-determination, and practices of healing and community building.
The emergence of traditional gender norms and the reduction of the “female” body to a site of reproductive labor power can actually be located throughout the witch trials as the Church and the emerging capitalist state worked together on a campaign to persecute any sort of resistance to a patriarchal, white-supremacist, capitalist, imperialist, heteronormative structure.
So, on this Halloween, I ask you to look into the face of what frightens you and to unpack those fears. Hopefully you will find that we are taught to fear much of what we do in order to maintain power structures that are supposed to seem natural, and ultimately invisible. If you have the courage to really look critically at concepts we have been taught to fear, such as the witch, I can promise that you will discover truths that just might set you free.
