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The Season of the Witch
Our condemnation of otherness didn’t stop in Salem- exploring the lessons from modern and ancient witches.
It’s officially spooky season, and I’ve had witches on my mind. Just yesterday, at the time of writing this, before my music connected to my car speaker, a preacher was speaking on the public radio. He was talking about Halloween, and flesh- eating demonic witches. And I was like, is this real? And it was- in 2023.
But the witchcraft I was familiar with was based in nature, healing, community, and benevolence. The only flesh eating I had ever been aware of was the consumption of cooked meats, which could be purchased at any grocery store- legally- though even that seemed rare as many of the new-agey witch- types I knew were often vegetarian.
Also, isn’t the Eucharist ritual the metaphorical consumption of the body and blood of Jesus Christ himself to represent their gratitude for his sacrifice or something? Seems a little pot calling the kettle black to me.
As a child of the 90s with Celtic/ Baltic ancestry, I’ve always been drawn to neopaganism- from the crystal shops I visited as a kid to a fascination with faeries and all things mystical, and it’s clear I’m not alone. It’s not just for Halloween anymore- modern witchcraft has made it’s way to the shelves of Urban Outfitters and Whole Foods, with books on witchcraft…
