"you've got to pick up every stitch...mmmm must be the season of the witch"
a history lesson for halloween: although i could go all the way back to 1484, and the publishing of malleus malificarum, to tell you about witch hunting...i'm going to stick with a more familiar story...the salem witch trials.puritans who had settled in salem town and salem village, massachusetts, had a huge fear of paganism. they felt it threatened their way of life. something as silly as guessing a future event or having a wart on your nose could brand you a witch, which was punishable by death. yep. i said it. you could be killed for having a wart on your nose. okay. so, this reverend named samuel parris brings a slave woman, tituba, to care for his daughter, betty. tituba will, also, be caring for his niece, abigail williams. tituba is from barbados and brings her voodoo with her. the girls in the village are fascinated. duh doy!! who wouldn't be, right? am i right? i know i'm right. anyway....the girls start acting like psychos. they are having fits of hysteria. they're throwing things around the house. they're contorting their bodies. making strange sounds. it sounds more like pms than witchcraft, but nobody asked me...now this doctor, william griggs enters the picture. since it's 1692 and no one knows anything about pms, he says the girls are afflicted by witchcraft. hmmmmm....
now other girls in the village are acting out. only they start calling out names of the WITCHES that are cursing them. you know, when i was a kid, nobody would have believed me if i said "regina is a witch", but it's whatever...anyway. if a wart could get you accused, imagine what would happen if an afflicted girl called out your name?!! now you're accused of consorting with the devil. you're interrogated. there is a trial, and you are found guilty, even though the only evidence is what the afflicted CLAIM to see. and imprisonment, or possibly death, will follow. a total of 20 deaths resulted from the salem witch trials.
enter the reverend francis dane. he was suspicious of the girls and saw something very wrong with these trials. he petitioned the governor and the courts saying the accusations were unfounded. he soon had support from increase mather, a puritan minister who was highly involved in the government of the colonies. he wrote, in a publication called cases of conscience concerning evil spirits, "it were better that 10 suspected witches should escape, than 1 innocent person should be condemned". after one final trial, all the accused witches, still in jail, were set free in may of 1693.
FLASH FORWARD today
we no longer burn suspected witches at the stake. and many people practice witchcraft freely. today's witchcraft takes on many different forms, but usually involves the use of divination, magic, and working with the elements (earth, wind, fire, and water), and working with unseen spirits and forces of nature. today's witches don't really fit the fantasy we have surrounded them with...they aren't green and wart covered. they don't melt when doused with water. however, i am fairly certain they will die if you drop your house on them.
