The allure of the unknown
rising attraction of modern witchcraft
Witchcraft. The very mention of this practice would’ve been accompanied by accusations and hangings a mere 200 years ago, but today, this particular nickname for paganism is more prevalent than ever. Witches across the globe use their intuition and intent to cast magical spells on both themselves and their belongings, with the occasional hex or curse. But how does modern witchcraft compare to the old ways, and how is the motivation different now?
May we first turn to Salem, Massachusetts, a hotspot for supposed witches in America in 1692. 19 men and women were hanged or otherwise executed after being unfairly tried in the Salem courts and nearly 150 more people were accused of witchcraft in Salem and around the surrounding towns. This legacy of unjust persecution has always been written off as mass hysteria and more of a fun Halloween story than anything else. But according to some, the Salem witch trials had quite a measure of truth.
According to a History.com article, the accused witch Tituba, who lived in the Parris household (the minister’s house in which his daughters began showing signs of witchcraft) as a slave in 1692, was believed to be a real witch. She came before the Salem court on March 1, 1692, and confessed–unwillingly–to four counts of witchcraft and dozens of interaction with the Devil himself, including, but not limited to: signing the Devil’s book, pinching multiple girls without touching them, and conscripting nearly 500 accomplices to assist her in bewitching the entire town. Many historians now, such as Stacy Shriff in an article from the Smithsonian, now believe that Tituba falsified the confession out of a lack of other options, saying, “Having fielded no fewer than 39 queries that Tuesday, Tituba proved equally obliging over the next days. She admitted that she had pinched victims in several households. She delivered on every one of Hathorne’s leading questions. If he mentioned a book, she could describe it. If he inquired after the devil’s disguises, she could provide them.” If Tituba had truly been lying out of desperation, then what really happened in Salem? And how did witchcraft become such an offense in the first place to drive a community to shambles like it did in the 1690s?
The history is fuzzy–as it always is with taboo or anti-religious subjects–but the first recorded account of witchcraft dates back to 931-721 B.C. The book 1 Samuel in the Bible describes the story of when King Saul solicited the Witch of Endor to summon the dead prophet Samuel’s spirit to help him defeat the Philistine army. The witch prophesied the death of Saul and his sons. The next day, the sons perished in battle, and Saul then committed suicide. This set the kingdom on a witch hunt, where warriors and citizens alike rounded up supposed witches and killed them.
The witch-hunting craze was prevalent from then on, reaching another peak in the mid-1400s. According to History.com, “Between the years 1500 and 1660, up to 80,000 suspected witches were put to death in Europe. Around 80 percent of them were women thought to be in cahoots with the Devil and filled with lust. Germany had the highest witchcraft execution rate, while Ireland had the lowest.” Not only did the witch hunts partake in gender bias, but they also were very racist against people of color living near/in large cities and automatically assumed their involvement in some sort of dark art.
Ireland had its Celtic witches, the Haitians their Voudon (or voodoo) Queens and Kings, and African countries their own variety of Witch Doctors. But you may be wondering, “Where is witchcraft in the US? How has it changed? How has our society changed?” For starters, the official pagan name for witchcraft in the US is “Wicca,” and not only is an official religion, but nearly 0.3% of the total U.S. population follow it. This statistic is taken from a 2014 Pew Research Center Religious Landscapes Survey. Wicca is identified as a New Age religion, along with Neopaganism, another form of nature-based beliefs. Wiccans are baptized into the Church and follow a strict code to do no harm unto others, respect the harmony of nature, and more, all detailed on the official Wiccan website, wicca.org. The Wiccan Church is the more widely-accepted term, as “covens” of witches is an antiquated way of speaking.
However, there are plenty of practicing witches who don’t identify themselves as Wiccan. As Stephanie Eckardt, W Magazine staff writer and witchcraft expert, says, “There’s no shortage of types of witchcraft, meaning there’s also no shortage of choices for an aspiring witch.” Many witches have no problem casting curses or hexes on others and abiding by their own moral and magical code of ethics. This personal creed is usually detailed in their Grimoire or Book of Spells. There are no longer county or even state-wide witch hunts for these covens, but rather an outpouring of community support for these men and women and so-called “broom-closet” witches, or non-public witches who don’t belong to a coven.
Witchcraft, however, isn’t all fun and games. Many children/teenagers in the UK are being emotionally and physically abused as a result of their parents’ beliefs that they were witches. According to The New York Post, the UK’s Department of Education gathered data that over 1,400 child abuse cases were linked to witchcraft/demonic possession accusations between 2016 and 2017. This number rose 900% percent–yes, that’s 900%–from 2011. Please exercise caution and respect your family’s wishes when it comes to this religion; witchcraft, however alluring, is a serious taboo in many societies.
Regardless of your chosen beliefs, we can all admit to wanting to know what lies beyond this life. We all want answers. Witches today–and almost all witches for that matter–rely on their gut feelings and intuition to cast spells to clarify the world around them and get those answers. They respect nature and take the success of their spells as gifts rather than measures of their own abilities. They’re not here to hurt you–all they want to do is live out their lives believing in whatever deity they choose to follow and find whatever internal peace they need. We are all ruled by the subconscious; witches just take advantage of their natural inclinations.