A Muggle's Perspective on Witchcraft

After being immersed in the wizarding world of Harry Potter, who among us wasn't disheartened at the realization that we are all just living humdrum muggle lives.  Some of the more diehard Harry Potter fans might even be in denial of this as they are still expecting an owl to deliver their Hogwarts acceptance letter.  So how is it that the same figure that caused such fear and moral panic in the early modern period has become a source of great joy and fantasy in the 21st century.

I think that the witches and wizards of Harry Potter are feeding into and feeding off of the current culture that fosters the uniqueness of the individual.  The witches and wizards have created their own secret world where their differences can be celebrated.  In the trend toward the secularization of the world, the satanic connection to the transgressions of the witch has been somewhat lost.  Don't get me wrong; I am well aware of the connections some religious zealots have made between Harry Potter and satanism. The witches and wizards of Harry Potter seem to go out of their way to completely detach themselves from the world of the non magical people.  This is a departure from the view of witches as an active threat to those living wholesome Christian lives.  The only transgression most of the witches in Harry Potter have committed is in wishing to live separate lives from normal society. There is one wizard that wishes to eradicate muggles, but I dare not say his name.  Anyways, the witches and wizards of Harry Potter represent a growing sense of the acceptance of differences and the realization that the world is a more magical place because of them.    

Witchcraft and Wizardry

On Monday, when we were asked for examples of contemporary examples of witches, my very first thought was Harry Potter. Contrary to the perceptions of witches during the post-renassaince and Salem Witchcraft Trials era discussed by Palmer, Harry Potter portrays witches and wizards in a very appealing way. They are shown to be (mostly) good beings, a higher almost reserved society, and secretive. In a way, they could be interpreted as "dangerous" to the muggles, but I think it was meant to keep the muggles safe. Almost like a government conspiracy theory of alien cover-ups. If muggles would have found out wizards exist, they would most likely freak out and be afraid for their lives and freedom. Almost as a societal control of muggles, kind of reminiscent of Palmer's argument that the idea of witches being promiscuous and of a different religious belief being a societal control of the masses. In reality, Harry Potter is a more realistic viewpoint of a witch/wizard culture if you think about it. If these beings somehow communicated with the devil and had supernatural powers, and knew they were being hunted, you'd think they'd be more careful about being caught. Thus developing a secretive culture of their own, away from the normals and using their spells/powers to hide themselves. Not hiding in plain view.

Witchcraft as a Religious Device

I think when we look at witches today a lot of us see characters who are fun, admirable, exciting, and almost make us envious in a way so that we have a small desire to be like them. Think of major characters from a multitude of different media - Hocus Pocus, Harry Potter, American Horror Story. When we look at witches most of us think either good witches or evil witches and that's what a lot of today's society views them as. For those who are deeply religious, witchcraft still plays a horrific part in the decay of society, while on the other hand, those of us who aren't as deeply religious and believe in science and not the supernatural, find witchcraft to be enticing and exciting. There are still parallels that we can see today that invoke imagery of the past. We still have individuals who are convinced that witchcraft leads to deals with Satan and those who practice witchcraft will burn in the fires of hell which is very much similar to what was going on in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While society may not be as extreme nowadays as it has been in the dark past - we're not publicly hanging those who are "involved" in witchcraft - you can still see in other parts of the world how much still hasn't changed. Upon doing some internet and Google searching one can see that many parts of the Eastern world are still afflicted with ongoing witch hunts, which can be seen in many African and Asian countries. I enjoyed in class the mention of witches being a way to publicly shame and exterminate those in society who hold low positions of power and using the accusation of witchcraft as a device to "cleanse" society. Much of this can also be tied to the Eastern countries practicing these witch hunts, as much of what they're doing is more of a mass hysteria to find ways to ostracize as many people as they can. Also, while the majority of the witch hysteria is found in the Eastern world, even American society can find itself dealing with similar situations. For the religious fundamentalists we can see a craze against witchcraft as well even though there's an overwhelmingly scientific argument against it. Prayers, deliverance, hope - these are promised for those who seek God and repel all witchcraft. Check the link I've provided (http://dianarasmussen.com/2015/03/12/how-to-recognize-a-witch-that-comes-to-church/) and see for yourself how witchcraft must be avoided at all costs.

Werewolfs, not so bad after all?

Historically the werewolf was thought to be a witch that by use of her powers, potions, or assistance from the Devil had turned herself into a wolf.  I can't think of a modern werewolf story in which werewolfs are in any way related to witches.  The most common cause of modern lycanthropy is kinda of like a disease.  Most modern werewolfs can pass on lycanthropy through biting a human or bringing a human into contact with their blood, such as making a person drink their blood.  This is very different from the historical mode of lycanthropy which was thought to be aquired through the aforementioned witches powers or from the Devil himself.

In some instances modern werewolfs are seen as not being monsters.  There will often be one person who will view them as a "normal" person even when they know that they are a werewolf.  This is very different than the historical view in which werewolfs were always seen as being evil, they were directly linked to the Devil.  This kind of thinking still exists today though.  Even when someone thinks of werewolf as not being a monster other people aren't so open to the idea.  These people normally tend to see the werewolf as a monster no matter what the werewolf does.  I think that this stems for peoples fears of what accepting a werewolf as being good or as a person would do to their idea of what a person is.  Right now we have a line between what a person is and what an animal is.  Werewolfs tread that line as was discussed in class.  If someone is to accept a werewolf as a person then they also must accept that a person can be animal like and that's a scary thought.

I don't have a specific example for what I have described in a previous paragraph.  I've seen a werewolf story like this though I can't remember where it was from.  A similar example would be the Supernatural episode "Heart" (SPOILERS)  In the episode the main characters Sam and Dean discover that a girl they meet is in fact a werewolf.  Instead of killing her immediately they try to help her by curing her of her lycanthropy.  Instead of seeing the werewolf as a monster that needed to be killed they saw her as a person that needed to be helped.  However in the end it the girl was unable to be cured and had to be killed.  This relates to the historical werewolf that were essentially pure evil.

Werewolves are among us

As we know werewolves have been around for quite some time, starting in the early 15th century. They are still present today, however, they are not the same as they used to be. In our readings we read about all of the different ways that people became these monsters, such as putting on this magical girdle. Putting on the girdle would change the person's appearance into that of a wolf, and when they would take it off it would change their appearance back into what it was before. Some other examples of how people became these werewolves hundreds of years ago, were that the people would rub some sort of ointment/salve on their body or by simply being a witch they could use a spell or potion and it would transform them. Over the course of hundreds of years this has completely changed. Looking at contemporary portrayals of werewolves it is not the same. One example of this would be the movie series Underworld directed by Len Wisemen.

Underworld portrays werewolves like any other in that they have hair all over, claws, long fangs and a long snout. Just like in the readings they are much faster than normal humans, and are quite stronger as well. One difference in this representation is that rather than being called werewolves, they are called Lycans which I'm quite positive is short for Lycanthropes which means wolf man. The origin of the Lycans in the movies is quite different than how werewolves came about in the 15th century. It all started with a twin brother who one day was bit by a wild wolf. This transformed him into a werewolf, but with white fur. This brother now being a werewolf had one problem, he could not turn back into his human form. He was stuck in this form until he was killed. While he was a werewolf he went on to do what any werewolf does and caused chaos and ravaged towns. When he bit other people they would then transform into werewolves who were also permanently stuck in this wolf state. Then these werewolves went on to ravage places; however, when they bit people those people would turn into werewolves but were able to turn back into humans as well. All of this is much different than what was in our readings, in the readings people were typically willing to become werewolves and sought out how to do it. The people in the movie were attacked by werewolves and in that they too were turned into werewolves. 

This change came about, because it mirrored things such as diseases and plagues. People were not asking to get sick, but rather they got it from some other person who had the illness. It is pretty much the same as how vampires are, a person typically transforms because they were bitten by the monster which then infects them. This is much different then hundreds of years ago, and how the devil helped people become werewolves or how witches could alter their appearances. When they would attack people those people would more than likely die and there was nothing after that, they too didn't become werewolves.

Witches are just cool kids with superpowers.

In the light of secularism and scientific advancement, people started to realize that there are no such things as werewolves or witches. We stop blaming everything that doesn’t make sense on a particular person or population like we used to. Once we encounter confusions, we seek for scientific reasons. Thus, people lost the natural fear for these two monsters and start to manipulate them for our own pleasure. Much more can be done with their superpowers and much more to be explored with their superpowers. I think this is the biggest difference between the contemporary witches/werewolves and such definition of the early days as Palmer describes in chapter 3 Witches.

As we lose the fear for witches and start to make story of them for pleasure, we humanized witches whose power is limited and these witches have troubles just like us even with their superpowers. They are no longer the reasons of natural calamities. The witch world is no longer black or white and it is just like ours. Compared to the benandanti who claimed to be the genuinely good witches, the contemporary witches don’t just fall into one category. Think about Harry Potter. Think about Draco Malfoy. There is no doubt that Harry Potter is supposed to be the “good” witch. However, we cannot really claim that his peer counterpart Draco Malfoy is intrinsic to evil.  Witches these days are humanized by our new definitions. Someone tries to save the world while someone tries to reign/ruin the world. This is something normal people like you and me are capable of. Witches’ stories are just a little bit more interesting, spiced up with the touch of superpowers –something that we are not capable of.

Likewise, in American Horror Story 3: Coven, there are no good or bad witches. At the end of the day, everyone is out there for herself just like in the world we live in. So the fine line between good and evil with the color discrimination is also fading out. The voodoo black witch Marie Laveau seems to be an advocate of justice and vengeance while the white witch supreme Fiona seems to be capable of anything, including killing one of the students at her academy, so that she can to stay immortal. In summary, we cannot label the witches anymore just like we cannot label anyone in our life.

Even though there are numerous difference between the modern witches and the ones from early days, they still share something in common. The modern witches derive from the culture of old days. For example, the black witch Marie Laveau signed a contract with a deity who is equivalent to Satan. So I think no matter how the definitions of the modern witches may vary/change, witches as a population still derive from the culture of its own from the past. They share something in common. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be identified as witches.

#TBT to the Blair Witch Project

Its not quite Thursday but close enough.

The Blair Witch is a really really good witch. Her story totally goes against the typical scapegoat style of the pre-modern witch, even though much of her story is pre-modern itself.

If you are unfamiliar with the movie, its often credited as the trendsetter for the 'found footage' style, similar to the clip of Cloverfield we saw in class. What was also really cool about this movie was that the directors / producers slipped out a bunch of fake backstory and mythology surrounding the character onto the web prior to the release of the film. As a result of this, many people believed that the footage was real or at least based on a true story (which it is not in the slightest). People bought into it so much that the premise of the sequel was actually about people who went looking for the witch after seeing the first movie.

The planted backstory of the Blair Witch is the story of one Elly Kedward, who was banished from the village of Blair in 1785 after being accused of luring children to her home and taking some of their blood. She was presumed dead after being banished in the midst of a harsh winter. However, in the year following, her accusers and children of the township vanished. Hysteria causes abandonment of the potentially cursed town.

Some 50 years later, (remember, still a fake story) a new town is founded on the Blair site. During a festival, a young girl drowns in the town creek. Eleven witnesses testified to seeing a pale woman's hand reach from the creek and pull her in. Her body was not recovered. Come 1940, a crazy hermit ritualistically murders 7 children in the same area, claiming "an old woman ghost" instructed him to do so.

The found-footage picks up in 1994 with a group of students filming a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch for school. This part of the whole story is whats shown in the film. The TL;DW version is they are killed off one by one over the course of a few days. The characters never see the Witch or signs that it is in fact her doing the killing.

The fake backstory picks back up with the legal proceedings surrounding the student's dissappearance and discovery of their film in a duffel bag in the woods. Law enforcement chose to show only small parts of the film to the families and affirm their is nothing conclusive. The case is then closed, unsolved. The government classification on the films expires in 1997 and the families see all the footage. They contract a producer to piece together the events.

That summary got a bit wordier than I would have liked but I think its a great story and particularly interesting when considering some of the concepts we have looked over in class. The earliest 'reports' of the witch are very typical to the pre-modern archetype. She is satanic / evil / etc and a scapegoat for the harshness of life and a particular winter in her colony. After the turn of the century, her spirit (or whatever she is) strikes again and drowns a girl. Despite multiple witness reports of odd sightings,  the mainstream does not fall into witch-hysteria and nobody is burned at the stake / hanged / banished.

Following the events of the film, despite very very clear evidence that the witch is real and malicious, law enforcement refuse to believe it unlike the law enforcement of 200 years prior. So as time and society move around the Witch, we see the shift in the archetype change from this Salem-esque scapegoat of all problems to the modern witches-cant-be-real-because-science school of thought.

Thanks for reading! If you haven't seen the movie, you definitely should. Make sure to do some digging online about the full backstory afterwards because that is part of the experience. People like to rag on the film but I think the whole thing is really a work of art that toes the line between fiction and reality, albeit with fake stories and information planted on the internet. It's like a 21st century War of the Worlds.

Grant

(Fake) Sources:
http://www.blairwitch.com/mythology.html
http://blairwitch.wikia.com/wiki/

The Modern Werewolf

      The idea of werewolves have been around for centuries. There are claims going back to 440 BC by Herodotus claiming a village of people would annually transform into wolves.Throughout the following centuries these stances and claims would evolve into what the werewolf has become in today's world. Back in the mid 1500's they were one of the scariest beasts thought to be alive. Werewolves, otherwise known as lycanthropes, were hunted by some for the sake of the safety of the surrounding area. Werewolves were thought to be a part of some sort of witchcraft or the devil. They were feared whereas now with Hollywood, they are still feared but almost in a different matter. With recent teen-hits such as Twilight and Teen Wolf, many view werewolves as a form of entertainment even though in these hits, they can be observed in a different matter.
       In Twilight, the werewolf is initially a friend of the main character, Bella, but once it is revealed that he is in fact a werewolf things change. He is initially though of as a monster, along with his tribe but eventually becomes a hero and icon of the series along with a vampire. Because of this many people have tried to replicate the idea and make money out of werewolves. One show has especially stood out in being able to do so, and that is Teen Wolf. Teen Wolf is about a high schooler named Scott McCall who his bitten by a werewolf and slowly learns how to use his new found powers for the better of society. Initially, Scott fights other "bad" werewolves but as time goes on, Scott and his pack take down the other evil monsters in the area. Because of the success of these shows with teens, social media will blow up with the topic of werewolves. People will almost celebrate werewolves and think of them as something great. Teen girls especially love these characters because they are typically viewed as handsome men whereas in the past these people were looked down upon and disgusted people. Even in Teen Wolf, there are some female werewolves who appear and they are all beautiful and attractive women, continuing to hone in on the trend of these creatures being attractive beings. That has been one of the biggest changes for werewolves over the years.

American Horror Story and the teenage witch

The show American Horror Story does a great job creating modern day monster stories. The third season of the series is solely focused on witches. In this season the main characters are all female witches, some are old and act as teachers for the young witches in a sort of boarding school for witches. In some ways its similar to the Harry Potter idea in that in the normal human world witches are not accepted so they must be protected and sent off to this witch school where they hone their skills and grow together. In class and in the readings it was mostly discussed how everyday people discovered, hunted, and attacked women who were labeled as witches. The show takes a different approach towards witches and focuses mostly on the conflicts and drama between witches in the house. There is all kinds of drama that goes down in the house between all of the teen witches. Just like with regular human teens it usually involves boys and sexual experiences. This is also a way that this series connects to historical aspects of witches because throughout history it is sad that witches rebel to the norm with their very vocal descriptions of their sexual experiences and there risque activities. One of the girls in the house embodies this concept perfectly in that she is very sexual and is proud of it and likes that it sets her apart from the other girls. In the season there is some reference to the "witch hunters" and how they have been traced back to the days of the Salem trials but that part of the show was not the main focus. The show embodies how modern witches would have to act towards the outside world and how they would intermingle because even though we have culturally advanced a long way since the Salem days we as a whole would still not react well with the emergence of witches into society.

A Roleplaying Game or an Introduction to Witchcraft?

I will be the first to admit that the majority of this occurred before I was alive, but I feel that it is still one of the more interesting experiences with witchcraft in the recentish times. What I'm talking about is the panic over the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons that occurred primarily in the 80s. From what I have learned, it erupted when a high school student committed suicide in 1982, and his mother came to the conclusion that his hobby of playing Dungeons and Dragons was to blame. She then started the organization Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons, or BADD, which held that the game "Uses demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic type rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other teachings",

When looking at that list, what stood out is that almost that entire list is a reflection of things we either discussed in class or was part of our readings. It is a list of ways to be socially or sexually deviant, and when combined with the existing fear that there were widespread satanic cults and satanic rituals across the country, it lead to a resurgence of ideas and fears that seemed to have disappeared centuries ago. There wasn't much in the way of evidence either for Dungeons and Dragons alleged wickedness, and unlike the Dark Dungeons comic I never found any rituals or magical incantations in the rule books. 

This brought me back to our discussion today, where we talked about how we looked at the material reasons for the werewolves and how unreal it seemed that the witch hunts and werewolf hunts could happen as they did. We chalk it up to religious influence and that so few were willing to try and consider alternate possibilities, and when we look at the punishments received as stressed with the "Who is the monster here" question, it almost seems like a way for us to separate ourselves from the actions and ideas. I caught myself several times trying to convince myself that these people were all out of their minds, that there is no way our society now we would get caught up in that kind of panic or social hysteria. Yet I feel like looking at how three decades ago our society got caught up with fears of witchcraft and Satanic worship. And while we did not call the inquisition to get confessions, we learned how easily a confession could be influenced by careless questions by investigators and psychologists alike, which is interesting when you consider that the confessions in the old witch hunts and the more modern ones, neither are very reliable. 

Then again, the panic in the 80s was definitely less lethal, so I suppose more has changed, but it does make me wonder how people will interpret what happened in a few centuries. Maybe they'll be sitting in a room as the professor lists all the reasons that could have explained away their fears, yet they chose to panic instead of trying to find out what could explain the strange events other than Satan's influence.

But what do I know? Intelligence was my dump stat.

Witches - Desire and Condemnation

Witches and other such magic users have become a catalyst for imagination in popular culture. As science has advanced, the belief in users of magic has diminished. We no longer condemn witches as demonic worshipers; we now observe them with envy. The desire of obtaining magic powers now likely outweighs the fear of it. We now dream of having magical powers of our own to do with as we please. While the fear of the unknown still exists, the ability to use magic is seen as more of a wondrous gift. This gift serves as a spark for our imagination, leading us to amazing new worlds full of wonder.

The modern portrayal of witchcraft can also be seen as a reversal of the condemning our society once directed toward these individuals. One such contemporary representation is the Harry Potter series. In Harry Potter, wizards and witches are taught to harness their magic abilities in magic school. If a child without the ability to use magic is born, they are treated as second-class citizens and “encouraged” to live in the muggle (non-magic) world. This is a turnaround from how witches were depicted in the early modern period. Witches appear to now have a society of their own and prosecute those they deem abnormal and monstrous. Magic is still depicted as something mysterious, but the use of it is shown as something that must be explored and understood. Witches are no longer ugly hags, but ordinary people that happen to have a capacity to harness magic. The contemporary way in which witches are portrayed encourages us to sympathize with the witch and view the world that they live in, in the way they live it. This can be interpreted as a rise in status of the lower “peasant” class. As the peasant class was discriminated against, so were witches. Peasants and witches both lived in the night which caused witches to be labeled as “mental rubbish of peasant credulity” (Palmer, p.52). With the knowledge that magic isn’t real, the lower class no longer jumps to the conclusion that someone is a witch, and with that change disappeared the condemnation of witches.

Maleficent

   Witches today are no longer the representation of horrible scary character, but turning out to be more like normal people, even nicer than normal people because they have “superpower” to help people out sometimes. When talking about this phenomenon, it is obviously if focus on books and movies that the topic of witch are more and more popular. Not only are there many new novel and movies that focus on telling stories in which witches are helping people and shaping the figure of outright modern women, but there are many reproduced movie that the witch is no longer so evil as the one in its previous version. Just as Palmer mentioned in his article, witches have a “dark history”, but there is a trend from early times that the art piece like novel and painting are focusing more and more on positive side of witches, seen them as normal people with emotions.

    Maleficent is the one that impressed me most. Just like the blogpost intro said, witches today are related to friendship and love and etc. Maleficent is a great example to illustrate this. In its previous version “Sleeping Beauty”, the witch placed a curse to newly born princess Aurora, which is the main line through the whole movie. At the end of the 1956 version of movie, the prince broke the curse and save the princess, they lived a happy life together.

    However, in the new version of the movie “ Maleficent”, the same character is set as a kind fairy that protects the forest. After being attacked by humans, she cursed little princess Aurora for revenge. But as the movie process, she realized princess Aurora brings her a lot of happiness that everyone else has never given before.  Moreover, Maleficent believes that the princess could bring peace to their world and human’s world. Thus, it is obviously that maleficent represents kind witch characters. The kind witches always involved in friendship and family as the value of people.  For class race and gender, contemporary witches seems always cross the border of race, gender and class. 

Witches of American Horror Story

I am a big fan of the show American Horror Story, they do a really good job of making the monsters that appear on the show seem as if they are real. Season three of the show was called Coven and focused mainly on witches of course. The show depicts the witches living together in a school in modern times. Part of what the narrative of the story relies on, however, is the historical representation of the witch and how that is effecting the modern witches in the show. The witches look at the Salem trials as the genocide of their people and because of this they choose to hide themselves from the rest of the world. This is counter to the idea that was discussed in class that witches were proud to make claims such as sleeping with the devil or their fantastic powers. One thing from the reading that does kind of appear in the show is the sexual deviancy aspect of these girls. Not all of them are like that but there are some interesting scenes in the show in which a witch is having sex with a dead man. Not to mention the fact that one of the witches special powers is that she kills anyone that she sleeps with. This seems to be an indication that despite the witches desire to hide themselves away from our modern world, they still can not change who and what they are.

witches in modern eastern culture

How witches change their roles in modern eastern society comparing to what we learned in class that the roles in western culture in early modern period when books talked about.

In modern Asian society, especially in Japan, witches have become the category of people that have supernatural power and help normal human or their partners to defeat evils in the world. Therefore, lots of stories, comics, and animations about how good witches help people came out and influenced my generation when we grew up.

In Palmer’s book, witches were described as the symbol of fear, darkness and bad things as “the generic witch was a mythological construction composed of vague attributes and a culture symbol of fear”. Also in our class discussion, we found that witch is the expression of fear of darkness and other creepy things that they were not acknowledged in people’s mind at that time, and then became a cultural symbol.

         But during the period I grew up, a comic book (then became animation), Cardcaptor Sakura, came up. In that story, the main character Sakura Kinomoto is a witch but also a beautiful, lovely, friendly, and outgoing primary school girl. Her job is collecting the “magic cards” and uses the power of cards to protect the world. Therefore, I believe that the culture of witches has changed in modern Eastern world because they transferred their roles from bringing fear to people and punishing human to the protector of human being. Also the images of them are always adorable, cute and lovely girls instead of some bad looking, disgusting old ladies.

Hocus Pocus... That Spell Won't Work

                Most people in today's society do not spend every waking hour worrying about the fact that their next door neighbor could be a witch. In other words, the fear aspect, or at the very least, the belief in them has decreased exponentially since the Early Modern period.

                The witches of the movie Hocus Pocus basically transcend this range of time from 1693 to 1993. An earlier post already kind of summed up the premise of the movie, but an important part is that the witches lived in 1693 and now have been brought back to life in 1993.

                The humor of the movie comes from the fact that society is tremendously different from what it was like in 1693. The witches are walking around outside on Halloween while kids are trick-or-treating, and are basically flabbergasted. Nobody is afraid of them because a lot of people are dressed up as witches for Halloween. This is unintentionally a symbolic moment in the movie that represents how gender roles have transformed over time. In 1693, a patriarchal society would have been afraid of powerful women, such as witches. By 1993, the United States had already moved past the idea that women should not have too many rights (aka power).

                In addition to societal roles changing, beliefs have been altered due to science and a general increase in knowledge. People still get freaked out by scary movies that contain witches, but most people do not think that what they saw in the movie actually exists and will attack them. Of course, a witch in a movie is much different than a witch in person, but, nevertheless, the fear of witches is much more short-lived than what it used to be.