Hocus Pocus: the prime example of witches

Witches can be many things in contemporary society, but in the movie Hocus Pocus, the witches still have many of the characteristics of witches from the readings.  For those of you that haven’t seen the movie, three sisters were witches in Salem during the Salem witch-hunts.  They were hanged for taking children and when questioned about it, their response is sort of a joke (the missing child was turned into a cat which is at the hanging).  As they die, they cast a spell. 

Years later a virgin lights the Black-flame candle and brings them back to life.   The witches have until sunrise on Halloween to take the soles of children.  If they do, they can remain alive.  The problem that arises is the people that lit the candle steal their spell book, given to them by the devil.  Instead of hunting children, they must first find the spell book.  On their hunt they find what they think is the Satan.  They spend time in his home and call him Master.  The sister’s also take a bus during their search.  This is the point we see evidence of sexual deviance from one of the sisters as she flirts with the bus driver.

They appear as immortal when they are burned alive and come back to life.  They can fly on broomsticks and vacuums.  Salt keeps them away and they can’t set foot on hollow ground (graveyards). 

Most importantly, once they get the spell book back they begin to brew the potion and the seductive sister sets out on her broom.  Her singing puts the children of the town in a trance and they all walk willingly toward the sister’s home.  This resembles the witches eating children. 

Witches and Werewolves: A Look At the Modern Form

As we all know witches and werewolves have changed over time.  Not only in appearance but also in what they symbolize.  In today's reading by Sidky, he concludes with that the witch and witch hunts "were a function of political and economic instability,.... and were set in motion to punish and suppress, with the ultimate objective of undermining potential resistance and ensure compliance and conformity" (Sidky p. 265).  The same can also be said about the werewolf and the werewolf hunts.  However Sidky does point out that Satan and the werewolves could just be a scape goat for the witches wrong doings in order for them to escape persecution.  By blaming Satan or the wolves, they were not taking blame for their actions which made them into symbols of murder, lust, power, etc.  He also mentioned that the drugs henbane and datura, according to modern researchers, " produce the subjective impression of transformation into animals, and hence drugs can account for the phenomenon of lycanthropy in Europe" (Sidky p. 249).  So not only were witches and werewolves used to persuade the people into following the laws, the herbs they were consuming also made them see things that were not really happening. Making the witches and werewolves come to life. 

Looking at today's witches and werewolves we get a completely different vibe.  In Twilight we get the hunky werewolf that wants to protect the person he loves while in Sabrina The Teenage Witch we have a teen witch that just wants to help her friends and family.  Although those are very entertaining examples, I will be using Tim Burtons Sleepy Hollow.  The 1999 loosely adapted film was inspired by Washington Irving's short story "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow", which was written in 1820.  The main female in this film is Katrina (Christina Ricci), who is the daughter of the Van Tassels and a practicing witch.  However unlike Lady Van Tassel, who we find out later is an evil witch that is in control of the headless horseman, Katrina is a good witch.  In multiple scenes in the movie, Katrina draws protection circles in order to protect the one she loves.  She also mixes potions to help with sleep and healing. These behaviors are not like the witches Sidky and others have described in the readings. Witches are supposed to lust, punish others, and murder. Another interesting fact is unlike most witch cases, Katrina was not persecuted and actually left with love interest Crane to live a normal life in the city.  This is odd because witches in Sidky's examples were always executed even if they were wrongfully accused of the crime. It could be that the community was oblivious to her powers or that Crane loved her for being a witch. I however have a theory that Katrina represents the original witch that existed before the hunts.  If so then could it have been people were confused about the healing potions and mistook them for poisons? Could their drawings for protection have been confused with curses?  Were people claiming to be witches just mocking the actually craft of witchery? Maybe the people in power were worried of people turning to the witches for help instead of turning to them?  Although there are many questions, I do believe I have an answer as to what Kristina represents.  She represents the potential for good and that love can be powerful when used properly.

What is different?

Werewolves of today are portrayed as humans who are part wolf, sometimes being able to choose when to change into a wolf, or sometimes changing because of the cycle of the moon. They often look to totally transform into a wolf, rather than a person with very wolf-like characteristics. There is also rare cases where people are diagnosed with clinical lycanthropy, which is when a person believes they can transform or has transformed into an animal or believe they are an animal. While these cases are said to be connected to neurological conditions or psychological conditions such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, or clinical depression. 

The origins of lycanthropy in the 1500-1600s is very different from its current origins, whether it's a case of real life lycanthropy with reasonable origins, or lycanthropy in movies or books with magical or genetic origins. Henri Boguet’s theory for example, shows how big a shift that is; “Satan deludes humans into thinking they are wolves by confusing the humors of the body and by giving them an ointment to deaden their senses. Humans who suffer from hallucinations and delusions of metamorphosis are instruments of Satan. Witnesses to transformation of humans into werewolves are also deceived by Satan. Satan confuses their vision so that what they see and report is an illusion.” As seen in the previous quote, back then, lycanthropy was considered of Satanic origin, which allowed the destruction and elimination of large groups of people of who were accused in courts of lycanthropy. But perhaps in such a setting, as a person accusing another of “evils”, the accusing is suggested by “whispers” from Satan, and therefore lycanthropy as viewed then, was the idea of Satan spread to manipulate humans, a way to get people to do unthinkable things to other the humans they accused. And now rather than being used in an evil way, lycanthropy is a way of showing how humans how the different aren't so different after all.

Werewolves Evolving

Werewolves used to be scary, feared, horrible creatures. They had no control of when they turned and whom they killed or what they killed. They were feared and hunted down and were often associated with vampires. There was actually a story I read about how the first werewolf and the first vampire were brothers. Most of the werewolves that have been written about in the past have been male. The same book also stated that the meaning of the word meant "grown male human" and "wolf."  It was something that males could relate to I guess. The strength, the speed, that "inner wolf" that is associated with men can be released through the werewolf.

Recently werewolves have become less of a threat. One example is through the TV show Teen Wolf. Werewolves were usually thought of not being able to control their actions. When there was a full moon they automatically turned and went crazy and began to murder. But in this TV show it shows that by controlling your emotions - anger in particular - and coming to terms with your past, you can gain control of the "wolf." They now try and make the werewolf desirable. Not only in Teen Wolf but also in Bitten, Vampire Diaries among others. Before, the werewolf used to be thought of as a disease. Something that messed with your mind and that the devil was taking control but now, you can control yourself and instead of going out and causing havoc, werewolves are helping out society and becoming protectors.

Another thing is that women are also starting to join the werewolves. Before they just used to be guys but now, such as in Teen Wolf, there are also female werewolves. Some even more powerful than the males. Which according to this society now, is actually true as women are rising and becoming more intelligent and getting higher places in society.

Werewolves have definitely changed since the first times they started to appear.  

Magic Power and Technology

October is coming. Halloween is coming. One of the most popular halloween costumes for girls/women is a witch. In the world of traditional literature, a witch is ugly, old, and evil woman. However, observing the contemporary witches, they are the fantasy figure that people tend to admire them. My favorite literature of witches and wizards is Harry Potter written by J.K. Rowling. In the book, there are both good and bad witches and wizards, but the main characters are good ones. The book is also interesting because the location of the story is a hidden part of London. Historically, British people hated witches and considered witches as the figure of darkness. On the other hand, Rowling's story is about the good witches in the Northern Europe. I wonder since when the witches became the character to be admired or loved.
Also, sometimes the technology and the magic power are compared. For instance, in Harry Potter, the father of Ron is very curious about the "maggle's thing." If the magic power and the contemporary technology are the similar thing, can we apply the theories and definitions of witches and wizard to us?

Good and Bad Witches

From the examples I have seen in the present, the figure of the witch is used to show good and bad morals of a person through magic. The witch today I think is seen as more of a “character” or a symbol not so much as a sexual or deviant person that lives the everyday person. The witch is a very typical Halloween costume of little girls, I was a witch for multiple years as a good and bad witch and never knew or thought of the witch to be a transgressive human. The witch to me was always just a scary figure, someone who had magical powers that a normal human could not possess. I also knew the witch to be a character who could use their magic for good, like Melinda the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. In today’s world, books and movies portray witches with more of a magically power rather than with powers given by Satan.

A good example of the witch is portrayed in the show American Horror Story: Coven. In this series there are good and bad witches, but the bad ones, to me, seem more prevalent in the TV show. I think that this show is a good example of trying to show what witches were like historically in Europe. According to Palmer’s chapter about witches, these women were “sexual nonconformists, prostitutes, practitioners of herbal medicine…” the show of Coven allows us to see the highly sexual nature of these women. Additionally we can see that there is one witch who practices herbal medicine as she practices it two bring people back to life or heal dramatic injuries.

Witches have changed, but also have become contradictory?

       One of the contemporary representations of the witch that comes to mind for me is The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia series. In the series, she is a powerful witch who wields magic, is immortal, and controls a large territory and many "monstrous" creatures as her minions. In many ways, the white witch differs greatly from the role of the witch in the early modern period as discussed by Palmer. The white witch rather than being some lowly peasant or any lowly being for that matter, is instead a strong powerful amazonian like woman, who wields enormous power and influence. She is also in my opinion, very attractive in her representation in the movie(not sure about the book). Normally, when most people think of the stereotypical witch, I assume we picture an old ugly woman, with warts and a long crooked nose. But instead, more recently, it seems to me that witches are becoming more and more eroticized in their depictions and representations. This makes me wonder, if the witches in the early modern period who were often depicted as being incestuous and committing many indecent acts with demons and even the devil himself, if that set of characteristics has manifested into witches being portrayed as sexually appealing as a way to represent empowerment. Many of the accused witches in the early modern period seemed to enjoy the freedom and the fear they caused the dominant authorities of the time with their retelling of their sexually devious deeds, so I see a relation between the modern representation of the witch as an erotic powerful woman as a manifestation of that early modern period depiction of a witch.

      On an aside, I find it quite strange that she is the "white witch", and yet is an evil witch. Normally, the color white is often associated with purity and goodness, but in this case, we associate within the realm of Narnia, that the color white is evil, cold, and devoid of goodness. For example, in the Wizard of Oz, the good witch is dressed in glowing white garments while the wicked witch of the west rocks an all black outfit. This is use of color scheme to induce in its viewers an associated connotation is a very old and common concept that is prevalent in many cases. But in the instance of the white witch, to me this drastically deviates from the norm and I can't for the life of me figure out if there is some deeper meaning behind it or not, and I really feel like there is. I would appreciate any comments or thoughts as to what this contradiction could imply or mean.