(no subject)

[lagilman]

picked this up off a newsgroup I read. Thought it might be of interest to folk here, too; if not for Halloween, then to contemplate on All Soul's Day....




> Each year they parade her about, the traditional Halloween Witch.
> Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, and a toothless mouth
> beneath her deformed nose. Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw
> protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on
> wobbly legs.
>
> Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind
> or merely a Halloween caricature. I disagree; I believe this to be
> how Witches were really seen. Consider that most Witches: were women,
> were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons
> under the secrecy of darkness to be presented by light of day as a
> confessed Witch.
>
> Few if any saw a frightened normal looking woman being dragged into a
> secret room filled with instruments of torture, to be questioned
> until she confessed to anything suggested to her and to give names or
> what ever would stop the questions. Crowds saw the aberration
> denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed Witch.
>
> As the Witch was paraded through town en route to be burned, hanged,
> drowned, stoned or disposed of, all the jeering crowds viewed were
> the results of hours of torture. The face bruised and broken by
> countless blows bore a hue of sickly green. The once warm and loving
> smile gone replaced by a grimace of broken teeth and torn gums that
> leers beneath a battered disfigured nose. The dishevelled hair
> conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn
> away the lovely tresses. Broken twisted hands clutched the wagon for
> support; fractured fingers with nails torn away locked like groping
> claws to steady her broken body. All semblance of humanity gone.
>
> I revere this Halloween Crone and hold her sacred above all. I honour
> her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of man. Each
> year I shed tears of respect when the mundane exhibit their symbol of
> religious love.
>
> Author Unknown

Comments

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing that. It's definitely food for thought.

[tina-jens.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting that. It's really something to think about, especially for strong women. In many ways, those women persecuted for witchcraft helped pave the way, and paid in blood, so we might be stonger, speak (more) freely, and use our full range of talents. We are in their debt.

I'd like to post a link to your post on the Twilight Tales listserve. I know how to link to your blog, but not how to link to a particular post. Do you happen to know how to do that? (Apologies that you seem to be my tech support for LJ.)

[lagilman]

go to the "read comments" page, and link that URL. That's how I do it, anyway.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Knowing that makes that image of the witch all the more horrifying - she's a mirror held up to the cruelty in the hearts of the 'ordinary' folk who abused her that way.

Better late than never, I guess

[(Anonymous)]

Apropos the post:
Scottish witches to get pardon
______
Dennis (http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11231863%5e1702,00.html)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Dennis - yes, there were various mentions in the press over here about that. Scots Calvinism was a persistent offender. As you say, better late than never - although witch hunts in this country were not as extensive as elsewhere, and only a fraction of the people arrested were executed, it was unpleasant while it lasted (1560 - 1630, mainly) and didn't just involve women, either. However, it is perhaps worth noting that the majority of the allegations against women were apparently made by other women. No one who has ever attended an all-girls school should be remotely surprised by this....