Which Witch is it?
@naturalmedicine has asked the question, what does ‘witch’ mean to you? I thought it a good opportunity to divulge some thoughts I've had on this recently.
The common depiction of a witch is an old haggard (hag) woman with a wart on her nose. Today we know that most elderly people look haggard, have larger noses (apparently they don't stop growing) and often warts/moles, but if you think back to the time when people believed witches to be women who could cast spells or put curses on you, the average age people lived to was around 40. So those with herbal and nutritional knowledge who lived to an older age, probably looked very different to what most people were used to.
Someone living to such an old age may also have contributed to the belief that witches were immortal or had made a deal with the devil to live for much longer than a normal mortal lifespan. They could even have believed that their aging was a part of paying for that extra long life.
Witches were also synonymous with midwives. They had knowledge of herbs and birth to help ease a birthing mother's pain. The likelihood is that birthing would have been women's business too, so men would have been excluded from this process of bringing forth life, possibly making it easy for suspicion to fall upon the midwife if someone died in childbirth or a baby was stillborn.
So, I guess for me, ‘witch’ was the name given to those who were knowledgeable in the natural world, the uses of plants in our diet and healing. They were able to do things that weren't understood by most, so they were seen as having magical powers which likely created fear for many. In many cases they became scapegoats for anything bad that happened and couldn't be explained. For years 'witch' has had evil connotations, but recently we have started to see things in a different light.
Today reaching an old age has become commonplace. A 'haggard', old woman is no longer something to fear, but someone experiencing the ravages of old age. Anyone can choose to learn about the properties of plants, herbs and how to use them in the modern age. The label ‘witch’ is becoming less synonymous with evil and perhaps more synonymous with hippies. Some might still think them a bit strange, but we no longer fear them because we have more understanding.
With my red hair and large birthmark, I'm happier to be living today than a hundred or more years ago when these things would have marked me as a witch. Today, I'm happy to be called a witch by my hubby with my lotions and potions as I learn more about natural healing and nutrition's part in our health.
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I like a good sandwitch...sorry I not spell good :)
Do you or have you ever noticed objects move around you. Have you ever had revelations? especially when you were younger...is there anything else your not telling us?.
Haha! Only when I'm drunk!
Great observation.
Once I was into reading stuffs about black magic(Well I like to believe supernatural is real because it doesn't really hurt even if you believe every shit XD) but rather I got introduced by this book to the history of midwives and how they were abolished by Kings, unable to perceive what they were doing and how it ended this once effective and rich natural healing techniques.
Its funny how we take things, for which we don't find perfect explanations, as magic. During their time, some one might have called Wright brothers witches too or whatever they used to call the male ones.
They could have been called the warlock brothers instead, maybe. ;)
You've got me thinking now. I wonder what the instances were of men being accused of witchcraft. It does seem rather more targeted at women. Wizard is another name for a male with magic, but they're usually seen good whereas warlocks were the evil ones.
Magic and miracles filled in a lot of gaps. I still see things like new life as miraculous.
You should write your own post for this challenge! I'd love to hear more about it.
I would love to but this is pretty much it haha. I will be checking out for your challanges and see if I can write something soon!
P.S. I think I got it all wrong? Where is the challange actually? LOL
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Ah awesome. I've been thinking along the same line - that 'witch' is a holder of knowledge. And this can be feared, especially when in the hands of woman, because knowledge = power, and there's those that distrust and fear THAT. Hence = witchtrials.
Will you be doing a post on it too? I look forward to it, if so.
BTW are you the creator of the natural medicine account and group?
Yes I am and yes I will! Just... thinking...
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