The New Witch of the West

Having just finished Rountree’s “The New Witch of the West,” I realized how much my perception of witches and witchcraft has changed over the last couple weeks. Like Rountree, I was a typical Disney-watching child who became well acquainted with the “warty, black-clad old hag who…snared and dined on juicy children.” In the years since then, I don’t know that I’ve ever looked at witches seriously or critically; like the majority of adults mentioned by Rountree in her opening paragraph, I’m more apt to dismiss the idea of witches. However, I started thinking beyond the humorous stereotypes as our class explored the very human, very tragic experiences of the women accused of witchcraft in Salem. Now, after reading about feminist witchcraft, my understanding of witches and how self-proclaimed witches wish to be perceived is much expanded.

We’ve talked a few times about how women who overstepped social boundaries in the rigid, patriarchal society of Salem were “easy targets” in the witch-hunts. I’m glad that this article discussed the clash of women and the male-dominated society at length, examining this unfortunate trend across the centuries. I did not know, for example, that wise women who practiced medicine in Europe posed such a threat to patriarchal control. As present-day readers, we can scoff at how ridiculous it is that a woman practicing healing without a university degree (when she was denied admittance to universities) was labeled a witch. In truth, she probably did not have anything to do with witchcraft. Thus, it makes some sense that feminist scholars have redefined the word “witch” as a woman “who challenges patriarchal control and claims independent knowledge and power.”

As for the feminist witches today, it seems to me that they are more concerned with affirming their “woman-centered spirituality” than they are with the spiritual practices themselves. If these women are primarily focused on establishing a symbol and empowering themselves (reclaiming the agency), I don’t know that labeling themselves “witches” and creating an alternative spirituality, or “designer religion,” are the necessary ways of doing it. Toward the end of the article, Rountree points outs that reinventing the witch in today’s world is a risky undertaking. Society is steeped in stereotypical images, and the word “witch” has a negative connotation. Moreover, any serious practice of witchcraft is still fairly taboo, if it doesn’t incite condemnation. So I seriously doubt that feminist witches will have much success in their mission of change, aside from the personal fulfillment it brings them. Personally, if I were a woman trying to rise above male oppression and embrace my female power, I think I’d do it in such a way that I had some public support or approval. Perhaps…running for vice president? :)

One of the issues discussed in the article that surprised me was the discussion of women who self-identify as Christian and as witch. My reading of the deeply religious Cotton Mather, who passionately discussed the conflict between Christianity and witchcraft, suggested that these belief systems were completely incompatible. Perhaps times have changed, but it’s hard for me to imagine how even a feminist witch (who, as Rountree points out, doesn’t engage in Satantism) could entirely reconcile the two beliefs in the face of continued Christian opposition to witchcraft. The Christian religion may have the equivalents of two aspects of the Goddess trinity—Mary and the virgin mother—but I think it still shuns the “diabolized Crone.”