For as long as I can remember I have been very curious about witches and witchcraft. If I try and track back my thoughts to my first ever introduction to this world it might just take me back to the fairytales I had read as a little girl. Although the witches in the fairytales had always been evil with a vendetta and a not so nice agenda, I now wonder why I liked reading about them? Was it that there was an air of unexplained mystery to their being and ways or was it the drama around the spells, the cauldron, the broom, the hat, the black cat and ofcourse the magical powers they seemed to have? it must have been.. As a girl growing up in a pretty regular mediocre life with rules and homework being my friend magic must have seemed pretty rebelious and freeing!
However, my actual hook to the world of witches came about with my knowledge of the Salem Witch Trials.. This tryst was into my adulthood as a college going young woman.. I was first shocked, then fearful and finally the lasting emotion was sheer horror to the way these women were treated. And all I kept wondering was if they truly were witches and had such magical powers why in the world did they not just fly away or turn into bats or just spell bind everyone when they were being burnt alive? I asked these questions mostly in my mind and sometimes out loud and did not really get a convincing reply.. it was a lot of related wikipedia search and debates on the topic as I read on the internet that revealed the political and feministic issues that fueled this hatred along with a huge amount of fear instilled by religious men in power and of course ignorance of the general public on most matters. To keep it simple and ofcourse to support my own outrage on the topic the main issue boils down to subjugating women’s powers and their strength, enslaving them to the kitchens and the house and taking away any freedom that some of them might have to voice their thoughts against the men in question. Some of the women accused were ofcourse healers, women who understood herbs and plants and potions, some had special powers of foresight and premonitions for sure but were mostly harmless and definitely not evil. If there were any sorceresses like many of the stories say.. I am must say Im glad and hope that was true!
But the more I thought about the witches, I began to wonder.. has the witch hunt truly stopped? In today’s day of science and technology is the system, the people in power, the society, the world in general letting women who are different, who have special talents, who have foresight and the ability to analyse the future, the women who can make discoveries, who are more intelligent and the opposite sex would like, the ones who are the round pegs in the square holes drilled by society left unharmed? Isnt the witch hunt still on? Yes, it is.. everyday their is a fight for freedom somewhere in the world.. freedom of thought, freedom of rights, freedom to believe, to dream to do and to be.. and as long as this fight remains.. the witches will too! The white witches! the witches who fight for equality against male domination and subjugation! the white witches will be there and she will fight!
purnimanandy 