Bad Witches Are Out; Good
Witches Are Now In.
~ by Phyllis W.
Curott
Can you imagine Cybill Shepherd, Roseanne Barr, Olympia Dukakis,
Tori
Amos, Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, Sarah McLachlan, Marianne
Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Erica Jong,and Camille Paglia standing
in a circle together beneath a gorgeous full moon? I can.
Why? Because they are among some of America's most prominent
celebrities, authors, and performers who have discovered the
Goddess. Goddess spirituality is now the fastest growing spiritual
practice in America and popular artists are openly and
enthusiastically bringing this ancient wisdom to the attention of
the media and the American public. And where they go, their
audiences are sure tofollow.
While Goddess spirituality takes many forms, the most popular is
the
contemporary revival of witchcraft. America is discovering that
behind the mask of the wicked Witch is the beautiful face of the
Goddess. Witchcraft, also called Wicca, is actually the ancient,
pre-Christian spirituality of the Goddess. The word "witch" comes
from the
Anglo Saxon word wicce, meaning a wise one.Unfortunately, the
word
also evokes the image of a green-faced hag riding a broomstick and
brewing evil potions, a stereotype vividly brought to life by
actress Margaret Hamilton in "The Wizard of Oz," Bette Midler in
"Hocus Pocus" and the recent "Blair Witch Project." This
gender-based stereotype points us in the direction of the hideous
hag's origins and her persistent
presence in popular culture. We've all grown up with countless
fairy
tales about the wicked witch with deadly powers. The hags of
Shakespeare's "Macbeth" have convinced generations that witches
conjure our darkest natures with noxious eye of newt. Durer's
woodcuts show her to be ugly and mis-shapened. But where did
this
vision come from?
In the late 1400's, worship of the Goddess was branded satanic by
the
Catholic Church. Though there is no devil in the Old Religion of
the Goddess and witches do not worship him, hundreds of thousands
were tortured and killed. Almost 90 percent of these victims were
women and those who survived lost nearly all legal rights, became
chattel, were
prohibited from owning or inheriting property, receiving an
education, practicing medicine or the Goddess's religion.This
prolonged period of
persecution, known as the Witchcraze (now recognized as the women's
Holocaust) assured the domination of the stereotype of the wicked
witch. And over the centuries, the hag came to personify the
culture's shadow, the culture's fear of women--their powers to give
birth, their sexuality, and spirituality. Fairy tales, plays,
pictures, and sermons perpetuated this
vision.
Times are changing and the Goddess is returning. In the past forty
years, pop culture provided at least one good witch a decade:
Glinda the Good Witch of the North, Veronica Lake in "I Married a
Witch," Kim Novak in "Bell, Book and Candle," and Elizabeth
Montgomery in "Bewitched." Today, good witches are everywhere, with
Hollywood at the
forefront of a radical shift in public perception. Nicole Kidman
and Sandra Bullock portrayed sister witches in "Practical Magic,"
which captured the
number one spot at the box office when it opened. When Sandra
explains that "there is no devil in the Craft," and "there's more
to magic than spells and potions," millionsheard important messages
that hopefully will enable real witches to practice their religion
in peace and safety and with public acceptance.On television, two
new shows, "Sabrina" and "Charmed," feature strong, independent
young women who are witches; a character on an afternoon soap opera
regularly exclaimed "Oh my Goddess!" and conducted charming
Goddess rituals as part of the plot; and the NBC sitcom, "Friends,"
devoted an entire show to the female characters discovering their
inner Goddesses. But while these shows and films portray positive
characters, they rely on silly special effects that perpetuate the
stereotype of witches having supernatural powers (like freezing
time or making objects move). The powers that witches cultivate are
not supernatural; they are completely natural, divine gifts latent
in all of us. From spiritual practice, witches know that magic is
not about commanding and controlling, but about consciousness and
communion; they have discovered that by living in harmony with
nature, they live in harmony with the divine, and that real magic
flows from our connection to that divinity.
In television shows, including "Picket Fences," "Buffy the Vampire
Slayer," and "Judging Amy," that present witches as sympathetic,
realistic
characters who practice a bona fide religion, a different problem
arises. These witches tend to fall into agender stereotype; that
is, they are exclusively female. In fact,there have always been
male Witches (not warlocks), and their numbers are rapidly
increasing.
Witchcraft is also increasingly receiving serious attention from
the "hard" media. During the last year, the release of "Book of
Shadows" and the
presence of witches in the military prompted respectful stories
about witchcraft as a Goddess religion in every major daily
newspaper, in major magazines, and on top television shows in the
U.S. and abroad. Wiccan protests against "The Blair Witch
Project's" reinforcement of the negative stereotype were also given
respectful coverage in the news media.
According to The New York Times, Wicca is also the fastest
growing,
most lucrative subject in the publishing field. Witchcraft, at this
moment, is undergoing a major transformation--stories about witches
are increasingly become stories by witches. No longer confined to
the broom closet, witches are increasingly public and confident in
the exercise of their rights to express themselves and the truth
about their religion.
But more importantly, the witch is once again retrieving her and
his role as the culture's shaman, the teller of myths that are our
collective dreams. The witch is again telling sacred stories that
chronicle and inspire our encounter with divinity. As a witch, the
story I tell in "Book of Shadows" is a spiritual journey to
discover the Goddess within.
It is a story of challenge and transformation, a story of the
spirit in the "material"world.
It is the story of real magic.
