What is your image of a witch? Is she a crone with a big nose and warts or pretty and sparkly? The cinema has a lot to answer for in terms of how we visualize witches. Ok most are for children and clear definitions of good and evil are characterized by how they look or are dressed. Simplistic but true. It will be interesting next year to see how they are depicted in the new film for grown ups, The Last Witch Hunter – already know they are evil! Mind you books use the same interpretation! I have been reading a Roald Dahl classic to the library’s Saturday children’s club, no matter your age you can always enjoy a Roald Dahl book. I know I do The Witches is a tale, where a boy and his grandmother are attempting to find the Grand High Witch; now these witches look normal until they take off their masks and become the ugly warty stereotypes of an evil witch, which is what they are after all in the book. Thank goodness for Harry potter books and a slightly different perspective on witches. How do you imagine them? All said witches get a pretty raw deal, hunted and immolated from the first law passed in 1541 to 1951; the practice of witchcraft illegal in Britain. After the repeal of the law witches and wiccans became more open. What is the difference between the two? Simple, Wiccan is a belief system and witchcraft is a practice. I thought it might be interesting to know more about this so look out for my next post…
This posts book recommendation:, The Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchet another perspective on witches. Disc World books are a passion with me so watch for more recommendations from this excellent author
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