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Seeing beyond pink and blue to decode the mysteries of men and women.
Podcast Transcript | Listen to the Podcast Now
Why do we think of witches as women? | October 28, 2009
Cristen
But if we’re talking about modern witchcraft today, Molly, traveling back across the great ocean to the United States -
Molly
Leaving Africa behind.
Cristen
- of America. The thing that I think about when I think about witches is the Wiccan religion.
Molly
Okay, tell me about it, Cristen.
Cristen
Well, the Wiccan religion is not this dark and scary occultish art that we commonly associate with witchcraft. In fact, it is very – it’s kind of hippyish, really. And I hope that’s not offensive to any Wiccans listening to that. I only mean that it’s very earth-focused. It’s focused on worshiping the natural forces and powers in the earth and a god and goddess figure who maintain and sort of rule over these forces.
Molly
Right, and I was interested that they make this vow to harm nothing. Nothing on the earth or a person. It’s very much like you said about just harnessing available forces and using them for your needed purpose.
Cristen
And another thing that I didn’t know about Wicca was that it was established in the 1940s and ’50s by a man named Gerald Gardner, and he defined witchcraft as a positive and life-affirming religion. And so it really hasn’t been around that long.
Molly
Mm-hm. Well, and you know, when you go back and you look at these conflicting definitions of what a witch is and who a witch is, that makes a lot more sense, that you know, they’re kind of taking a definition and using part of it, but not using part of it.
Cristen
Yeah, and there is no devil and no hell in the Wiccan religion. And the only kind of magical energy that they use is the energy, the natural energy of the cosmos.
Molly
Hmm.
Cristen
Now Molly and I are not experts in the nuances of Wicca, but just for a little bit of overview, one thing that caught my attention was that both men and women are witches. Men are not warlocks because the word warlock actually means oath breaker and dates back to witch hunts. So calling a man a warlock is an insult.
Molly
So really, although we have the stereotype that women are witches, men and women are witches.
Cristen
So I think there is a fine line to walk between not infringing on native culture, but at the same time systematically killing women and children is wrong.
Molly
Right.
Cristen
I think we all could agree with that.