pagans, have you read this and how do you feel about it? non pagans, how do you feel about this?

Question

The Halloween Witch

Each year they parade her about...
The traditional Halloween Witch

Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose.
Gnarled knobby fingers, twisted into a claw, protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.

Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, or merely a Halloween caricature.

I disagree. I believe this to be how witches were really seen.

Consider that most witches were women, were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness, to be presented by the light of day as a confessed witch.

Few, if any, saw a frightened, normal looking woman, being dragged into a secret room, filled with intruments of torture. To be questioned until she confessed to anything that was suggested to her, and to give names or whatever would stop the questions.

Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed witch.

As the "witch" was paraded through the town, en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned, or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love...all created to free and save her soul from her depraved body.

The jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of torture.

The face, bruised and broken by countless blows, bore a hue of sickly green. The once warm and loving smile, gone. Replaced by a grimace of broken teeth, and torn gums, that leers beneath a battered, disfigured nose. The disheveled hair, conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp, from whence cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses. Broken, twisted hands, clutched the wagon for support. Fractured fingers locked like groping claws, to steady her broken body. All semblence of humanity gone. This is truly a demon, a bride of Satan, a witch.

I revere this Halloween crone, and hold her sacred above all. I honour her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of humanity.

Each year, I shed tears of respect.

i can't put into words what i am feeling from the amount of respect, understanding and empathy from most of these answers. i wasn't sure what i was going to get with this one. you guys have maded me proud - all of you, pagans and non pagans! thank you!

Answer 1

You know, Riegan, I was thinking of the Crone once I started reading this. It makes me terribly sad to think of these poor women (and even some men) who were tortured in unspeakable forms in the name of salvation. Blessings and Shanti to all of those poor broken women and to those of you who are dedicated pagans and honor the Mother, Sister Moon,
Diana.....I could go on...... Bright Blessings to all of you and Namaste from me:)

Answer 2

You failed to say what the source of this is; an actual tradition in some small town or story writen by someone?

As a pagan I like the ending, how all of the typical physical appearances of a witch are results of the Christian tortures for confession. The story is a reminder to all how hysteria can bring out the worst in people; some more history about how herbs and oils heal, witches as midwives, or the power of her Love for the villagers she helped would help with the ironic twist. We have martyrs just as the Christians and other religions, this is a good reminder of what happens when people do not take the time to stop, learn the truth, and think for themselves.

Answer 3

You have made an excellent point here, especially the thing about green skin and an ugly nose. But I think it's also possible that much of the caricature is based on the old woman who lives alone. And I'm an old woman (OK, 60; not old by today's standards but ancient for medieval times) who lives alone.

I'm what you might call a lapsed witch; I recently realized that what I really am is an atheist, but I was a practicing witch for some 25 years.

Answer 4

Very well put..now I will cry every time I see the old Halloween witch.
It was an evil time in history..Not just witches were treated so..the cruelty of man knows no bounds. The Catholics and Protestants did the same to each other. as did Christian and Muslim etc etc
I look at the hate in the world today and wonder if there not laws ..how many people would be dragged out into that secret room today?

Answer 5

I can live with the green-faced witch flying on brooms decorations on Halloween since that is more a creation of works of fiction i.e. The Wizard of Oz, IMO. The noose-hanging witches and any other decorations based on torturing witches, though, are based on terrible actions that really did happen and should not be part of Halloween.

Answer 6

Bit of fun. As soon as any religion starts to take its self too seriously it starts to become dogmatic, once that happens.... all hell breaks loose and even the pagan will turn on one another.
Let it be! Blessed be or Just be. It does not matter.
The witch trials were long ago... Christmas is about Santa.
Let Halloween be about what you like. Don't get upset.
Halloween is in June where I live.

Answer 7

Of course they had to dehumanize the people they were, for lack of a better word, sacrificing! Getting rid of the witch was supposed to solve the problems of the village. They needed a scape-goat, someone that they could persecute without repercussions. To see the person as another human was to admit that hope had left and that the problems were uncontrollable.

As a fellow Pagan, I too honor those who died innocent and alone. I am not their descendant, but I think we all feel some connection to them, Pagan or not. They weren't witches, they were scared girls or crones that no one cared to protect. We all can sympathize with being wrongly accused or maligned. And we can all feel empathy for a life cut too short.

Answer 8

Okay, unless you can show me some sources, I'm not buying your story. I've had enough of conjecture and poorly-supported theories. There's already enough persecution-based drek floating around about "OMG the poor witches! All 9 MILLION of them!"

Many of the accused "witches" in the Inquisition were *Christians* who either dissented against political figures (who were often also religious figures) or who had land or other possessions somebody in power wanted. And the actual death toll was probably under 1 million.

As for the Halloween witch, I think most people have the common sense the gods gave a duck--at least enough to know that real witches don't have green faces. Have a sense of humor, lest we all be lumped in with hysterical Wiccans who cause Halloween to be drained of all its fun for fear of the possibility of offending someone.

Answer 9

You're probably right. Pretty disturbing, when you think that that silly image could have come from the beatings that took teeth, blackened eyes and broke noses, the filthy conditions that left stringy hair, the breaking of bones and the yellow pallor of organs shutting down. But, yeah. That's a "witch."

Most of these "witches" were just green witches anyway - herbalists who failed to keep farmer Jones' daughter from dying in childbirth or something... but who were her best hope. Tragic, the group-think and mob mentality perpetuated in the name of God.

Answer 10

each and every of the flaws that make Christmas and Easter exciting are not Christian. The tree and delivers are pagan. same for Easter, the bunny is a fertility image as are the eggs. i do no longer see any situation with non-Christians engaging in those trip journeys. besides going to Church they're all noticeably secular. As for issues like Santa and the enamel fairy. i do no longer might desire to burst my new child's bubble. they are going to confirm they are actually not genuine quickly adequate. I did, and that i did no longer carry it against my father and mom. those might desire to be different the better judgements of latest child rearing, why some what to lead them to overly complicated, i don't be attentive to.