On The Malefic Witch

Witches have long been associated with death, stillbirth, and bad luck for individuals, farmers, and communities. This is true across numerous cultures and in much folklore. But what if this actually stands for something more than a morally inept individual with a voracious lust for the Christian Opposer?

The Desecration of the Sacred

This was something I had never really thought about until a recent message I received as I stood at the edge of a marina looking out across the harbour to the island my father lives on. I was waiting for a boat to collect me and take me to the isolated land where there are no roads or stores. The water lapped against cement, bringing the scent of salt – and fuel.

A thin murk was present and distorted the shapes of seemingly colourless fish below its surface. The sun shone down and reflected, not from the harbour, but from the forest of bleached bones – the masts of boats that never move; collections of stagnant money for business tax cuts and empty conversation points for the wealthy and bored.

I felt anger. 

There were no trees behind me – only cement constructs and a parking lot. Rows of little birds made do with the rigging of boats as a substitute for branches. This is what people call beauty; this is how they relax; sitting around water they poison, wishing for the shade of trees they’d removed so they could stuff their faces in cement caves.

An Unwitting Call, An Unexpected Response

My hand was resting upon a cement pillar I was using for shade – the cement docks are like a desert – and I stood, furious and sickened.

I wanted to bring them all down. I saw the ocean swallow them up. I saw the power go out. I saw nature fight back. She won’t – not like that – but I was angry.

He smiled at the thought – I do not quite know who ‘He’ is yet, but He was there, called by my anger. “Look closer,” He said and He showed me.

It’s all a Matter of Perspective

The common historic concept of a witch in the West is that of a Malefic hag. I’ve always loved the power of this fantasy but never believed in the idea of someone existing purely to prevent an over-abundant crop or to cripple reproduction. But He made this fear make sense.

Land Guardianship has been explained better than I could do it, but it is closely tied to this message. In any form of Witchcraft there is, somewhere, the idea of polarities and the warning of offsetting their balances. In a time when people were reliant on the land for their survival in a way we are too removed now to fully comprehend, you can understand how they came to view the Earth as sacred.

But how can the land survive as populations continue to grow and thrive without any form of control or resistance? What if the malefic witch was conjured out of the fear of those individuals who held an awareness of the need for this balance?

I’m not trying to say that they were a literal occurrence as such, but a cultural distortion of an idea which stood in stark contrast to basic human instinct and the subsequent establishment of Religions (fertility and otherwise).

Many primitive people had individuals who acted as mediators between the earth and man; perhaps their allegiances were not with us? Could the idea of the Malefic, crop-cursing witch stem from the idea of guardianship of the land and its balance?

What do you think?