The Witch as Archetype

She’s not what you think . . .

The witch is not a horror symbol but a symbol of liberation. Arthur Miller, as brilliant as he was, got it wrong about the Salem Witch Trails. What was really going on in those Salem woods? American girls like Sarah Good were dancing naked in the forest, smearing menstrual blood as warpaint on their faces, in an inarticulated rage against patriarchal Protestant oppression.

Driven by a blossoming womanhood they could not even understand, these teenagers left society and went into the wood not to worship “Satan”, but to relish in their burgeoning femininity.

What a world we had created for them–to be clad in black dresses and white bonnets, covering themselves and their beauty! As far back as Roman Emperor Constantine, our human tribe has been brainwashed in dogmas to believe that sex was necessary for procreation but otherwise filthy and secret. Is it any wonder women danced naked in the wood? Is it any wonder the myth grew about flying around on broomsticks? The broom, long a symbol of domestic tyranny, became the symbol of empowerment and escape for women i.e. witches (aka “bitches”).

Let’s utilize the tragedy of the past to awaken the balance in our future. We were born not into sin. We were born into love.