A Survivor’s Guide to Witches…

By Kaylana Fief

Witch definition… - practitioner of

witchcraft. Historically, it was widely believed in early modern Christian Europe that witches were in league with the Devil and used their powers to harm people and property…..

- witch derives from the Old English nouns wicca (masc.) "sorcerer, wizard" and wicce / (fem.) "sorceress, witch…"

Characteristics of Witches….

Body Type: Old, problem with their joints, which stiffen up, crack, and creak at a very early age. What do they look like: In the olden times, witches were young and beautiful… Usually wore long gowns… In movies the witches wear black ripped up dresses and a black pointed hat… they are depicted as “ugly”

Mental Characteristics… Nasty Misanthropic Intelligent Great memory

Origins of Witches…

Witchcraft originated with the human civilization itself. The fear of the unknown and its imagined role in making our day to day life easy or difficult, created witches and their craft. Even though witchcraft as such was practiced mainly by experienced and old women, men also practiced it…

Queen Elizabeth passed the 1562 Elizabethan Witchcraft Act 'against Conjurations Enchantments and Witchcrafts'.

The Elizabethans had deep faith in witchcraft. The faith, unfortunately, was more in its destructive rather than constructive powers. For example, they blamed the witches for any events that they could not control or explain.

Strengths… Traditionally a witch is supposed to be a master of the black magic and able to do things a normal being cannot. Using the elements as well as making those often dangerous potions seem to be their strengths. It’s also believe they are thought to live forever as they have ways of making themselves young each time they believe themselves to be "ugly…."

Weaknesses…It depends on the mythology universe of the piece. For example, in The Wizard of Oz, the Witches were killed in two ways... one had a house land on her, and the other later melted when she was splashed with a bucket of water. In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Witch could not survive if prophecy was with-held. One children's book long ago the witch died after she ate soup that was flavored with salt. Reality: It depends on the person. Since real Witches are people, they all have their own individual flaws and weaknesses.

Surest way to kill a witch…

Burning and hanging were the most popular forms of execution for accused witches in medieval Europe.

Two movies with witches…Drag me to Hell Directed by: Sam Raimi (2009)

Something Wicked This Way ComesDirected By: Jack Clayton (1983)

Two Books…

Bewitched Written By: Maggie Shayne, Susan Krinard, Lisa Higdon, Amy Elizabeth Saunders

Firespell (Dark Elite, Book 1) Written by: Chloe Neill

Definitions… Vocab… - Misanthropic: cynical:

believing the worst of human nature and motives; having a sneering disbelief in e.g. selflessness of others

- Wicked: Intended to or capable of harming someone or something

- Black Magic: Magic involving the supposed invocation of evil spirits for evil purposes

Salem Witch Trials… From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided.

Blair Witch Project…Several children accuse Elly Kedward of luring them into her home to draw blood from them. Kedward is found guilty of witchcraft, banished from the village during a particularly harsh winter and presumed dead.

By midwinter all of Kedward's accusers along with half of the town's children vanish. Fearing a curse, the townspeople flee Blair and vow never to utter Elly Kedward's name again.

The Blair Witch Cult is published. This rare book, commonly considered fiction, tells of an entire town cursed by an outcast witch.

Burkittsville is founded on the Blair site.

Eleven witnesses testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and pull ten-year-old Eileen Treacle into Tappy East Creek. Her body is never recovered, and for thirteen days after the drowning the creek is clogged with oily bundles of sticks.

Eight-year-old Robin Weaver is reported missing and search parties are dispatched. Although Weaver returns, one of the search parties does not. Their bodies are found weeks later at Coffin Rock tied together at the arms and legs and completely disemboweled.

Starting with Emily Hollands, a total of seven children are abducted from the area surrounding Burkittsville, Maryland.

An old hermit named Rustin Parr walks into a local market and tells the people there that he is "finally finished." After Police hike for four hours to his secluded house in the woods, they find the bodies of seven missing children in the cellar. Each child has been ritualistically murdered and disemboweled. Parr admits to everything in detail, telling authorities that he did it for "an old woman ghost" who occupied the woods near his house. He is quickly convicted and hanged.