Witch....!!

Have you ever been called a witch or referred to someone else as such? Or perhaps you're way too nice to resort to name calling. But I'm sure somewhere along the way, you've heard of someone of the female gender being called a witch.

She was probably a nasty teacher at school, someone's wicked aunt, a bullying stepmother, an impossible co-worker.....well basically the kind of woman who makes life tough for those around her.

So yeah no self respecting woman would want to be called a witch. The very word is perceived to be pregnant with negative connotations, and being called a witch ain't going to gain a girl any fans these days. While in centuries past, being labelled a witch could mean certain death! Remember the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692?

Ah but would you believe me if said you should be honoured to be called a witch? Yup you heard me right, H..O..N..O..U..R..E..D. For it appears that the word "Witch" comes from wit and was used to refer to wise women.

Pic courtesy of lavenslair.com

So the next time you come across a difficult woman, don't call her a witch, cause she's not worthy to be called such. However, in my experience, not all women who have been called witches are nasty to begin with. From what I have observed, a lot of them are simply confident, opinionated, and can't be bossed around. And we all know how much the masses love a girl who can't be told what to do.

Interestingly it was the 300 years of the Inquisition that led to the word eventually being associated with women of evil. This was because the male-dominated church wanted to eliminate women holding positions of power in their community.

For crones, hags and witches were frequently leaders, midwives and healers - women who were respected and deferred to by members of their community. As their wisdom and ways were more in tandem with nature than church politics, the powers that be naturally saw fit to eliminate them.

So as history will tell thee, these women of ancient wisdom were tortured and burned at the stake. Many also met their death by the hangman's noose or by drowning.

Oh and before I end this rant, the next time someone calls you a hag or a crone, don't go running to check for fine lines or wrinkles in the mirror. The word crone comes from crown, indicating wisdom emanating from the head. While hag comes from hagio, meaning holy.

Based on how these three words have been distorted throughout time, it just goes to show how chauvinistic and patriarchal society really is. But should I be surprised??

This post is dedicated to Moon my fellow crone/witch/hag. We're still in our springy 30s'  but we've been calling ourselves crones n witches since we first met years ago. Old souls in young forms we were, even back then.

Information for this article was sourced from  
http://www.cronescounsel.org/The_Ancient_Crone