#Tamara Lichtenstein / Joanne Burke / Graham Butler / MadonnaOriente on Etsy /

[voluptuarian]

13 days of witches: the witches of Thessaly

"I have the gift of magic and the fire of prophecy in me. I have learned the incantations wherewith Thessalian witches pull down the bright moon, I know... the various saps that flow within trees and the power of deadly herbs… such as cruel Medea gathered and curious Circe." — Claudianus Claudius

They are the ancestors of the archetypal witch, foremothers of the lusty crone and the belle dame both. No outsider or foreign import, but a breed of homegrown sorceress blooming in the margin between civilization and the mythic wild, with roots deep-set into the wooded valleys and peaks of Thessaly, their home and haunting ground. In Thessaly rises both Othrys and Olympus, dwelling places of the titans and the gods; here great Chiron taught the secrets of magic and medicine to mortals; even the warriors bred in Thessaly were healers, too. Like the witches themselves, it is wild, impassible, ungovernable, full of occult doings in unseen places. Here the witches walk alone, treading the roads at night without modesty or fear. At will they shed their forms to wander in the shapes of beasts and congregate among graves, spilling living blood and profaning ancient burials. They are dangerous and deeply wise, educated in whispered, moon-occluded, long-inherited things, wielding the double-edged blade of cure and poison at no one's bidding but their own. They traffic with gods without the sanction of priesthood, and straddle the bounds of science without deference. And when they gather themselves beneath the fullness of the moon, at their command she drops from the sky and into their waiting arms.