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Urban Legends and Reality: Are They Really That Different?

For my last blog post, I wanted to explore the concept of how real witches and witchcraft felt to the people of Salem and how it is similar to people’s beliefs in urban legends, and the like, today. In 1690s Salem, witchcraft was not the far-fetched story it is today. To the people of Salem, it was 100% real and threatening to their lives.

So often, people discount the experiences of the people of Salem because they cannot imagine being “simple-minded” or “silly” enough to take accusations of witchcraft seriously. It is easy to think that the people of Salem were just not advanced enough to understand that witchcraft is not real, however, this explanation is too simple. Even though the people of Salem lived centuries ago, they were not unintelligent. They could read and some of them had gone to school. The reason that they believed in witchcraft was because their experiences brought them to that conclusion. The things that they saw or felt or read made them believe in witchcraft. Their experiences shaped their reality in the same way that ours do.

Just like in Salem, many people today believe in witchcraft along with other ideas that are considered “urban legends.” These people are not treated as if they are dumb, so the people of 1690s Salem should not be either.

Personally, I know friends and family members who claim to have seen things in their time that many would dismiss as “tall tales.” For example, I have cousins in small Texas towns that swear that they have seen the ghost La Llorona in her white dress, crying for her children. La Llorona is a popular Hispanic urban legend about a woman who, in a fit of rage because she found her husband cheating on her, drowned her two children. She immediately regretted her actions and became so consumed by grief that she drowned herself too. She could not go into the afterlife without her children, so legend says that her ghost can often be seen crying and searching for them near the body of water that she drowned them in. What my cousins saw could have just been some regular woman crying or someone playing a joke on them but to them, it is proof that La Llorona is exists. Large numbers of people claim that they have seen her as well. Like the people of Salem, my cousins believed that what they saw proved the existence of something that they would not have otherwise believed in had they not experienced what they did.

Furthermore, I also know people that have claimed to see a Chupacabra. A Chupacabra is vampiric creature that is known to suck the blood of goats and other livestock. My cousin’s friend claims that he saw one near his livestock when he was out at his ranch. For all I know this could have just been a coyote with mange, but to him, it was proof of a Chupacabra. Like La Llorona there have been multiple Chupacabra sightings all over the world, so how can anyone dismiss thousands of people’s experiences?

Even I have changed my mind about certain legends after seeing “proof” of them. I believe that I saw a UFO in the sky once and no one can tell me otherwise. I saw three, unmoving, red dots in the shape of a triangle in the sky at night, and then in less than a second, they flew away so fast that it could not have possibly been a plane.

Having said that, I understand how and why the people of Salem so adamantly believed in witchcraft after witnessing strange occurrences such as the mysterious fits of the children. Any logical person at that time who believed that they were witnessing signs of witchcraft would have concluded that there were witches around. The idea that the people of Salem were crazy or simple-minded needs to be done away with because, as demonstrated by people’s belief in urban legends today, what people experience can lead them to believe in what seem like outrageous things.  

“A Picture of a Chupacabra”

“Drawing of La Llorona

[victoriagarcia77]

Witches vs. Vampires: Similarities in Film

Reading about and watching films/shows about witchcraft has got me thinking about another mythical creature that has dominated popular culture over the past few years: the Vampire. From The Twilight Saga to Interview with a Vampire, vampires are everywhere. As someone who was obsessed with Twilight and other vampire movies as a child, I feel that I know quite a bit about vampires, or at least the ones that were in the movies and books that I mentioned above. The vampires in Twilight, and most other vampire movies, are former humans who thirst for blood and cannot go out in the sun. They are soulless beings that live on the outskirts of society. They are evil creatures that disguise themselves as regular people. If these characteristics sound familiar, it is because vampires are a lot like witches.

Vampires and witches have highly similar characteristics. They are both “othered” by society, they are both in cahoots with the Devil, they both hide in plain sight and they both act as a scapegoat for society’s problems when things go awry.

When thinking about the Twilight movies and general vampire lore, I can easily find many similarities between the portrayal of vampires and witches. In Twilight, the vampires in the film live with each other in a coven in a large house on the edge of town close to the woods. This is similar to how witches are portrayed as social outcasts living together in the woods. This trope is something that we have seen countless times in movies such as “The Witch” and “Into the Woods.” Both mythical creatures are pushed away from society and forced to keep to themselves lest they expose their true identities.

Another similarity between the two creatures is the idea that both have sacrificed their soul to the Devil in exchange for their power. It was a common belief, as demonstrated by our class readings, that witches became witches by signing the Devil’s book and pledging to serve him. In other words, witches were believed to have signed their souls away to the Devil in exchange for power or other things that they wanted. This is a similar for the vampires within the Twilight movies. Once someone becomes a vampire, they lose their soul and are damned to Hell (or at least that is what some vampires believe.)

Furthermore, both vampires and witches hide in plain sight. They look no different from the average person, which is what makes them so frightening. Both mythical creatures represent the evil that we as humans cannot expect or control. They are metaphors for the malevolence that lurks in the shadows and scapegoats to blame for when things go wrong, such as death or sickness. Vampires and witches are both explanations for the unexplainable and products of the imaginations of people that needed something to blame for their suffering.

While the vampires in Twilight are not the best types of vampires to compare to witches, I feel that the ones in Interview with a Vampire would give better insight into the many similarities between the two mythical figures. I recommend watching it not only for a comparative analysis but also because it is a great movie and one of my favorites.

[victoriagarcia77]

My Thoughts on WandaVision, Knowing What I Know Now: Spoiler Alert

Today, I binge-watched all episodes of WandaVision. I was a bit confused at first, however, I eventually caught on. The show follows Wanda Maximoff three weeks after her husband, Vision, dies at the hands of Thanos. Wanda is so overcome with grief that she creates an alternate reality in which she can live out the life that she envisioned for her and Vision before he was killed. To do this, however, she takes control of an entire town, forcing them to play supporting roles in her alternate reality. Eventually, her idyllic, suburban life begins to fall apart. Another witch named Agnes appears later on in the show and it is her who gives viewers more insight into how witches within the Marvel Universe work. Between Wanda and Agnes, there are many allusions to Salem and contemporary popular media about witches. In a flashback to Agnes’s past, the viewer sees her being dragged by two witches onto a post. The flashback takes place in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, the same year and place as the Salem Witch Trials. This is an obvious allusion to the Witch Trials and the way that accused witches were prosecuted.

Fast forward to the present day and Wanda and Agnes are battling for power. Wanda pushes a car into Agnes and her and the car fly into a house. Agnes is underneath the rubble of the crushed house and all that is visible is Agnes’s feet in black pointy shoes. Here again is another witch allusion, but this time to the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz movie.

The last scene of the show has Wanda reading out of an “evil book” that she took from Agnes after defeating her. To me, this book seems to be an allusion to the “Devil’s book” that women were made to sign in order to join the Devil and become a witch that was mentioned many times during the Salem Witch Trials.

I am sure there were other allusions that I might have missed, however, it was fun watching this show and finding little easter eggs such as the ones I mentioned above. It felt awesome to be able to catch these references, many of which I would have not been able to catch had I not taken this class. It made the experience of watching the show that much more enjoyable. Next time, I watch another witch related show, I will surely be on the lookout for more references to witch history and culture that I have learned about in this class.

[victoriagarcia77]

Ever Wondered How Intuition Works?

Recently, I was scrolling through TikTok when I saw a video of a girl who said that she was about to go “full witch mode on her AP Calc test.” She burned incense over her laptop as she took the test and relied on her witch powers to guide her to the right answers. In the end, she scored a 4 out of 25, which made me laugh. But, it also got me thinking about how every student does this in some form or fashion when he or she is taking a test and they don’t know the answer so they have to guess. When one guesses like the girl in the TikTok video, they are mostly relying on intuition, or a gut feeling about the right answer. Intuition is interesting to me because it is not something that we can see or hear or study, but rather an unexplainable, innate feeling that relies on emotions rather than reason. So, where does intuition come from and how does is it happen?

After doing some research on this topic, I found an article from BigThink.com revealing that scientists are also asking this question and that they are zeroing in on an answer. Interestingly enough, scientists actually do believe that intuition comes from the gut. Scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK arrived at this conclusion by creating a computer model to see how well an animal could survive in an environment with predators and fluctuating food availability. The model found that animals that used cognitive abilities to search for food had about the same survival rate as those who used intuition alone. Dr. Andrew Higginson, the lead author of the study, stated that the model’s results “explain that there is a link between our gut and our decisions, meaning that hunger acts as an important memory telling us where we can or can’t find food." He goes on to say that, "The usefulness of such memory means that animals, including humans, may appear to be processing a great deal of information in the brain when in fact they are just following their gut.”

Biologically, scientists still don’t know for sure where exactly intuition comes from but one possible answer is a nerve called the “vagus nerve” that sends signals from the brain to the gut when it encounters serotonin. Another possible answer is the enteric nervous system or “gut brain,” which is a system of nerves that is interwoven throughout the esophagus, stomach, and the intestines.

It seems scientists are still trying to explain this unexplainable feeling, but it is fascinating reading about their hypotheses and knowing that the phrase “gut feeling” is something to be taken literally.

Article Link: https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/do-you-follow-your-gut-scientists-are-zeroing-in-on-where-intuition-comes-from-biologically

Tiktok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMemwdoYw/

[victoriagarcia77]

An Exploration of “Witchcore”

After reading Olivia W’s blog about influencer witches, I got to thinking about my all time favorite musical artist: Lana Del Rey. While she is not an influencer, per se; she is a celebrity with a ton of influence. Lana has always had a “witch-y” vibe to her. Though she is quite famous, she maintains an aura of mystery about her and oftentimes exemplifies a femme-fatale persona within her songs and music videos that is evocative of the modern idea of the witch. In 2017, she further cemented her identity as a witch when she tweeted to her millions of followers, after Donald Trump was elected, that she was going to put a hex on him. Her tweet read “At the stroke of midnight Feb 24, March 26, April 24, May 21. Ingredients can be found online” Though this tweet might sound a bit ambiguous, many people analyzed the message and took her as saying that she was going to be participating in a “binding spell” that was supposed to put a curse on Donald Trump. Later in an interview, Lana confirmed that that was indeed her intention. A couple years later, Lana also came out with a cover of the song “The Season of the Witch” and an album trailer in which she was dressed as a witch performing magic.

After Lana did these things, the witch aesthetic began to increase in popularity on Tumblr and become more mainstream. (Of course, she is not the only person that should be credited with garnering popularity for the aesthetic, but she is a major recent contributor, at least in my opinion.) Now, with the rise of Tiktok, there is a name for this aesthetic: “witchcore.” Witchcore is an aesthetic that is “centered around the themes of witchcraft. It often involves performing spells, magic, or gem collecting,” according to a wiki page. As I was exploring witchcore, I came across some interesting things. First, was a genre of music called “witch house.” I had heard of house music before, but I had never seen it prefaced with the word “witch.” Witch house, according to Wikipedia, is a “dark, occult-themed electronic music microgenre and visual aesthetic that emerged in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The music is heavily influenced by chopped and screwed hip-hop soundscapes, industrial and noise experimentation, and features use of synthesizers, drum machines, obscure samples, droning repetition and heavily altered, ethereal, indiscernible vocals.” After searching for witch house on Youtube, a remix of a song from Crystal Castles that I love came up. (Apparently I have known about witch house all along.) I’ll put a link to it at the end of the post. I went on to listen to more songs that I would describe as EDM mixed with post punk mixed with shoegaze, if that makes sense. They were super interesting.

Another thing I discovered was that witchcore is also an interior design aesthetic. Searching this term on either Tiktok or Instagram will bring up hundreds of posts of bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms. Many of the rooms looked straight out of a scene from “The Love Witch,” a movie which also contributed to the rise of witchcore. I will post a picture I found of a bedroom that was hashtaged #witchcore at the end of this post.

All in all, I am not sure where I wanted to go with this blog post. I guess it is just a stream of consciousness of ideas and discoveries that I wanted to share as I explored the aesthetic of “witchcore.” I hope you guys find it intriguing!

Witchhouse genre song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3P_icvTPtI

 Witchcore bedroom:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_house_(genre)

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Witchcore

[victoriagarcia77]

Angel Numbers and Their Meanings

While I was reading Olivia’s blog, I came across one of her posts talking about the trend of manifestation. While I was reading, I remembered something that my mom often talks about: angel numbers. Angels numbers are repeating sequences of numbers such as 111, 1234 and 0101 that contain messages from the universe. These numbers are a part of numerology, which is the belief that there is a divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. According to numerology, each number is connected to a certain vibrational energy or frequency that encompasses meaning beyond its sheer numeric value. Where angel numbers come in is with the prevalence of how often these number show up. Certain numbers mean different things and the more often you see them, the more important the message. Since I sometimes see repeating number sequences myself, I thought it might be fun to explore the meanings of certain numbers and write about them here. Doing some research led me to the interpretations of some of the most popular angel numbers.

111

Often when people see this number repeated, they are told to make a wish. This is because “1” is a powerful manifestation number. So next time you come across this number, make sure your thoughts and energy are focused on your goals and aspirations.

222

Seeing this number is supposed to be reassuring. According to numerology, seeing 222 is a cue to enjoy the present moment and a reminder that you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

333

The number 3 is a sign that you need to bring more balance into your life. It is a cue to examine your life and figure out the areas that need more rounding out.

444

Seeing 444 is a direct sign from your spirit guide telling you that they are listening to you. Seeing these numbers in a time of struggle means that your spirit guides are leading you in the right direction.

555

Seeing 555 means that a change is about to happen. This doesn’t mean that there will be a negative change but rather that your angel or spirit guide is changing your life so that it is more in line with what you want.

666

Seeing this number is a strong sign that you need to reevaluate your life and change some things. This is a cue to reexamine aspects of your life and figure out what you can do to better them.

777

This number means that you need to relax and stop worrying so much about the future. Seeing this number constantly is a reminder to enjoy the present.

888

This number is associated with infinity. Seeing this number means that you are doing a good job of going with the natural flow of things. This number is essentially a “thumbs up” from the universe.

999

This number brings good news. It means that you’re close to reaching your goals and you should start thinking about some new ones.

While this might not be witchcraft, angel numbers are a large part of manifestation for some people and it is easy to see why. I think it is in our human nature to look for meaning in coincidences, even if they are as trivial as repeating numbers on a clock or a license plate. Even I catch myself looking deeper into certain events sometimes. It is definitely special feeling to believe that the universe is sending messages specifically to you. So next time you keep seeing certain number sequences, your spirit guide just might have a message for you!

Sources: https://www.thealignedlife.co/manifest-angel-numbers-what-do-they-mean/

[victoriagarcia77]

Saturday Class Assignments

Assignment #1: Witch TikToks

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeDfqjvg/

This TikTok gives some #witchtips and directions for figuring out if there are “bad vibes” within your home. It also gives some tips on how to cleanse the negative energy from the house if there is some.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeDfsVYR/

This TikTok give step by step directions on how to make a witch jar for self-love. This tip is useful for “baby witches” who are just starting out.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeDf4mWg/

This TikTok implies crystals can be used to “manifest” certain things such as love or attraction. I chose this TikTok because it reminds me of the movie “Practical Magic” and how many of the spells that the women in the movie cast were for love.

Assignment #2: Salem Episode Viewing and Response

For this assignment of watching an episode of Salem, I chose to watch the first episode of Season 1 because I wanted to see how the show’s plot and characters are introduced to viewers. The first few scenes of the episode were intriguing to me because they went in a different direction than I thought the show was going to go in. Instead of dramatizing actual historical events, it seems that the show takes the supernatural route and blames the Salem Witch Trials on actual witches.

As far as historical figures go, I thought it was interesting how Tituba is portrayed. Based on historical documents and readings, I gathered that she had a darker skin tone than the girl that played her in the show does. She also seemed to have a lot more freedom and power in the show than she actually did. This portrayal is interesting to me because I think that if real-life Tituba had a lighter skin tone and more freedom, her fate would have played out differently and she might not have been the first one to be accused.

Conversely, I think that the way that Cotton Mather is portrayed is similar to the way he is described in the “What’s the Mather with Witches” reading and our other readings. In both the show and the readings, he seems to be extremely religious and living in the shadow of his father. Furthermore, it surprises me how Mary Walcott/Sibley is portrayed. In history, she was just one of the afflicted girls, but in the show, it seems that she is the head witch.

Watching the show allowed me to vicariously experience what the people involved in the witch trials experienced (or at least something similar). Even though the portrayal of the witches and the events that led up to the witch trials are extremely exaggerated, it does help me understand the fear that these people experienced when they saw things that they could not explain. Overall, viewing the episode of Salem helped me visualize the historical events that were the Salem Witch Trials and view them from a different perspective.

[victoriagarcia77]

Curanderas in my Family

After today’s discussion in class, I wanted to explore more in depth some of the traditions that my family has, so I called my mother and asked her to tell me about my great grandmother who was known within my family as a “curandera.” A curandera is a term used to describe a person similar to the “cunning folk” we have seen in our readings. Before she passed a few years ago, my great grandmother was known to be a healer, a cleanser and something of a psychic. People would often come to her when they were suffering from ailments so that she could help them. I am not sure how she would heal them, but I remember that she was known for her healing hands and that sometimes she would utilize certain plants and oils. I remember my mother bringing me to her every now and then when I was younger so that she could bless me and remove negative energy from me.

Another thing that she was known for was palm reading. People would come to her when they were curious about what the future had in store for them, or if they were about to make an important decision and needed guidance. My mother even told me that when she was younger, my great grandmother told her that she would be the last of her granddaughters to get married, and it ended up being true which I thought was interesting.

My great grandmother said that being a curandera was a good thing, but that there was also a fine line between good and evil. She often warned people to stay away from people practicing “brujeria” which is Spanish for witchcraft. People in the family always made the distinction between a curandera and a bruja because witchcraft was associated with evil and they did not want that term used to describe my great grandmother. I think this distinction is interesting now, given our discussions about how nowadays witchcraft, superstitions, religion and the like are almost inseparable ideas in most people’s minds.

Even though she has passed, my family still continue some of her practices. For example, as I mentioned in class, my family practices spiritual cleansing by using an egg and a rosary to pray over someone and remove negative energy. My mother does this for me when I get headaches that won’t go away with Tylenol, or when she feels that someone has given me “mal de ojo,” the evil eye.

I am not sure I believe in everything my great grandmother did, but I will say that it is always fascinating to hear about her and how she helped people, even if it wasn’t in a conventional way.

[victoriagarcia77]

Witches in Popular Music

Recently, I was listening to the latest Radiohead album called “A Moon Shaped Pool,” in which the lead single is called “Burn the Witch.” The song has lyrics such as, “Stay in the shadows/ Cheer at the gallows/This is a round-up… Burn the witch/Burn the witch/We know where you live,” as well as other lyrics that are evocative of imagery surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. The song is about witch hunts in the sense that it explores how people in society look to place blame on outsiders and people different from them. It is about people using the “other” as a scapegoat for their problems, particularly in a political context. Listening to the song made me think about the other instances in which witches or witch-like figures appear within popular music.

The earliest instance of witchcraft, or some semblance of it, I can remember within a song would be when I, as a youngster, played the game “Guitar Hero.” I remember playing along to the song “Black Magic Woman” by Santana. The song tells the story of a man who falls in love with a woman so deeply that he believes that she must be a witch casting a spell on him. In addition to this example, I can also think of earlier songs or singers on my playlists that have some “witch-y” vibes. Because my mom is a big fan of Fleetwood Mac, I know that Stevie Nicks has always been associated with witchcraft because of her songs about witches, how she used to dress and the way she would perform on stage. (She even appeared on American Horror Story: Coven as a witch.) Similarly, another famous pop/rock artist that is considered witch-like is Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees due to her gothic persona. One thing that these women had in common at the time that they were most famous is that they represented a stereotypical version of a witch. Much like the witch in the Santana song, these women’s identities as witches or witch-like figures didn’t extend beyond the fact that they were sexy, dark and mysterious.

Looking at more recent music, however, I think the depiction of witches within popular music is changing. Modern popular artists are giving the idea more depth and a different perspective. One recent example of this is in Beyonce’s “Formation” video. In the video, Beyonce is dressed in all black, wearing a black hat. She looks like she could be one of the witches from American Horror Story: Coven. However, instead of going for that mysterious, dark vibe that is usually associated with witches, the song and the video contain a deeply rooted political message, much like in the Radiohead song. It is clear that Beyonce is using the idea of the witch as a symbol of power in the video.

Whether Radiohead and Beyonce’s recent depictions of witches are a step towards redefining the idea of the witch in popular music, or just some anomalies, I am not sure. But what I do know is that the idea of the witch has been a constant trope throughout music for decades and it will not stop now. The symbolism that it provides is complex and versatile, and I only think it will become more so as time goes on. Having said that, I am excited to see where it goes next.

[victoriagarcia77]

Possible Explanations for What Caused the “Fits” of the Bewitched

Today, during our class discussion, I thought about how shocking it is that we will never truly know the reason why the Salem Witch Trials began, despite them being one of the most infamous historical events in American history. The unexplained “fits” of the girls who were thought to be bewitched were particularly interesting to me because I am an analytical person who seeks rational explanations. The girls’ behavior, however, is described as anything but rational. The children were said to have acted strangely, contorting their bodies into awkward positions, barking like dogs, and crying out due to blows from invisible objects, amongst other things (American Witches 112). Because I wanted a more straightforward answer as to what caused these “fits,” I did some research of my own to find some potential answers.

One possible explanation, as discussed in class and in the readings, is convulsive ergotism. Convulsive ergotism is a disease caused by eating bread or cereal made of rye that has been infected with the fungus ergot. Ingesting the fungus can cause vomiting, choking, fits, hallucinations, and the sense of something crawling on one’s skin which would explain some of the girls’ behaviors. This theory, while convincing, has been widely rejected because the “bewitched” people did not display the full array of symptoms that accompany this disease. Additionally, the “fits” that the girls suffered from seemed to happen at opportune times, which would have been unlikely if the disease was the culprit.

Another theory that I came across was that one of the afflicted girls had a rare neurological condition called anti-NMDAR encephalitis. This disease causes a flu-like illness and within weeks, the person would ultimately be consumed by paranoia and racked with insomnia. Seizures, writhing and contorted limbs, odd repetitive movements of the mouth and tongue would then follow. Mass hysteria would explain why other girls began to fall ill after the first one. However, this theory can also be refuted by the same reasoning that rejected the previous theory.

Unlike the first two theories, Godbeer, the author of “The Salem Witch Hunt,” posits one that is not explained by disease. He offers the idea that the girls acted in the way that they did as a means of expressing their anger and resentment towards the Puritanical establishment without having to take responsibility for their emotions. Since many of the bewitched women were orphans, they knew they were not likely to get married and, as a result, their value to society would continue to decrease as they got older. This realization caused feelings of jealousy and discontent within the girls. Therefore, by claiming that they were bewitched, they shifted the blame for their “sinful” feelings to someone else (Godbeer 24).

Others have suggested that the “fits” could have been caused by some combination of stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse and/or epilepsy. However, the only thing we know for sure is that we will never know. And while I am a detail-oriented person, I think there is some beauty in leaving some things unexplained. It adds some mysticism to the world. Having said that, I think I am satisfied not knowing for certain what happened.

[victoriagarcia77]

Witches Blog Post #1: The Evolution of the Idea of the Witch

This week, I found it interesting how, through the scope of our class readings and class discussion, we saw the concept of the witch evolve from an idea rooted within misogyny to a symbol of female empowerment. Within our reading “Witchcraze,” Brain states that witches and witchcraft “represent people’s deepest fears about themselves and society, and a reversal of all that is considered normal behavior” (Brain 266). Following this logic, it then makes sense why those accused of being witches were mostly women who subverted or deviated from the patriarchal power structure in some way. These women were seen as powerful, but in a corrupt way that took power away from men. Currently, however, popular media does not view witches as inherently evil and their power exists independently of men. As a result, their character identities have shifted from “wicked,” shameful women, as they were once seen, to strong female protagonists.

During the Wizard of Oz clip we watched in class, we were able to witness the beginning of this shift. In the movie, the witches of Oz, who are both women, rule Oz by themselves, with one witch being “good” and the other “bad.” I say that there is a shift happening here because these witches were being portrayed in a way that was never seen before. Not only are the witches in explicit positions of power as the rulers of Oz, but their designation of “good” or “bad” is not dependent upon how well their behavior coincides with a patriarchal power structure, but rather who they are as a person.

This idea is also seen within the clip of “Bewitched,” we watched. Samantha, a witch, is the main character of the show, and her husband, a regular human, is more of a side character. This in itself subverts the idea of men being the main characters and the ones in control. Samantha’s unwillingness to do as her husband says and not use her power, makes her a strong female character that is able to exert power over her life in a way that the men around her can’t prevent her from doing, a concept that was uncommon to see on television in the 1960s.

There are more modern examples of this rebranding of the idea of the witch. Shows such as “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”, and “Charmed” portray witches in an even more feminist fashion. In these shows, witches are not women who are ashamed or perceived as evil, but rather they are women with extraordinary power and a sense of pride for their identities. As witches become more popular in media, it will be interesting to see how the idea of them further evolves over time.