BELL, BOOK AND BEYOND

INTRODUCTION

Something Wiccan This Way Comes

Once Upon a Time . . .
- There, in a gloomy hollow glen, she found
A little cottage, built of sticks and weeds,
In homely wise, and walled with sods around,
In which a witch did dwell in loathly weeds
And willfull want, all careless of her needs;
So choosing solitary to abide,
Far from all neighbors, that her devilish deeds
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hunt far off, unknown, whom ever she envied."

That's from The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser (1590) . . . just the sort of thing to read a child before bedtime. What? Well, why not?

I remember one night as a child when my grandmother came in to tell me the story of Baba Yaga - a particularly nasty Russian witch with stone teeth who could fly through the air and liked nothing better than to creep into dark bedrooms at night and eat disobedient children as midnight snacks. The aforementioned poem was nothing compared to the thoughts that particular "bedtime story" wrought by my burgeoning imagination.

I don't remember if I'd been particularly disobedient that day or not, but I got very little sleep that night . . . or for the next forty years. Even now, the rattle of autumn-bare branches against a window or the sudden scuttle of a cloud before the moon will give me pause.

Why?

Because my grandmother was a child-hating psychotic who introduced me to a Witch!

And, in this, we are all alike. You may not remember exactly when, by chances are that the first time you heard about these horrid old women who turn people into toads, ride on brooms, consort with the Devil, wear long pointy black hats, keep equally black cats, and desire only to turn children into pot-pies, it was in the company of a cherished, beloved adult relative. Or a snotty older sibling who only wanted to scare the crap out of you.

And it worked, didn't it?

In fact, it worked so well that when we became adults we continued the tradition of perpetuating the myth that witches are scary and bad and EVIL.

Never mind that these people - witches, medicine men, brujas, bocors, druids, shamans, whatever term you want to use - were originally considered beneficial and well respected members of the society in which they lived. They were the "healers" then who simply paid a little more attention than most to the cycles of the moon and seasons and who knew the secrets of herbs.

Then came the famous (or infamous) Witchcraft Trials, and things changed.

Suddenly, everyone - from the Lord High Executioner, Tomas de Torquemada (and his undisputed method of identifying witches: If he was physically aroused by a woman, she was a witch) to the most innocent pre-pubescent Puritan maid - was suffering from bewitchments. "Spot the Witch" became a popular pass-time, followed quickly by the new sport: "Stone, Drown, Hang or Burn the Witch."

The years between 1500 and 1709 (when the last American "witch," Grace Sherwood, was tried and released) weren't especially good ones for those who followed the ways of nature . . . or had covetable land.

And so it went . . . year after year . . .generation after generation, with those who still practiced the "hidden arts" doing just that: Hiding!

Then, suddenly: The 60's and 70's happened and not only were the "hidden arts" brought out into the open, but became somewhat of a pop-culture icon. This was about the time I began reading more about this thing called "Wicca" - a form of witchcraft that practices the benevolent and nature-oriented rites of pre-Christian religions.

Witchcraft came full circle, but the circle isn't finished closing. Today, thanks to movies like Bell, Book & Candle, The Craft and The Blair Witch Project, books like Rosemary's Baby (yeah, okay . . . and the movie), and even television shows like Charmed, Sabrina, The Teenaged Witch and reruns of Bewitched, witchcraft is just as much a part of our culture as ordering fires with that double cheese-burger.

The real magic is our continuing want to believe in witches, a belief that only grows the more you understand.

Come then.

Enter into the circle . . ..