quotations about witches & witchcraft
In 1692 the Massachusetts Bay Colony executed fourteen women, five men, and two dogs for witchcraft. The sorcery materialized in January. The first hanging took place in June, the last in September; a stark, stunned silence followed. What discomfited those who survived the ordeal was not the cunning practice of witchcraft but the clumsy administration of justice. Innocents indeed appeared to have hanged. But guilty parties had escaped. There was no vow never to forget; consigning nine months to oblivion seemed a more appropriate response. It worked, for a generation. We have been conjuring with Salem -- our national nightmare, the undercooked, overripe tabloid episode, the dystopian chapter in our past -- ever since. It crackles, flickers, and jolts its way through American history and literature.
STACY SCHIFF
The Witches: Salem, 1692
To be a witch is to be inherently socially aware, and to be an ally of women especially, even if they may be different than you, or practice their religions or paths in a different way. Witchcraft, after all, is the connection to the earth and that also means to those who inhabit it.
GABRIELA HERSTIK
"Ask A Witch: How Do Politics Inform Your Practice?", Nylon, March 24, 2017
The fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that fewe or none can (nowadaies) with patience indure the hand and correction of God. For if any adversitie, greefe, sicknesse, losse of children, corne, cattell, or libertie happen unto them; by & by they exclaime uppon witches. As though there were no God in Israel that ordereth all things according to his will.
REGINALD SCOT
The Discoverie of Witchcraft
One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar and I didn't know it. I mean there was a little blood there, and something like that.
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL
Politically Incorrect, October 29, 1999
My approach to art, dance, witchcraft -- is very sincere and grounded. Technique, history, application, practice -- any of these in any area of expertise will launch me into TELLING YOU ALL THE THINGS.
LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF
"The Dork Witch: The Art of Humor in the Craft", Patheos, March 31, 2017
For as from the same piece of clay a potter may fashion either a pot or a tile, so the Devil may shape a witch into a wolf or a cat or even a goat, without subtracting from her and without adding to her at all. For this occurs just as clay is first molded into one, then shaped into another form, for the Devil is a potter and his witches are but clay.
AINO KALLAS
The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy
I want to be able to twitch my nose like that so I can clean my house! I have four children. I have been praying for that gift, but I haven't gotten it yet.
SILVER RAVENWOLF
interview, The Edge, November 1, 1997
The witches are here,
I tell you no lie,
They arrived yesterday,
Flying down from the sky,
Upon their dark broomsticks,
Their hearts cruel and cold,
The witches are here,
Searching for souls.
GERRARD WILSON
"The Witches Are Here"
The notion that people can be made ill through magical means persists in Malawi and in other countries in Sub Saharan Africa and health officers and other stakeholders in the control and management of disease need to rise up to the challenge of educating people to understand that the cause of diseases and death has nothing to do with witchcraft or magic.
LEO IGWE
"Opinion: Stopping Witch Killing in Malawi", The Maravi Post, January 29, 2016
Wise judges have prescribed that men may not rashly believe the confessions of witches, nor the evidence against them; for the witches themselves are imaginative; and people are credulous, and ready to impute accidents to witchcraft.
FRANCIS BACON
Natural History
While many things can be taken from Wicca and put into your own witchcraft practice (having an altar, worshiping deities, creating a Book of Shadows, etc), you don't have to convert to Wicca, or give up your current religion, worship Satan, or believe in anything to be a witch. And most certainly, you don't have dance naked in the forest for your craft (unless you're interested, then it seems like a fun time).
ELLEN RICKS
"Here's How Being A Modern Witch Is My Middle Finger To The Patriarchy", Vocally, April 6, 2018
If you've slept eight hours, had a tall cup of coffee and you still feel like you've been run over by a truck, witchcraft could be attacking you. This is one of the ways witchcraft comes after me. I've learned not to give in by laying down for a nap that turns into four or five hours of witchcraft-induced sleep. If you are eating well, sleeping well, exercising well and living well--and if you are generally healthy--you shouldn't feel like you're walking through quicksand. This could be a witchcraft attack.
JENNIFER LECLAIRE
"3 More Sure Signs Witchcraft Is Attacking You", Charisma News, October 17, 2015
It is true ... that the English in general, and indeed most of the men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it, and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent compliment which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge that these are at the bottom of the outcry which has been raised, and with such insolence spread through the land, in direct opposition, not only to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and the best of men in all ages and nations. They well know (whether Christians know it or not) that the giving up of witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible. With my latest breath I will bear testimony against giving up to infidels one great proof of the invisible world; I mean that of witchcraft and apparitions, confirmed by the testimony of all ages.
JOHN WESLEY
Journal, 1768
I believe that witchcraft is just a method of obtaining your own personal power by combining the elements and channeling your higher self.
SARA KASSOUF
"Wicca thrives in Orange County", Coast Report Online, April 4, 2017
I don't go around calling myself a traditional witch. I barely identify with the word "witch" when speaking about myself. Witch is what the enemy called us, and while we've taken it back, I still identify more as simply a "magical practitioner" or "occultist."
COBY MICHAEL SMITH
"Bones, Blood and Poison: The Path of Traditional Witchcraft", Patheos, March 15, 2017
The charge of witchcraft has been flippantly made againt the Puritan fathers; but what are the facts? A belief in witchcraft, at that period, existed in all parts of the world; but New England kept faithful records, which other nations did not. When witchcraft manifested itself in Salem, it was credited at first, for all nations believed in it; but investigation speedily followed, enlightened reason dispelled this baneful superstition, and the vile imp was strangled in the cradle.
E. P. DAY
Day's Collacon
It is ever the way of witches with any two things to care for the more mysterious of the two.
LORD DUNSANY
The King of Elfland's Daughter
A Witch is born out of the true hungers of her time ... I was born out of New York. The things that are most wrong here summoned me.
RAY BRADBURY
Long After Midnight