Countdown To Halloween: Wise Old Crone Or Wizened Hag, Which Witch Are You?
by Marisa
The association of Halloween with witches is as old as the holiday itself – and yet witchy interpretations have varied wildly with time. To contemporary American children, the cackling gorgon on her broomstick is textbook nightmare and horror film fodder. To Wiccans and ancient Celts, however, this wart-nosed hag represented the Goddess as woman in the final state of life. Wise with experience, she stirred at her cauldron (womb), wherein the dead awaited their rebirth with the Sun God at Yule. Pagan perspectives often utilize both Goddess and God figures in a yin/yang-like dynamic: the God being born of the Goddess each year and maturing to his death and rebirth, as the Goddess holds constant and immortal.
So, why the huge interpretational chasm? When Pope Gregory IV standardized All Hollow’s Day (or All Saints’ Day) from its previous May date to November 1, the Pagan Samhain festival was imbued with Christian meaning. Some of these pieces fit easily - Samhain’s honoring of the dead became All Hollow’s Day’s honoring of the saints - but others, like the powerful crone, were perhaps a bit more threatening, as demonstrated by the European witch hunts spanning 1450-1700. And so what was once a symbol of reverence for death and the life cycle transitioned into a figure of mystical peril.
So, ok, that takes care of the witch and the cauldron, but what’s with the broomsticks and flying in the air? The Wiccan broom (or besom) is used to cleanse ritual spaces by literally and figuratively sweeping away negativity, and then stored near a hearth or door to prevent evil from entering. During the Burning Times, witches were accused of flying broom-less, thanks to a grease-based “flying ointment.” Given that many of the ointment’s ingredients were hallucinogenic (hemp, belladonna, and poppy), another interpretation is that “flying” may have referred to astral projection.
And then there’s that favorite witchy companion: the bat. While nocturnal flight and vampiric associations have long contributed to make the bat a symbol of Halloween hauntings, many Pagans view the bat as a protective presence, harbinger of good fortune, or guide to past lives. Fortunately such dichotomies are in many ways exactly what Halloween is about: the veil between life and death, love and fear, yin and yang. So whether you think she’s a magical crone or a terrifying hag, on Samhain, all witches are welcome.
| 10/26/07
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Beliefs
