Can I Get an A-Women?
- Sara Baron Goodman
- Dec 30, 2016
- 4 min read
A witch tale is a feminist fantasy because it’s about having a physical, mystical power that can create real, dangerous change in a world that would rather take power away from them.
If I’m being honest, my latent interest in witchcraft really blossomed when I re-watched The Craft and Practical Magic for the first time in my adult life, about three years ago, and was further cemented by a truly obsessive bingeing of Buffy not long after that. In these ‘90s teen classics were the comforting tropes of sisterhood, friendship, girl power, and the flawless combination of chokers with leather pants which is always just so fab.
While I may have come for the slumber party nostalgia and killer aesthetics, I stayed for something deeper—in all these stories, the girls and women fought their demons (both real and metaphorical) by invoking powers within themselves to control and make peace with the often cruel world around them. Scrolling through my Instagram search page has revealed that my friends and I aren’t the only ones with whom these themes resonate; it seems that over the last year or so, many young people (especially, but certainly not exclusively young women) are turning more and more to spirituality, the occult, and so-called New Age practices of astrology, mindfulness, and meditation.
The ‘90s teen witch (from Sabrina, to the Harry Potter gang, to the girls in The Craft, to Tara and Willow) were united by their shared Otherness—their powers were all a response to feeling helpless, subverted, and often ostracized by their communities. Their plights spoke to all us ‘tweens and teens who were trying to navigate the treacherous waters of puberty, high school politics, and assert our independence. While Judy Blume was great and all, she didn’t foster the same sense of immersion and belonging as what could be found at Hogwarts, or the same conversion of raw emotion to power as Dark Willow.
Historically speaking, witchcraft was obviously associated with women—more specifically, with women who overtly expressed their sexuality and helped and healed other women through practices like midwifery; procuring natural contraceptions and abortions with solvents made from herbs (as I learned in my 300-level History of Sexuality class which I aced, nbd, so you can take my word for it). These women were persecuted, driven out of town, burned at the stake etc. when the pious/conservative religious leaders decided that their kind of behaviour was unladylike, or whatever, and therefore vilified the practices and put forth the demonized version of witches which would last for centuries (see: every fairytale ever).
With second and third wave feminism in the ‘80s and ‘90s, women began to reclaim the image of the witch as a response to the patriarchal society we all know and luv, and the recent resurgence of feminism in the current fourth wave has brought the witch back again.
As writer Hazel Cills said in a Guardian article I just read for the purpose of writing this post, “I think a lot of feminists, like myself, have romanticized witchcraft for a few reasons. One, it’s a woman using powers to change a world that doesn’t like her in the first place. A witch tale is a feminist fantasy because it’s about having a physical, mystical power that can create real, dangerous change in a world that would rather take power away from them.”
In the face of the never-ending crapshoot that was 2016 (and surely to continue in 2017 and at least the next four years as we see a Trump presidency and Brexit actually happening, along with all the charming regressive social policies that will come with that) it makes sense that marginalized groups are once again turning to find power and meaning in something larger than themselves, and the kind of spirituality found in the occult and Wiccan practices allows us that.
“In times of crisis, people turn to their spiritual side, whether that's an organized religion or an alternative form of spirituality,” according to Goth Shakira, a Montreal-based astrologer and all-around Instagram Goddess, in an interview with The Fader.
While belief in organized religions are dying down amongst a lot of young people who find it hard to reconcile outdated conservative religious rules with their personal beliefs, finding spirituality in witchcraft and New Age theologies (whether you’re a devout Wiccan or just like to keep up to date with your horoscope) allows that same sense of belonging, of turning to something higher than yourself to explain that which we can’t control. But more than that, the kind of spirituality that witchcraft offers puts responsibility on the individual.
Asking your Tarot deck for guidance will give you a rough sketch of causations, answers, and responses to your problems in a uniquely personal way which allows you to interpret the readings so that they fit into your own life. Like horoscopes, Tarot and Oracle cards place faith in the universe to deliver you messages that, in all likelihood, you already knew the answers to. They’re just vague enough to illuminate what we’re actually feeling about a given situation, but not so vague that the practice seems void of it’s integral, uniquely personal variety of mysticism.
Crystals and herbs can be channeled and charged in as many varieties of ways as there are problems which need to be solved—there’s a spell to help you through any conflicts, anxieties, or confusions you could possibly have. They also provide a connection to something ancient and natural, and altogether greater than ourselves or whatever modern chaos the man-made physical world can throw at us. Ditto for popular self-care rituals of mindfulness, meditation, and even masturbating, all of which are completely congruent with a spiritual lifestyle, and help to make you feel great within your own skin.
Yet, while extremely individualistic, New Age spirituality and witchcraft acknowledges the power in individuals banding together against a common oppressor. From the OG witches in the 1600s who came together to help other women, to the prevalent themes of covens and sisterhood in popular Witchy culture, the idea is that there is strength to be gained from like-minded others, but only once you’ve realized the strength to be found in yourself. Surely that’s an ethos that we can all learn from as we collectively gird our loins against whatever the future has in store.
And, maybe there is a little bit of witch in all of us—at least we hope there is.