Cauldrons, Black Cats,
Brooms, and Pointy Hats

by Autumn Damiana

One of the most vivid and enduring symbols of Halloween and one that everyone is acquainted with is the stereotypical Halloween witch. Dressed head to toe in black, gleefully stirring up trouble in her bubbling cauldron, her trusty broom and black cat familiar at her side, she is by far the most popular and iconic embodiment of the Halloween celebration. But who is she, and where did she originate? What do her attributes represent? And what significance does this witch have in an era of modern witchcraft? (Please note that in this article I only capitalize the word “witch” when talking about Neopagan Witches, or when the word requires capitalization, such as in a title.)

Witch History

To understand the Halloween witch today, we have to look at the beliefs people had about witches in the past. The idea of the witch is about as old as time, and witches have been in the collective unconscious since the beginning. Descriptions of witches in classical Greek and Roman literature reveal that witches were not always maligned and reviled figures, but were once highly respected, revered, and sometimes even considered holy. This may be because these witches emerged from the priesthood and were wise women (and sometimes men) of power, skilled in the arts of divination, prophecy, and healing, and entrusted with the most sacred religious rites. In addition, many of these women came from Goddess cults and were seen as embodying the divine feminine, making their seemingly magical works proof of their connection to the Goddess.

Although the Bible mentions witches and is pointedly clear about avoiding and condemning them, the real problems for witches don’t come about until the 1300s. Up until this time, those who lived in rural areas and away from the political institutions concentrated in major cities were free to practice religion as they saw fit, and this often included rituals dedicated to the old, pre-Christian gods and the observance of folkloric customs. Then, two things happened: one was the Bubonic Plague, also known as the “Black Death,” which killed almost one-third of the European population, and the other was that witchcraft was declared heresy by the Pope, who authorized the persecution of witches through the Inquisition. Intense fear generated by the Black Death caused many to blame supernatural powers, which is when the witch-hunts officially began. Much of what the general population today believes about witches dates back to this period lasting from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, which was an unstable time full of witch hysteria. Witch stereotypes arose from a complex collection of sources, including:

Religion: Medieval Christian Churches spread the belief that all power came from God and that to work outside the Church (i.e., as a healer, midwife, herbalist, diviner, spiritual consultant, etc.) was heresy. Because women were not allowed to be part of the clergy, all women that previously employed these practices were seen as being in league with Satan.

Politics: Because the Patriarchy of the Church was the dominant power of the times, women were targeted—particularly those who were thought to be wise, talented, and powerful—in order to promote the Church’s belief that “the One True God” was male and that power belonged to men alone. However, anyone who fell out of favor in society could be denounced as a witch, and this included men and even children, often because of a personal grudge or long-standing suspicion of “malicious” behavior.

Sexuality: Unfortunately, during the witch-hunt craze, women were often accused of witchcraft simply because they had captured a man’s sexual imagination and he believed himself to be “enchanted,” or under her spell. Based on the Biblical story of the Fall of Man through Eve, the Church’s official stance on women was that they were especially prone to the lure of sin and would induce carnal desires in men to lead them into evil. Thus many women, pretty and homely alike, were executed as witches based on nothing more than one man’s testament of “unclean thoughts,” temptations, and desires.

So what does all of this have to do with the Halloween witch? To understand why she exists in her present form, it is necessary to examine these historical ideas and how they have impacted popular opinion on what a witch supposedly is and is not. Much of what the Halloween witch symbolizes is based on Medieval ideas, including classic European myths and fairy tales about witches, peppered with biases left over from the Inquisition. Much of what a witch is thought to be can be traced back to a few common, influential, and often repeated myths surrounding witches.

Misconceptions About Witches

Myth #1: A witch is always female.

In mythology, folktales, and popular culture today, a witch is always portrayed as a woman. Typically, magical males are called “wizards” (like in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series), or sometimes “warlocks.” Yet historically, men were also decried as witches, usually because of past grievances with the accuser and other politics or because the man was ill-tempered, odd, suspected of homosexuality, or generally served as the village scapegoat.

Myth #2: A witch is an ugly, old, or deformed crone.

This idea comes from a couple of sources. One is the belief from Medieval times that only old and/or ugly women were skilled in sorcery because oftentimes it was older, unmarried, or widowed women who served the community as herbalists, midwives, soothsayers, etc. Some of these women were also disabled or had some sort of physical deformity and could not engage in a more traditional livelihood, such as farming or weaving. Medieval sentiments also stated that if you were ugly, hunchbacked, warty, had excessive moles, were born with a birth defect, etc., you might be targeted as a witch by the Church because you were “marked” as evil by your afflictions.

Myth #3: All witches are evil.

You would think that this myth comes entirely from the Inquisition and the demonization of witches by the Church, but there’s actually more to this idea. It’s simple psychology: people who appear to have supernatural powers are often misunderstood, and therefore feared. While the image of the Halloween witch is rooted in European traditions, the idea of the witch has existed in every culture around the globe and often serves as a figure to blame when misfortune strikes. Most of the people accused of witchcraft during the Inquisition were entirely innocent and had nothing to do with the magical arts, but anyone will admit to consorting with Satan under extreme torture. And while the modern stereotype of the witch is typically depicted as more naughty and mischievous than flat-out evil, she is still more often associated with negativity than not.

The Facts about Witches

Here are the most common symbols of the Halloween witch and what they represent:

Black cats: Cats have been associated with Goddess worship for centuries—Freyja’s chariot was drawn by cats, Artemis/Diana could transform into a cat, and cats were thought to be living manifestations of the Goddess Bast. Many households kept cats to control the rodent population, but like several other nocturnal animals (frogs, bats, owls, etc.) cats were often thought to be witches’ familiars. A black cat, like the color black itself, was thought to be particularly evil.

Brooms: A familiar tool of housekeeping, a broom is also a potent symbol of fertility, as its appearance brings to mind the union of the male and female sex organs. “Jumping the broom” is an old custom thought to bestow fertility on a newlywed couple and was used as a way to cement a common-law marriage. Many are also familiar with stories of earlier Pagans jumping and running around astride brooms, shovels, pitchforks, etc., in rituals meant to bless their crops and fields. The witch “riding” her broom, along with the broom’s fertility aspect, were crude sexually suggestive ideas that became associated with witches, who were thought to be wicked and immoral.

Cauldrons: The cauldron represents the life-giving womb of the Goddess and is an ancient symbol of transformation, birth and rebirth, abundance, and plenty. It was also an extremely practical tool the witch used to cook food, brew potions, and mix medicines. During the Inquisition, it was suspected that witches used the cauldron to concoct poisons and drugs, cast storm spells, cook babies, etc. Because women had such low status, the cauldron, just like the broom, became connected to witchcraft because it was a symbol of domesticity.

Witch hat: The conical shape of a witch’s hat is meant to signify what is now commonly referred to as the “cone of power.” It was believed that by wearing a hat of this shape, cosmic energy would be drawn down into the head of the person and flow into the rest of the body to be used for magic. This is, incidentally, why dunce caps are the same shape—in order to funnel knowledge into the head of the wearer.

The Ever-Evolving Witch

No other image quite captures the spirit of the Halloween witch like Margaret Hamilton’s portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. Her cackling, green-faced, black-clad character—complete with witch hat and broom—is undoubtedly what many people think witches really are and is still one of the top Halloween costumes of all time. Other well-known and similar witches come from literature, legend, and even pop culture, like the witch in “Hansel and Gretel,” the Three Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (who were loosely based on the Fates from Greek mythology), the Crone aspect of Triple Goddesses such as Hecate, the “Mistress of Magic,” Baba Yaga from Slavic myth, and some Disney witches like Ursula the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid and the witch at the end of Snow White (both of which originated from classic fairy tales).

Thanks to the modern Neopagan movement, Witches are coming “out of the broom closet” and helping to tear down these and other stereotypes of the witch, but not everyone wants to see the Halloween witch fade into obscurity. While it’s true that some Witches see the witch stereotypes as harmful distortions, it seems that many more Witches embrace them and are helping to transform these stereotypes into something positive. You can see this attitude in Witches who sport pointy hats and put bumper stickers on their cars that poke fun at witch clichés, like “Life’s a Witch and then you fly!” “My other car is a broom!” and “Something Wiccan this way comes.” Possibly in part because of this lighthearted approach, there are also some newer witch counterparts that seem to hint at the idea that the witch as a symbol is evolving into a more benign figure. Take the popularity of TV shows like Charmed and Sabrina the Teenage Witch as well as contemporary children’s books like the Little Witch series and the aforementioned Harry Potter. Movies like Practical Magic, The Craft, and The Skeleton Key, while chock-full of Hollywood exaggeration and special effects, do actually contain elements of real Witchcraft beliefs and practices today. Newer Disney witches, like Madame Odie in The Princess and the Frog, are downright cheery. And witch costumes and images now range from cute or goofy to even beautiful or sexy.

Although the stereotype of the witch is linked with Halloween, as it is one of the most (if not THE most) important Pagan holidays, the Halloween witch herself is an archetype and a symbol born out of history, myth, and culture. Whether or not you see her as positive or negative, good or evil, dismissed as a silly superstition or worth some serious scrutiny is up to you. However, I think that whatever your feelings on the Halloween witch, you will agree that upon closer inspection, she is a much more complex and misunderstood figure than people, even modern Witches, give her credit for.

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