Sympathetic Magic
in Shirley Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”

by Shawna Galvin

As Mary Katherine Blackwood, or Merricat, the main character and narrator of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, we see and hear about her various rituals. Her behavior sparked my interest and led me to discover sympathetic magic. In my findings, it made me wonder if many people practice sympathetic magic without knowing what it is.

It seems there is no single definition of sympathetic magic. Perhaps the most concrete explanation comes from social anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). In his 1922 book The Golden Bough, sympathetic magic is based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it.

Within the story, Jackson weaves in sympathetic magic without saying what “it” is. Sympathetic magic can include superstition, ritual, spirituality, affirmations, visualization, and the use of good-luck charms. Before we see Merricat using sympathetic magic, she begins the story by introducing herself as Katherine Blackwood, who is eighteen years old and lives with her older sister Constance. She then goes on to say:

“I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.”

Werewolves are not mentioned again. It could be that Merricat wished herself a werewolf because mythical Irish werewolf legends are shapeshifters who are protectors of children and the lost and wounded, which might translate into a sympathetic werewolf entity. As the story progresses, this theory makes sense.

Merricat likes her older sister Constance and says in a blunt manner: “Everyone else in my family is dead.” This presents a greater mystery that lends to the manner in which she protects what is left of the family. As the story moves, we continue to follow Merricat and learn that her family—all but her older sister Constance, Uncle Julian (who perishes later in the story), and her black cat Jonas—had been poisoned by arsenic placed in the sugar bowl, which the deceased family members sprinkled on their berries and consumed one day at a meal.

The Blackwoods live in seclusion, except for Merricat who ventures into town twice a week to do errands. Local villagers do not like the family, and they mock Merricat whenever she is in town. She shields both her feelings and the Blackwood property through aspects of sympathetic magic.

For example, Merricat recalls the last time she brought home library books, which have been overdue since the family’s deaths six years earlier—meaning Merricat was twelve when they all perished. Although she is fond of her home, Merricat tells how she despises her small town and its inhabitants by describing a “fine April morning” when she came out of the library, “the sun was shining and the false glorious promises of spring were everywhere, showing oddly through the village grime.”

Merricat goes on to wish that she could walk home across the sky instead of passing through the village, which many can relate to. For instance, wishing for a direct bridge or road to take us to our destination so we can by pass the obstacles. In her case, the obstacles were the cruel villagers.

This passage shows how Merricat used visualizations to help her get through each obstacle she faces when going in and out of town. Many can relate to wishing to be somewhere else or imagining a bridge across the sky, yet, she builds on her techniques as the story progresses.

Next, Merricat looks back on how she stopped at Stella’s coffee shop each week to demonstrate her pride while ignoring locals who taunted her and said unkind things about her family while she sat at the counter. “I put my hands quietly in my lap, I am living on the moon, I told myself. I have a little house all by myself on the moon.” These affirmations are techniques she used to deal with adversity in the village. From there, she turned to superstition, a more common ritual of sympathetic magic as she reminisced about walking past Stella’s. Merricat remembered a crack in the sidewalk and how it looked like a finger pointing. To her, the crack had always been there. She thought about how she used to carefully roller skate across that crack because touching it could “break our mother’s back.”

Merricat used several forms of sympathetic magic to turn her dreaded weekly trips into a game. We experience her ups and downs as she attempts to ward off the villagers’ wicked words. At the end of recounting this trip to town, Merricat tells how she sort of teleported herself away when walking back home and was teased by a few children: “I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world; I was almost past the fence.” Maybe her affirmations and visualizations were the closest she could come to saying a prayer to get through these obstacles.

Many believe that sympathetic magic can include prayer. When I was younger, my religious upbringing in a Roman Catholic family was full of ritual, ceremony, and prayer. I learned to believe in spirits, both good and evil, and that my religion could protect me from the latter. The use of objects such as the rosary and religious medallions with engravings of saints were used for protection, forgiveness, and healing. Now, two main prayers stay with me: “Our Father,” and my favorite, “The Hail Mary,” which I find myself chanting often—perhaps like a mantra.

Another way to relate to sympathetic magic is through healing energy practices such as Reiki (Rei—spiritual wisdom, Ki—life force), an ancient Japanese healing technique done by the laying on, or near, of hands. Reiki uses elements such as visualization, affirmations, prayer, sending healing energy, and positive thoughts, and it is performed with love and good intentions. On a family trip not long ago, I visualized a white light surrounding the plane, my family, and the people on board. I imagined angels or protective spirits sitting on the wings, which helped me feel better about traveling.

Throughout the story, there are hints of more sinister things that had taken place before the deaths of her family members. The reader is never really sure exactly what came before, but Merricat sheds a light on darker happenings within the family dynamics prior to their deaths. Within these implications, Merricat’s will to do what she can to uphold what is left of her family and their property becomes more evident, such as the ritual of burying objects that are symbolic to her.

A powerful passage in We Have Always Lived in the Castle that reveals Merricat’s sympathetic magic rituals is in chapter three when she reveals how she would examine her safeguards on Sunday mornings. She’d buried a “box of silver dollars by the creek, and a doll buried in the long field, and a book nailed to the tree in the pine woods.” Merricat believed as long as they were where she had put them, then no one could get in to harm what was left of her family. She says she’d always buried things—the same way she always remembered the crack being in the sidewalk. It seems that her rituals and beliefs had forever been part of her life. She talked about how she once quartered the long field and buried something in each quarter to make the grass grow higher as she grew taller, so she would always be able to hide there. “I once buried six blue marbles in the creek bed to make the river beyond run dry.”

Merricat continues to talk about burying items and how her sister Constance encouraged it by giving her treasure to bury when she was small, such as a penny or a ribbon. She even buried all of her baby teeth and hoped they would grow as dragons.

“All our land was enriched with my treasures buried in it, thickly inhabited just below the surface with my marbles and my teeth and my colored stones, all perhaps turned to jewels by now, held together under the ground in a powerful taut web which never loosened, but held fast to guard us.”

Merricat’s use of sympathetic magic includes belief in a mystical influence through these objects. She believes in human control of supernatural agencies or forces of nature, such as trying “to make the grass grow higher.”

Jackson’s story led me to explore other purposes and information about sympathetic magic. Its uses and beliefs can vary from person to person and may not be defined at all for many. In essence, sympathetic magic is natural, easy to do, and often self-made. There is freedom and opportunity to conjure one’s own magic and beliefs. Merricat’s character made me think about some of the ways I’d been practicing sympathetic magic without prior knowledge of the term.

I own jewelry that was both given to me and inherited from my mother and grandmother, who have both passed on. There are particular pieces I wear on certain occasions and others I wear every day to keep their energy close to me, or for good luck. Other times I wear a specific stone, such as moonstone or amethyst for protection, positive energy, and even healing purposes. It is as though sympathetic magic is part of a natural belief system that can help navigate through mysteries and ideas about life, and perhaps even help get through challenging times.

Keeping memories of deceased friends and loved ones alive through personal possessions they left behind reveals other aspects of sympathetic magic; this is what Frazer called the “Law of Contagion,” where objects that were once in contact with each other—such as a pair of gloves once worn by someone who passed on—continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact as been severed. Perhaps these objects are a bit like magic, maybe just for a memory, or hope that there is some energy and enchantment left in them.

Magic is sometimes viewed with suspicion—and practiced in isolation and secrecy—because it involves mystical elements or powers. When used for higher good, most believe that magic is intended for spiritual growth and enlightenment.

Faith in spirit guides is another way sympathetic magic might be viewed. My Uncle George, a Vietnam veteran was a guardian of mine in human form, and I believe he remains so in spirit. Most of my family members have passed on from illnesses, and I often pray to them, call on them to guide and protect me, or just feel their presence. Other times, I dream about them and write poetry or stories about them. This may be a form of sympathetic magic, because I believe they watch over and guide me.

Sympathetic magic is wide open for interpretation, but overall it seems to be a way to summon supernatural forces and entities for protection. Some people believe they can summon spirit messages through clairvoyant abilities. For example, those who claim to talk with spirits and pass on messages from them to others. This conviction helps them feel they are protected, influenced, and perhaps even being warned.

Merricat exhibits traces of having psychic abilities in the middle of the story. She repeats that “a change is coming” several times. This not only gives the reader a sense of foreshadowing, but also of Merricat’s intuitive premonition. Soon, their long-lost, greedy cousin Charles appears on the Blackwood property and tries to take over. When he finds silver dollars that Merricat buried and witnesses some of her other rituals, he calls her a “crazy kid.” Merricat views Charles as a ghost-demon, and we see her use a darker side of sympathetic magic as she wishes harm on those who harm her, and in extreme instances, acts on them.

Overall, Merricat may be an unreliable character, but the things she does—a sort of sympathetic magic witchcraft—are all to safeguard the Blackwood house and most of all herself, her sister, and the cat. Although Merricat seems to have good aims, more established practices might include defending and protecting against negative forces through sage smudging, visualizing white light, prayer, and refusing bad energy.

There is an overarching sense that Merricat may have been hurt both violently and emotionally in her past. She is a troubled young woman, and it is what we do not know about her or her history that makes one sympathize with her in this cruel situation she lives in. In some cases, her actions might be argued as self-defense. Other realms and practices of magic are woven into the events in this story and can be examined further.

Jackson suggests other magical elements such as spells, shapeshifting, and voodoo. The magic in this story stands on its own. It “just is” and doesn’t “tell” everything, leaving plenty for the reader to interpret, imagine, and decide, and that is the true magic of We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

What some might take away from this journey into sympathetic magic is that it’s a way of becoming more aware. It can be a reminder of how every thought and action is significant and connects to all things. Sympathetic magic is a way to repel or reject negativity in one’s life and can help focus on spirituality, no matter what belief system a person holds. Sympathetic magic may be a means to help become more centered and grounded. It’s a way to create and use positive energy and to pass it on.