ATHEIST WITCH, a dear friend, tagged me on Facebook with a meme she saw about men and witches, a meme that tuned her feminist alarm bells and certainly triggered a response from me. I meant to post a concise reply on her page, but all of my research about the Burning Times, the Salem Witch Trials and other witch hunts and horrors came bubbling forth like a potion in a cauldron, and I could not contain it. Nor did I try. Her posted meme and my reply are below:
Smart, Independent Women…Or Witches?
Ah yes, men and their witches…pious men who feared the witch would steal their “manhood” and toy with it as they pleased as a means to control those men.
“There is no doubt that certain witches can do marvelous things with regard to male organs.” – Heinrich Kramer, 1486
Witches – naked, aroused and writhing, insatiable, bathed in glamour to conceal what evil, ugly old hags they truly were – mating with Satan at his will, satisfied only by his dark magic so no mortal, god-fearing man could ever measure up. All of these dark images of witches were created and perpetuated by men. Their fears and paranoia stoked, they watched women to see how they behaved, judging them, debating whether the female before them was indeed a witch. And women, afraid for their lives, afraid for the fate of their souls, watched their every step, every word, even nuance of their existence lest they be accused, banished, burned.
No, sadly, this is not fantasy
It sounds like some dark foggy mini-series but it was – and still is in many places – reality.
“Three Witches” – Hans Baldung, c.1514
Real witches – beautiful, average, homely, young, mature and aged women AND men – were healers, soothsayers, at one with the earth, the stars and man. They hoped for tranquility of men, women and children. They brought new lives into the world, cared for mother and infant, aided impotent men, even healed heartache over lost love and lives. These women threatened the patriarchy.
They, by their very existence, threatened the authority and wisdom of men who deemed their own gender superior. And as the world “advanced”, these women – all women – where blocked from education in schools dedicated to their own craft – medicine. In time, their knowledge of medicine was deemed inferior to the superior knowledge of men. As men learned of new treatments, the old cures – the natural cures provided by the earth – were eventually and purposely forgotten. And many remain forgotten today.
Yet some still sought/seek witches for their healing “powers”, and so men – mainly men of the cloth – called these women evil, noting their ‘healing’ was dark magic, and all magic was powered by evil.
And, of course, evil and sex were one, especially a woman enjoying sex, and so those evil magic-practicing witches were always in a state of utter arousal, seeking men to satisfy them – standing, dancing naked at all times while alone, unable to bear the constraints of clothes, their need so great, their arousal so heady no man could refuse them. Ah, women. Such evil temptresses.
The Woman as Mate, Mother…Whore
To this day, a woman’s sexual appetite – a woman’s self-pleasure especially – is vilified, deemed fueled by demons (likely because of the fear that women who masturbate have no need for men).
“Too many Christian women are losing their salvation because they masturbate. Dildos and all of those other sex toys have been used for thousands of years in demonic sex rituals. It’s one of the main ways ancient pagan societies worshiped their demonic gods. Masturbation is a direct path to Satan. There’s nothing normal about it.” – Mack Major, 2016.
It seems these men – and some women – live in fear of their own natural 
sexual urges and responses. They work to suppress them for fear they are bowing to some demented trick of Satan. They resist, grow frustrated and angry while lashing out at anyone – everyone – else who accepts their own sexuality and the sexuality of others, as a normal and healthy extension of our selves.
Despite all science has taught (most of) us, we still live in a very, very strange world, in all its mysterious – and naked – glory.
May you be unmarked,
Wow, Arla! This was a great example of how old the real war on women is. It makes me laugh (and feel like vomiting) when women are talked about like we’re the weaker sex by the same people who try to restrain us because we’re so aggressive and wily. SMH
I feel the same way, Annalee. But, if you look at it from a patriarchal point of view, there’s really no conflict. They referred to women as sly, mischievous temptresses (all signs of Satan’s influence, of course), and so “weak” and “needy”, and by extension, incapable of making their/our own decisions, naturally followed. How can a woman – so easily influenced by evil, so easily fooled by Satan’s deceptions – be trusted with matters of true importance? To wrap this up tidily, I’ll leave you with these little ditties from a true ‘beast’ of the burning times: Heinrich Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), his witch-hunting guide from 1486:
“…there was a defect in the formation of the first woman,
since she was formed from a bent rib, that is, a rib of the breast,
which is bent as it were in a contrary direction to a man.
And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal,
she always deceives.”
“Wherefore for the sake of fulfilling their lusts (women) consort even with devils.”
“All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.”
Yes Virginia, there is a War on Women, and it has been raging for centuries.