My Sisters, Rise Against These Injustices!

While most of the readings for Monday reiterate the public’s need to watch for acts of witchcraft, I was very intrigued by Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg’s article. Besides the fact he has a pretty awesome name, I actually found myself condemning him less than Desiderius, Gianfranceso and Hadrian VI. I still think they’re all delusional, but Kaysersberg has some relevant points about witchcraft that no other has brought up before.

Instead of directly blaming the witches for their actions, Kaysersberg blames the Devil. It is the Devil himself who casts plagues upon the people. The witches are nothing more than a façade for the Devil’s work. I don’t remember any other writer who made this type of distinction. It is a rather unusual argument, as most people directly believed witches held the power to change weather, kill/hex people and do other nefarious activities.

Kaysersberg states that the witch, when she desires something to be done, gives a sign to the Devil. On page 238, Kaysersberg says, “the devil sees the sign and hears the word, he knows what they indicate; then he performs the act, and it is the devil who does this and not [the witches].” While the witches may have evil intentions, they do not possess the ability to carry out their actions. Rather, it is only the Devil who may grant their wish and do their bidding. I admit to being one of those people who automatically thought witches hold the power. Reading Kaysersberg twist on the matter makes me rethink how I’ve viewed witches.

Are they capable of doing such diabolical things or is an evil spirit, the Devil, taking advantage of their ill will to do bad? Can these women truly be called witches following his belief? Kaysersberg also gives us three reasons why women are more prone to witchcraft. He cites William of Paris for the reasons and they are similar to the reasons mentioned by the Malleus. He cites their “instability of spirit,” “understood better by demons,” and “their talkativeness” as reasons women are ‘weaker’ (K/P 238).

Personally, I find the aspect of talkativeness to be hilarious. I feel like the men put that down because they were annoyed by their wives nagging them or constantly gossiping with friends. Men did not understand women (and still don’t), therefore I think it was easier for them to categorize witches. If a woman did not fit the perfect, obedient, submissive role, she could be cast into this negative light.

With this in mind, I’ve wondered, if witches truly existed—if these men proclaimed so many to work for the Devil, wouldn’t you think there would be a mass uprising of witches against such massacre? I’ve no doubt a group of powerful witches would be able to wipe out the trials and murderers of their sisters. Do you think the religious men of the time even considered this fact when deciding if witches existed? Probably not, the ignorant bastards. 

Witches...They're Magically Devil-icious

When I think of a witch, my mind immediately goes to an older woman with a foul expression and ugly features cackling over a bubbling, boiling cauldron brewing some sort of potion to wreak havoc on the innocent. While the chapter on Diabolical Witches doesn't quite break down what a witch supposedly looked like or draw one out, it does seem to do a pretty good attempt at slashing witch stereotypes and putting things right. But it's a mass collection of opinions and contradictions.

So far, I have really appreciated and been intrigued by all of our readings, but for some reason, I was immensely frustrated by it. Finally, I know why. It's all opinion. It lacks evidence. My Type-A brain wants one person with qualifications to write one book about all there is to know about witches and witchcraft and for that to be the be-all end-all source of information. But that's not the point of witchcraft, is it? After some resistance, I have come to embrace the variety of information coming to us through these different excerpts from various scholars and authors. It's a sort of organized chaos that allows us to wipe the slate clean and forget what we know. We absorb new things about witchcraft page by page, chapter by chapter, and eventually, a new vision of a witch starts to form in our heads. We begin to agree and disagree with these writers and create our own image. Without even meaning to we accredit and ignore certain writers and therefore the habits, customs and descriptions of witches.

What intrigues me most is the incorporation of the Devil. The exercise earlier in the semester about what the word "magic"makes us feel showed that we don't necessarily always get a negative connotation of the word. Many of us had fond memories of the magic of Harry Potter or fairies and wands and dreams coming true. In that sense, it made me think that there were both good and bad witches even if they looked different from modern interpretations. The "bad", darker witches I pictured were just witches who had chosen the wrong path or gone astray. I thought that they were witches who used their powers for evil instead of good and wanted to wrong people. However, these witches we read about were not necessarily doing "bad" things. Curing illnesses and injuries and changing the weather don't seem like evil. And while making someone fall in love with you might be manipulative and uncalled for, it's not something we'd put at the top of our charts as an evil act. It's simply that witchcraft is unnatural and that's what makes these witches so terrible. What gives these people the right to think of themselves as better than the rest of humanity?

This chapter reminded me of The Uberman theory that comes up in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. The main character, Raskolnikov, basically believes himself to be an Uberman, or a human being who is superior to other human beings. Because of his high intelligence and intellect, he believes that any crime he commits should be pardoned because anything he does is for the greater good and his intelligence should excuse him from the law and unethical wrongdoings. It seems that this is what witchcraft is. Anything a witch does should be seen as fine because only they have the power to do so. Do not be mad that a witch has carried out the deeds of the devil, because only she could have done that and not you. But the frustration that comes with this is that by worshipping and doing deeds for the devil, these witches thing of themselves as almighty beings who can have the powers of god. They do not respect or worship God. They are not in awe of him. They live to serve the devil. They will do anything for the devil no matter how cruel, crude or forbidden. People cannot understand how these witches will do anything to please the devil when the devil is the nemesis of god and abuses his powers.

Witches explained in this chapter are servants of the devil and work to compete against god when they do the devil's work. Though the actions they perform might be innocent alone, they add up in a plot to fight against good and work towards evil. They aid the devil and work to please him, ignoring all they had known about heavenly aspirations and religion. Is it witchcraft that is so bad or is it that fact that these witches worship the devil? I think these writings all exist because various groups of people and intellectual individuals cannot fathom how so many people could break from worshipping god and instead worship someone who had fallen from heaven's grasp into hell. The issue is not spells and potions, but serving the devil and doing everything they can to ignore religion and heaven and instead, be almighty themselves and pursue evil.