Why Witches?

 

The Witch's Daughter.  
Frederick Stuart Church, 1881. 

Our Witchy Tips: Secrets from Experienced Witches from Salt 'n' Pepper Books (S.L. & C.L. Vadimsky) is now published.

Why?

This was Salt 'n' Pepper's first project, laid aside for a time while we hit upon our True Tales of Ghosts and brought that out to a surprisingly appreciative audience. 

From our co-author's point of view, S.L., Witchy Tips began when I texted her to send me her best witchy tips, and she started punching out her witty idioms. (S.L. is also a songwriter and performer, and inherited or learned the snappy humor of generations of Vadimskys.)

Where We Come From

Growing up, I used to say my mother must be a witch. She was wickedly smart, though without the opportunity for advanced education or any apparent interest in (or maybe it was without the time for) recreational reading. We all joked about her infallible memory for details, and about her miraculous nose--she could smell scents we didn't notice, and used her nose to detect whether food was fresh or foul, the spaces which needed deep cleaning. That must have directed her day: Follow your nose! what a way to ensure being "present" in the moment.

But that's not why I joked that she was a witch. Her spooky gift was an ability to instantly, on meeting someone, know things about my friends which I hadn't figured out yet. She would remark to me, after meeting someone, and I would say, "Oh. Yes. That is it, just that." And I would discuss the "secret revealed" with the friend, and they would exclaim, and we would laugh about my mother the witch.

Now I know, though, that her gift was only the wisdom of experience. I just hadn't known yet, about the world. I can do all the things now, too.

I never called my mother a witch, to herself. My co-author's mother was more interested than mine in witchy things, when we were cousins growing up. She had a kitchen witch, or a witching ball, or something, in their house. That's how I learned that my mother felt uneasy about witches. She didn't like it. She didn't like references to witches, or talking about witches, or having witchy things around. 

Is it fear of the evil eye? or fear of the accusation of witchcraft? I didn't know, but it looked like discomfort. 

So I apologize to her for Witchy Tips book's dedication to our wiser Mothers. We meant: all our mothers and grandmothers for generations, including the Earth.  And thanks for the wisdom of old wives, which science is proving true everyday.  I acknowledge my mother wiser still than I, and a saint in heaven.

Witches of Instagram

Witchy began for me earlier during COVID lockdown, when I browsed with fascination the Witches of Instagram. I am inclined to follow some media groups for peeks inside countercultural lifestyles, such as homesteading types, thrifty people, homeschoolers. Fiction writers, perhaps, love to inhabit other people, as research. Or maybe these aren't other people, they are fantasy selves and lives, if only I could have lived so many lives...

There were so many unique witchy devotees, some in heated debate with others. Some witches embraced Halloween decorations in their homes on their altars all year long, and Day of the Dead themes and decor, but some reject the brand and the darkness.There were green witches, herbalists, white and light witches; dark magic witches; wiccans, Satanists, Christians, the reincarnated; sex magic practitioners; pagan priestesses to the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece; witches who enhanced their craft with mind- or mood-altering substances, and purely substance-free teetotallers; witches angry with baby witches, accused by others of gatekeeping; witches of color contesting the cultural appropriation of their religion.  Many celebrate the moon phases, the zodiac calendar, the pagan Celtic circle of holidays. Some sell fortune telling, or sell spells for love, money, or spite. More sell pretty or dark objects for altars, or for sex play.

I studied the posts and between the lines. I unraveled a thread in the pasts of many, a pain, from some historic trauma, abuse, deprivation, rejection. Some had revolted, now outcast from families who raised them in religious orthodoxy. Some were injured by men, boyfriends, lovers, ex's. 

The women seemed to be confronting the shadow. Some were spellcasting with revenge, to punish, or for the satisfaction of merely laughing about the potential for inflicting revenge, as if it were true. Some assumed a haughtiness, flaunted sexual desireability, the use of men as objects in sensual ritual. Some rejected beauty standards and embraced countercultural "ugly", Halloween hags, with altars of dead things and scary things, spotlighting normally secret things, fetishes and spites.

Co-Authors in Dissent

"Flaunt your warts. Witchiness thrives on self-possession."

As Salt and Pepper co-authors, we experienced the dissenting views on witches, in working through agreement on the right words. 

While C.L. researched online communities,"Salt" has just about achieved off-grid ambitions, and was innocent of the popular online witch cultures. At home in the Pacific Northwest, and in rambling independent adventures across the US, S.L. traveled alone, propelled by her own body on a bike. Salt would visit and move on from communes and communities, living off the land, or dancing in sapphic bonfire celebrations, or protesting forest destruction, or healing with foraged herbs, or writing poetry. Mother Earth haunted them.

Many of these women, too, had experienced trauma, and were building safe spaces for peace.

S.L. is responsible for the snappy intuitive one-liner. C.L. tests the words for fitness, and initiates the longer-winded reflections wondering what we really mean? Which become a conversation.

Right from the first "tip" we debated, on behalf of all the witches with whom we had engaged. Does witchiness want humility? audacity? insouciance? 

Illustrations

"Keep your witchiness to yourself. Black hats discouraged."

After much consideration, we mutually agreed on each of the illustrations from the natural world to represent each of the Witchy Tips. While C.L.had observed many witches who embraced Halloween garb and decor, S.L. knew more green witches. 

The nature drawings represent witches' connection to earth and practice of earth-based religions. (And they are very cute and funny and expressive. It is just fun to identify with the critters instead of being reminded of humans.)

S.L. advocates for less "light vs. darkness", "good vs. evil" thinking and language generally, less moral judgment. 

Is this why a black hat is discouraged? "Black hat" is also what the bad guys are called, vs. "white hats", in the hacker world. Or is just wiser not to proclaim your side?

Witchy Tips: Secrets from Experienced Witches is a hardcover gift book and journal to buy on Amazon.