Witch Trials Today

Witches exist today, in many forms and shapes, thus the witch hunters also exist, sadly, and also in many forms and shapes. If you have any knowledge of history - European and North American history at least -, or have seen movies or read books about the Salem witches or any other witch and witch trials (like Season of the Witch, for instance), you know - duh - about witch trials. Though you may or may not admit the existence of witches - be these fantastic creatures capable of terrible, ill, destructive magic, or as sweet, wonderful white witches who are all about crystals, love, herbs and living in huts away from others, or as people who call themselves witches and practice a pagan or neo-pagan religion... one of the many currently being practiced -, the people who were sentenced and put to death in most of these trials weren't witches. Back then "witch" was the word stitched to people that were different, provoked the envy of others or had something someone else wanted. It was like the word "communits" in the Capitalist block back in the middle of last century, or the word "terrorist" in this century's first decade. It was a lable you stuck on someone, that made them vulnerable to any attack, that was hard to wash off, and which made stick any irrational, outrageous accusation.

Though I believe in many types of witches, today's blog is about this last type: the "witches by victimization".

We may read books, watch movies, see a documental on Discovery Channel about Salem, and not understand how is it possible that a whole community was able to commit such an atrocity, judge without base 140 of their peers and murder 19 of them on the crazed clames and stories of a bunch of young girls and a scared young maid servant. How can anyone - lest a whole town! - believe that a neighbour as normal and devoted Christian as any of them would be a witch and cause a cow to get sick? Why would anyone jump into that conclusion? Well, for the same reason we do it now as well: mob mentality.

It happens today, in nearly every sphere of life, that someone is suddenly a witch, out of whatever reason, and  with the handy aid of someone with issued, their surrounding start outcasting them and spreading ill gossip, accusing the witch of things that person hasn't even thought about. Among friends someone perhaps resent the new friend, because it's younger, prettier, more successful, has the attention of the group, and that sparks enough hate to divide the group and force the outcast of the witch.

The most common of cases often happen at work or at diverse groups - hobby groups, sports' groups, gym, professional group, class, etc. - where a person or a small group feels threatened in ways that are to shameful to admit, by a third party. It can be a newcomer or even someone who has been in the group for a while. The one who prefers to do things their own way, the one who works harder, the one who usually has the best  ideas, the one who's usually right, the one who inadvertedly sheds light on the flaws and shortcomings fo the rest, the one who's closer to a promotion or to become the representative of the group (like in the case of chess associations). Even in a church, a witch can pop up in a congregation if one of them excels the others and has more support to fill an important position, or who usually opposes the opinion of the rest and arguments the case flawlessly.

Do you know the case? Have you been perhaps the witch? Or the witch hunter?

I have been the witch one too many times, just like my friend Dragonfly, and my dear Sartassa have also been witches in their groups. I'm sure their witch hunters spend entire nights justifying their actions, going over and over their lame, invented, weak arguments in order to believe them, so that they don't have to admit the real reason of the trial they put witches through: they don't like people who break their sense of normalcy, who set off the scale and make it evident that there's more to life and more alternatives and opportunities than what their narrow little boxes allow.

I won't say that "witches" are always right, but if there's something we could learn from history, is that witch hunters are always wrong, always jaded and always projecting their deep insecurities. I would also say that witch hunters are so set and so obssessed on the trial of the witches because they more often than not, seek to uphold a flawed system, one that entails the constant unhappiness of those subjected to it - forcing unnatural rules, demanding sacrifice, cutting ways for self fulfillment, opposing synergy and efficiency, growth and development, and yes, even honest behavior - and the witch is usually a person who shows the group a different way.

Witches exist today, and most likely you are a witch in some circle, or you could become one. It's okay, that only says that you are capable of seeing things differently, that you are good and amazing the way you are and in the way you are doing things, and that threatens someone who refuses to do things right, to be happy or even allow others to be. Just try not to be ever the witch hunter.