The witches of yesterday and today

The thing worked with astonishing simplicity. A person accused another of practicing witchcraft if she saw that something did not fit with the established model of Christian life. The accused (generally they were women) went to a theatrical performance (rather than a trial) organized and staged to rule on the accused.

The inquisitorial court resorted to methods or tests that were almost impossible for the accused to overcome, such as asking the accused to remove some object from a cauldron of boiling water. But no one could be executed if she did not confess her fault, so they subjected her to torture to “help” her reveal her truths. Then they burned it in the presence and as a warning to everyone. They even roasted them for details as insignificant and mundane as having a mole that was too large, especially if it was on a buttock.

The history behind the history

It wasn’t just mass hysteria driven by fanatics. In reality, the word “witch” was used to get rid of anyone who was uncomfortable, as today many are dismissed as “terrorists”, “crazy”, “sudacas”.or any other nickname that unleashes animosity at a given time or place.

The mechanism works to protect some kind of “purity” of which some feel they are carriers. There is a hidden calculation: erase the different one. Disappear from the face of the earth because it represents some reality that is hated. And it is hated because it is feared. Because its very presence apparently puts at risk some not very well structured foundation of ourselves.

The case of “The Demons of Loudun” was famous in France, where several Ursuline nuns from the Loudun convent and the priest Urbain Grandier were tortured and burned at the stake after being accused of witchcraft. By chance, that priest had been a strong opponent of the famous Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII’s prime minister.

Several studies indicate that many of those who were called “witches” at the dawn of the Renaissance (just when science begins to take its definitive place) were actually seasoned scientists and doctors.. Women who used medicinal plants to care for the sick, generally parturients. It is stated, not without reason, that there was a lot of gender persecution in the framework of that genocide.

modern witches

It’s not that the witch hunt has stopped, but that it has become much more sophisticated. It is present in the political orbit and in the corridors of domestic or work life. It always works using ignorance. Biased and distorted information about a human group or a particular individual is deliberately disseminated. With this, the conditions for building stigma are set and the rest is history.

Stigmas and witch hunts operate best in times of uncertainty or social disorientation. In other words, when there is fear. Giving a name and shape to fear comforts those who perceive an atmosphere of threat that is not fully specified. A supposedly well-differentiated collective enemy helps to overcome these concerns. The world somehow becomes a safe place again when we can clearly distinguish “the good” from “the bad.” It is a strategy that many powerful, and not so powerful, know well and handle by heart.

Domestic “witches” act in a similar way, but in a more private sphere. Nowadays, a person who interferes in the lives of others and dedicates a good part of their time to gossip, gossip, and slander against others is usually called a “witch.” Robbing another’s good name gives us a place of apparent superiority. And it helps to exorcise fears and eradicate suspicions, when the life of that other person, for one reason or another, exposes our shortcomings and limitations.

Sometimes they are magazine models, or presidents, and even religious people. Or journalists. No matter their dress, or their position, their mission is always the same: to spread the cult of the devil. Etymologically speaking, the word “devil” comes from the Greek “diabolos” which literally means: “to tell lies” or “to be a slanderer.” He is also interpreted as “he who separates.”

Modern witches are everywhere. Sometimes they are women and sometimes men, but regardless of gender, they are always intolerant. They point fingers, they judge mercilessly. They prepare potions made of misunderstanding and insults. With sharp and poisonous tongues, they are sad beings who are afraid of their own distress and take over a discourse that always aims at the same target: denigration of others. And it’s not a wart on their nose that makes them ugly.