Season of the Witch
Wishing Everyone a Happy Halloween
She has been around since the beginning of humankind. She is both a part of society and outside of it. She is deep within and far apart. She has been revered, worshiped, adored, persecuted, burned alive, and hated. But you can never truly destroy something so strong that is essentially a part of the great human experiment since the dawn of time.
Witch, Oil and egg tempera on canvas, 15” x 30,” 2018. Original and prints available
Today, it seems like She is back with a vengeance. The word “Witch,” written in hieroglyphics at the top of the painting above, once was enough to blame someone for incredible lies, but it has now become a battle cry for today’s femininity taking back its power.
The painting above does, in fact, take its inspiration from today’s TikTok/Instagram Witch. While many of the posts and accounts that would fall under such a moniker are a far cry from what a true witch may or may not be, there is a kernel there even if all many of them do is essentially cosplay one. The egregore of the Witch is growing in strength despite this seeming dispersal of energies in modern times. Like an idea from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, the archetype of the Witch is alive and very well. The very use of the word feeds Her, a spell here and an innocent incantation there, are all whispers to the roots of an incredibly ancient tree.
Power Crown, Oil and egg tempera on canvas, 16” x 20,” 2022. Prints available.
This piece, Power Crown, is taking a much less subtle view of a Witch. Her crown is an energetic one, not visible to the outside world but one that gives her great power and confidence in how she holds and conducts herself. Sometimes, often, practicing witches look just like everyone else, and I would argue, that the less a witch signals she is one, perhaps the more powerful she really is.
I have a couple of Witch-themed works in progress I’d love to share as they feature two other aspects of the archetype. I’m planning on finally finishing these up this coming year and can’t wait to share them once they are done.
This is Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. This is also Angelina Jolie, who played her in the movie Alexander. Olympias was an ecstatic snake priestess of Dionysus and essentially one of the baddest mamas that ever was. She fought for Alexander’s supremacy her whole life with cunning, magic, treachery, and intense political acumen and once he died, championed her other children in politics and power, becoming one of the most influential people in the empire. She was murdered like a man, which doesn’t sound all that great, but let me reframe that. She was held in such high regard by all the other politicians, political leaders, and leaders that she was assassinated like one of their own. She comes down to us in history as one hell of a Mama Bear and bad Witch.
Then, of course, I haven’t even mentioned the Witch’s Sabbath or Flight. The painting above is about the transformation through ecstatic ritual, a coven becoming united through mind-altering substances to commune with the ancient and enduring Divine. The plants that line the painting, Belladonna, Henbane, and Deadly Nightshade to name a few, are traditional Witch’s Flight Ointment herbs and all have psychedelic effects (kids, don’t try making this at home - they are also all deadly in the wrong dosages).
I also want to include one of my favorite all-time videocasts, Esoterica’s wonderful treatment of the Witch’s Flight and the history of Witchcraft below. It is an incredibly well-organized, truly historical perspective on the Medieval Witch phenomenon, and I can’t recommend it enough.
We are wishing all of you a Happy Halloween. We’ll be dressing as Lord of the Rings characters and going trick-or-treating. I’m Galadriel, Michael is Gandalf and Hawk is a tired Hobbit lol!
