Return of the Witch

Witches, like heretics and mystics, live by having been killed. The premise of many witch movies: a witch rises from the dead to bring vengeance upon society: fair enough. In the movies the witch is sensational, bloodthirsty and justified; in real life the witch is merely an independent woman. But like the movie witch, she exerts power over our imagination because of how much she has suffered. The horror of the movie witch is the inverse horror of a history of violence that is unbearable. This violent history is the recent history of Christianity transforming into capitalist modernity. The bible demands that “thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” What this law means is: do not let a woman live on her own terms. The crime of being a witch in 17th century Christian society was often met with death: it is obvious now that these women died for the crime of being a woman. The witch as monster was cocked up as a legal slur by the church fathers and magistrates to refer to that woman who rejects the authority of men and their god: she likewise devours children, cavorts with Satan and curses humanity; this witch of fairytales and Disney movies is a monster produced by a Christian law that hates women. But monsters (and martyrs) eventually return as a radical force.