Witches Don’t Die…, They Multiply

Three witches enter the basement

Immediately whispering spells and incantations

Ghosts appear, dancing and howling

Until towns-folk storm the building

Burned, screaming their last words

Despite it being Halloween, can humans every really and truly escape the allure of the dark and mysterious people known as witches. Even the world number one bestselling book, the Holy Bible mentions their names:

Exodus 22:18 “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

Leviticus 20:27 “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.”

Despite what was written in the good book however, in the early 400’s, Saint Augustine argued that witch craft is impossible. He stated that it was the error of pagans to believe some other divine power than God. For a while, that held true and people thought to be witches were ignored, for the most part. That did not last forever because we are all aware of the witch persecutions throughout Europe. We also know that in order to obtain confessions from supposed witches, brutal torture techniques were used. As the enlightenment age approached and reason reigned supreme, humans realized that confessions obtained through torture were unreliable. I think we all realize that if you are in pain you will probably admit to anything to make it stop.

Even with this colorful path for witches, we still today idolize them on the big screen and in fiction novels. I guess that the unknown will always capture the imagination. Weird and isolated people usually draw side long glances with people wondering ‘what is wrong with that person’ or ‘does that person have some special power’. Me personally, I think the latter is what it all boils down to, everyone wants to be special. If casting imaginary spells and riding on broom sticks is your thing then by all means, do you. From firsthand experience I can tell you that being different is not a bad thing, isolation is not a bad thing, being misunderstood is a bad thing. People consider me a little weird and possibly a bit mad. Who knows, perhaps I am raving mad. I would be lying if I did not inform everyone that Shakespeare inspired the 5x5 short story above. Therefore, in the words of the timeless Shakespeare and his immortal play Macbeth:

“ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”

Happy Halloween everyone, be safe and have fun.