To ‘go shopping’ on a day like this, with its shining, sun-filled sky and baking summer heat, it was strange and rather spooky to see Pumpkins waiting at the main front door.
It took a while to realise this would be for Halloween, of course. Yet so early, or perhaps the witches are casting their spells?
Perhaps their spell has worked on me, as I found myself researching their history. Witches go back to the 16th and 17th centuries.
Andover Museum has a display of 17th-century Bellarmine stoneware and bottles. Discovered in Abbots Ann in 1981, the site yielded hair, bent bronze pins, and urine, revealing a history of burial practices intended to ward off witches' spells.
Witchcraft is the magic used to harm, casting spells to bring in misfortune. We may see this as being in our imaginations, yet it also explains, at times, evil in the world. In the past, witches were condemned to prison, punishment or killed. Witches, primarily women, cast spells with their black magic. They are seen as creating social tensions.
In our modern world of good and evil, they seem to exist still. Have they cast the spells causing wars?
Witchcraft became a capital offence in Britain until 1563, when torture, burns and hanging of up to 200,000 occurred. They were seen as old and poor women, who may be crone-like, snaggle-toothed, with sunken cheeks.
Perhaps a black cat may also be found. This blackness brings in more memories of Halloween. History is a time to remember those lost, yet over time, it has brought in witches, cauldrons, brooms, and black, pointed hats.
Children always enjoy Halloween. My memories bring in the pumpkin in which we would create a spooky face, which history tells me was to ward off spirits and fairies settling in our home.
Is this why Shakespeare created his witches in Macbeth? ‘Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.’ The three witches, or weird sisters, led Macbeth to his ascent to kingship, yet he then fell.
Shakespeare’s witches’ cauldron was filled with entrails, toads, snakes, cold stones and tongues of dogs. All the bad things we still hold. The First, The Second, The Third witch, they were called. They had no names, and the three represent the past, present and future with evil, darkness, chaos and conflict.
Is there a white witch? Our bible tells us that any witchcraft is against God’s law. May we cast a spell and create magic? Does magic exist? Does this give control?
Yet nature returns, we hope for rain, we love the sun. A breeze is welcome. Can we cast the spell to control when? No, but it all explains our hopes, wishes, and wants for a safer future—the end of wars.
Or shall I buy a pumpkin, put on the hat, fly on my broom, to find my sisters, to cast our spells? Call ‘Trick or treat’. Or create magic.
By Linda Price, Andover contributor
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