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Class Notes 2 for Feb. 24th Magic Seminar
Class Notes for Feb. 24th Magic Seminar
Seminar on Greek Witches and Historical Approaches to Witchcraft
2nd Hour: by Julie Alvarez
Transformations of Circe: The History of an Enchantress by Judith
Yarnall.
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About the Author: she is a teacher of writing and literature with
a background in history; she's not a strict classicist. She writes from a
feminist perspective. She tries to prove that:
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Circe's metamorphoses show the changes in culture.
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Circe is the image of a strong woman's rise to
power.
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Longevity: Homer to present day -- she represents
the expression of the basic human experiences of fear or desire depending on
the era about which she was written.
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Myths: although myth's a work of the imagination,
it gives an idea
of the facts of the era. Yarnall tries to prove
that myths about Circe are reflective of the culture. She realizes that many
scholars do not follow this theory and they need more factual information.
The myth of Circe also represents the relationship of sexuality to human
nature.
-
Yarnall begins with Homer's version of the Circe myth. She
believes that Homer addresses the shift from goddess religion to the Olympian
pantheon: goddess worship of pre-antiquity to the patriarchal pantheon.
Homer also portrays Circe as a goddess rather than a priestess, but she's on
the edge between good and evil. By Book 10 of the Odyssey, she becomes the
"divine among goddesses."
-
The transformation of men into swine can also be viewed in a
non-evil way because pigs in antiquity were sacrificial animals. Also, when
she transforms them back into men they're more handsome and youthful -- not
necessarily an "evil" type of witchcraft as we perceive it today.
-
Yarnall believes that the most profound transformation in this myth
is the turning of male-female hostility into union and trust (i.e., men and
women are equal).
-
Age of Allegory: allegories illustrate an ideal, moral, or
religious principle. These writers attempted to find and reveal the truth.
During the time of Plato, sexual gratification was seen as a way to cancel
out any chance of spiritual gratification because it takes away from the
soul's ascending energy. Now women were beginning to get the stereotypical
evil character -- transformation from earth-bound goddess to pantheon of the
Greeks, thus, was very easy. Christian allegorists portrayed Circe as a type
of Eve, but worse -- she represented a demonic figure that personified the
linkage between the feminine, the natural, and the deadly.
-
Apollonius, Vergil and Ovid: Apollonius portrays Circe as more of a
priestess than a goddess. Vergil sees her only as the sinister mistress of
animals, a wrathful goddess. Vergil distrusts female nature and views it as
a reservoir of potentially rolling passion that if liberated can also affect
men and threaten male achievement and control. Ovid ignores all of this and
favors extreme female passion. He sees the Circe myth as a story about sex.
-
Renaissance: the first printed edition of Homer surfaced in 1488. This
resulted in a stereotype of the seductive, controlling woman. Spencer's
Faerie Queen (who was actually Queen Elizabeth) portrayed the witch as
the stereotypical ugly, old woman who had never been married.
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The 17th Century: The eroticism of the 16th century became diluted.
Women were considered frail. Yarnall doesn't know what caused this shift
from erotic woman to submissive woman. One of the main topics for the
masques, little plays, at this time was Circe. Milton wrote on Circe in a
masque but ignored her in The Reconciliation and even made her a man.
The 17th century authors believed that sexual love weakened people and that
women were more prone to it.
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18th Century: Myths were "out of style" so no one wrote about Circe.
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19th Century: Archetypal image of the female as "dark" proliferated,
but there were no figures named Circe during this time in literature, only in
visual art.
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20th Century: Age of the female writer gave Circe a voice.
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Criticism and Comments: Yarnall refers to dates in the broad sense,
never gives a specific date. Cirec becomes symbolic of women in general
(beautiful enchantress or ugly witch).
The God of the Witches by Margaret Murray
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The book is about the social structure of witches and their culture.
Murray starts out by talking about the horned god of witches. It was found
as early as the paleolithic times and it was found in many cultures and
called by many names (e.g. Pan). In ceremonies, a person dressed up as the
god. The horned god explains the Christian image of the devil because
Christians chose the old religion's (evil) god as their devil. The name
"Robin Goodfellow" was used as a name for the god, but this name was also
transformed into "Robin Hood." Robin Goodfellow/Hood was known as the god of
the "little people," i.e., fairies. Murray talks about Shakespeare's
influence on the fairy image. She said that the most incriminating piece of
evidence in witch trials was one's association with fairies.
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She talks about the coven of witches which consisted of 13 individuals
with the most important members being the chief, the maiden, and the
musician. If there was more than one coven in a city, then there would be a
Grand Master who was a god-figure.
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Murray said that the witches had their own system of punishment within
their society. If you made a small abuse, you'd be publicly humiliated. If
you committed a larger abuse, you were stoned. They did kill their own.
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She discussed the importance of lace as a magical instrument. It was a
sign of rank, especially in the form of a garter.
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There were two types of meetings:
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Esbat -- a meeting for the 13 held weekly.
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Sabbath -- a meeting for the whole congregation held four
times a year
according to the breeding seasons of animals.
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There were two types of familiars that witches used:
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Divining familiar -- didn't belong to the witch (e.g., a
crystal ball).
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Domestic familiar -- did belong to the witch (e.g., a cat or
dog) and they
could use it for whatever they wanted.
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There were three ceremonies:
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Rite of Admission -- usually when infant was born; afterwards
a mark was
given. They could enter into a contract of admission where
they could
leave after 7-9 years or renew the contract.
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Sacred Dances -- all the meetings started and ended with them.
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Feasts -- always joyous.
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They often performed helpful ceremonies (e.g., going to a farm to heal a
sick animal). They were also known as rainmakers.
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Murray said that the witch's position in the social structure was that
of an adviser (e.g., helping in chilbirth).
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The Grand Master had to be killed every 7-9 years, and there were three
requirements for the Grand Master to become a "divine victim:"
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Shedding of blood with the blood falling on the ground.
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Killing by fire and the scattering of ashes in water.
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Asphixiation or dismemberment.
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Comments: Margaret Murray is famous for her controversial theory that
the witch covens of the middle ages can be traced all the way back to the
paleolithic period and that there's an unbroken historical sequence
from the paleolithic to the historical to the classical to the medieval
period. Also, she argues that this was in fact a religion with rituals and
organization. Her thesis is extremely controversial; most scholars think
that covens can be traced only from the medieval to the modern period.
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