The Witch's Heart

by Christopher Penczak

  Medea is also a powerful Witch in the ancient Greek tradition, said to be the niece of Circe as well as the daughter of King Aeetes and granddaughter of the Sun Titan Helios, giving her divine blood, aiding her magick. She was also a priestess to Hecate, and her prayers to this goddess of Witches helped fuel her magick. There are many ancient tales ascribed to Medea, some conflicting in their chronology, outcome, and motives. In the tale of Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece, she falls in love with Jason and uses both magick and murder to aid him in his adventures as they escape her father. They are married and have children together, but Jason later abandons her to marry another, and Medea seeks revenge by killing his children, his new bride, and his father-in-law with her poison magick.

  While both are powerful images of the ancient Witch as lover and beautiful priestess, they are not necessarily the most healthy of role models for the modern Witch. While we can claim a patriarchal vilification of Circe and Medea, even the oldest myths we have of them paint them as villains. The hero’s quest is often seen as an initiatory tale, and the female characters can take a difficult but necessary role embodying the dark chthonic forces the hero must face in the quest. Most people don’t interpret the stories that way, but rather see them as the villains. In fact, while Witches are almost universally known for their abilities in love magick, there are not many classic stories of the “good” Witch with the “good” love potion, creating a tale of happily ever after.

  The Fairy Godmother

  Beyond the classic mythology, we have other tales of love magick, Witches, and fairy godmothers, but they too present their share of problems in the archetype of the Witch as enchantress. In the tale of Tristan and Iseult, the couple accidentally consumes a love potion, resulting in their falling in love with each other, creating a difficult affair that, in most versions, ends in tragedy. The potion is not particularly attributed to a Witch, and the magick, while providing the pivotal plot device, does not turn out to be benign in function.

  Cinderella is the best tale of the fairy godmother as the benign Witch or otherworldly patron helping the maiden. In early versions, the godmother role is played by her deceased mother, whom Cinderella contacts by praying over her mother’s grave, giving the story deeper Witchcraft and necromantic associations, as Witches are known to conjure the dead.

  In classic fairy tales, the story of Snow White gives us a stepmother queen villain, described as a Witch figure, who tries to have Snow White murdered so the queen can be the “fairest of them all.” She eventually succeeds, at least partially, by poisoning an apple, a symbol associated with Witchcraft and magick, and tricking Snow White into eating it. In the popular Disney version, it is only by being rescued with a kiss by her true love, Prince Charming, that she is returned back to life, similar to Sleeping Beauty’s tale. Though we can look at the evil queen as a villain, in terms of an initiatory story, she is the shadow, the dweller on the threshold, and the teacher. She plays a similar role to Snow White that Set plays to his brother Osiris in the Egyptian mythos. In the end, I think many of the tales of “love” involving Witchcraft figures are dark because they provide the impetus to prepare the main character for love, to recognize it and cherish it when it’s found. Who said love—and, by extension, life—is going to be easy?

  The Venefica

  While it’s easy for modern-day Neopagans and Witches to blame the Christians exclusively for the Witch hunts and persecutions, we can see that those who identified with the word witch in the ancient Greek and Roman world were not lovingly embraced by all of the public. In the Roman Empire, one of the common names for our Witchcraft ancestors was venefica. The venefica were thought of as poisoners, for—like the Greek Witches, the pharmakopia—they knew the plants that healed and harmed, the blessings and the banes. Pharmakopia is where we get our modern concept of the pharmacist, the one who knows medicines and remedies. The pharmakopia or venefica could use their knowledge of poisons to easily and discreetly kill when they deemed it necessary. The Roman politicians were far more fearful of the unseen toxin slipped into their food or drink than they were of the charging army.

  In his book The Witches’ Craft, popular Witchcraft author Raven Grimassi makes the argument that the venefica were not just considered poisoners of the body, but their earlier association was poisoners of the mind or heart with their love potions and philters. Men in power were afraid of having their minds, hearts, and wills clouded by the attention of a woman and her Witchcraft potions. They didn’t want to feel influenced by a “supernatural” agency beyond their control.

  Venefica’s root word is linked with the term venereal as well as venom. Venereal refers to desire or “love,” such as the term venereal diseases for sexually transmitted diseases. All of these words are associated with Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality.

  Many modern Witches don’t have the same spiritual devotion and reverence to Venus as to the darker, more “witchy” goddesses such as Hecate, Diana, Demeter, and Persephone. Equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, Venus has associations that put her in touch with the primal Witch Goddess, expanding her realm beyond simply love and romance. Much of the familiar lore has her as a temptress and sometimes trouble maker of the Olympian pantheon, yet she is really an “elder” goddess, somewhat like the Titan Hecate, having peace with the younger generation of Greek gods, but having an older origin.

  Aphrodite was born from the ocean when the genitals of Uranus (who kept his children trapped in Gaia’s womb) were cut off by his son Cronos. They fell into the ocean, foamed, and Aphrodite rose forth. One of her titles is “foam born,” and her oceanic associations link her with the primal ocean goddesses. Three drops of blood from Uranus fell on the land and gave life to the three Furies. So Aphrodite’s “sisters” are three powerful, dark, and vengeful goddesses seeking to punish those who are criminals, particularly those who murder family members. They are a primal and violent feminine justice.

  As soon as Aphrodite stepped onto the shores, flowers bloomed in her wake. The five-petalled flowers in particular are associated with Aphrodite/Venus and with the pentagram and pentacle. While Demeter is the goddess of grains, Aphrodite is the mother of flowers and the flowering herbs that are the source of many magickal powers (many of the Witch’s herbs are flowers and have five petals). She brought forth the powers to heal and to harm, to cure and to curse, to revive and to poison, giving to the root of her name the association with the benign powers of love and life force and the darker powers of poisoning and cursing. Traditional love magick can be seen as a blend of both, depending on your perspective as caster or object of the spell.

  The Horned Ones

  While many Pagan goddess figures and their priestesses are strongly associated with Witchcraft, we cannot forget the image of the Horned God honored in so many Witchcraft traditions. Perhaps the horned ones are not seen as Witches themselves, as the Witchcraft goddesses are, but they are considered the fathers, or patrons, of Witches. Many types of horned deities exist, differing on location and type of horns—from the familiar goat-horned and -hoofed Greek Pan and his satyrs to the bull horns of Dionysus and the Egyptian Osiris and the stag horns of Celtic Cernunnos.

  Pan is probably one of the most sexual of these gods, with many manifestations, ranging from a primal cosmic father (when Pan is translated as “All” and is seen as the Lord of the Witches in a dualistic cosmology) to his fear-inducing image causing “pan-ic” to a more playful, lustful, and seductive figure. It’s important to realize that all of these sides have that element of surprise and danger, just like any relationship. Releasing the primal side has its pleasure and drawbacks. In some version of the Greek myths, Hermes is the father of Pan and was originally depicted with horns and hooves like his son. Hermes is a great magician and trickster who eventually morphs into the sage figure of Hermes Trismegistus, akin to a Merlin archetype more than a Pan. Dionysus is the god of ecstasy,
wine, and madness. He is beloved by the mad women of the frenzy and inspires these women to acts of violence as a form of worship. Osiris is best known as the brother-husband of Isis, who resurrects him twice, yet through his tale he loses his phallus. His is a tantric tale of divine initiation and rebirth through the goddess Isis as the Lord of the Dead. Cernunnos doesn’t have many specific myths, let alone romantic or sexual ones, yet he holds such a fascination in the modern Pagan psyche. He is beloved by Witches and druids, and modern interpretations link him with the Lord of the Dead, the King of Faery, the leader of the Wild Hunt, and an insatiable lover like the goat gods. Though not specifically horned, when looking at Cernunnos as a father figure, he’s been linked to the gigantic Dagda, the “Good Father,” another very sexual god of the Celts. His enormous club is a euphemism for his phallus and his power of fertility. He mates with the giant Witch goddess the Morrighan to gain the secrets of victory in his people’s conflict with the chaotic Fomorians.

  All of these male figures found playing such a prominent role in modern Witchcraft have a strong yet dangerous sexual current to them. They are not necessarily speaking to the powers of romance but rather to those of lust and primal urges.

  The Daughter of Witchcraft

  In later Italian Witchcraft, the daughter of the goddess Diana, Aradia, was said to come to earth to revive the traditions of the old ways and the blessings of the Goddess. Reportedly born in Italy in 1313, she grew to adulthood and taught the ways of the Witch. In The Gospel of Aradia, she bestows the thirteen powers of the Witch, including three that are particularly pertinent to our work here: “To grant success in love,” “To make those who are ugly beautiful,” and “To bless or curse with power friends or enemies.” All of these are in alignment with the ancient Witches of Greece, Italy, and elsewhere in the world. Witches have the power of beauty, to be the sirens and enchantresses, as we have seen in the classic Witches Circe and Medea. They can bewitch a man’s heart with their beauty. They grant success in love, for both themselves and for others who come to them for aid. They brew the potion and cast the spells for finding and keeping lovers. And, lastly, a gift many fear to talk about, they can bless or curse. They are two sides of the same coin and a reason why Witchcraft has been vilified, but if you don’t understand the dark, you can never truly understand the light; lacking the knowledge and power, you become unbalanced. If you don’t know how someone can be cursed, you will never be able to heal and break that curse. You need the knowledge and power of both sides, even if you don’t use it destructively.

  The Wizard Mentor

  We don’t have many male Witchcraft archetypes in history, but one that is very much connected to our modern images in the Neopagan Witchcraft revival is the figure of Merlin. Merlin is most often thought of as the wizard of King Arthur’s court. Most think of him as clad in blue robes with yellow stars and a pointed cap similar to the classic Witch’s hat. That image is more akin to the Zoroastrian magi than a Celtic mage, and if there was a historic Merlin, he was far more likely to wear animal skins and look like the wild man of the forest.

  Part of Merlin’s tale, usually forgotten in the modern retellings focusing on the knights of the Round Table, is his love life. He mentors a young enchantress associated with the Ladies of the Lake. Depending on the version, it is Vivian, Nimue, or even Arthur’s half sister Morgan le Fay. In the earliest stories of Merlin (sometimes spelled Myrddin), the focus of his attention is his sister, named Gwenddydd or Gandeida, and suggests a possible incestuous relationship. Such themes are quite common in the myths of gods and demigods.

  Either he is truly smitten by the young woman who promises herself to the sage or he is simply lonely or lustful. She will not consummate their relationship until she has learned all his magick, creating a dynamic tension between teacher and student where the student seems to have all the power. Some look at Merlin as a fool for falling for this ploy, while others believe he simply knew that his time was done and, through his vision of prophecy, knew this was the way he was taken out of the Arthurian story; the mortals must fend for themselves without his constant guidance. The tension between the two is not unlike the tension found between those occultists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who focused on the polarity pairings of a male priest and female priestesses to make a magickal current. While sexuality is the magickal power used, rarely did such magicians ever consummate the relationship in the physical, as it was believed to neutralize the potent magickal current. Author and magician Dion Fortune wrote quite a bit about this type of magickal partnership in her novels, particularly The Sea Priestess. While not the preferred method of modern magicians today, living in an age with different sexual norms, it is still quite a potent technique for magick.

  Once the young student learns all she can from Merlin, she uses that knowledge to trap him. The cage varies but includes a hawthorn tree, a tomb, a crystal cave, or an invisible tower made of air. In the most mystical versions of the story, he voluntarily retires from the world to a glass house, an astrological observatory, with his sister and others, to continue to prophesize about the future. Merlin’s tale depicts the unbalanced relationship between two lovers and poor choices on both sides. While the tale has much stronger mythic themes for semi-divine figures, when brought to the human level in later renditions, it shows a lack of integrity between teacher and student and how denial of the sexual and romantic side for much of your life can lead to obsessive actions later, when you finally allow yourself to express that part of you.

  The Chivalrous Knight

  While the image of the knight, the warrior, seems disconnected from the archetype of the Witch, there are many myths connecting to the two, particularly in British lore. Many Pagan gods are warriors and hunters. In the Arthurian tales, the noble and romantic figure of Lancelot is raised by the Lady of the Lake, making him Lancelot du Lac, or Lancelot of the Lake, and the most likely to succeed in the Holy Grail quest until he betrays himself with the queen. He was adopted and raised by the Avalonian priestesses. While not a Witch outright, he has a sorcerous heritage. But one of the most interesting tales told among modern Witches involves the Order of the Garter.

  In the mythos of Witchcraft, the seemingly mainstream Order of the Garter was actually secretly involved in the Witchcraft cult. Originally, it was founded by King Edward III. While at a gathering with the king, the Countess of Salisbury was dancing, and a garter slipped from her leg. Many jeered and sneered, but the king immediately grabbed it from the ground and tied it on his own leg, with the words “Honi soit qui mal y pense” (“Shamed be the person who thinks evil of it”). While today most think of the garter as having something to do with sexuality, Witches claim the garter as a sign of a Witch or even Witch Queen. Modern Witches use the garter and most likely base some of its use upon Stone Age depictions of figures with ropes tied to their legs, presumably to control blood flow and induce trance. More familiar garters became a symbol of rank in Witchcraft traditions.

  We believe, at least in the poetic and mythic interpretation of the story, that the slipping of the garter announced her as a Witch, and that King Edward was also secretly a member of a Witchcraft order and gave not only his support but started an entire order. Originally it was twenty-six in number, plus the king. In that numerology, modern Witches see two covens of thirteen “knights” and their Witch King. The order is still in operation today. There are many myths and theories associating the British royal family with various occult groups and conspiracies, as much of Celtic Paganism dealt with the themes of the sacred king uniting with the land.

  The magickal origin of the tale probably goes back to the stories of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, another of the Arthurian mystery tales. In Sir Gawain, the object is a girdle, not a garter, and the motto translates to “Accursed be a cowardly and covetous heart,” but it has similar themes to the founding of the Order of the Garter.

  While there is no
real evidence to support a Pagan monarchy in Christian times, it is still a favorite myth among Wiccans today. And it paints the image of a male Witch as a chivalrous warrior in service to the crown and the land, and the defender of the lady, particularly the lady of the Craft. Today, some Witches with Celtic leanings use various codes of chivalry to guide them beyond the ethical code of the Wiccan Rede. While this can rile many more feminist-minded modern Witches, it speaks to more British Traditional Wiccans. Such codes can be found popularized in the work of Ed Fitch, particularly in his Grimoire of Shadows.

  The model of the Witch knight gives men in the Craft some additional inspirational resources to draw upon in a mythos that is heavy with female archetypes. The myth of the Order of the Garter and King Edward, as well as the knights like Gawain, Lancelot, and even King Arthur, can continue to provide a role model to aspire to in terms of the most ethical conduct and a warning of what happens when we fall short in being true to our word and our people. Ultimately, their stories teach the ideal of chivalrous love.

  Through these stories, it’s easy to see how strongly the Witch archetypes are associated with love and romance, and how often things go wrong when magick is involved. They are tales to urge us to live with the highest integrity and honor in all things, but particularly in magick. Those deeply involved on the magickal path notice they start to live a more archetypal life. Magickal living is a source of strength and enlightenment but can also be a part of our self-sabotage. We can believe we are losing our “humanness” and start to think we are divinely infallible. We are blind to the harmful traits of our developing archetype and often allow its development unconsciously. These portraits are a reminder of the joys, powers, and problems of the Witch as lover. They urge us to remain conscious of all our traits and to choose the path of Perfect Love and the highest good.