Everything Under the Moon

Right, let's do this! An accumulation of my thoughts, as a newbie witch:
Apparently my black eyeliner makes my pentacle a fashion statement. I'm not sure I can be annoyed about that, because I have my gothic leanings, but has the same thing happened to anyone else? Is it of any weight to you?
And, here is something I've noticed most often. A lot of horror movies (, and books, and such), involve witches. This would be fine, except that 'witchcraft' is used synonymously with 'A Bad Thing/The Cause of The Movie's Evil'. I get that they aren't portraying "actual" witches, largely, but I have been noticing a lot of it- and it's a touch wearing.
I suppose you could call it a little bit cultural (I'm English, and there seems to be a lot, historically, on the fear of witches), but does it bother anyone else? Or do you see it as referring to something totally different? I'm curious to see what more experienced members think!

I have a bit of a cynical take on the film industry, that the people who finance making movies (since the late '30's, anyhow) want the public to keep being afraid of the unseen...as a form of crowd control, because the Powers That Be (PTB) don't want the "common" people to know their tricks.

As for dressing the part...nothing's as it seems. Jeans and T-shirts are my idea of comfortable fashion. When I retired 2 years ago Halloween, I donated all my dress-code required conservative office wear to Good Will. Good riddance! Golly, it felt good.

Aha, I'm sure I'd more dress the part if I could only find a long-sleeved black dress with pockets. Ah, pockets. *Sighs wistfully*. The long sleeves are my own preference. But yeah, it's like, I was in a magick shop earlier, and wearing black lipstick, thinking 'no I am here seriously, I swear I'm not just here for the aesthetic'. I just happen to look good in black makeup. ^^

I look ghastly in black. I've always had very cherry red cheeks, like a Campbells Soup Kid. Not a thing I can do about it either. (sighs wistfully)

Aww... I just happen to be Adams Family-lookin'. There' that, and the fact I feel weirdly unlike myself if I don't wear much black, nowadays.
(Whoops, I made the conversation devolve into talking about clothes. Sorry~)

Witches are always portrayed as bad in movies. They are always brewing up wicked concoctions, threatening to turn people into toads, and sacrificing children. Off the top of my head there's- Hocus Pocus, Narnia, Maleficent. The only good witches I can think of are Glinda from the Wizard of Oz, Charmed, Sabrina and Practical Magic (But even then they keep their witchy-ness to themselves) I do think the fear or stereotype goes back to the burning times when everyone were made ro believe that Witches are evil.

As far as clothing is concerned I wear a lot of black but I am far from Gothic.

Y'know, as much as I liked the old show "Bewitched", I always resented that Samantha was expected not to twitch, ... Guess there wouldn't have been much of a plot.

I haven't seen the current show like Salem, or Witch (is that a TV show or theatre movie?) & i hear even that fails. Cant rewrite history. It is what it is. Historically, witches have and do curse as well as cure. So do lawyers and doctors, but nobody gets into a panic and hangs them...and a few maybe should have been.

Something that intrigued me was the play Vinegar Tom, by Caryl Churchill (set in 1600's England). Essentially, it's a feminist play, and witchcraft is used as a metaphor within it- all the women that are accused of it are 'not the norm' in some way. It's the first even remotely accurate portrayal of witchcraft I've seen, and even then it's not done by witches. There's a wise woman who works with herbal medicine*, and another who makes a poppet.
*She does have people (those accusing someone of witchcraft) scrying, but it's pretty much only to humour them- when one person says "I see something" The wise woman, in disbelief, says "What?".

In my culture (Slovak /maybe Slavic in general), we have several words for what might be translated as a witch.
Bosorka is an old evil witch, usually ugly which a wart. Baba Yaga may be an example https://www.google.sk/search?q=baba+yag ... oQ_AUIBigB

Another is čarodejnica, a young or middle aged woman, powerful, May be good or evil, though usually evil. May look like this https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... 1LPJTnoh02

Last that comes to mind mind is "babka korenárka" or "grandma herbalist" she's a good wise old lady who knows all kinds of healing herbs and often times helps the main protagonist in the story https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/imag ... YkJ_lwyl_Q

https://www.google.sk/search?q=babka+ko ... Jg#mhpiv=0

Oh, I like that there's a distinction. In English, I'm pretty sure there is only witch, before you get into synonyms... Sorceress, wise woman, or their male equivalents.

I know what you mean
I get stereotyped over here in England due to the fact i wear jogging bottoms and hoodies alot. Most people assume im a chav but wouldn't guess that im wiccan. Il be honest if it wasn't for charmed I wouldn't have found wicca. That show and the house of night series is what got me to research and start on this path. We will always get stereotyped as evil out of fear and ignorance

Witches in movies and books never really bothered me too much- they are just stories to me. Sometimes I get a little salty when watching show like Ghost Adventures or A Haunting when they explain witchcraft off as something evil, but I tend to brush it off.

If the show or movie doesn't make a reference to the actual religion, I can just ignore it for the most part. But when they try to depict the Wicca when they haven't done enough homework, however, I get annoyed. I have a blog where I actually touched on this precise subject, so if you'd like to read it, I can send the link. To be honest, I haven't updated in a while though I'm trying.

We actually have a whole subforum on pop culture!
Here ya go
http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... -f167.html
Bb, Firebird