The Lore and Myths of Witches Chapter 6: Decline, Survival & Modern Rebirth

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to the last episode in our six part series

0:03 Speaker 1: on the history of witches. Our broom has flown through caves, courts,

0:08 Speaker 1: deserts and forests. Now we reach the long twilight of

0:12 Speaker 1: the witch hunts and a new dawn where witches trade

0:16 Speaker 1: pires for paperbacks, rituals, and streaming shows.

0:20 Speaker 2: The Enlightenment and the Last Trials seventeen hundred to eighteen hundred.

0:27 Speaker 1: By the early eighteenth century, Europe's appetite for witch burnings

0:31 Speaker 1: had cooled. Intellectuals championed reason over superstition. Britain's Witchcraft Act

0:37 Speaker 1: of seventeen thirty five treated spellcasting as fraud rather than heresy,

0:42 Speaker 1: a bureaucratic shrug after centuries of panic. Still, the embers flickered.

0:48 Speaker 1: Anna Guldi was executed in Switzerland in seventeen eighty two,

0:53 Speaker 1: often dubbed Europe's last witch, though technically tried for poisoning.

0:58 Speaker 1: Across Scandinavia and the Baltic small rural prosecutions lingered, usually

1:04 Speaker 1: sparked by livestock illness or neighborly feuds. Folklore collectors noticed

1:09 Speaker 1: a shift. People still believed in charms, but the diabolical

1:13 Speaker 1: conspiracy faded replaced by stories about milk stealing hairs or

1:17 Speaker 1: mysterious hag riders pressing on sleeper's chests.

1:21 Speaker 3: Tonight's rational enlightenment is powered by Voltaire's candles guaranteed to

1:26 Speaker 3: chase away darkness and the occasional wandering spirit.

1:30 Speaker 2: Romanticism and folklore fever eighteen hundred to nineteen hundred.

1:36 Speaker 1: The nineteenth century didn't banish witches. It rebranded them. Writers

1:41 Speaker 1: like Gerda His Valpurgis Knocked in Faust and The Brothers

1:45 Speaker 1: Grim gave witches dramatic capes and gingerbread. Real estate painters

1:50 Speaker 1: filled canvases with moonlit hags. Composers wrote ballet witches whirling

1:55 Speaker 1: on mountain sides. Folklorists such as Jacob Grimm, Thomas Keatley

2:00 Speaker 1: and Russian scholar Alexander Afanasief roamed villages, collecting spells, charms,

2:06 Speaker 1: and Baba yaga tales. Before they vanished under industrial smoke.

2:11 Speaker 1: Witches became heritage, not courtroom evidence. In America, legends like

2:16 Speaker 1: New York's Witch of Pungo or New England's Ghostly Witches

2:19 Speaker 1: joined a growing Gothic appetite. Even polite Victorians enjoyed seance

2:24 Speaker 1: parlors and spiritualist mediums. Not witches exactly, but proof that

2:30 Speaker 1: curiosity about the unseen was alive and kicking.

2:34 Speaker 3: This heritage moment is brought to you by Fairytale Realty,

2:37 Speaker 3: securing affordable housing in Gingerbread neighborhoods since eighteen twelve.

2:42 Speaker 2: Twentieth century revivals WICCA, feminism, and pop culture.

2:48 Speaker 1: Enter Margaret Murray, whose nineteen twenty one book The Witch

2:51 Speaker 1: Cult in Western Europe proposed witches were survivors of a

2:56 Speaker 1: pre Christian fertility religion. Academics soon did bunked the idea,

3:01 Speaker 1: but popular imagination adored it. Mid Century civil servant turned

3:06 Speaker 1: occultist Gerald Gardner launched WICCA, blending Murray's thesis ceremonial magic

3:12 Speaker 1: and British folk customs. Gardner's followers and later branches like

3:18 Speaker 1: Alexandrian Wicca shaped witchcraft into a religion celebrating nature, seasonal sabbots,

3:26 Speaker 1: and the balance of goddess and God. By the nineteen

3:30 Speaker 1: sixties to seventies, feminist thinkers reclaimed witch as a badge

3:34 Speaker 1: of independence. Groups like the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from

3:39 Speaker 1: Hell Witch staged cheeky hexes on Wall Street and beauty

3:45 Speaker 1: pageants academic studies reframed trials as gendered violence rather than

3:50 Speaker 1: proof of dark arts. Television and film kept witches fashionable,

3:55 Speaker 1: bewitched charmed audiences. The Witches of Eastwick gave them sass.

4:00 Speaker 1: Harry Potter trained a new generation in Pop Myth's spell Work.

4:04 Speaker 3: Looking to launch your own coven? Start right with broomshare

4:08 Speaker 3: the sustainable way to commute to your midnight Sabbath.

4:12 Speaker 2: The twenty first century digital cauldrons and global covens.

4:18 Speaker 1: Today, witchcraft spans bookstores, botanicas, and social media feeds. Neo

4:23 Speaker 1: pagans gather for Solstice rituals. Appalachian granny magic blends herbs

4:28 Speaker 1: and prayer. Afro Caribbean traditions thrive in botanicas and vodoo temples. Meanwhile,

4:34 Speaker 1: TikTok's Witch Talk serves candle tutorials and moon manifests to millions.

4:39 Speaker 1: Academics explore witch trials as lenses on law and power,

4:44 Speaker 1: Heritage towns, run museums, and walking tours. For many, the

4:49 Speaker 1: witch is a symbol of resistance, ecological awareness, or creativity.

4:54 Speaker 1: For others, she remains a thrilling villain or Halloween icon.

4:59 Speaker 3: This digital spell is brought to you by Wi Fi familiar,

5:03 Speaker 3: because even your cat deserves stable Internet during moon phases.

5:08 Speaker 1: A brooms I view, and here we are. From clay

5:12 Speaker 1: tablets and courtrooms to hashtags and handcrafted brooms. Witches have

5:17 Speaker 1: been healers, scapegoats, rebels, icons, and pop culture darlings. They

5:23 Speaker 1: remind us that every society needs figures who cross boundaries,

5:27 Speaker 1: challenge rules, and stir the imagination. So dear listeners, have

5:33 Speaker 1: a wonderful Halloween. Enjoy the fun of today's version of

5:36 Speaker 1: All Saints Day, Sewen, all Hallow's Day, and All Hallows Even,

5:41 Speaker 1: or whatever you prefer to call it. And every little

5:44 Speaker 1: witch you see this October thirty first takes some time

5:47 Speaker 1: to tell her or him the history you learned here,

5:50 Speaker 1: because history is wisdom, and wisdom is a secret art

5:55 Speaker 1: of thinking, feeling, and breathing the thoughts of unity at

5:59 Speaker 1: every moment of life. If you've loved this marathon ride

6:02 Speaker 1: through history's most enchanting characters, subscribe, leave a review, and

6:07 Speaker 1: maybe light a candle for luck or just for atmosphere.

6:11 Speaker 1: Until next time, keep your herbs handy, your mind curious,

6:15 Speaker 1: and your cauldron squeaky clean.

6:18 Speaker 3: Final sponsor this entire series was unofficially powered by cauldron

6:23 Speaker 3: clean keeping history's potions residue free since well, whenever cauldrons

6:28 Speaker 3: were invented,