Anna Dressed In Blood - Modern Witches and Witchcraft in K. Blake's Fiction

“It isn’t going to work. I can’t cast the circle. I’ve never had the knack for witchcraft. Mom must’ve told you. I messed up her Beltane cookies every year until I was seven.”  ("Anna Dressed in Blood", Ch. 13, Kendare Blake)

When I stumbled upon Kendare Blake's dark horror story, I expected some kind of violent fiction, full of characters' dark thoughts and intentions.. but it appeared to be a very pleasant read for a teenager age group, and okay, for adults, like me, though I don't feel like I am a grown up woman yet.

Most interesting for me in this story was a leitmotif of witchcraft (obviously!). The author creates a world where the souls are vengeful and like to kill and a hero who kills...  those vengeful souls. The hero's mother is  a witch who helps her son named Cas in his job of murdering the awoken dead. 

Cas calls his Mum a "mobile witch" because they move from one place to another quite frequently. She makes their living by "doing tarot card readings and aura cleansing over the phone, and selling occult supplies online". There might be some irony in those words about people believing in such things, but for Cas it is pretty much a reality of his life. 

I must say that the way Blake portrayed her witches is somehow close to what I got to know about modern witches's lives through some of my blogger friends. For us, people far from the practices of witchcraft (for the time being), what they do is what they believe in, this is their life, and it is not something to be afraid of or go away in disgust. Other story characters accept the fact of having witches as their neighbours totally normal and they are even not as much amazed to see the witches performing rituals accompanied by the ignition of flames out of nowhere or a tremor of the ground and so on.
Nevertheless the story's depiction of the witches is not free from representation in popular TV series. The witches control the weather, ignite flames, get inside your mind, and can destroy. I believe that the entertainment industry of course needs spectacular scenes, breath taking adventures, extraordinary characters. This could be the reason why the witches are presented in a such an "out of this world" way.
What I like about Blake's writing is that she has that witty irony through out the narrative. You can go by the extracted lines I gave in the very beginning of this post - messing up Beltane cookies? Oh my, that could be a catastrophe! But the author makes it feel like an ordinary thing (like burning an oatmeal cake), because it is such for her characters, and there is no exaggeration of the life of a modern witch.
"Anna Dressed in Blood" contains not only witches but also warlocks, one of them is a Cas's schoolmate, another - this schoolmate's granddad, who actually passed on the witchcraft skills to his grandson. So these two and Cas's mother make a magical team who fights with a powerful soul of an obeahman. There was also a good educational moment for me personally as I never knew who that was and had to read about it in the net. For me this novel was a novelty, a fresh insight into the modern witchcraft and a nice free from judgement depiction of what witches do or what they don't. 

Modern Witch - Transportation by ilura-menday-less

P.S. I have the 3d and the last post about Gogol's horror story in my mind, though I decided to switch to another witch in this post. Pannochka is yet to come! Stay tuned, my dears.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and More.

A Ukrainian Witch in Nikolay Gogol's Short Horror Story "Viy" - Pannochka

I am sorry but you will have to go and check out my latest post about the Ukrainian witch in order to have a link to this one :) Just kidding of course. I am going to tell you what happened after the crone jumped on Homa's back and bewitched him to take her...out in the fields and forest at night! Gogol' knows how to ignite fear... 

In a state of bewitchment Homa sees the nature around him differently. He is able to perceive every single flower, feel the smell of the soil, and the Moon appears to be the Sun to him as it is so bright. Homa's senses are at  the limit, "He felt a tedious, unpleasant and at the same time sweet feeling, rising to his heart". This state of his I can compare with a great Margarita's flight scene, in which heroin's perception of the actuality becomes sharper, transforms and seems like another dimension. There are even more reminiscences with Bulgakov's writing. Like that of when Homa notices a mermaid swimming in the pond, and mermaids are one of the first creatures Margarita sees when arriving at Sabbath.

Our hero though is afraid of what is happening to him (opposite to Margarita), he starts saying some prayers or some kind of exorcism spells, when feels that the witch is no more gets tight hold of him. Homa manages to snatch a log lying on the ground and starts beating the witch for all one is worth. The witch screams, curses, but fianlly falls on the ground with words "Oh, I cannot take it anymore"", when it is already the hour of dawn. However when Homa looks at the defeated witch he sees before him... a beauty, with tousled luxuriously scythe, with long, like arrows eyelashes. Insensitively she threw the white naked hands on both sides and moaned, lifted up her eyes full of tears".

The hero, tormented by the feeling of guilt and strange anxiety, flees the place, with a desire to reach Kiev (a capital of Ukraine) and never be seen again in this spot. But another Russian writer told us, where there is a crime, there is a punishment ...
Homa reaches a nearby settlement and spends some time in drinking and thinking in a pub... when accidentally hears that the daughter of one of the richest centurions who resides on a farm just few kilometers away from Kiev, "came back home from a  walk all beaten up, had barely strength to limp his father's house, is now near death; and in the hour before death she has expressed a desire that the dirge and pray for her to be read for the next three days after the death by one of the Kiev seminarians: Homa Brut".

Pannochka (1) by nordlige-tale Deviantart

To Be Continued...

1. Pa'nnochka (Rus. панночка) diminutive from panna - unmarried young woman, unmarried daughter of a pan (meaning "gentleman"). Pan, panna and other words with the same root, are the words of Slavic languages like Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belorussian. However only Polish language seems  to have  preserved these words for usage in polite or formal communication.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and More.

Witchcraft and ... Magic

Now it's time for me to finally get back on track and continue with Witchcraft and More. I've read plenty of articles, some books about witchcraft. Somehow it became more familiar to me, I can proudly identify the witchcraft tools when they showed on TV, and can say that yes, a witch and a wiccan is not the same. However, while opening up my blog's page I actually asked myself what is the relation between witchcraft and ... magic.
First, magic is a broader concept, I hope you agree. The Macmillan on line dictionary says that magic is "the mysterious power some people believe can make impossible things happen if you do special actions or say special words called spells". That's how it is understood in modern TV shows and movies. The latest  (one of them) vampire saga  "The Vampire Diaries" pictures a witch, who uses spells and her implicit powers for performing different rituals and creating magic. Or my favorite fantasy novel Harry Potter portrayed magic in an appealing way (besides all those Lord Voldemort's dark deeds).

I was already raising same kind of issue with witchcraft and witch connotations in old time and modern life. In my search through the global network and books, I found an acknowledgement of my thought once again - the concept of witchcraft bears a negative element, while magic is treated as a fascinating phenomenon. 
I cannot agree with this as witchcraft is a part of magic, or better, one of the ways of its implementation.  As Wiki says "in non-scientific societies, perceived magical attack is an idea sometimes employed to explain personal or societal misfortune. In anthropological and historical contexts this is often termed witchcraft or sorcery, and the perceived attackers 'witches' or 'sorcerers'". 
There are such expressions like "a magic moment", "a magic touch", which we take positively, we love to say them to show that something was special and it made us happy. But imagine such word combinations (if they can exist ever) as "a witchcraft moment", "a witchcraft touch" ... one probably recollects a steaming cauldron, dark rooms and black robes. Feel the difference?
In my opinion, witchcraft is a very personal thing, judging by the blogs of the modern witches I follow. It's not something what comes easily to you. It is personal also because every witch invents her own ways of making a brew, or cleansing a house. Also witchcraft has a very big psychological impact in a way that saying of  a particular spell, or may be any written spell, tune you in a successful problem resolution for example.
Another moment I'd like to reflect on is that magic actually can be of two kinds: black and white. I  consider that here's where the confusion occurred. Association of witchcraft with black color, and dark side overall automatically linked it to black magic, and further, all the witches were considered causing only harmful things. However, there were and are such women/men in every country of the world who do such "magical" actions like herb brewing and healing with the help of words and touch. Are they doing magic? Probably, no, but they use witchcraft techniques, if there are such.
I don't know where today's thoughts led me, and whether I was able t and explain them to you, but I feel that something became more clear for me in the world of witchcraft.
Just as addition: I'm reading a very nice horror fantasy novel "Anna Dressed in Blood" by Kendare Blake, and I'm liking it! Guess, what attracted me first of all in this novel?;)
Thanks for all your comments and staying with me even if I don't post frequently. My other blog takes a lot more of my attention, but this one is dear to my heart too. Keep on writing and reading.
Yours sincerely,
Witchcraft and Literature

One Step at A Time

Manelle Oliphant Illustration, Nice Witch

I know that the Witchcraft and Literature is in a slow motion. The reason is that the object of my exploration is somehow not that easy to write about. It takes me some time to finalise what story, novel, novella will be suitable, and what I am actually going to tell about it. I choose only those books which I myself read and liked. I can't pick up any story with a witch protagonist and start explaining what's going on in it. I need to think over what stroke me in the story, what made it my favourite. In other words, I need to FEEL it. 

Some time ago I made a list of the potential material for my blog, however I am not able to find it now. I have already made some posts about witchcraft theme in the novel Master and Margarita, novella Olesya. Besides I try to get to know more about witchcraft itself and my journey has been successful so far. 

I noticed that the things, we start taking into our interest, arise here and there, make you feel that they are now a tiny bit of your life, and that you also know a little more about them than others. Same is with my expanding knowledge of witchcraft. Though I am not practising it and perhaps, never going to, my mind is able to see the res in a broader way. Whenever I happen upon a witch in a movie or a book, I can apply what  I have already learnt about this topic. There is still so much to get on to...

I can now see that witchcraft is the same part of culture as anything else is. If it appeared in our life so many centuries ago, it became our heritage too. I also got to know that mostly humans are cowardly. Yes, they are, and that's why witchcraft always was and is one of the phenomena presented as horrible, dark, devilish, evil and anti-social. We believe it to be such and we put ourselves into frames. 

When following the stories of two witches from Russian literature, Margarita and Olesya, I found that both were passionately in love and had to suffer for opportunity to be with their "simple" beloved ones. The witch = suffering? Possibly, it is because having a witchy nature means follow the path of feelings, which very often hurt us...

So I am taking one step at a time to create, learn, reflect on the topic of witchcraft in literature. 

Blessings to all my readers! Happy November!
P.S. in recent series of Vampire Diaries I heard a very good term for witch-male a "warlock"! Sorry, but for me it is a new word in my English vocabulary.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

A Magical Pathway to My Goal

I haven't been posting recently in my Witchcraft and Literature. No time and no inspiration like I used to have in the very beginning. Nevertheless I have so many ideas for this blog! They are still in the process of shaping, and I hope I can post some of them soon.

I have realized too that the topic I am exploring is much much wider and richer than I could envisage. First of all, witchcraft on its own is a very diverse and multidimensional subject, so it involves a serious preparation for any kind of research, and secondly, literature.. oh, I know it well and I don't know it at all at the same time. If just to imagine how many sources I have already read and studied and how many more are waiting for their turn! Literature doesn't assume only what is written by famous writers in their famous books, literature is a treasury of human thoughts, feelings and beliefs too, what expands it till folklore, myths and other forms of self expression, unwritten sources as well.
My head is full of ideas, which are like flying smoke or movement of air. It makes me feel sometimes that I might lose them, omit them and never get again. So in order not to let it happen I am going to continue my way towards cryptic witchcraft in not less cryptic world literature.
The result will depend on which pathway I am taking. It can be fairy tale-like, sunny and seen far:

fairy magical pathway

It can be hidden among the trees and I will discover many unknown things on the way:

enigmatic magical pathway

Or I will always be seeing the light somewhere there, so close and so far, which will be guiding me:

light magical pathway

However any path you choose gives a lot to your personality  development, enriches your mind. I am not afraid now and can go bravely along one of them... or many :)

P.S. Links to the images are given in the captions to the pictures.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

In Need of Witchcraft

   I was wondering why did we need witchcraft anyway? When did it appear and who was the first witch and wizard?

   Whatever was invented by humanity during its history was not a coincidence. We invented things because we needed them, in different way. We invented "house", because we needed shelter, same as in the beginning of human era we invented "witchcraft", because we needed help.

   I suppose that first magic appeared when some lonely, hopeless homo sapiens  tried to call the powers of nature to help him (or her). May be he/she tried to do some kind of ritual attracting attention of those first demons to the problem. Obviously, that the first belief of people was nature and it's elements: fire, water, air and earth. So this is what the first human tried to take help from, we can't know if successfully or not, but the first attempt of witchcraft was done.

    The next interesting question, who was the first witch or wizard. Till the time the humanity didn't get any writing system, any kind of such information couldn't be fixed in the written form. But , yes, it could be fixed in an oral form, and may be those folk tales I was talking about in the previous post were of that far origin.

  First witch and wizard... hmmm... who were they, where did they live? According to the article I have found in the internet "witchcraft originated some 30000 years ago in the Palaeolithic period". 

     As I had said we can judge by only written sources of ancient times, like Greek and Egypt myths for example. One name I found in the internet is Lilith, how could I forget about her? Yes, Lilith, 700 BC in one of the versions, the belief in her was related to witchcraft!  I think this is old enough information about the first witch. She has an anthropomorphic figure, means animal and human features, what is pretty scary. This is said to be not Lilith in the picture below, but she could look like this:

supposedly Lilith

     In fact, I found various points of view on the origin of the myth about Lilith. She supposedly has a Hebrew or Mesopotamian "roots".  At the same time she can be considered as a Goddess too and later on, a feminist symbol of independence. Anyway, the common features of this creature are negative: demonic, harmful, dangerous. This is what witch always was supposed to represent and what must have laid into the base of the further perception of the witch by society.

  Now I  have thought suddenly why is witchcraft related to witches, females? We have wizards too and I would like to find them around, Dumbledore for example, but it's later about him. Well, the wizard now. The first one who came into my mind is the wizard Merlin. He could look like this.

Merlin - could look like this

  So very well known and so much popularized nowadays in different serials and films about the King Arthur. Unfortunately I can't consider him as a first one and somehow I wasn't able to find any proper info in the internet about the first wizards! It makes me think that magic is more safe in women's hands :)

  This really is incredible how much new I discovered for myself while doing this post! I am glad to have started this witchy research. I have tried to find out the source element of our belief in magic. We definitely needed it at some point of time, and we got it!

  Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

Why I like the topic of witchcraft

    This is not a question, this is a try to explain myself why I like to read about magical stuff or watch it. Well, as far as I remember, I was fond of such things since childhood. Thanks to my Mum, who was always interested, on a hobby level, in astrology, stones properties, chiromancy and so on. It was not that she especially presented all her interests to me, but I am myself used to pick up some book on these topics and read it. It was all curiosity of course. Why not? This is indeed interesting and deserves our attention.

    I don't specifically like a witchcraft or all this black magic things or especially to do it (no way), but as soon as it exists  in our world and it is something what we can't explain yet - it becomes an object of our observation and even research.

    As soon as I am a philologist, I have a special interest in witchcraft. How many of the writers and poets  made magic and wizardry as part of their works! I can't leave the fact that this theme can also inspire to create. You can see different dimensions of it's presentation in the literature, however some books can be called "magical", if you take an example of Harry Potter, the latest top book (hence, movie) about the world of witches and wizards.

   In the next posts I would like to explore the witchcraft, and everything related to it, from the point of view of the literature. All the best to me and hope to realize my witch explorer potential!

Yours Sincerely,
Witchcraft and Literature