12 Quotes About the Magical World of Witches
Witches have been a part of human culture for as long as anyone can remember — and they haven’t disappeared. In Peru, brujas still offer up spells and potions; in the Philippines, aswangs claim to use sorcery to cure disease; and in the Western world, people still practice the modern Pagan religion of Wicca, initially known as witchcraft — although no Wiccan has managed to fly on a broomstick, as far as we know.
In many parts of the world, the classic image of a witch is a woman in black (sometimes green-skinned) with a pointed hat whose intentions tend to be nefarious. Various theories exist as to why exactly this portrayal emerged.
Shakespeare’s Three Witches in Macbeth were certainly up to no good with their “Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble,” but they wouldn’t have looked like the stereotypical witches we now see on Halloween. That image, of broomsticks and cackling laughter, owes much to L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its film adaptation in 1939, which both feature the iconic Wicked Witch of the West.
At the same time, The Wizard of Oz introduced us to Glinda the Good Witch, who showed us that not all witches are bad. (For other benevolent pop cultural witches, consider Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, the beloved trio from 1993’s Hocus Pocus,Harry Potter’s Hermione Granger, and many others.) This is reassuring, because, as Roald Dahl tells us in his classic children’s novel The Witches, “For all you know, a witch may be living next door to you right now.”
In honor of these enchanting figures, here are 13 quotes about the lighter, mystical side of witchcraft.
