Posts tagged “witches”

  1. Because, let's be honest, while I am totally into Stevie Nicks and candles and The Craft and whatever, it is enormously safe for me to do so, and I prioritize my physical safety and comfort over absolutely everything, and if there was even a chance that someday I could face social or legal repercussions for my vague, shallow interest in "witch shit," I would throw Stevie Nicks in a river.

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  2. When I first got the book I imagined it was filled with elixirs and tonics, whether natural remedies for illnesses or potions to make all your wishes come true. When I opened it, I saw a recipe for “Gypsy Casserole."

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  3. “The Devil’s Mark”

    Claire and Geillis are tossed into a deep, dank, dark place called a Thieves Hole and locked in. The women instantly begin accusing one another of terrible things but it’s understandable; their circumstances are dire. Geillis admits she murdered Arthur so she could be with her One Twu Luv. A guard throws down some bread that looks very suspect and Claire tries to pull a “Do you know who I am?” The

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  4. “By the Pricking of My Thumbs”

    For once we don’t have to wait for sexy times because the episode opens with Claire, naked in bed, gasping and moaning as she is orally pleasured by Jamie. She seems to be really enjoying herself and Jamie seems to know what he’s doing down there. Then, of course, there is a knock t the door but they ignore it because once in a while, we ARE allowed to

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  5. Friend of the Toast (and of self) Sara Cantor just got back from a weeklong vacation in Iceland, and, as is my custom, I engaged her in conversation about her trip. SELF: Sara! How was Iceland? SARA: Look at this: SELF: WHAT is THAT…

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  6. The first question could be an easy or hard one: why witches? You’ve written novels about witches several times before, including The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which takes place partially during the Salem witch trials. What draws you back to witches again and again?

    Part of it has to do with personal context. I started writing Dane while in graduate school for American Studies. I was living in Marblehead,

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  7. Previously in this series: Deep Space Nine. What is it, exactly, about modern witchcraft that screams "ambient lesbianism"? Candles are not inherently lesbian (although they are beloved by dykes and bi women the world over); ditto long, flowing skirts and scarves and essential oils and wearing multiple chunky silver rings. The whole is gayer than the sum of the parts. It has something to do, I think, with the mainstream co-opting of a…

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  8. A few years ago, when my brother's girlfriend was pregnant, my mom called to tell me that nearly the entire carton of eggs in the fridge had double yolks inside.

    OK?

    “It means your brother is going to have twins.” (Obviously.) That idea popped into her head with the first egg, but she kept going. Two yellow yolks plopped out of several eggs. 

    People were obligated to

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  9. They say a witch lives over on Elm, right on the corner in an old house that's sort of fallen down between two towering oak trees. They say her lawn's green and lush because of deals she's made with the chattering squirrels that bound along its expanse with no fear of the blackbirds perched on her home's roof. They say the rhododendron bushes flanking the house's front steps will laugh and twitch and watch if…

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  10. Liz Labacz's previous work for The Toast can be found here. “Sr. Mary Joan would like to see you in her office.” I was not a person who got called to the Disciplinarian office. Not to say I had never gotten up to any mischief, but I almost never got caught and had not, to my memory, actually done anything noteworthy recently. When I arrived, she asked me to sit. Sister and I knew…

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  11. This post was brought to you by A Misandrist. In fifth grade, my class studied the Salem Witch Trials as part of the social studies curriculum. This was a terrible thing to teach in middle school in the early 2000s, just as Sabrina was losing its cool and before Rookie’s articles about witchy style icons and Tumblr covens would make being a witch admirable, even aspirational. Witches weren’t empowered femmes with sweet magic powers…

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  12. The wind is howling on Pendle Hill on Halloween. It lies in Northern England, and has been described to me as a seductive hill with a macabre, dark past. My friend Rachel and I are climbing the hill – it’s only 4pm, but the sun sets in less than hour. We can see the small villages of Sabden, Colne and Roughlee below us, but we’re far above them now and the hill is deserted except for a pair of…

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  13. The kind of magic I find myself closest to believing in, particularly on windy days, is the magic of Merricat Blackwood and concealed objects. You remember the magic of concealed objects, don't you? All our land was enriched with my treasures buried in it, thickly inhabited just below the surface with my marbles and my teeth and my colored stones, all perhaps turned to jewels by now, held together under the ground in a…

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  14. A small, white room, with a merry, crackling fire in the center. The fire appears to rest upon nothing in particular, while consuming only itself. There are two empty chairs: one is silver, and one is white. Next to the silver chair is a small mandolin. Although there is no door, a WOMAN enters the room. She is seven feet tall, covered in robes and pelts of a thousand different shades, with hot eyes and…

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  15. Kitchen witches "A "kitchen witch" may also refer to a human figurine placed in kitchens for good luck. These dolls are made from materials such as fabric, corn husks, and dried fruits and may be in the form of a witch riding a broom. Such dolls traditionally protect residents and visitors to the home and also guard against cooking failures in the kitchen." "Good Walker" Witches  "The Benandanti claimed to travel out of their bodies…

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