Recently, while reorganizing my licensed fiction collection, I happened upon a certain Indiana Jones novel. Written by Martin Caidin, Indiana Jones and the White Witch is an interesting entry in the Indy canon; the novels by and large deal in conspiracy theories and world myths (Hollow Earth, unicorns, the location of Noah’s Ark) made plausible by application of Science and Manly Skepticism, but The White Witch features the very real religion of Wicca.
“It is argued that a firm belief in witches is not a Catholic doctrine,” begins Heinrich Kramer in the Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witch Hammer. This defensive crouch reflects the fact that his contemporaries were hardly 100% sold on his vision of witchcraft in the world. (I say Kramer, although the book is attributed to two men, as scholars generally seem to agree that his was the driving creative force). Kramer's is the hand behind “[this]…
Any woman who has made more money than her father for a two-month period or longer, is a witch. Any woman who has seen at least one full season of Gilmore Girls, is a witch. Any woman who owns a wristwatch or is taller than a man, is a witch. Any woman who was born during a storm or has laid eyes on Erykah Badu, is a witch. Strangely enough, Kate Bush is not a…
