WITCHES-A Moon-Wise Study in Hagography  

THE CREW

Scene Summary:

Act I:  Merry Meet…The Creation Dance, The Casting of the Circle, the Paranoid Preacher, Shakespeare’s Witches, The Dance of the Horned God, Sound-Off, The Auction

Act II:  The Burning Time, GrayMalkin and PyeWacket, The Trial, The Echoes of History, Magick and the Mysteries of the Spiral Dance, Merry Part.

The Following Definitions are taken from Webster’s’ first new intergalactic wickedary, written by Mary Daly, 1987. 

Being: Ultimate reality, the constantly unfolding verb of verbs which is intransitive, having no object that limits its dynamism; The final cause, The good who is self-communicating, who is the verb from whom, in whom, and with whom all true movements move

Burning Times, The:  A crone-Logical expression that refers not only to the period of the European witchcraze (the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries) but to the perpetual and worldwide witchcraze perpetrated by patriarchy

Goddess The Verb: Metaphor for ultimate/intimate reality, the constantly unfolding of verbs in which all beings participates.

Memory:  The power to remember; the power to transcend the categories of tidy time, to connect with the sources of instinctive, ecstatic knowledge.

Patriarchy:  Society characterized by oppression, repression, depression, narcissism, cruelty, racism, classism, ageism, objectification, sadomasochism, necrophilia; Joyless society, ruled by God Father, Son, and company; society in which every legitimated institution is entirely in the hands of males and a few selected henchwomen.

Rapism:  The fundamental ideology and practice of patriarchy, characterized by invasion, violation, degradation, objectification, and destruction of women and nature; the fundamental paradigm of racism, classism, and all other oppressive-isms.

Re-Membering:  Re-calling the original intuition of integrity; Healing the dismembered self – The Goddess within; Re-calling the primordial connections/conversations among women, animals, and other elemental beings.

 Banshee: A woman of fairyland who foretells death, comforting and welcoming those whom she loves, portending doom to those who have been evil doers: A woman who participates in the power of the Banshee, encouraging lusty women on the other world journey and pronouncing the doom of Patriarchy.

Crone: Great hag of history, Long-Lasting one; Survivor of the perpetual witchcraze of patriarchy whose status is determined not merely by chronological age, but by Crone-Logical considerations; one who has discovered the depths of courage, strength, and wisdom in her self.

Hag:  A witch, fury, harpy who haunts the hedges/boundaries of patriarchy frightening fools and summoning weird wandering women into the wild

Witch:  An elemental soothsayer; one who is in harmony with the rhythms of the universe: Wise woman, healer; one who exercises transformative powers; shape-shifter; one who wields labrys powers of aversion and attraction

New Time: Time on the boundary of patriarchal time; women’s life-time; time in which the past is changed and archaic futures are realized

Hagography:  The history of women who are on the journey of radical be-ing; the lives of witches, of great hags (Past and present), which are deeply intertwined; history uncovered and created by women as we live/write our own stories.

Moon-Wise: In tune with lunar rhythms; touched by the moon.

Spell: A spoken, sung, or written word or set of words known by crones to have be-speaking power; charm, incantation; any archimagical thought, glance, or gesture.

Muse:  The guiding genius/demon of a musing woman; a woman in touch with her creative spirit, her self.

Pagan:  Country-Dweller; a Background dweller; heathen, wholly heretical hag

Sources and Inspiration

Starhawk, Esther Harding, Marian Woodman, Lois Bourne, Diane Stein, Cybil Leek, Joseph Campbell, Merlin Stone, Erica Jong (Inspired Set Illustrations), Lib Spry, Lea Schaetzel, Women of power magazine, Mary Daly, Alice Walker, Halo magazine, Bill Shakespeare, The Holy Bible, Elizabeth Dodson Gray, Pam Wright, Demetra George, Kathryn Theatana, Margot Adler, Patricia Reis, The moon, She whose name cannot be spoken