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Many witches started their exploration of magic by watching pop-culture films, buying spell books, and attempting to lift each other into the air at sleepovers. The extraordinary felt a little closer to the possible. In recent years the term 'baby witches' has blown up on WitchTok… yes, that's a TikTok space for all things Witch! As teens, we find power and control in rebellion; in many cases, the rebellion gets torn away, but the need for control remains with us. Throughout the series, we explore the magical ways we all, witch or not, try to gain control, and the rebellious ways witches show up for themselves and each other.

But just because many witches find their love for magic in their teens, it doesn't mean it dies out with age. Unfortunately, as a society, we have been fed a damaging idea of older witches: they have been portrayed as malevolent wart-nosed hags. The history of the witch has laid a clear path for how we view women, and the terms "witch" and "hag" are still used as insults in present-day media.

Witches of all ages have come forward to share their love and dedication to their craft and through them, we can see how older witches' identities have been stolen from them, and molded into society's negative views of women who don't conform. In episode 8, writer of 'Hagitude' Sharon Blackie says, "That sense of powerful elder women really is what defines a hag to me.. living outside of patriarchal expectations. Elder witches aren't defined by anybody or anything else."

A witch's identity often pushes back against society's expectations, and it seems that this is one of the reasons that they are seen as a threat. Social attitudes towards older women are just one part of that.

Nature and the witch seem to be inseparable - nature is the witch's church. It is a sanctuary to be respected, honoured, and protected. Animist witches believe everything in the natural world has a spirit or a soul: plants, rocks, thunderstorms. They interact with all things, including us.

But animist or not, if we pay attention to the tiny details of our world, it is way more alive than we might think, and impacting us all the time. Scientists like Lucy Jones have done incredible work showing how the chemicals emitted by the trees affect our bodies, or how the fractal shapes that abound in nature have particular interactions with parts of the brain associated with calmness and relaxation.

However, it is not always calm in the countryside. How did a witch become the face and voice of land rights? The Right to Roam campaign argues for a return to the old custom where anyone can wander in open countryside, whoever owns the land. According to the campaign, 92% of English land is currently off-limits. In episode 4, we hear about the witch Esme Boggart who represents a collective opposing a section 21 no-fault eviction notice, "We are Esme Boggart. Our community is too valuable to us to be torn apart by a faceless corporation of absentee owners. So today, we are standing up to assert our right to belong in this land that we call home."

A group ritual isn't unique to the witch. Just take a look at any religion, and then there are baby showers, stag dos, football chants, and dinner party speeches. Rituals are everywhere in our lives. Witches ritualise all the time by celebrating the 8 sabbats in the wheel of the year, working with the moon cycles, communing with the dead, and facilitating initiations.

Rituals and spells can be a combination of many things. Some believe it's shifting energy, and others see them as a sort of placebo.

Dimitris Xygalatas, a professor of anthropology and cognitive science, says "Witchcraft is very intuitive, because it's based on practice. Rather than appealing to a higher power, or endorsing beliefs about some greater sense of purpose that you can do nothing about. It's very soothing to have the sense that you can actually intervene and gain control by uttering a spell."

Rituals and spells can be a combination of many things. Some believe it's shifting energy, and others see them as a sort of placebo, the effect is in the experience of the spellcaster.

Either way, if the wish is working, as Professor Kathryn Hall says in episode 5, why not embrace it?

Community

Being a witch means collaboration and advocacy with nature, so even when practicing independently, the witch's work isn't actually a solo experience. But as well as a solitary practice, many witches join forces. Some name it a coven, others a sisterhood, and there are also chosen families.

There are groups coming together to learn self-defense, as we hear from the Shadow Sistxrs' Bone Tan Jones. There are campaigns to rectify the records of the past, such as the Witches of Scotland campaign to pardon all those tried and convicted of witchcraft in Scotland, and there are protests fighting against the very real discrimination and archaic policies that shape our existence today.

Many witches believe it's important to look back in order to be intentional in the present and build new narratives moving forward. It's only by understanding where we've been that we can change where we're going.

As we will it, so mote it be.

Listen to the entire series of Witch from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4 on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds here