Witches
Words and handkerchief by Leah Moore
Witches are heroes of sex. Already warned about in the Bible, they really took hold as public enemy number one in the mid-1400s where hundreds of women were killed, often confessing under excruciating torture. Witches became a catchall scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the Middle Ages. If your husband caught a nasty disease, he was likely cursed by a witch, or she gave it to him herself. If your milk went sour or your horse went lame, the local wise woman probably put a hex on you. Believed to have animal ‘familiars’ that they suckled on a third nipple known as ‘The Devil’s Teat’, witches were believed to shapeshift and spy on people or escape in the form of a hare or a toad.
Any woman could be a witch. If she looked at you funny, or disagreed with you, or didn’t do what you wanted, you could call her a witch and have her burned or drowned, or hung on the village green. In reality, the women who made ointments from herbs were the closest thing you had to a chemist, a doctor, a midwife or a counsellor, and would certainly have prepared treatments for any mysterious rash or wound, as well as advising women through a pregnancy, or indeed the termination of one.
Witchcraft is on the rise again today, with many seeing folk magic and cunning ways as part of a lost wisdom, a vault of knowledge more in tune with nature and the seasons, with remedies that can be manufactured right on your kitchen table.
This artwork is part of The Wall of Sexual Heroes, a collaborative textile art piece featured in our previous exhibitions at the Horse Hospital (2022) and Bow Arts Lab (2023). All embroidered, printed and appliquėd handkerchiefs celebrate unsung heroes of sexual emancipation, activism and innovation.
The Wall is an organic work. If you would like to contribute, please get in touch with The Keeper.
