Friday Five: Famous Witches, Past & Present

Alan Ball has tagged season 4 of True Blood as “the season of the witch”.  In this week’s Friday Five, The Televixen herself, Melissa, did some homework on the five most famous witches from the past and present day. You may recognize one name from the Sookie Stackhouse books.  😉

Famous Witches, Past & Present

In Season 3 of True Blood, we were introduced to Jesus, the very *ahem* hunky nurse to Lafayette’s mother, Ruby Jean. Jesus not only became a love interest for Lafayette, he was also the catalyst for Lafayette discovering that he’s from a line of witches – as is Jesus – some of which practiced black magic.

As many Truebies know, the witches are coming in Season 4 and are going to be playing a pivotal role, which leads me to this edition of the Friday Five, in which I’ll be sharing with you five famous witches from our past and present. You may find that some of these people weren’t in fact “witches”, although some were thought to possess certain special gifts.

Rebecca Towne Nurse (1621 – 1692) was a 71-year-old mother and grandmother executed during the Salem Witch Trials. She was a respected member of the community and there was no solid evidence against her. Nurse was accused following a land dispute with the Putnam family – young Ann Putnam and her siblings would go into fits around her and the other accused women. Nurse was found not guilty, but the verdict was reconsidered and she was convicted when another prisoner said she was “one of them” … Nurse didn’t refute the accusation because she likely didn’t hear it (she suffered hearing loss). She was hanged July 19, 1692. Ann Putnam later admitted to accusing innocent people, and Nurse’s family was compensated for her wrongful death. You can actually visit the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers, Massachusetts and learn more about her and the Salem Witch Trials.

Helen Duncan (1897 – 1956) was a Scottish housewife and mother that was also a well-known and proven psychic that was accused of being a witch. As a medium, Duncan would perform séances in which she’d summon spirits of the recently deceased by emitting “ectoplasm” from her mouth that would then take form. When she started predicting activities during WWII, she was convicted under Britain’s Witchcraft Act of 1735 and imprisoned for 9 months. The English government feared she’d reveal highly classified information about the war, particularly D-Day. Apparently, Winston Churchill visited her in prison at one point. She was the last person in England to be jailed under this act. In her lifetime, she was also charged with fraud and larceny, and accused of being a spy. Her family asserts that she was not a “witch”, and continues to seek a pardon to clear her name.

Marie Laveau I (1794 – 1881) & Marie Laveau II (1827 – 1895) were a mother and daughter that both held the title of “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans”. It’s difficult to discern what is fact and fiction, but legend says that Marie I was a hairdresser who catered to wealthy white families from whom she received insider information, used to fix elections or force favors. Laveau combined voodoo ritual with African spirits and Catholicism (particularly saints and symbols). There are tales of bloody rituals with her snake, Zombi. It is likely a fact that Marie I worked as a nurse and a femme traiteur (spiritual healer), and might have been a one time liquor importer. Marie II succeeded her, and was rumoured to be an entertainer, inviting large groups of people to observe her rituals. Marie Laveau’s grave in New Orleans continues to attract visitors, and both Maries are thought to haunt New Orleans to this day.

Gerald Gardner (1884 – 1964) is best known as the “Father of Modern Wicca”. When he retired at age 52, he became seriously interested in the occult, around the time that he settled in the New Forest area of Hampshire, England, known as a hub for witchcraft. Here, he met a secret order of mystics, The Rosicrucians, and began producing plays with them that had occult themes. Through them, he met the New Forest Coven, who practiced traditional English witchcraft, believed to be a continuation of European paganism. Gardner wrote several books, and once the last witchcraft laws were repealed in England in 1951, he broke from the New Forest Coven and founded his own, which placed an emphasis on goddess worship. He also began speaking publicly about witchcraft, which many practitioners frowned upon because Gardner was divulging secrets that could harm the craft. He initiated some of the most influential Wiccans into his coven, but there later was a rift in the coven, mainly because of his preference for ritual nudity.

Zsuzsanna Budapest (1940 – present) comes from a long line of healers that dates back to the 1200s. Her mother was a medium and a practicing witch in her native Hungary. Budapest moved to the US and became a member of the Women’s Liberation Movement, where she founded the first feminist coven after seeing that a spiritual dimension was missing. Her coven is focused on Dianic Wicca and goddess studies, and is exclusive to women only. Ceremonies range from recreations of old European rituals to calling upon the Goddess to help capture serial killers and rapists. Budapest is a psychic, author, playwright, TV personality, lecturer and director of a not for profit organization in San Francisco. She is also founder of the Dianic University Online.

This is only a sampling of famous witches, both from our history books and currently living and practicing today, but I encourage you read more on the subject if you find it as fascinating as I do! It might give some insight into the new characters joining the True-niverse in Season 4 and get us ready for what I’m dubbing “The Season of the Witch”.

You can visit The Televixen on her website at theTelevixen.com, and be sure to follow her on Twitter .