3- W.I.T.C.H. Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell.
3- W.I.T.C.H. Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell.
“If you are a woman and dare to look within yourself, you are a witch.”
In New York City on Halloween of 1968, an offshoot of the New York Radical Women group founded W.I.T.C.H. At the time, there was a division in the women’s liberation movement between those who felt that women’s liberation should be achieved through fighting only the patriarchy, and those who saw liberation couched firmly alongside of other social justice causes. A group of the latter who felt that increasing the scope of activism to include fighting for all forms of civil rights, anti-war causes, and anti-capitalist movements went on to create W.I.T.C.H.
While originally an acronym for Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, various local groups altered the acronym to suit the specific needs or causes they were fighting for (Women Indentured to Traveler's Corporate Hell, Women Inspired to Tell their Collective History, Women Interested in Toppling Consumer Holidays, etc.). W.I.T.C.H. adopted guerrilla theatrical tactics, most notably dressing up in full witch attire to grab attention and raise awareness for their various causes. By taking directly to the streets in a loud and captivating way, W.I.T.C.H. hoped to bring the fight for justice to the doorsteps of the patriarchy.
The group was highly controversial in its time, even amongst other subgroups within feminism. Many criticized their shock and awe tactics, and took issue with them having a kind of purity gauge for total liberation. W.I.T.C.H. groups were quickly established across the country, and made various public protests to raise awareness for a spectrum of causes. The first protest by W.I.T.C.H. was a march down Wall Street to curse the financial district, aligning the movement with anti-capitalist and socialist causes. Other notable protests include a 1969 protest of a bridal convention at Madison Square Garden, and Inauguration protests of Richard Nixon.
W.I.T.C.H. reclaimed the image of a witch for a tool of liberation. Seeing it as an amalgamated archetype representing various forms of oppression, the figure became a political device used in hopes of elevating all social causes. While not all members had a religious or spiritual understanding of witchcraft, focusing instead on the political nature of the organization, W.I.T.C.H. nevertheless did promote an understanding of the history of witchcraft and the history of women’s oppression. The two being firmly aligned, W.I.T.C.H. upheld the witch-cult hypothesis of Murray (#91). W.I.T.C.H. in many ways set the tone for various forms of modern Witchcraft and Paganism, in its activism and feminism, and contributed directly to the early philosophy of Dianic Wicca.
While W.I.T.C.H. was considered on the fringe of the greater women’s liberation movement at the time, the past several decades have seen it’s central philosophy become more mainstream. In 2016, W.I.T.C.H. was reborn in Portland, Oregon in response to the growing injustices and visibility of systemic oppression. Now with an limitless acronym and a replacement of Terrorist for Troublemaker, W.I.T.C.H. continues the purpose of its predecessor. As the original W.I.T.C.H. did for Nixon, the modern covens of W.I.T.C.H.es protest Trump, in classic full black regalia. Bringing back the original theatrical nature of the group, modern W.I.T.C.H. similarly employs shock tactics to raise awareness for various issues, most notably immigration.
The contemporary incarnation of the group was brought to media attention by the Portland and Boston covens, however, W.I.T.C.H. protests have been occurring across the country. With stark black and white signs, pointed hats, and covered faces, modern W.I.T.C.H. follows it’s predecessors in aligning itself firmly with various groups, such as Black Lives Matter. Channeling the power of the archetype of the witch from centuries of oppression, W.I.T.C.H. uses the iconography as a catalyst for greater social change.
I find this organization, and its periodic resurgence, utterly fascinating. The figure of a witch is always in the depths of the human mind, resurfacing in moments of great societal fear and hysteria. I find W.I.T.C.H.’s reclaiming of this archetype, repurposing it to fight for social change, to be highly representative of the history of witchcraft. Instead of the witch resurfacing as an arbiter of darkness, she now appears as a symbol for change and freedom.
“Feminist Witches have stated that Witchcraft is not incompatible with politics, and further that the Craft is a religion historically conceived in rebellion and can therefore be true to its nature only when it continues its ancient fight against oppression.” - Margot Adler (#84), 1979.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_International_Terrorist_Conspiracy_from_Hell
http://witchpdx.com https://www.witchboston.org/about/
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/43gd8p/wicked-witch-60s-feminist-protestors-hexed-patriarchy
https://www.topic.com/witches-brew