November 5, 2025 • 50 mins
Join Madame Strangeways for this true scary paranormal story by Good_Composer_8409 about three women in black seen waiting, perhaps lurking, outside her Grandma's house in the Greek village she lives in. Are they witches? Do they mean harm? We may never know!
As always, stick around after the story for spooky folklore and spooky history about the birth of witches and witchcraft in ancient Greece.
Follow the podcast to hear more true scary ghost stories and strange stories of the unexplained.
Thank you to Good_Composer_8409 for granting permission to read their story from Reddit. Remember, Strangers & Strangelings & Strangecetera: you can feel afraid and not be in danger.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
But she's also the goddess of crossroads, night, light, magic,
drugs, the moon, AKA the most badass goddess.
Welcome stranger, to Madam Strange Ways, where I, Madam
(00:24):
Strange Ways, narrate your true strange stories of the
unexplained. But stick around after the story
where I share my strange thoughts and observations for
believers and skeptics alike, and I will drag you down a slew
of strange rabbit holes along the way, kicking and screaming
if needs must. But before we get to today's
(00:46):
true strange story, the strangest of shout outs to my
Patreon patrons TJ Hotter of theTapes of Trepidation podcast, G
Man Music, Ted, Keith and Tori, thank you so much to my Feral
Fiendish 5 for supporting the show.
Do you want to hear your name atthe beginning of every episode?
Maybe you'd fancy a free stickeror some bonus content?
(01:09):
Join the Patreon today at patreon.com/madam.
Strange. Ways.
Oh, did you hear that? I think it's about to rain
hellcats and hell hounds outside, so you know what that
means. On to our true strange story
here on Madam Strange Ways. Three Women in Black by Good
(01:53):
Composer, 8409. I grew up in a Greek village
where there are a lot of old stories about certain women.
I don't even know what to call them in English.
In the local folklore, they're women who wear black and can
harm people, take someone's eyesight, steal their voice,
(02:14):
even push them off cliffs. A local man said that they
caused him to have a heart attack and they later found him
under an olive tree dead. As a kid, these stories always
sounded like fairy tales until something happened to me.
I was about 13 and my sister was14.
(02:37):
It was summer and we were out late with our parents.
Around 3:00 AM we decided to head home by ourselves and
instead of taking the Main Street, we took a short side Rd.
that passed by our grandmother'shouse.
In Greek villages during summer,women often sit outside in the
afternoons and evenings chatting, and some bring small
(02:59):
chairs that they leave in place so they don't have to carry them
back and forth every day, so we were used to seeing chairs
outside. As we came around the corner and
approached our Graham's house, we saw three women dressed
entirely in black, wearing kerchiefs, sitting in those
small chairs right outside our grandmother's home.
(03:23):
They were completely still. Not talking, not moving, just
sitting there like they were waiting for something.
At that hour, it was impossible for them to be our neighbors.
The moment we saw them, we both had the same gut feeling.
(03:44):
This isn't right. We didn't approach them, we just
turned around and went back to the Main St. as quickly as we
could. Even now I get chills thinking
about it. We knew deep down that those
weren't just normal women sitting there.
(04:05):
The next day we mentioned this to our grandmother and she
believed us and told us 20 yearsbefore, maybe more, she had seen
three women wearing black comingout of the summer cinema walking
up a road while she was in the balcony late at night checking
if her husband was coming home. She immediately went inside,
(04:28):
locked the door and put some incense to burn.
Good composer 30 Nope, 84 O 9. Good composer 84 O 9.
(04:48):
Thank you so much for allowing me to read your story on the
show. I so appreciate you.
As soon as I read this story, I was so excited to ask for
permission to read it because not only is it about, let's say,
which adjacent people, but also it's Greek.
Which adjacent? Are you kidding me?
(05:10):
I was so excited I immediately sent the DM like fingers
crossed, please, please, please.Because if you don't know,
hello, welcome, hello. Whether or not you are new or a
regular listener, welcome, So happy to have you.
But if you don't know, a little peek behind the curtain.
I message or DM every single person whose story that I find
(05:32):
on Reddit that I want to read onthe story or whose story I want
to read on the episode. I should say, and I would say a
good 30% just never respond. Probably.
That's probably being conservative.
Maybe half don't respond at. All.
So I was so excited when good composer responded to me and
(05:55):
said yes, absolutely you can read my story.
Yay that made my day. So thank you so much for
permission to read it. This is just so interesting
because when you look at when you look at the story on its
face, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't sound that scary.
Oh, you saw three ladies sittingin chairs that are for sitting.
But it's not just that you have to understand the background
(06:18):
and, and the culture that you'vebeen raised in and what you've
been told as a, as a kid growingup.
And you know, you have to factorall that into it.
And of course, I will always say, regardless of any of that
stuff is if something that wouldbe normal in the daytime is
happening at night, it's automatically scary.
It's automatically scary door knocking, someone knocking on
(06:40):
your door or ringing your doorbell at 3:00 AM, terrifying.
Who's out there? Get out, go shoot.
What are you doing out there? You know what I mean?
If someone was out on their front lawn, like watering the
grass at 3:00 AM, that would be weird.
So I can completely understand why seeing three women dressed
(07:01):
in black, who you would perceiveto be something.
Close to a witch that can give people heart attacks.
Yeah, I. Don't want.
No, it's good. Why don't you guys go inside?
You don't need to be out here, you know, I know we're out here,
but you don't need to be out there.
It's kind of like when you're driving around on a work day,
during the nine to five hours, you're driving around and you're
(07:22):
like, why are all these people here?
Why aren't they at work? But you're also there, so why
aren't you at work? I guess it's kind of like that,
but so scary. And not because anything in
particularly paranormal had to happen, you know, but very,
very, very spooky. On the other hand, was it just
three goth girls? I basically wear all black all
(07:46):
year long, so maybe I've scared somebody.
Although there's not 3 of me that would scare me if there
were three of me. No, thank you.
But wait, going back to the gothladies, because like, if it's
just three goth girls and they're wearing like really
painful heels or those like really cool stompy boots, I
mean, their feet hurt. They need to sit down.
I mean, maybe there was a StevieNicks sort of concert in the
(08:09):
area. Have we ever thought of that?
Or perhaps techies from a theater show?
From a play? So there's my attempt at a
mundane or naturalistic explanation for why these three
women were sitting there in chairs outside of Good
Composer's grandma's house. But we are far from done.
If you cannot tell already from where we are on the status bar
(08:30):
of your podcast player, we are far from done.
But also, before I get started, if you are interested in the
history and all the cultural ramifications and etcetera of
witches in general, I highly recommend the podcast series
called Witches. It's by BBC Four or BBC Sounds,
(08:50):
however they market themselves in the US.
Very, very, very, very interesting.
I cannot recommend it enough, but here we go.
We're going to jump back to the three women that good composer
encountered. What good composer described
these women as capable of, of doing being, you know, giving
against giving someone a heart attack or causing blindness or,
(09:13):
you know, etcetera. Honestly, I it would it would be
remiss of me to not immediately jump in to discuss the evil eye.
So the evil eye, especially in Greek culture, is a supernatural
belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually
inspired by envy, but not always.
I'll get to that in just a second.
(09:34):
Amulets to protect against the evil eye have been found dating
back to around 5000 years ago. That is a very.
Long time ago. I think that's like back when
the first Great Pyramids were. Being built.
Let's check. OK, Google.
When were the first pyramids built in Egypt?
According to Smithsonian Institution, around 2780 BCE.
(09:58):
King Joser's architect. OK, OK.
We don't need all that. We don't need all that.
We just need the year. What did she say?
I wasn't listening. 27 something.
That's 2780. Come on.
That's pretty close to, you know, about 3000 BC that's
pretty close. Pretty good, pretty good.
All right, So that's a very longtime for us to be using evil eye
ambulance. I mean, even to this day, as
(10:20):
recently as 2018 at least according to
keeptalkinggreece.com, 60% of modern Greeks believe that
prayers against the evil eye cure headaches.
So not just prayers, but also another procedure that simply
casts the evil eye away is just salt.
You just throw a handful of saltinto a glass of water, stir it
(10:42):
well while saying the prayer, and in the end you say the magic
phrase, let the evil eye dissolve as salt dissolves in
the water. Then you don't drink it, you
actually just throw it in the toilet and then you have to wash
the glass really well or there'ssomething to do with olive oil
and water and you drop it in andyou know, I don't know how it
(11:03):
works. I'm not, I'm not an evil eye
expert. Clearly a triple E Obviously
that's not me. However, the evil eye is not
always necessarily given by someone wishing you ill.
It doesn't always have maliciousintent.
In fact, the evil eye can even stem from admiration like envy.
Or if you yourself are not humble, you can cast the evil
(11:26):
eye on yourself. Dun Dun Dun.
The cull was coming from inside the house.
But seriously, if if this soundskind of magicky, that I mean,
that's 'cause it is. But the thing about this magic
is that it's condoned by not only the Greek Orthodox Church,
but also socially condoned. Because it's not which magic,
(11:49):
Because which magic is bad. Witches are bad.
Everyone knows that. I mean, I don't think they're
bad, but a lot of people do. And throughout history,
famously, they haven't had like the best time or the best
reputation. So that's why I wanted to use
this story as an excuse blatantly, I admit, fully, I
(12:12):
wanted to use the story as an excuse to talk about witches and
witchcraft, and especially to talk about those things through
the Greek lens, which I had never really researched through
that angle before. So I'm very, very excited to get
into this. So when we're talking about 3
witches, oh, we're getting into it now.
Buckle up. Buckle up, you it's safety.
(12:33):
It's the law, it's rabbit hole safety because we're going to be
going down, going down a whole lot of them.
So you better, you better buckleup.
So here we go. Right off the bat, you may be
thinking when you're picturing 3witches, you may be thinking of
the three fates in Greek mythology, which would be really
thematic. You might also be picturing the
(12:55):
three witches and Macbeth, who by the way, they were called the
Weird Sisters and not the Strange Sisters.
Isn't that interesting? I think those are my cousins
twice removed. But no, the reason they're
called Weird Sisters and not Strange Sisters is because back
in Shakespeare's time, weird meant something different than
(13:17):
it does today. And actually, from what I'm
reading, it sounds like it sounds like the Weird Sisters
actually informed our modern useof the word weird.
Anyway, in Shakespeare's time, weird meant or well, circa 1400,
weird, the noun is force that sets events in motion or
determines their course what is destined to befall 1.
(13:40):
So basically determining one's fate, which comes from the Old
English weird spelled WYRD, which is the only way that I
want to spell that word from nowon.
Meaning fate, chance, fortune, destiny, the fates.
So isn't that interesting? That's why they were called the
Weird Sisters. And of course, 3 is a very
(14:00):
witchy number. You've got the rule of three,
which is the belief that your actions will be returned to you
threefold. You've also got the cycles of
birth, life, and death. That's three, 123 baby.
You've got the triple goddess aspects of mother, maiden Crone.
I think I flipped those Maiden, mother Crone, which is basically
(14:21):
the cycles of life, but OK. Then you've also got
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, Kettle Juice and
Bloody Mary Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary I.
Think Candyman is 5. Times.
So I don't think that he followsthis, but you get it. 3 is
really witchy. Hence when we're talking about 3
witches, it feels even scarier than just one witch. 3 witches,
(14:41):
very scary. And then that brings us back to
the Fates, which you may have thought of immediately when you
were picturing 3 witches, especially in Greece.
So in ancient Greek religion andmythology, the Moirai, often
known in English as the Fates, were the personifications of
destiny. Let's hearken back to the Weird
(15:02):
Sisters, right? Anyway, they were three sisters,
Klotho the spinner, Lacus the Allauder, and Atropos the
inevitable, A metaphor for death.
So again, it's this triple triple goddess.
It's this life cycles. It's anyway, it's so
interesting. Moving on.
So the faiths themselves are notnecessarily witches, and they're
(15:24):
actually not even goddesses either, because generally they
were considered to be above eventhe gods in their roles as
enforcers of fate, although in some representations Zeus, the
chief of the gods, is able to command them.
In other times though, he's not.However, if we're tying them to
the Weird Sisters, and those aredefinitely witches.
(15:46):
But are they though? Because really they were just
able to to, to see destiny. They were prophetesses, you
might say, Diviners, others might say, and I'm getting ahead
of myself a little bit, but justkeep this in mind.
There are multiple words in Greek that can be translated as
witch, which is probably why good composer wasn't quite sure
(16:10):
the word to use in English. But from the four or five words
that I was able to find that also translate to which I think
the one that is the most appropriate to use for a diviner
or prophetess would be necromantia, which is the root
word for necromancy. And it's not what you think.
It's not what I thought anyway when you're talking about
(16:33):
necromancy in the Greek sense, especially in the ancient Greek
sense, it's more like the art ofusing the dead, using the
spirits of the dead to seek advice, bringing them back to
life or asking them to send you a message so that you can see
the future through the spirits of the dead.
Or it could be the Greek term mantis, which just means profit
(16:57):
or seer. So as you can see, witches back
in the day didn't necessarily all just call get called
witches. They all had these like specific
little jobs, everyone had a sub genre if you will.
And it wasn't until later that we just lumped all of the
different kinds of witchy professions into one word and
(17:17):
just called them all witches. And I want to ask the question,
and I want to answer the question, what even is a witch
anyway? What is a witch?
But I feel like we can't answer that question until we answer
the question, what's magic? What?
What's magic? What is even magic?
How do you define magic? Well, here we go again.
(17:39):
I told you to buckle up. Authors William Swatos and Peter
Quivisto, I think I nailed those, define magic as any
attempt to control the environment or the self by means
that are either untested or untestable, such as charms or
spells. But before we get too deep into
(18:00):
that, we're going to talk about history and etymology of the
term magic. So the term magic was pervasive
through the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia
until late antiquity and beyond.Magos, or magician, was a term
influenced by and eventually displaced by the Greek term goes
the older word for the practitioner of magic to include
(18:23):
astrology, alchemy, and other forms of esoteric knowledge.
This is Wikipedia, clearly. If that's not, obviously this
association was in turn the product for the Hellenistic
fascination for pseudo Zoroaster, who was perceived by
the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor
of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in
(18:45):
the modern day word magic and magician.
Don't worry, we will be talking about Zoroaster.
Just give me a second. So if you'll recall from my
Demon in the woods episode, and if you have not listened to my
Demon in the woods episode, I doa like a little mini deep dive
into what are demons, What's a demon in the history of demons?
(19:06):
So go listen to that. But anyway, if you'll recall
from my Demon in the Woods episode, the modern Western
concept of demons as being bad or evil, You know, like angels
good, demons evil. That concept traveled to ancient
Greece and Rome via Zoroastrianism from Iran because
(19:27):
of Alexander. They're great.
Who was a N Macedonian by the way.
He didn't want you to remember that, but let's remember it.
He was Macedonian just like Cleopatra the 7th, which is the
Cleopatra that anyone remembers that Cleopatra.
Anyway, she was also N Macedonian.
Anyway, Alexander the Great, hisempire spanned from Greece all
the way to West India, which is really far.
(19:49):
So let me just give you a visual.
You're probably not sitting in front of a map right now, so let
me be your map. Let me be your strange map to
give you a visual of where that where everything is.
Iran in comparison to where Greek is located.
Moving east from Greece, you've got Greece, you've got Turkey,
Iran. So it's really not that far.
(20:09):
I mean, Turkey's really big. Look, if I had to walk from
Greece to Iran, I would die. That would not happen.
It's not happening. But in terms of religion moving
around, yeah, it's actually not that far for Zoroastrianism to
travel. But anyway, what I didn't tell
you when the Demon in the Woods episode is what the Zoroastra
part? Of Zoroastrianism is because
(20:32):
again I do this does come up in the demon episode.
This is all tied together and I'm having a great time so this
is Wikipedia. Zarathustra Spitama, more
commonly known as Zoroaster, wasan Iranian religious reformer
who challenged the tenets of thecontemporary ancient Iranian
religion, becoming the spiritualfounder of Zoroastrianism.
(20:53):
He also had an impact on Plato, Pythagoras.
Yep, that one. And the Abrahamic religions,
including Judaism, Christianity,and Islam, particularly through
concepts of cosmic dualism and personal morality.
Cosmic dualism, you know, like good versus bad, angels versus
demons, etcetera. He was probably alive around
(21:14):
1000 BC, with some scholars suggesting a range between 1500
and 500 BC to be possible. And if you clocked Zarathustra,
yes, Yep. If you're picturing 2001 a Space
Odyssey, or if you're picturing Nietzsche, Yep, there you go.
However, the Greeks had a misunderstanding of Zoroaster as
(21:38):
expressed by Plutarch and Agathius.
I don't know how to pronounce that.
Guys. I've had to pause this 500 times
already to double check pronunciation for names, so
please bear with me, I'm trying my best.
Again, if you are a Greek and you are listening to this and I
am not doing a good job, please have mercy on me.
(22:00):
So OK, moving back. So the Greeks had a
misunderstanding of Zoroaster. In the Western world, Zoroaster
has been described as a sorcererslash astrologer, the creator of
both magic and astrology, and deriving from that image and
reinforcing it was a mass of literature attributed to him
(22:20):
that circulated the Mediterranean world from the
third BC to the end of antiquityand beyond Buzz Light year.
If it's not clear, Zoroaster didnot write all of those books
that were attributed to him. And so hence the Greeks had an
understandable misunderstanding,an under a misunderstandable
(22:45):
understanding of Zoroaster. But hold on, Let me pause really
quick. Let me pause really quick in
Iran for just a second here. We're just taking a little
little Iranian rabbit hole detour.
I promise this one comes back around to witchcraft.
I promise this is not unrelated because listen, ancient Iran,
(23:05):
historically called Persia, was the dominant nation of West Asia
for 12 centuries. That is a very long time.
So if you are looking at the Avesta, which is the most
ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, science and
medicine rise above class, ethnicity, nationality, race,
gender, and even religion. And around 5:59 to 3:30 BCE, the
(23:32):
21 books of the Avesta, encompassing 815 chapters, were
basically an encyclopedia of science consisting of medicine,
astronomy, law, social science, philosophy, general knowledge,
logic, and biology. So the best teachers of medicine
and astrology, and I think when we say astrology here, we mean
(23:55):
astronomy. We keep with, we keep saying
astrology because I think it's just like an ancient term.
We mean astronomy. We don't mean your sun sign or
your moon sign or your whatever is in transit sign.
You know, we don't mean that. We mean astronomy, although
maybe they were really good at it.
Maybe they were really good at. Astrology because it's possible
that they were really, really good at doing.
(24:17):
Placement charts and birth charts.
It's possible anyway. So the best teachers of medicine
and astronomy were Iranian Magi and Mobius, which were
Zoroastrian, which were Zoroastrian priests who passed
their knowledge onto their pupils from one generation to
the next. So when the Greeks encountered
(24:38):
this advanced understanding of astronomy and medicine, which
was way beyond their own, well here let me just read you
something written by KE Edulji from the Zoroastrian Heritage
Blog. The combination of traits that
the Greek authors labeled as magic when it came to Zoroaster,
a term that appears to have beenderived from the remarkable
(24:59):
skills and abilities of the Zoroastrian priests.
The Magi, while often used in a disparaging or derogatory sense,
also offer grudging acknowledgement of the superior
knowledge and skills possessed by the Magi, so much that the
efficacy of the Magi's work, notably as doctors and healers,
(25:20):
appeared to the Greeks as magic.You guys clocking this magic?
We can understand that the skills like this continues.
We can understand that we can understand that the skills,
especially their medical skills and knowledge of the natural
sciences of the Zoroastrian priests.
The Magi through whom these authors understood
(25:43):
Zoroastrianism were of such a high level so as to a peer like
magic. For the more ignorant, many
basic modern science feats wouldappear as super magic to the
Greeks. So all to say, that's where we
get the word magic from. Magi priest of Zoroastrianism,
(26:04):
yadda yadda yadda. And they're just so much more
advanced and so it seems magical.
And also they consider them sorcerers because of that.
But wait, there's more. Because of course there is.
There's always more. During the late 6th and early
5th centuries BC, the Persian Magus was gricified and
introduced into the Ancient Greek language as Magos and
(26:27):
Magia. In doing so, it transformed
meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the Magos
being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were
fraudulent. Strange.
That's not bad. That's a good thing.
Strange, unconventional and dangerous.
For the ancient Greeks and subsequently for the ancient
(26:49):
Romans, magic was not distinct from religion, but rather an
unwelcome, improper expression of it, the religion of the
other. And I feel like that's really
powerful right there, The religion of the other.
Because you're bringing this term in from Persia.
Persia being the area around where Iran is.
(27:10):
So this Zoroastrianism that comes in, they are actually
translating it and actually thengiving it a negative connotation
because it is other from them. The the historian Richard Gordon
suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of
practicing magic was a form of insult.
I don't know about you, but thatkind of sounds like, kind of
(27:31):
sounds like sour grapes to me because they're just not as
advanced. You know, there's like just a
little bit, a little bit. So one example of magic that you
might find in ancient Greece were amulets.
Amulets were one of the most common protections or counter
magics used in the Greco Roman world as protection against such
(27:55):
fearful things as curses and theaforementioned evil eye, which
were both seen as very real by most of its inhabitants.
While amulets were made-up of cheap materials, often precious
stones were believed to have special efficacy.
I feel like that's twice that I've said the word efficacy in
an episode which feels like quite a lot.
(28:16):
Many thousands of carved gems were found that clearly had a
magical rather than ornamental function.
Amulets were also made of organic materials such as
beetles. And I can't stop thinking about
what does that look like? What do you mean?
How did they? They didn't have resin, so how I
have, I'm not going to Google it, but I do want to know, do
(28:37):
you know, do you own an amulet made of beetles?
Let me know madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
Amulets were a very widespread type of magic because of the
fear of other types of magic, such as curses being used
against oneself. So another very common form of
magic that the ancient Greeks used were curse tablets.
(28:59):
So a cursed tablet is a small tablet with a curse written.
On at dusk. That's what it says on the tin,
I guess. This is from Wikipedia.
Its name originated from the Greek and Latin words for Pierce
and bind. The tablets were used to ask the
gods, place spirits, or the deceased to perform an action on
(29:20):
a person or object, or otherwisecompel the subject of the curse.
This is really interesting. Cursed tablets are typically
very thin sheets of lead with the text scratched on in tiny,
tiny letters. They were often then rolled
folded lead. I guess it does say very thin.
Can lead fold? I guess I don't know how lead
(29:42):
works. I think I'm discovering this
right now. How can you fold?
All right, all right, let's just.
OK, that's fine. The the sheets of lead were then
somehow rolled, folded or pierced with nails, and the
tablets were then usually placedbeneath the ground, either
buried in graves or tombs, thrown into wells or pools,
sequestered in underground sanctuaries or nailed to the
(30:04):
walls of temples. Tablets were also used for love
spells, and when used in this manner, they were placed inside
the home of the desired target. OK, this is crazy because
overwhelmingly the majority of cursed tablets for love spells
are done by men. They're done by men.
(30:25):
You were thinking they were doneby women, aren't you?
You were picturing women rollingup somehow their little lead
sheet tablets and then sneaking into a man's home.
That's what you were thinking. Wrong, wrong.
The majority of cursed tablets for love spells are done by men.
I mean, that just begs the question, how long has this male
(30:47):
loneliness epidemic been going on?
Really? Anyway, now that I, and
hopefully you, have a somewhat tenuous grasp of the concept of
magic, that brings us to our next question.
What even is a witch though? What is a witch?
At its most basic level, a witchis someone who practices
(31:10):
witchcraft. Great super.
Helpful. I know magic and witchcraft
aren't necessarily the same thing, which is confusing, and
it is still confusing to me, andI am still trying to work
through this. But I guess if magic wasn't
confusing, everybody would be doing, and it would be magic
with it if everyone understood it and knew how to use it.
So historians and anthropologists see the concept
(31:32):
of witchcraft. This is Wikipedia again as one
of the ways humans have tried toexplain strange misfortune.
I really like this, and I hate that I interrupted myself in the
sentence. Listen again, this is important.
Anthropologists see the concept of witchcraft as one of the ways
humans have tried to explain strange misfortune.
This is something I also go intoin my demon episode.
(31:53):
This is, I'm telling you, I didn't realize how deeply
connected all of this is. Some cultures have feared
witchcraft much less than othersbecause they have tended to have
other explanations for strange misfortune.
Strange again. Why is it a bad thing?
It's not bad, it's OK. For example, they could explain
(32:14):
strange misfortune, which is, say, misfortune, OK.
They could explain misfortune ofbeing caused by gods or spirits
or demons or fairies or other humans who have unwittingly cast
the evil eye. We are back to the evil eye.
So if you look at the gales of Ireland and the Scottish
Highlands, historically they held a very strong belief in
(32:36):
fairy folk who could cause supernatural harm.
And as a result, this is so interesting, so pay attention.
As a result, witch hunting was very rare in the Irish and
Scottish regions compared to other regions in the British
Isles because they blamed supernatural harm and misfortune
on fairy folk, not witches. Isn't that crazy?
(33:02):
So moving on, in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire around 8th
century BCE, individuals known as Go eats practiced various
forms of magic, including divination.
Remember the three the the WeirdSisters and the Three Fates?
So divination, spell casting andinvoking supernatural entities.
(33:24):
While some forms of magic were integrated into religious
practices, others were seen as superstitious and potentially
harmful. So you remember I said listen,
the evil eye is totally accepted.
It's totally not scary and weirdand bad.
However, other other forms of magic are seen as superstitious
and bad, so there are accounts of people being prosecuted and
(33:46):
punished for witchcraft in the ancient Greco Roman world before
Christianity. In ancient Greece for example,
Theoris Theoris, a woman of Lemnos was prosecuted for and
executed along with her family. Records refer to her as
Pharmacus, A potion specialist, where we get the word pharmacy
(34:08):
from a mantis like I mentioned before, so otherwise a diviner
like our three faiths, like our weird sisters.
And she was also referred to as a hydia, A priestess.
However, the sentence against her and her family was for
impiety. Interesting impiety.
(34:28):
One would think that anything that has the word pie in it
can't be that bad. Can't be that bad.
Hey yo, the social perception ofmagic practitioners in ancient
Greece was a mixed bag. While magicians and oracles were
often seen as valuable and respected members of society,
witches faced a different fate. Because of course they did.
(34:49):
Of course they did. Due to their association with
darker forms of magic, witches were often marginalized and
feared, which is so not cool because witches are cool.
Come on. However, it's important to note
that the perception of magical practitioners varied across
different city States and communities.
While some individuals sought their help in times of need,
(35:12):
others shunned them due to superstitious or religious
beliefs. I do think it's worth mentioning
that the magicians that are mentioned as often being seen as
valuable or men. They were men and witches,
typically women. Isn't that, isn't that
interesting? Oi know, we talked earlier about
(35:33):
like the kinds of different phrases that there are for
different types of witches and their specific tyes of powers.
O we'll just kind of share thosewith you right now.
So while ancient Greek does not have a word that directly
translates as witch, the Greek term Goadia basically puts an
umbrella, a little spooky strange umbrella over diviners,
(35:55):
magicians, healers and seers allat once.
But again, there's all these little subtypes you can find.
So pharmacus, you know where we get pharmacy from, they would
have been healers and they wouldhave, you know, been otherwise
known as like wise women or likefolk healers.
So, you know, it sounds great, right?
(36:15):
It sounds great. You you're sick.
You can go to the folk healer. You can go to this pharmacist.
However, if you can heal, you can also hurt.
And so that's where some of the suspicion about these women came
from was. Well, depending on the dose,
something can either hurt you orhelp you.
So some people ended up referring to them as poisoners
(36:38):
instead of folk healers. And in fact in Exodus 2218 in
the Bible there is a famous verse that you may know about
not suffering a witch to live. And that verse may be referring
specifically to the folk healersslash poisoners, or it could
also potentially be referring topriestesses who engaged in
(37:00):
ritual prostitution. But you know, King James of the
Bible, you know the famous King James, we did talk about him as
well in the demon episode because he has, I don't know how
else to say it. It's kind of got a hard on for
witches and for killing them andalso women.
(37:21):
So that's fun. What a fun time.
Now on to some famous Greek witches.
We're going to start with Hecatenow.
Is she a witch or is she a goddess?
We again come to this question that we had with the Fates as
well. Well, of course she is a goddess
and she is the goddess of witchcraft.
But she's also the goddess of crossroads, night, light, magic,
(37:44):
drugs, the moon, AKA the most badass goddess.
Show me a goddess who is a goddess of that many cool
things. She's so cool.
So as a Goddess of witchcraft, Hecate has been incorporated in
various systems of Neo Pagan Witchcraft, Wicca and Neo
Paganism, in some cases associated with the Wild Hunt of
(38:07):
Germanic tradition. Now, does the Wild Hunt sound
familiar to you? No.
Then you need to go listen to mySleepy Hollow episode because we
discuss in small detail but still at all the Wild Hunt.
It's just so strange because I had never heard of the Wild Hunt
before. Then I did my research for the
(38:29):
Halloween episode, for the Sleepy Hollow episode, the Wild
Hunt came up and then in research of doing this episode,
what should come up again. But the Wild Hunt, it's
basically kind of like a super cool metal group of ghouls and
and skeletons and I don't know, it just kind of looks like it's
the cover of a of a heavy metal album is basically my gist of
(38:52):
what the Wild Hunt is. All these creatures just flying
in the sky. Anyway, apparently Hecate is
involved with that in Wicca. Hekati has been in some cases
become identified with the Croneaspect of the triple Goddess,
which we kind of talked about earlier, right?
Are are three how the number 3 is very witchy?
So apparently she's associated with the Crone, which I think is
(39:15):
really weird because famously inGreek mythology and Greek
ancient ancient tradition, witches were hot, which is we're
young and hot. Versus when you're talking about
Roman, which is in Roman mythology, witches were Crone
like and ugly and monstrous. And I feel like there's
something there. I need to do more research on
(39:35):
this and figure out why. I think, I know.
I think I have an idea of why you would identify certain
potentially powerful women as being ugly monsters, but I would
just be guessing. So Hecatee was not always a
goddess of witchcraft. That came later because she was
(39:58):
associated with the spirits of the dead and the night and the
underworld. People began to associate her
with witchcraft because remember, remember the curse
tablets. Remember those how they would
and also not just the curse tablets, the.
The diviners who are using the dead to see the future like the
(40:19):
dead. So because she was associated
with the spirits of the dead andthe night in the underworld,
that then tied her to the witchcraft that is happening
around the dead and the night and the underworld and hence she
became a goddess of witchcraft. Yay.
So some other Greek witches frommythology include Kirky, which
(40:40):
is spelled Cersei, but not like Game of Thrones.
It seems like I should be read Cersei, but apparently it is
pronounced Kirky. Or could be Kirky or Kirky, I'm
not sure it's one of those. Anyway, she was another witch
from mythology, and she lived alone on an island far away from
any men. There were only nymphs and
(41:01):
animals on her island, and even then she couldn't avoid a bunch
of men showing up on her island getting up all in her business.
So she turned them all into pigs.
Pigs. And somehow she was the bad guy.
I don't know how she ends up marrying Odysseus.
Or maybe not marrying, but becoming Odysseus's lover.
(41:22):
I think she sires a child with him.
Anyway, Medea is another Greek witch and she actually trained
under Kirky. Kirky.
She trained under her, which doesn't.
Cersei sounds cooler. I'm going to just say I might be
wrong, but Cersei sounds. Cooler all right, and I want to
(41:43):
wrap up by reading some of this really interesting article,
essay, I'm not sure, called FromGoddess to Hag, the Greek and
the Roman Witch in Classical Literature by Barbette Stanley
Spaeth. Forgive me, so I'm just going to
read a small excerpt from it. Medea and Cersei.
(42:03):
Medea and Kirky, for example, are both of divine lineage and
I'm just going to say Cersei, and Cersei is called a dread
goddess. Which is so cool.
While Medea is a priestess of Hecatine, it may be that in the
earliest stages of their mythic life, these figures were not
thought to be witches. That is, magical practitioners,
(42:26):
for the concept of magic was notfully formed until the 5th
century BCE. That's I should probably put
that earlier in the episode. That's interesting.
The concept of magic was not fully formed until the 5th
century BCE. Ancient witches, in fact, seem
obsessed with the things of the body.
They are driven largely by bodily lust.
(42:46):
Cersei desires Odysseus for her bed, Medea lusts for Jason,
Samantha craves her delphice, Folia has a masculine libido
quote UN quote, and Moreau and Fotis are all driven by their
sexual desires, which is lust isconsidered so overpowering that
(43:07):
it can cause male impotence. Imagine in Homer, Hermes warns
Odysseus that having sex with the witch Cersei might make him
weakly and unmannered. Nope.
Weakly and unmanned. Hmm.
In Petronius, the woman Cersei causes inculpius.
(43:30):
Jesus, why did I do this to myself?
I. I'm so sorry this has been such
a struggle. I was so interested in this
topic and then actually reading all these names aloud is really
difficult. OK.
Cersei causes Enculpius Enculpius to become impotent.
Interesting, although he tries to heal his impotence with the
(43:51):
help of the witches Procellinoseand Oh no Thea, Oh no that's me
this whole episode. Their own lust also proves more
than he can handle. So he gets impotent from a witch
and he goes to other witches. Like help me with my witch
impotence, my witch Potence if you will.
(44:13):
The lustful actions of these witches are a form of inversion
of the natural order, for according to ancient
conceptions, it was the male whowas supposed to be the active
sexual partner in assuming the active role, which is call into
question the normative sexual roles of men and women in
classical culture, threatening the culturally constructed
(44:34):
boundaries of male and female. As for modern witches like 2025
witches, there's actually not a ton that I could find on modern
Greek folkloric magic or witchcraft, and I think that's
kind of by design. Maybe if I spoke Greek and I
could read and write Greek, maybe then I would have an
(44:57):
easier time. But as an American,
unfortunately, I really couldn'tfind much anymore any more
modern than the evil eye stuff that I shared at the beginning
or anything past 1900 when the book Modern Greek Folklore and
Ancient Greek Religion, A Study in Survivals was written by John
Cuthbert Lawson. And I will close this episode on
(45:20):
a little snippet of the different kinds of magic that
could happen in 1900. So for this particular spell,
it's a spell of binding and it would be used, let's just say by
someone who is jealous and does not want a marriage to be
consummated. Because then ideally, if the
marriage isn't consummated, thenit can they then they can break
(45:41):
up. And then whoever is casting the
spell can get together with whoever it is because now they
haven't been officially married.OK, so this is a spell of
binding. Its purpose is to fetter the
virility of the husband and so to prevent the consummation of
the marriage. The right itself is simple.
Either the jealous girl herself.OK, I think I think we're making
(46:03):
a big assumption here, John Cuthbert Lawson because we now
know that it was mostly men thatwere doing the love based curse
tablets. So let's just let's pull that
back in. I don't know that it's always
going to be a jealous girl anyway.
The jealous person or a witch employed by this jealous person
attends the wedding. This, the gall of this, attends
(46:27):
the wedding, taking with them a piece of Oh, this is the witch.
The witch employed by the personattends the wedding.
The witch takes a piece of thread or string in which 3
loops have been closely made during the reading of the gospel
or the pronouncement of the blessing.
The witch then pulls the ends ofthe string, forming thereby 3
(46:49):
knots in the string, and at the same time mutters the brief
incantation. I bind blank and blank and the
devil betwixt them. How cool is that?
You're binding them together, but the.
Devils in the middle of those that they okay.
The thread is subsequently buried or hidden, and unless it
can be found and either burnt orhave the knots untied, there is
(47:14):
small hope for the man to recover from his impotence.
There is no doubt, I think, thatthe extreme fear in which this
spell is held has in some cases so worked upon the bridegroom's
nerves as to render the binding actually effective, just as
extreme faith in miraculous in miraculous icons occasionally
effects cures of. I don't know, I cut the last bit
(47:35):
of that off, but you see what I'm saying?
Some of the grooms are so scaredof a witch casting an impotence
spell on them that they then render themselves impotence.
Did I know when I started did this episode that I was going to
be talking about impotence so much?
No, I didn't. Am I bothered by it?
Also no. Also no.
(47:57):
Hopefully you weren't either. So all to say, the three women
that Good composer saw sitting outside of Grandma's house, who
were they? Were they the three fates?
Were they perhaps the Hocus Pocus witches?
I don't remember their. Names off the top of my head.
So who knows? We'll never know.
(48:18):
We'll never know if they were intending to cast an evil eye.
We'll never know if they were trying to cast some sort of
impotent spell. We'll never know.
We'll never know. But if you have a strange
encounter with someone that may be considered a witch, or at
least which adjacent, you can send me your story and I may
read it on the show. e-mail me madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
(48:40):
And again, good composer, thank you so much for allowing me to
read your story. And I hope everybody learned at
least one thing from this episode.
In fact, let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify or
e-mail me at madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
What was the most interesting thing that you learned?
From this episode, I'd love to hear it.
(49:07):
Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger.
You're safe here with me, probably.
Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the
unexplained. Now I'm running A1 Madam Show
here, so please do me a strange solid and follow the podcast or
leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify and maybe even join the
(49:30):
Patreon at patreon.com/madam Strangeways for bonus content.
Madam Strangeways is produced and narrated by me.
Madam Strangeways theme music isby marina.ryan@marinamakes.co.
Cover art is by Andrea Chiselle Roldan at Cult of Teddy on
Instagram. Every Strange story is shared
(49:53):
with the permission of the author.
You can submit your own true strange story to
madamstrangeways@gmail.com or check out the website
madamstrangeways.com. See you soon, she said
ominously.
But she's also the goddess of crossroads, night, light, magic,
drugs, the moon, AKA the most badass goddess.
Welcome stranger, to Madam Strange Ways, where I, Madam
(00:24):
Strange Ways, narrate your true strange stories of the
unexplained. But stick around after the story
where I share my strange thoughts and observations for
believers and skeptics alike, and I will drag you down a slew
of strange rabbit holes along the way, kicking and screaming
if needs must. But before we get to today's
(00:46):
true strange story, the strangest of shout outs to my
Patreon patrons TJ Hotter of theTapes of Trepidation podcast, G
Man Music, Ted, Keith and Tori, thank you so much to my Feral
Fiendish 5 for supporting the show.
Do you want to hear your name atthe beginning of every episode?
Maybe you'd fancy a free stickeror some bonus content?
(01:09):
Join the Patreon today at patreon.com/madam.
Strange. Ways.
Oh, did you hear that? I think it's about to rain
hellcats and hell hounds outside, so you know what that
means. On to our true strange story
here on Madam Strange Ways. Three Women in Black by Good
(01:53):
Composer, 8409. I grew up in a Greek village
where there are a lot of old stories about certain women.
I don't even know what to call them in English.
In the local folklore, they're women who wear black and can
harm people, take someone's eyesight, steal their voice,
(02:14):
even push them off cliffs. A local man said that they
caused him to have a heart attack and they later found him
under an olive tree dead. As a kid, these stories always
sounded like fairy tales until something happened to me.
I was about 13 and my sister was14.
(02:37):
It was summer and we were out late with our parents.
Around 3:00 AM we decided to head home by ourselves and
instead of taking the Main Street, we took a short side Rd.
that passed by our grandmother'shouse.
In Greek villages during summer,women often sit outside in the
afternoons and evenings chatting, and some bring small
(02:59):
chairs that they leave in place so they don't have to carry them
back and forth every day, so we were used to seeing chairs
outside. As we came around the corner and
approached our Graham's house, we saw three women dressed
entirely in black, wearing kerchiefs, sitting in those
small chairs right outside our grandmother's home.
(03:23):
They were completely still. Not talking, not moving, just
sitting there like they were waiting for something.
At that hour, it was impossible for them to be our neighbors.
The moment we saw them, we both had the same gut feeling.
(03:44):
This isn't right. We didn't approach them, we just
turned around and went back to the Main St. as quickly as we
could. Even now I get chills thinking
about it. We knew deep down that those
weren't just normal women sitting there.
(04:05):
The next day we mentioned this to our grandmother and she
believed us and told us 20 yearsbefore, maybe more, she had seen
three women wearing black comingout of the summer cinema walking
up a road while she was in the balcony late at night checking
if her husband was coming home. She immediately went inside,
(04:28):
locked the door and put some incense to burn.
Good composer 30 Nope, 84 O 9. Good composer 84 O 9.
(04:48):
Thank you so much for allowing me to read your story on the
show. I so appreciate you.
As soon as I read this story, I was so excited to ask for
permission to read it because not only is it about, let's say,
which adjacent people, but also it's Greek.
Which adjacent? Are you kidding me?
(05:10):
I was so excited I immediately sent the DM like fingers
crossed, please, please, please.Because if you don't know,
hello, welcome, hello. Whether or not you are new or a
regular listener, welcome, So happy to have you.
But if you don't know, a little peek behind the curtain.
I message or DM every single person whose story that I find
(05:32):
on Reddit that I want to read onthe story or whose story I want
to read on the episode. I should say, and I would say a
good 30% just never respond. Probably.
That's probably being conservative.
Maybe half don't respond at. All.
So I was so excited when good composer responded to me and
(05:55):
said yes, absolutely you can read my story.
Yay that made my day. So thank you so much for
permission to read it. This is just so interesting
because when you look at when you look at the story on its
face, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't sound that scary.
Oh, you saw three ladies sittingin chairs that are for sitting.
But it's not just that you have to understand the background
(06:18):
and, and the culture that you'vebeen raised in and what you've
been told as a, as a kid growingup.
And you know, you have to factorall that into it.
And of course, I will always say, regardless of any of that
stuff is if something that wouldbe normal in the daytime is
happening at night, it's automatically scary.
It's automatically scary door knocking, someone knocking on
(06:40):
your door or ringing your doorbell at 3:00 AM, terrifying.
Who's out there? Get out, go shoot.
What are you doing out there? You know what I mean?
If someone was out on their front lawn, like watering the
grass at 3:00 AM, that would be weird.
So I can completely understand why seeing three women dressed
(07:01):
in black, who you would perceiveto be something.
Close to a witch that can give people heart attacks.
Yeah, I. Don't want.
No, it's good. Why don't you guys go inside?
You don't need to be out here, you know, I know we're out here,
but you don't need to be out there.
It's kind of like when you're driving around on a work day,
during the nine to five hours, you're driving around and you're
(07:22):
like, why are all these people here?
Why aren't they at work? But you're also there, so why
aren't you at work? I guess it's kind of like that,
but so scary. And not because anything in
particularly paranormal had to happen, you know, but very,
very, very spooky. On the other hand, was it just
three goth girls? I basically wear all black all
(07:46):
year long, so maybe I've scared somebody.
Although there's not 3 of me that would scare me if there
were three of me. No, thank you.
But wait, going back to the gothladies, because like, if it's
just three goth girls and they're wearing like really
painful heels or those like really cool stompy boots, I
mean, their feet hurt. They need to sit down.
I mean, maybe there was a StevieNicks sort of concert in the
(08:09):
area. Have we ever thought of that?
Or perhaps techies from a theater show?
From a play? So there's my attempt at a
mundane or naturalistic explanation for why these three
women were sitting there in chairs outside of Good
Composer's grandma's house. But we are far from done.
If you cannot tell already from where we are on the status bar
(08:30):
of your podcast player, we are far from done.
But also, before I get started, if you are interested in the
history and all the cultural ramifications and etcetera of
witches in general, I highly recommend the podcast series
called Witches. It's by BBC Four or BBC Sounds,
(08:50):
however they market themselves in the US.
Very, very, very, very interesting.
I cannot recommend it enough, but here we go.
We're going to jump back to the three women that good composer
encountered. What good composer described
these women as capable of, of doing being, you know, giving
against giving someone a heart attack or causing blindness or,
(09:13):
you know, etcetera. Honestly, I it would it would be
remiss of me to not immediately jump in to discuss the evil eye.
So the evil eye, especially in Greek culture, is a supernatural
belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually
inspired by envy, but not always.
I'll get to that in just a second.
(09:34):
Amulets to protect against the evil eye have been found dating
back to around 5000 years ago. That is a very.
Long time ago. I think that's like back when
the first Great Pyramids were. Being built.
Let's check. OK, Google.
When were the first pyramids built in Egypt?
According to Smithsonian Institution, around 2780 BCE.
(09:58):
King Joser's architect. OK, OK.
We don't need all that. We don't need all that.
We just need the year. What did she say?
I wasn't listening. 27 something.
That's 2780. Come on.
That's pretty close to, you know, about 3000 BC that's
pretty close. Pretty good, pretty good.
All right, So that's a very longtime for us to be using evil eye
ambulance. I mean, even to this day, as
(10:20):
recently as 2018 at least according to
keeptalkinggreece.com, 60% of modern Greeks believe that
prayers against the evil eye cure headaches.
So not just prayers, but also another procedure that simply
casts the evil eye away is just salt.
You just throw a handful of saltinto a glass of water, stir it
(10:42):
well while saying the prayer, and in the end you say the magic
phrase, let the evil eye dissolve as salt dissolves in
the water. Then you don't drink it, you
actually just throw it in the toilet and then you have to wash
the glass really well or there'ssomething to do with olive oil
and water and you drop it in andyou know, I don't know how it
(11:03):
works. I'm not, I'm not an evil eye
expert. Clearly a triple E Obviously
that's not me. However, the evil eye is not
always necessarily given by someone wishing you ill.
It doesn't always have maliciousintent.
In fact, the evil eye can even stem from admiration like envy.
Or if you yourself are not humble, you can cast the evil
(11:26):
eye on yourself. Dun Dun Dun.
The cull was coming from inside the house.
But seriously, if if this soundskind of magicky, that I mean,
that's 'cause it is. But the thing about this magic
is that it's condoned by not only the Greek Orthodox Church,
but also socially condoned. Because it's not which magic,
(11:49):
Because which magic is bad. Witches are bad.
Everyone knows that. I mean, I don't think they're
bad, but a lot of people do. And throughout history,
famously, they haven't had like the best time or the best
reputation. So that's why I wanted to use
this story as an excuse blatantly, I admit, fully, I
(12:12):
wanted to use the story as an excuse to talk about witches and
witchcraft, and especially to talk about those things through
the Greek lens, which I had never really researched through
that angle before. So I'm very, very excited to get
into this. So when we're talking about 3
witches, oh, we're getting into it now.
Buckle up. Buckle up, you it's safety.
(12:33):
It's the law, it's rabbit hole safety because we're going to be
going down, going down a whole lot of them.
So you better, you better buckleup.
So here we go. Right off the bat, you may be
thinking when you're picturing 3witches, you may be thinking of
the three fates in Greek mythology, which would be really
thematic. You might also be picturing the
(12:55):
three witches and Macbeth, who by the way, they were called the
Weird Sisters and not the Strange Sisters.
Isn't that interesting? I think those are my cousins
twice removed. But no, the reason they're
called Weird Sisters and not Strange Sisters is because back
in Shakespeare's time, weird meant something different than
(13:17):
it does today. And actually, from what I'm
reading, it sounds like it sounds like the Weird Sisters
actually informed our modern useof the word weird.
Anyway, in Shakespeare's time, weird meant or well, circa 1400,
weird, the noun is force that sets events in motion or
determines their course what is destined to befall 1.
(13:40):
So basically determining one's fate, which comes from the Old
English weird spelled WYRD, which is the only way that I
want to spell that word from nowon.
Meaning fate, chance, fortune, destiny, the fates.
So isn't that interesting? That's why they were called the
Weird Sisters. And of course, 3 is a very
(14:00):
witchy number. You've got the rule of three,
which is the belief that your actions will be returned to you
threefold. You've also got the cycles of
birth, life, and death. That's three, 123 baby.
You've got the triple goddess aspects of mother, maiden Crone.
I think I flipped those Maiden, mother Crone, which is basically
(14:21):
the cycles of life, but OK. Then you've also got
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, Kettle Juice and
Bloody Mary Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary I.
Think Candyman is 5. Times.
So I don't think that he followsthis, but you get it. 3 is
really witchy. Hence when we're talking about 3
witches, it feels even scarier than just one witch. 3 witches,
(14:41):
very scary. And then that brings us back to
the Fates, which you may have thought of immediately when you
were picturing 3 witches, especially in Greece.
So in ancient Greek religion andmythology, the Moirai, often
known in English as the Fates, were the personifications of
destiny. Let's hearken back to the Weird
(15:02):
Sisters, right? Anyway, they were three sisters,
Klotho the spinner, Lacus the Allauder, and Atropos the
inevitable, A metaphor for death.
So again, it's this triple triple goddess.
It's this life cycles. It's anyway, it's so
interesting. Moving on.
So the faiths themselves are notnecessarily witches, and they're
(15:24):
actually not even goddesses either, because generally they
were considered to be above eventhe gods in their roles as
enforcers of fate, although in some representations Zeus, the
chief of the gods, is able to command them.
In other times though, he's not.However, if we're tying them to
the Weird Sisters, and those aredefinitely witches.
(15:46):
But are they though? Because really they were just
able to to, to see destiny. They were prophetesses, you
might say, Diviners, others might say, and I'm getting ahead
of myself a little bit, but justkeep this in mind.
There are multiple words in Greek that can be translated as
witch, which is probably why good composer wasn't quite sure
(16:10):
the word to use in English. But from the four or five words
that I was able to find that also translate to which I think
the one that is the most appropriate to use for a diviner
or prophetess would be necromantia, which is the root
word for necromancy. And it's not what you think.
It's not what I thought anyway when you're talking about
(16:33):
necromancy in the Greek sense, especially in the ancient Greek
sense, it's more like the art ofusing the dead, using the
spirits of the dead to seek advice, bringing them back to
life or asking them to send you a message so that you can see
the future through the spirits of the dead.
Or it could be the Greek term mantis, which just means profit
(16:57):
or seer. So as you can see, witches back
in the day didn't necessarily all just call get called
witches. They all had these like specific
little jobs, everyone had a sub genre if you will.
And it wasn't until later that we just lumped all of the
different kinds of witchy professions into one word and
(17:17):
just called them all witches. And I want to ask the question,
and I want to answer the question, what even is a witch
anyway? What is a witch?
But I feel like we can't answer that question until we answer
the question, what's magic? What?
What's magic? What is even magic?
How do you define magic? Well, here we go again.
(17:39):
I told you to buckle up. Authors William Swatos and Peter
Quivisto, I think I nailed those, define magic as any
attempt to control the environment or the self by means
that are either untested or untestable, such as charms or
spells. But before we get too deep into
(18:00):
that, we're going to talk about history and etymology of the
term magic. So the term magic was pervasive
through the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia
until late antiquity and beyond.Magos, or magician, was a term
influenced by and eventually displaced by the Greek term goes
the older word for the practitioner of magic to include
(18:23):
astrology, alchemy, and other forms of esoteric knowledge.
This is Wikipedia, clearly. If that's not, obviously this
association was in turn the product for the Hellenistic
fascination for pseudo Zoroaster, who was perceived by
the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor
of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in
(18:45):
the modern day word magic and magician.
Don't worry, we will be talking about Zoroaster.
Just give me a second. So if you'll recall from my
Demon in the woods episode, and if you have not listened to my
Demon in the woods episode, I doa like a little mini deep dive
into what are demons, What's a demon in the history of demons?
(19:06):
So go listen to that. But anyway, if you'll recall
from my Demon in the Woods episode, the modern Western
concept of demons as being bad or evil, You know, like angels
good, demons evil. That concept traveled to ancient
Greece and Rome via Zoroastrianism from Iran because
(19:27):
of Alexander. They're great.
Who was a N Macedonian by the way.
He didn't want you to remember that, but let's remember it.
He was Macedonian just like Cleopatra the 7th, which is the
Cleopatra that anyone remembers that Cleopatra.
Anyway, she was also N Macedonian.
Anyway, Alexander the Great, hisempire spanned from Greece all
the way to West India, which is really far.
(19:49):
So let me just give you a visual.
You're probably not sitting in front of a map right now, so let
me be your map. Let me be your strange map to
give you a visual of where that where everything is.
Iran in comparison to where Greek is located.
Moving east from Greece, you've got Greece, you've got Turkey,
Iran. So it's really not that far.
(20:09):
I mean, Turkey's really big. Look, if I had to walk from
Greece to Iran, I would die. That would not happen.
It's not happening. But in terms of religion moving
around, yeah, it's actually not that far for Zoroastrianism to
travel. But anyway, what I didn't tell
you when the Demon in the Woods episode is what the Zoroastra
part? Of Zoroastrianism is because
(20:32):
again I do this does come up in the demon episode.
This is all tied together and I'm having a great time so this
is Wikipedia. Zarathustra Spitama, more
commonly known as Zoroaster, wasan Iranian religious reformer
who challenged the tenets of thecontemporary ancient Iranian
religion, becoming the spiritualfounder of Zoroastrianism.
(20:53):
He also had an impact on Plato, Pythagoras.
Yep, that one. And the Abrahamic religions,
including Judaism, Christianity,and Islam, particularly through
concepts of cosmic dualism and personal morality.
Cosmic dualism, you know, like good versus bad, angels versus
demons, etcetera. He was probably alive around
(21:14):
1000 BC, with some scholars suggesting a range between 1500
and 500 BC to be possible. And if you clocked Zarathustra,
yes, Yep. If you're picturing 2001 a Space
Odyssey, or if you're picturing Nietzsche, Yep, there you go.
However, the Greeks had a misunderstanding of Zoroaster as
(21:38):
expressed by Plutarch and Agathius.
I don't know how to pronounce that.
Guys. I've had to pause this 500 times
already to double check pronunciation for names, so
please bear with me, I'm trying my best.
Again, if you are a Greek and you are listening to this and I
am not doing a good job, please have mercy on me.
(22:00):
So OK, moving back. So the Greeks had a
misunderstanding of Zoroaster. In the Western world, Zoroaster
has been described as a sorcererslash astrologer, the creator of
both magic and astrology, and deriving from that image and
reinforcing it was a mass of literature attributed to him
(22:20):
that circulated the Mediterranean world from the
third BC to the end of antiquityand beyond Buzz Light year.
If it's not clear, Zoroaster didnot write all of those books
that were attributed to him. And so hence the Greeks had an
understandable misunderstanding,an under a misunderstandable
(22:45):
understanding of Zoroaster. But hold on, Let me pause really
quick. Let me pause really quick in
Iran for just a second here. We're just taking a little
little Iranian rabbit hole detour.
I promise this one comes back around to witchcraft.
I promise this is not unrelated because listen, ancient Iran,
(23:05):
historically called Persia, was the dominant nation of West Asia
for 12 centuries. That is a very long time.
So if you are looking at the Avesta, which is the most
ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, science and
medicine rise above class, ethnicity, nationality, race,
gender, and even religion. And around 5:59 to 3:30 BCE, the
(23:32):
21 books of the Avesta, encompassing 815 chapters, were
basically an encyclopedia of science consisting of medicine,
astronomy, law, social science, philosophy, general knowledge,
logic, and biology. So the best teachers of medicine
and astrology, and I think when we say astrology here, we mean
(23:55):
astronomy. We keep with, we keep saying
astrology because I think it's just like an ancient term.
We mean astronomy. We don't mean your sun sign or
your moon sign or your whatever is in transit sign.
You know, we don't mean that. We mean astronomy, although
maybe they were really good at it.
Maybe they were really good at. Astrology because it's possible
that they were really, really good at doing.
(24:17):
Placement charts and birth charts.
It's possible anyway. So the best teachers of medicine
and astronomy were Iranian Magi and Mobius, which were
Zoroastrian, which were Zoroastrian priests who passed
their knowledge onto their pupils from one generation to
the next. So when the Greeks encountered
(24:38):
this advanced understanding of astronomy and medicine, which
was way beyond their own, well here let me just read you
something written by KE Edulji from the Zoroastrian Heritage
Blog. The combination of traits that
the Greek authors labeled as magic when it came to Zoroaster,
a term that appears to have beenderived from the remarkable
(24:59):
skills and abilities of the Zoroastrian priests.
The Magi, while often used in a disparaging or derogatory sense,
also offer grudging acknowledgement of the superior
knowledge and skills possessed by the Magi, so much that the
efficacy of the Magi's work, notably as doctors and healers,
(25:20):
appeared to the Greeks as magic.You guys clocking this magic?
We can understand that the skills like this continues.
We can understand that we can understand that the skills,
especially their medical skills and knowledge of the natural
sciences of the Zoroastrian priests.
The Magi through whom these authors understood
(25:43):
Zoroastrianism were of such a high level so as to a peer like
magic. For the more ignorant, many
basic modern science feats wouldappear as super magic to the
Greeks. So all to say, that's where we
get the word magic from. Magi priest of Zoroastrianism,
(26:04):
yadda yadda yadda. And they're just so much more
advanced and so it seems magical.
And also they consider them sorcerers because of that.
But wait, there's more. Because of course there is.
There's always more. During the late 6th and early
5th centuries BC, the Persian Magus was gricified and
introduced into the Ancient Greek language as Magos and
(26:27):
Magia. In doing so, it transformed
meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the Magos
being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were
fraudulent. Strange.
That's not bad. That's a good thing.
Strange, unconventional and dangerous.
For the ancient Greeks and subsequently for the ancient
(26:49):
Romans, magic was not distinct from religion, but rather an
unwelcome, improper expression of it, the religion of the
other. And I feel like that's really
powerful right there, The religion of the other.
Because you're bringing this term in from Persia.
Persia being the area around where Iran is.
(27:10):
So this Zoroastrianism that comes in, they are actually
translating it and actually thengiving it a negative connotation
because it is other from them. The the historian Richard Gordon
suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of
practicing magic was a form of insult.
I don't know about you, but thatkind of sounds like, kind of
(27:31):
sounds like sour grapes to me because they're just not as
advanced. You know, there's like just a
little bit, a little bit. So one example of magic that you
might find in ancient Greece were amulets.
Amulets were one of the most common protections or counter
magics used in the Greco Roman world as protection against such
(27:55):
fearful things as curses and theaforementioned evil eye, which
were both seen as very real by most of its inhabitants.
While amulets were made-up of cheap materials, often precious
stones were believed to have special efficacy.
I feel like that's twice that I've said the word efficacy in
an episode which feels like quite a lot.
(28:16):
Many thousands of carved gems were found that clearly had a
magical rather than ornamental function.
Amulets were also made of organic materials such as
beetles. And I can't stop thinking about
what does that look like? What do you mean?
How did they? They didn't have resin, so how I
have, I'm not going to Google it, but I do want to know, do
(28:37):
you know, do you own an amulet made of beetles?
Let me know madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
Amulets were a very widespread type of magic because of the
fear of other types of magic, such as curses being used
against oneself. So another very common form of
magic that the ancient Greeks used were curse tablets.
(28:59):
So a cursed tablet is a small tablet with a curse written.
On at dusk. That's what it says on the tin,
I guess. This is from Wikipedia.
Its name originated from the Greek and Latin words for Pierce
and bind. The tablets were used to ask the
gods, place spirits, or the deceased to perform an action on
(29:20):
a person or object, or otherwisecompel the subject of the curse.
This is really interesting. Cursed tablets are typically
very thin sheets of lead with the text scratched on in tiny,
tiny letters. They were often then rolled
folded lead. I guess it does say very thin.
Can lead fold? I guess I don't know how lead
(29:42):
works. I think I'm discovering this
right now. How can you fold?
All right, all right, let's just.
OK, that's fine. The the sheets of lead were then
somehow rolled, folded or pierced with nails, and the
tablets were then usually placedbeneath the ground, either
buried in graves or tombs, thrown into wells or pools,
sequestered in underground sanctuaries or nailed to the
(30:04):
walls of temples. Tablets were also used for love
spells, and when used in this manner, they were placed inside
the home of the desired target. OK, this is crazy because
overwhelmingly the majority of cursed tablets for love spells
are done by men. They're done by men.
(30:25):
You were thinking they were doneby women, aren't you?
You were picturing women rollingup somehow their little lead
sheet tablets and then sneaking into a man's home.
That's what you were thinking. Wrong, wrong.
The majority of cursed tablets for love spells are done by men.
I mean, that just begs the question, how long has this male
(30:47):
loneliness epidemic been going on?
Really? Anyway, now that I, and
hopefully you, have a somewhat tenuous grasp of the concept of
magic, that brings us to our next question.
What even is a witch though? What is a witch?
At its most basic level, a witchis someone who practices
(31:10):
witchcraft. Great super.
Helpful. I know magic and witchcraft
aren't necessarily the same thing, which is confusing, and
it is still confusing to me, andI am still trying to work
through this. But I guess if magic wasn't
confusing, everybody would be doing, and it would be magic
with it if everyone understood it and knew how to use it.
So historians and anthropologists see the concept
(31:32):
of witchcraft. This is Wikipedia again as one
of the ways humans have tried toexplain strange misfortune.
I really like this, and I hate that I interrupted myself in the
sentence. Listen again, this is important.
Anthropologists see the concept of witchcraft as one of the ways
humans have tried to explain strange misfortune.
This is something I also go intoin my demon episode.
(31:53):
This is, I'm telling you, I didn't realize how deeply
connected all of this is. Some cultures have feared
witchcraft much less than othersbecause they have tended to have
other explanations for strange misfortune.
Strange again. Why is it a bad thing?
It's not bad, it's OK. For example, they could explain
(32:14):
strange misfortune, which is, say, misfortune, OK.
They could explain misfortune ofbeing caused by gods or spirits
or demons or fairies or other humans who have unwittingly cast
the evil eye. We are back to the evil eye.
So if you look at the gales of Ireland and the Scottish
Highlands, historically they held a very strong belief in
(32:36):
fairy folk who could cause supernatural harm.
And as a result, this is so interesting, so pay attention.
As a result, witch hunting was very rare in the Irish and
Scottish regions compared to other regions in the British
Isles because they blamed supernatural harm and misfortune
on fairy folk, not witches. Isn't that crazy?
(33:02):
So moving on, in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire around 8th
century BCE, individuals known as Go eats practiced various
forms of magic, including divination.
Remember the three the the WeirdSisters and the Three Fates?
So divination, spell casting andinvoking supernatural entities.
(33:24):
While some forms of magic were integrated into religious
practices, others were seen as superstitious and potentially
harmful. So you remember I said listen,
the evil eye is totally accepted.
It's totally not scary and weirdand bad.
However, other other forms of magic are seen as superstitious
and bad, so there are accounts of people being prosecuted and
(33:46):
punished for witchcraft in the ancient Greco Roman world before
Christianity. In ancient Greece for example,
Theoris Theoris, a woman of Lemnos was prosecuted for and
executed along with her family. Records refer to her as
Pharmacus, A potion specialist, where we get the word pharmacy
(34:08):
from a mantis like I mentioned before, so otherwise a diviner
like our three faiths, like our weird sisters.
And she was also referred to as a hydia, A priestess.
However, the sentence against her and her family was for
impiety. Interesting impiety.
(34:28):
One would think that anything that has the word pie in it
can't be that bad. Can't be that bad.
Hey yo, the social perception ofmagic practitioners in ancient
Greece was a mixed bag. While magicians and oracles were
often seen as valuable and respected members of society,
witches faced a different fate. Because of course they did.
(34:49):
Of course they did. Due to their association with
darker forms of magic, witches were often marginalized and
feared, which is so not cool because witches are cool.
Come on. However, it's important to note
that the perception of magical practitioners varied across
different city States and communities.
While some individuals sought their help in times of need,
(35:12):
others shunned them due to superstitious or religious
beliefs. I do think it's worth mentioning
that the magicians that are mentioned as often being seen as
valuable or men. They were men and witches,
typically women. Isn't that, isn't that
interesting? Oi know, we talked earlier about
(35:33):
like the kinds of different phrases that there are for
different types of witches and their specific tyes of powers.
O we'll just kind of share thosewith you right now.
So while ancient Greek does not have a word that directly
translates as witch, the Greek term Goadia basically puts an
umbrella, a little spooky strange umbrella over diviners,
(35:55):
magicians, healers and seers allat once.
But again, there's all these little subtypes you can find.
So pharmacus, you know where we get pharmacy from, they would
have been healers and they wouldhave, you know, been otherwise
known as like wise women or likefolk healers.
So, you know, it sounds great, right?
(36:15):
It sounds great. You you're sick.
You can go to the folk healer. You can go to this pharmacist.
However, if you can heal, you can also hurt.
And so that's where some of the suspicion about these women came
from was. Well, depending on the dose,
something can either hurt you orhelp you.
So some people ended up referring to them as poisoners
(36:38):
instead of folk healers. And in fact in Exodus 2218 in
the Bible there is a famous verse that you may know about
not suffering a witch to live. And that verse may be referring
specifically to the folk healersslash poisoners, or it could
also potentially be referring topriestesses who engaged in
(37:00):
ritual prostitution. But you know, King James of the
Bible, you know the famous King James, we did talk about him as
well in the demon episode because he has, I don't know how
else to say it. It's kind of got a hard on for
witches and for killing them andalso women.
(37:21):
So that's fun. What a fun time.
Now on to some famous Greek witches.
We're going to start with Hecatenow.
Is she a witch or is she a goddess?
We again come to this question that we had with the Fates as
well. Well, of course she is a goddess
and she is the goddess of witchcraft.
But she's also the goddess of crossroads, night, light, magic,
(37:44):
drugs, the moon, AKA the most badass goddess.
Show me a goddess who is a goddess of that many cool
things. She's so cool.
So as a Goddess of witchcraft, Hecate has been incorporated in
various systems of Neo Pagan Witchcraft, Wicca and Neo
Paganism, in some cases associated with the Wild Hunt of
(38:07):
Germanic tradition. Now, does the Wild Hunt sound
familiar to you? No.
Then you need to go listen to mySleepy Hollow episode because we
discuss in small detail but still at all the Wild Hunt.
It's just so strange because I had never heard of the Wild Hunt
before. Then I did my research for the
(38:29):
Halloween episode, for the Sleepy Hollow episode, the Wild
Hunt came up and then in research of doing this episode,
what should come up again. But the Wild Hunt, it's
basically kind of like a super cool metal group of ghouls and
and skeletons and I don't know, it just kind of looks like it's
the cover of a of a heavy metal album is basically my gist of
(38:52):
what the Wild Hunt is. All these creatures just flying
in the sky. Anyway, apparently Hecate is
involved with that in Wicca. Hekati has been in some cases
become identified with the Croneaspect of the triple Goddess,
which we kind of talked about earlier, right?
Are are three how the number 3 is very witchy?
So apparently she's associated with the Crone, which I think is
(39:15):
really weird because famously inGreek mythology and Greek
ancient ancient tradition, witches were hot, which is we're
young and hot. Versus when you're talking about
Roman, which is in Roman mythology, witches were Crone
like and ugly and monstrous. And I feel like there's
something there. I need to do more research on
(39:35):
this and figure out why. I think, I know.
I think I have an idea of why you would identify certain
potentially powerful women as being ugly monsters, but I would
just be guessing. So Hecatee was not always a
goddess of witchcraft. That came later because she was
(39:58):
associated with the spirits of the dead and the night and the
underworld. People began to associate her
with witchcraft because remember, remember the curse
tablets. Remember those how they would
and also not just the curse tablets, the.
The diviners who are using the dead to see the future like the
(40:19):
dead. So because she was associated
with the spirits of the dead andthe night in the underworld,
that then tied her to the witchcraft that is happening
around the dead and the night and the underworld and hence she
became a goddess of witchcraft. Yay.
So some other Greek witches frommythology include Kirky, which
(40:40):
is spelled Cersei, but not like Game of Thrones.
It seems like I should be read Cersei, but apparently it is
pronounced Kirky. Or could be Kirky or Kirky, I'm
not sure it's one of those. Anyway, she was another witch
from mythology, and she lived alone on an island far away from
any men. There were only nymphs and
(41:01):
animals on her island, and even then she couldn't avoid a bunch
of men showing up on her island getting up all in her business.
So she turned them all into pigs.
Pigs. And somehow she was the bad guy.
I don't know how she ends up marrying Odysseus.
Or maybe not marrying, but becoming Odysseus's lover.
(41:22):
I think she sires a child with him.
Anyway, Medea is another Greek witch and she actually trained
under Kirky. Kirky.
She trained under her, which doesn't.
Cersei sounds cooler. I'm going to just say I might be
wrong, but Cersei sounds. Cooler all right, and I want to
(41:43):
wrap up by reading some of this really interesting article,
essay, I'm not sure, called FromGoddess to Hag, the Greek and
the Roman Witch in Classical Literature by Barbette Stanley
Spaeth. Forgive me, so I'm just going to
read a small excerpt from it. Medea and Cersei.
(42:03):
Medea and Kirky, for example, are both of divine lineage and
I'm just going to say Cersei, and Cersei is called a dread
goddess. Which is so cool.
While Medea is a priestess of Hecatine, it may be that in the
earliest stages of their mythic life, these figures were not
thought to be witches. That is, magical practitioners,
(42:26):
for the concept of magic was notfully formed until the 5th
century BCE. That's I should probably put
that earlier in the episode. That's interesting.
The concept of magic was not fully formed until the 5th
century BCE. Ancient witches, in fact, seem
obsessed with the things of the body.
They are driven largely by bodily lust.
(42:46):
Cersei desires Odysseus for her bed, Medea lusts for Jason,
Samantha craves her delphice, Folia has a masculine libido
quote UN quote, and Moreau and Fotis are all driven by their
sexual desires, which is lust isconsidered so overpowering that
(43:07):
it can cause male impotence. Imagine in Homer, Hermes warns
Odysseus that having sex with the witch Cersei might make him
weakly and unmannered. Nope.
Weakly and unmanned. Hmm.
In Petronius, the woman Cersei causes inculpius.
(43:30):
Jesus, why did I do this to myself?
I. I'm so sorry this has been such
a struggle. I was so interested in this
topic and then actually reading all these names aloud is really
difficult. OK.
Cersei causes Enculpius Enculpius to become impotent.
Interesting, although he tries to heal his impotence with the
(43:51):
help of the witches Procellinoseand Oh no Thea, Oh no that's me
this whole episode. Their own lust also proves more
than he can handle. So he gets impotent from a witch
and he goes to other witches. Like help me with my witch
impotence, my witch Potence if you will.
(44:13):
The lustful actions of these witches are a form of inversion
of the natural order, for according to ancient
conceptions, it was the male whowas supposed to be the active
sexual partner in assuming the active role, which is call into
question the normative sexual roles of men and women in
classical culture, threatening the culturally constructed
(44:34):
boundaries of male and female. As for modern witches like 2025
witches, there's actually not a ton that I could find on modern
Greek folkloric magic or witchcraft, and I think that's
kind of by design. Maybe if I spoke Greek and I
could read and write Greek, maybe then I would have an
(44:57):
easier time. But as an American,
unfortunately, I really couldn'tfind much anymore any more
modern than the evil eye stuff that I shared at the beginning
or anything past 1900 when the book Modern Greek Folklore and
Ancient Greek Religion, A Study in Survivals was written by John
Cuthbert Lawson. And I will close this episode on
(45:20):
a little snippet of the different kinds of magic that
could happen in 1900. So for this particular spell,
it's a spell of binding and it would be used, let's just say by
someone who is jealous and does not want a marriage to be
consummated. Because then ideally, if the
marriage isn't consummated, thenit can they then they can break
(45:41):
up. And then whoever is casting the
spell can get together with whoever it is because now they
haven't been officially married.OK, so this is a spell of
binding. Its purpose is to fetter the
virility of the husband and so to prevent the consummation of
the marriage. The right itself is simple.
Either the jealous girl herself.OK, I think I think we're making
(46:03):
a big assumption here, John Cuthbert Lawson because we now
know that it was mostly men thatwere doing the love based curse
tablets. So let's just let's pull that
back in. I don't know that it's always
going to be a jealous girl anyway.
The jealous person or a witch employed by this jealous person
attends the wedding. This, the gall of this, attends
(46:27):
the wedding, taking with them a piece of Oh, this is the witch.
The witch employed by the personattends the wedding.
The witch takes a piece of thread or string in which 3
loops have been closely made during the reading of the gospel
or the pronouncement of the blessing.
The witch then pulls the ends ofthe string, forming thereby 3
(46:49):
knots in the string, and at the same time mutters the brief
incantation. I bind blank and blank and the
devil betwixt them. How cool is that?
You're binding them together, but the.
Devils in the middle of those that they okay.
The thread is subsequently buried or hidden, and unless it
can be found and either burnt orhave the knots untied, there is
(47:14):
small hope for the man to recover from his impotence.
There is no doubt, I think, thatthe extreme fear in which this
spell is held has in some cases so worked upon the bridegroom's
nerves as to render the binding actually effective, just as
extreme faith in miraculous in miraculous icons occasionally
effects cures of. I don't know, I cut the last bit
(47:35):
of that off, but you see what I'm saying?
Some of the grooms are so scaredof a witch casting an impotence
spell on them that they then render themselves impotence.
Did I know when I started did this episode that I was going to
be talking about impotence so much?
No, I didn't. Am I bothered by it?
Also no. Also no.
(47:57):
Hopefully you weren't either. So all to say, the three women
that Good composer saw sitting outside of Grandma's house, who
were they? Were they the three fates?
Were they perhaps the Hocus Pocus witches?
I don't remember their. Names off the top of my head.
So who knows? We'll never know.
(48:18):
We'll never know if they were intending to cast an evil eye.
We'll never know if they were trying to cast some sort of
impotent spell. We'll never know.
We'll never know. But if you have a strange
encounter with someone that may be considered a witch, or at
least which adjacent, you can send me your story and I may
read it on the show. e-mail me madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
(48:40):
And again, good composer, thank you so much for allowing me to
read your story. And I hope everybody learned at
least one thing from this episode.
In fact, let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify or
e-mail me at madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
What was the most interesting thing that you learned?
From this episode, I'd love to hear it.
(49:07):
Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger.
You're safe here with me, probably.
Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the
unexplained. Now I'm running A1 Madam Show
here, so please do me a strange solid and follow the podcast or
leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify and maybe even join the
(49:30):
Patreon at patreon.com/madam Strangeways for bonus content.
Madam Strangeways is produced and narrated by me.
Madam Strangeways theme music isby marina.ryan@marinamakes.co.
Cover art is by Andrea Chiselle Roldan at Cult of Teddy on
Instagram. Every Strange story is shared
(49:53):
with the permission of the author.
You can submit your own true strange story to
madamstrangeways@gmail.com or check out the website
madamstrangeways.com. See you soon, she said
ominously.
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