The Lore and Myths of Witches Chapter 6: Decline, Survival & Modern Rebirth

Follow witchcraft from Enlightenment skepticism to Romantic fairy tales, Wicca, feminist reclamations, and today’s WitchTok revival. See how witches transformed from persecuted outcasts to cultural icons and spiritual innovators.

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This episode of The Strange History Podcast was lovingly crafted with the help of ElevenLabs.io — the magical technology that gives Amy her time to sleep, eat, work and spend time with her dog Jack. While some might say she sounds too good to be true, we assure you, Amy is absolutely a real person… who just happens to have access to studio-grade AI vocal cords and an unnatural ability to pronounce “necromancy” without flinching. Any resemblance to an AI is purely coincidental — and mildly flattering. Dan the announcers name is really Bill and Patrick, the fake ad guy who thinks he is funny? well he is questionable at best. So yes, AI was used but the people are real and the shinanigans are.... well.... shinanigans.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the last episode in our six part series
on the history of witches. Our broom has flown through caves, courts,
deserts and forests. Now we reach the long twilight of
the witch hunts and a new dawn where witches trade
pires for paperbacks, rituals, and streaming shows.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
The Enlightenment and the Last Trials seventeen hundred to eighteen hundred.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
By the early eighteenth century, Europe's appetite for witch burnings
had cooled. Intellectuals championed reason over superstition. Britain's Witchcraft Act
of seventeen thirty five treated spellcasting as fraud rather than heresy,
a bureaucratic shrug after centuries of panic. Still, the embers flickered.

(00:48):
Anna Guldi was executed in Switzerland in seventeen eighty two,
often dubbed Europe's last witch, though technically tried for poisoning.
Across Scandinavia and the Baltic small rural prosecutions lingered, usually
sparked by livestock illness or neighborly feuds. Folklore collectors noticed

(01:09):
a shift. People still believed in charms, but the diabolical
conspiracy faded replaced by stories about milk stealing hairs or
mysterious hag riders pressing on sleeper's chests.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Tonight's rational enlightenment is powered by Voltaire's candles guaranteed to
chase away darkness and the occasional wandering spirit.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Romanticism and folklore fever eighteen hundred to nineteen hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
The nineteenth century didn't banish witches. It rebranded them. Writers
like Gerda His Valpurgis Knocked in Faust and The Brothers
Grim gave witches dramatic capes and gingerbread. Real estate painters
filled canvases with moonlit hags. Composers wrote ballet witches whirling
on mountain sides. Folklorists such as Jacob Grimm, Thomas Keatley

(02:00):
and Russian scholar Alexander Afanasief roamed villages, collecting spells, charms,
and Baba yaga tales. Before they vanished under industrial smoke.
Witches became heritage, not courtroom evidence. In America, legends like
New York's Witch of Pungo or New England's Ghostly Witches
joined a growing Gothic appetite. Even polite Victorians enjoyed seance

(02:24):
parlors and spiritualist mediums. Not witches exactly, but proof that
curiosity about the unseen was alive and kicking.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
This heritage moment is brought to you by Fairytale Realty,
securing affordable housing in Gingerbread neighborhoods since eighteen twelve.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Twentieth century revivals WICCA, feminism, and pop culture.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Enter Margaret Murray, whose nineteen twenty one book The Witch
Cult in Western Europe proposed witches were survivors of a
pre Christian fertility religion. Academics soon did bunked the idea,
but popular imagination adored it. Mid Century civil servant turned
occultist Gerald Gardner launched WICCA, blending Murray's thesis ceremonial magic

(03:12):
and British folk customs. Gardner's followers and later branches like
Alexandrian Wicca shaped witchcraft into a religion celebrating nature, seasonal sabbots,
and the balance of goddess and God. By the nineteen
sixties to seventies, feminist thinkers reclaimed witch as a badge

(03:34):
of independence. Groups like the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from
Hell Witch staged cheeky hexes on Wall Street and beauty
pageants academic studies reframed trials as gendered violence rather than
proof of dark arts. Television and film kept witches fashionable,

(03:55):
bewitched charmed audiences. The Witches of Eastwick gave them sass.
Harry Potter trained a new generation in Pop Myth's spell Work.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Looking to launch your own coven? Start right with broomshare
the sustainable way to commute to your midnight Sabbath.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
The twenty first century digital cauldrons and global covens.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Today, witchcraft spans bookstores, botanicas, and social media feeds. Neo
pagans gather for Solstice rituals. Appalachian granny magic blends herbs
and prayer. Afro Caribbean traditions thrive in botanicas and vodoo temples. Meanwhile,
TikTok's Witch Talk serves candle tutorials and moon manifests to millions.

(04:39):
Academics explore witch trials as lenses on law and power,
Heritage towns, run museums, and walking tours. For many, the
witch is a symbol of resistance, ecological awareness, or creativity.
For others, she remains a thrilling villain or Halloween icon.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
This digital spell is brought to you by Wi Fi familiar,
because even your cat deserves stable Internet during moon phases.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
A brooms I view, and here we are. From clay
tablets and courtrooms to hashtags and handcrafted brooms. Witches have
been healers, scapegoats, rebels, icons, and pop culture darlings. They
remind us that every society needs figures who cross boundaries,
challenge rules, and stir the imagination. So dear listeners, have

(05:33):
a wonderful Halloween. Enjoy the fun of today's version of
All Saints Day, Sewen, all Hallow's Day, and All Hallows Even,
or whatever you prefer to call it. And every little
witch you see this October thirty first takes some time
to tell her or him the history you learned here,
because history is wisdom, and wisdom is a secret art

(05:55):
of thinking, feeling, and breathing the thoughts of unity at
every moment of life. If you've loved this marathon ride
through history's most enchanting characters, subscribe, leave a review, and
maybe light a candle for luck or just for atmosphere.
Until next time, keep your herbs handy, your mind curious,

(06:15):
and your cauldron squeaky clean.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Final sponsor this entire series was unofficially powered by cauldron
clean keeping history's potions residue free since well, whenever cauldrons
were invented,