The Witch: A Cult Tale Of Targeted Indoctrination

by David Edwards Billed as a horror film, Robert Eggers 2015 cult classic "The Witch" offered so much more than the usual fare of Hollywood supernatural thrillers. For one thing, it's a pretty authentic feeling period drama, set in New England during the mid 17th Century, which draws the viewer straight into a bleak vision of puritanical settlers from England, fighting to maintain their piety in a wild, untamed new land. In this analysis I would like to look at the films major theme of subversion of the traditional order in a tale that simultaneously presents the themes of individualised liberation and the dangers of straying from established hierarchy. The films young woman protagonist is preyed upon in a relentless process of targeted indoctrination and systemic sabotage to change her will, and ultimately betray her principles as taught by her family and faith. Before we begin, here's a taste of the film through its trailer (although I would recommend viewing the film in its entirety before reading this analysis).

The Witch (trailer) Satanic witches were rumoured to target isolated families and terrorise them during the period in which the film is set, and for the purposes of this narrative, the filmmakers chose to base much of the dialogue and ritual acts witnessed in the story on collected folklore,

historical accounts and court records. As I stated in the introduction, the authenticity put into the film is thorough, even down to the northern English dialect of the actors cast in the roles. An overriding factor when initially watching the film is the decision by the viewer to commit to whether this is a tale of folklore or a more true snapshot of a very paranoid point in Western man's spiritual history. The kind of violent hysteria witnessed in the Salem witch trials, as seen in Arthur Miller's 1953 play "The Crucible", and through the 15th to 18th centuries in early modern Europe saw many people accused of affronts to Christendom. These indignities grew from persecutions of religious heresy, to the unfortunate accused being implicated for worshipping the Devil and engaging in pernicious devilry at meetings known commonly as Witches Sabbaths. In a very interesting chapter of William Dufty's "Sugar Blues", the author argues that witches were local women healers and essentially nutritionists who were targeted by Priests and Doctors for being outside the dominant religious and medical orthodoxy, and seen as undermining both professions, in an interesting take on the reasons for their violent persecution. "The church declared, in the fourteenth century, that "if a woman dare to cure without having studied, she is a witch and must die". Catholics and Protestant churchmen forbade the exercising of healing arts or the dispensing of common sense wisdom under pain of death. Never mind that such people had spent their entire lives in practical study. They had studied the order of the universe, the seeds and the stars, the animals, birds, and bees in their native habitat. Nature and tradition were their teachers, not the scriptures as interpreted by the priests. The printing press did not exist. All knowledge and history not in the hands of all-powerful priests was passed on from natural healer to natural healer. ... ... Natural healing had become witchcraft. ... the whole [healing] encounter could be turned on its head. You had been bewitched. ... Bewitchment was the province of the exorcist and priest. The cure prescribed was for the bewitched person to denounce the natural healer as a witch or a wizard, the source of the unholy spell! The punishment? Burning at the stake. ...

... In the age of witch hunts, the disorders, occurrences, and signs were divided into two categories: Those thought to be your own fault (physical) and those thought to be the work of the devil (mental). ... ... With the support of kings and princes, the medieval church asserted complete control over medical education and practice. The infamous 1486 manual for witch hunters, Malleus Maleficarium (The Hammer of Witches), defined witches as "those who try to induce others to perform evil wonders". Healing was one of the wonders they had in mind. Heresy was sweepingly defined as "infidelity in a person who has been baptised". Midwives were singled out as "surpassing all others in wickedness". There may never have been male chauvinist pigs to surpass the Inquisitors who declared that "all witch-craft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable"." -William Dufty, from 'Sugar Blues' (1975) The methods of the witch trials varied, as did the punishments, but frequently the penalty for being found guilty of being a Witch was death. It is estimated that a total of 40,000 to 60,000 people were executed for practising witchcraft, and it is largely felt that many of these deaths were likely the victims of local gossip, grudges, superstitions and collectivised frenzy. Unfortunately in some underdeveloped parts of the modern 21st Century world, witch-hunting is still very much active, with the persecution working on the similar thin principles as those of the 15th to 18th centuries. "It is tempting to point to poverty in the developing world, as well as scapegoating, as the chief causes of anti-witch attacks — and such forces are undoubtedly at work. But while Africa and the southwestern Pacific have a long history of economic misery, much of this violence, especially against children, has worsened since 2000. The surge suggests forces other than economic resentment or ancient superstition. In some communities, it is chiefly young men who take on the role of witch hunters, suggesting that they may see it as a way to earn prestige by cleansing undesirables and enforcing social mores. That many of the self-appointed witch hunters are men highlights another baleful aspect of the phenomenon: The majority of victims are women. ..."

-Mitch Horowitz, from 'The Persecution of Witches, 21st-Century Style' (New York Times, 04/07/2014, re-posted at When The News Stops) Modern, popularised, Western notions of witches have become intrinsically entangled with the resurgence of New Age mysticism, Pagan forms of female empowerment, and even feminism. However, in this film the focus is on Satanic witchcraft, so my wish is not to deviate from ideas essentially linked with this particular focus of black magic, although surprisingly the theme of feminist empowerment does have a well cited interplay with Satanism, which I will return to later in this analysis. As I have already observed, the film is a tale of individualised feminist liberation, a cautionary tale of communal isolation and the dangers of abandoning a traditional patriarchal hierarchy. Whatever way, it is a tale of targeted indoctrination of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, by a coven of witches and the Devil they worship, who seduces her with the prospect of "living deliciously". A vast emphasis is stressed on how wrong it can all go unless one adheres to an established and approved social structure, with an organised system of belief and worship at its heart. It is a folk tale, echoing the morality of the time in history it is portraying.

The terrified victim/protagonist looks on as her father makes the

choice to defiantly accept exile, dooming his family to destruction at the hands of the coven.

The opening shot of the film immediately shows Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) as the focus of the story. Her gravel voice father, William (Ralph Ineson) establishes the central theme of the film, the

departure from the established patriarchal order and its Satanic inversion. "What went we out into this wilderness to find? Leaving our country, kindred, our fathers houses?" William has now accepted banishment from the Puritan plantation and its "liberties"; this is a doublespeak inversion of the truth, as living in such a community had many restrictions on individuals. It becomes apparent during his hearing before the tribunal (or coven if you will!), that his crime is a non specified divergence from their Calvinistic theological teachings, and that he has been spreading the teachings of the gospels, most likely within his own family in violation of the laws of the commonwealth. But why would there be issue with how the internal theological beliefs of his family are structured? "The family was the most basic institution in Puritan society and was organised like a miniature church. Established by God before all other institutions and before man's fall, the family was considered the foundation of all civil, social, and ecclesiastical life. In the morning and evening the family assembled together for worship, and on Sunday the family joined other families in worship." -Ken Curtis, Ph.D., from 'Who Were The Puritans'

The tribunal echoes the body politic structure of the Puritan system, and

the trinitarian system of Western Christianity. The Trinitarian system is vital to Western branches of Christian theology, particularly Calvinism, which the puritans brought to the

colonies as the basis of their dogma and the central structure of their society. I am no expert on theological matters, or precise terminology, but of value to this discussion at this point, is the following excerpt from Jay Dyer's essay "More Problems in Western and Calvinistic Theology". "The West starts with the nature and “attributes” of God for the most part, which are attributes of God’s simple essence. ... The basis of all of this is the confusion of nature and Person in God and all the multifarious implications that flow from this. The implications flow out into Christology and soteriology. It should be obvious that our soteriology has to match up with our view of Christ and our view of the Trinity. ...

... The starting place for theology is the Trinity and Incarnation as exemplified at the Ecumenical Councils of the first 1,000 years. All theologizing then flows from this. ...” -Jay Dyer, from More Problems in Western and Calvinistic Theology' (2010) William's self righteousness and pride will be his undoing as his family become banished into the wilderness, and a process of isolation piled on top of isolation from European civilisation in the colonies begins, as the family set out to make their minute homestead in a place in the unknown. Thomasin is shocked at the prospect, and her brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) has to stir her out of her hesitation to follow her family from the tribunal and the community. Perhaps their expulsion has something to do with her? As the family leaves the plantation on their rickety cart, just before the gates are shut to them two native Indians observe them and turn

their backs, as have the other members of the community. This family is to be forgotten, considered even lower than "godless savages", who are still welcome in the estate.

Even the natives on the plantation turn their backs on the family as

they leave the plantation. The sense of foreboding and dread as the family slowly bounces away with all their possessions into the wilderness is emphasised by the building screech of violins, and even Caleb's attempts to lighten the mood and instil some family unity by singing does little to de-emphasise the gravitas of the situation. This is a family whose souls are entering into isolated peril, and it is only Thomasin who seems aware at this point, as she stares at the receding settlement and its protective walls and guards.

Banishment and the prospect of an ill fate isolated in the wilderness.

When the family come to their choice of location to build their homestead, William is seen kissing the ground, echoing sailors and

explorers upon finally being upon terra firma, and he and his wife Catherine (Kate Dickie) are then seen giving praise to God with their arms outstretched to the sky, in front of the forest and its sinister inhabitants, the coven, who will eventually come to destroy their family, enlist their eldest daughter, and "liberate" her femininity from the patriarchal hierarchy into which she was born. Unwittingly, William and Catherine are in a sense, "worshipping" the forest in this scene, further isolating them from the traditions of their Christian faith, in a drawn out process of nature and wildness creeping into the centre of their family, and inviting the very Devil into their midst, of whom they are so demonstrably afraid.

An unwitting animist rejoicing, where the forest, which will decide their

fate is the unconscious object of worship. The process witnessed from here on is the destruction of the traditional family by the coven,. They destroy all of Thomasin’s links with tradition to uproot her psychologically. The initial theft of the baby under Thomasin’s care is the causal catalyst to set the covens plans in motion. The baby's theft is painfully twinned with a game of innocence still played with babies today- 'peek-a-boo', and as Thomasin grows enthusiastic and more bold in the game, the baby smiles more and more, and this sense of family is suddenly ripped out when Thomasin uncovers her eyes to see the equivalent of an empty crib. What follows is the two poisonous twins, Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson) who seem obsessed with obnoxiously taunting the family he-goat, "Black Phillip", and inflaming family tensions in an already tense situation where crops have failed, whilst Catherine who already blames Thomasin for the loss of her youngest child, puts herself through inconsolable prayer and anguish.

The twins are clearly the antagonists within the family, and Mercy's playing as "the witch o' the woods" prompts Thomasin's subconscious affirmation that she is the target of the coven and their Master as she states that in fact she is the witch, in an attempt to scare Mercy. By assuming the role of the witch in jest, Thomasin marks herself further as the target of the coven. Caleb chastises her for doing so, and it seems he is far more pious than his sister, who during an earlier prayer has confessed that she has "played on the Sabbath", overtly a reference to offending puritan piety, but surreptitiously a possible reference to her later submission to the Devil and her acceptance into the coven. Thomasin clearly has a close relationship with her brother Caleb, and Mercy interrupts a conversation between them where Caleb seems on the verge of confessing sexual interest in his older sister, who is blooming into womanhood. He has already been looking at her developing breasts whilst she sleeps in an earlier scene, and the speculative subtext is that potentially the family's expulsion from the plantation may have had something to do with this hint at an incestuous relationship. From a conversation between Catherine and William, it is revealed that Thomasin has begun to menstruate, and is becoming a woman. Later, Mercy's outright accusation whilst in the goat shed that Thomasin is a witch, immediately precedes the horrific point where the family's she goat begins producing blood from her teat instead of milk. This is a symbolic nod towards Thomasin's own perilous transition from childhood innocence into adolescence, usually a point in life that we in modernity associate with sexual awakening and exploration.

Images: (Left) The she goat begins to produce blood instead of milk, a sign of biwitchement. (Middle) Black Phillip and his unwitting acolytes look on in

shock, Mercy and Jonas realise their games of summoning the Devil are more than just play. (Right) The bucket is kicked over by Thomasin and symbolically

blends with the harvested hay, a nod to to her transition into womanhood.

For Puritan society, this would have been a time of repression, to preserve one's virginity and restrain carnal lusts. It is a time of temptation, and Thomasin's orgasmic/demonic ascension and transformation at the close of the film after signing her name in the Devils book is her moment of "feminine, empowered ascension." Was it Thomasin's transgression, and not her fathers, that led to her family's initial banishment? Did she engage her lust with a boy, possibly Caleb? The establishing shot of her at the outset of the film, closely followed by a shot of Caleb, could be interpreted to imply this. Caleb, who as the oldest son has a close relationship with his father, reveals to William as they hunt that he is worried that he hasn't figured out his place in the world or his purpose and doesn't want to go to hell, like the snatched baby surely will. Caleb reaches a state of martyred apotheosis, after his deathbed confession, where he thinks he embraces Christ fully. However, the apple lodged in his throat by the witch, later discovered by his parents, after wrenching his locked jaws open with a knife, is the catalyst for the parents to finally believe that their daughter is a witch. It is his death which ushers in the death and dissolution of the rest of his family, isolating Thomasin, and enabling her to join the coven. Caleb's seduction, after chasing the enchanted hare, by the apparently beautiful witch and his surreal entrance into her house is evocative of folktales such as "Hansel and Gretel".

Image: (Left) The Witch Of The Woods' enchanted cottage, (Right) She seduces

Caleb, but it is apparent her youthful appearance is an illusion. As I have explored in a previous observation, this story was inspired by times of famine and cannibalism in Northern Europe. The earlier scene where the witch appears to have dismembered, ground up and eaten the missing baby, gaining a youthful appearance to carry out the deception Caleb falls for, also ties into this nod to this now famous fairytale, deeply rooted in cautionary folk-lore.

The Witch Of The Woods grinds up the snatched baby, and uses its

blood. Stealing innocence, specifically its essence, seems of great importance to the hag who inhabits the woods. As we have seen, she utilises every aspect of the baby she has snatched, smearing its blood all over herself, and her staff, which when she seduces Caleb, gives her the appearance of youth and beauty. It does seem that she, like the puritans, must maintain her youth through ingesting purity, as we see in the later scene in the goat-shed, when she suckles for the pure milk of the she-goat, never going near Black Phillip. This brings us back to the issue of Thomasins menstruation, and the banishment of her family from the plantation. Young women were frequently married off as soon as they began showing signs of transitioning into womanhood, or adolescence. This seems to have been a desperate societal move to maintain religious purity, as men had lusts, even fathers and brothers, so marrying young women off as soon as they were of age to get them away from incestuous temptations within their own families made sense. Young women were also a manner of buying into another family, which is why it was vital that daughters were kept pure in mind and body before being given to her future husband. William, Thomasin's father, seems incapable of seeing his own sin. His self-righteous defiance at the laws of the plantation is what sees him and his family banished. He truly believes that he is far more pious than he seems, and later he sells his wife's silver cup, admittedly for what he sees as his family's survival in the face of

failed crops. Yet when his wife expresses her attachment to this trinket, he accuses her of greed, only after explanation understanding her sentimental attachment to it, as it belonged to her father. Moreover, he allows his wife to blame Thomasin for its disappearance, knowing full well that he took it, thus committing a knowing sin. So again, he has severed another link to an established patriarchy, and has enforced his family's isolation again, out of his own sanctimony. The issue of the missing silver cup, and the secrecy surrounding its disappearance, is another catalyst which fuels the bloody catharsis that destroys the unity within the family. The official endorsement of the film by the Satanic temple, who premiered screenings, featuring interactive performances to their members, calling it "a transformative Satanic experience", which featured "ritualised pronouncements of a new Satanic era", is of particular interest. From the perspective of Satanists, the film promotes their values of inversion of the traditional order, of which feminism plays a large ideological role. Just to be clear, I am not blanket-accusing feminists of being practising Satanists, I am merely observing the embracement of this movement within Satanism as a secondary identity. "Satanic women don't want to gain their strength by castrating men, or by making themselves out as victims. ... We don't need "feminism" on our sleeve as our primary identity. We have our identity as Satanists. Satanic women are fierce; fierce defenders of their men, of their children, of their ideas and values. Wiccans understand the female archetype in a completely different way than Satanists do. We know that Woman is Nature - Darwinian law as well as peaceful, awe-inspiring sunsets. Women can be conniving and ruthless, plotting and vengeful. "Mother Nature" isn't loving and all-embracing. She's selective, cruel and unyielding."-Blanche Barton, from 'Satanic Feminism' (1997) In the controversial and confrontational 2013 film "Nymphomaniac (Vol.1)" by Lars Von Trier, which I personally did not enjoy, the central character in the story, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourgh) relays to her rescuer Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), the tale of her sexual addiction. In a flashback scene, she relays how her younger self and a group of adolescent young women formed a group to celebrate their sexual liberation, where they chant “Mea vulva, mea maxima vulva”, words that they have also written on a wall behind them.

Lars Von Trier's 2013 film "Nymphomaniac (Vol.1)"

Seligman interrupts her to point out that the chant is in the diminished fifth key, the Devil's interval, which was banned by the Church in the 11th Century, and that her groups mantra is reminiscent of a Satanic chant. Her surprise at learning this highlights the dangers of using chants as if they are harmless fun which can bring an element of mystery to an otherwise seemingly harmless game, rather than respecting the words and acknowledging the power of spells and incantations. Endless horror films have been made where the protagonists fall into the trap of using spells for fun, and being terrorised as a consequence. "I didn't know" is not an excuse, and to ignore the warnings of not using 'magick' lightly, ends in disaster every time. "According to the Bible, Eve was the first to heed Satan’s advice to eat of the forbidden fruit. The notion of woman as the Devil’s accomplice is prominent throughout the history of Christianity. During the nineteenth century, rebellious females performed counter-readings of this misogynist tradition. Hereby, Lucifer was reconceptualised as a feminist liberator of womankind, and Eve became a heroine. In these reimaginings, Satan is an ally in the struggle against a patriarchy supported by God the Father and his male priests." -Per Faxneld, from 'Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the liberator of woman in nineteenth-century culture: Project Summary' (2007–2013) The theme of inversion of the divine order in Satanism leads to popularised portrayals of inverted crucifixes in places of Satanic

worship represented in films. The Catholic church, however, asserts that its symbolic use within the Papacy is a reference to the succession of the papacy to the martyrdom of St. Peter, who had insisted on being crucified upside down. Representations of the inverted cross in popular culture denoting Satanism have somewhat muddied the water in the public zeitgeist, with many accusations levelled against the papacy as in fact being a Satanic organisation. I do not wish to add to the confusion on this debate by committing myself either way. Coincidentally, the symbol for the female sex, derived from the astrological sign for Venus, is a circle from which hangs an inverted cross. Perhaps this association is a semiotic link that Satanists have also embraced when incorporating feminine emancipation into their ideology, this is a speculative leap, yet nonetheless an interesting observation on the modern folklorish association between the two symbols.

In The Witch there are three symbolic harbingers of the evil forces conspiring against the family, echoing the Trinitarian theological structure of the plantation they have been banished from, this unholy trinity of tricksters have important roles to play in "liberating" the young witch to allow her to join the Witches Sabbath.

The Hare The Hare appears as the first of these harbingers. Its association with trickster spirits is immediately seen as Williams gun backfires when he tries to shoot it. The hare also leads Caleb to the hag in the woods, where her youthful appearance to is a trick enabled by the sacrifice and consumption of Caleb's baby sibling. The Hare also appears in the goat-shed just after the baby's disappearance, where it is a signal to

Thomasin of her increasing isolation from her family, letting her know it's there, that there is another path for her. Witches were born witches, it was not a choice, it was something inherent, and in this scene the hare is assuring her of where her allegiance should lie. Symbolically rabbits and hares are associated with Spring and fertility magic, particularly the March Hare in Medieval European folklore. As a central theme of this film revolves around innocence and sexual repression, to Thomasin the Hare's presence is also a symbol of her blossoming sensual freedom. In other legends, hares are associated with the underworld, particularly as its messengers. Therefore the choice of this animal as a harbinger of the Devil entering into the midst of this family is well placed. "And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you." -Levictus 11:6, from the Kings James Bible.

The Harbinger Hare appears three times in the second act (Left) when William's gun backfires, (Middle) when Thomasin is feeling alienated after beingscolded

by her mother for not bedding the goats down (Right) when the horse bolts and Caleb is led to the disguised Hag's dwelling.

The Raven

In a variety of cultures the Raven, a carrion feeding bird, is associated with death, and is frequently the harbinger of a trickster deity. In European Christian culture, the Raven is a sign of the ungodly. In Shakespeare's plays the ominous croak of the raven foreshadows the fatal entrance of Duncan in macbeth, in Othello the raven flies "o'er the infected house". Both of these references have evil connotations,

and in Genesis, in the story of the flood, Noah sent a raven to find land, but the bird did not return, so he sent a dove instead. The Raven was summoned back by force for his failure, and was blackened and condemned to feed on carrion as his punishment. In the Christian tradition, Ravens were believed to have a preference for feeding on the corpses of criminals, and rumoured to enjoy plucking out the eyes of sinners. In one of the more disturbing scenes in The Witch, Catherine is deceived by a spectre, pretending to be Caleb, who tricks her into thinking that her baby has been brought back to her. She begins to breastfeed what she thinks is her baby, but is revealed to be a raven in reality, after she has been presented with a book before her, a book which her daughter will later sign her own name into to join the coven.

The Raven pecks at Catherine's crazed breast.

The Goat One could say that family's He-goat "Black Phillip" becomes the star of the film. He is the Devil in their midst, and Mercy and Jonas make him the centre of their play, anthropomorphising him as an agent of the Devil, and by the conclusion of the film this becomes wholly accurate as he kills off William, the familial patriarch, and later morphs into the Devil to complete Thomasin's entrance into the ranks of the coven.

The associations between goats and the Devil stems from the symbol of the inverted pentagram, when an image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book "La Clef de la Magie Noire" by Stanislas de Guaita. This image was later adopted as the official symbol of the Anton La Vey's Church of Satan and is known as the "Sigil of Baphomet". Goats have not always been visually associated with Baphomet, as in Templar lore the severed head of John The Baptist is known as the entity, which is fabled to have had the power of prophecy. Baphomet appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century, and this association, along with the Goat of Mendes has been confused and incorporated into various mystical and occult traditions, as seen with its appropriation within popular forms of Satanism.

In 1856, Eliphas Levi created a drawing of an androgynous "Sabbatic Goat", and this image contains alchemical connotations due the appearance of the words "Solve et Coagula" on the etching. This represents the fallen angelic hierarchy and the usurpation of the power of "loosing and binding" from God, according to Catholic

tradition. The image has an almost classical, mythologised association with Satanism and demons in our time. The Christian theological association between goats and demons is further expanded upon by Jay Dyer in his essay "Liturgy, Lilith and Satyrs", and is worth referencing for further information. Thomasin's tragic journey into the Witches Sabbath is portrayed as an inevitability. She is summoned by a dark pre-ordained spiritual calling, and the death of her family, her increasing isolation and the rejection of the Puritan Christian values into which she was born all play an important function in her acceptance of her role as a witch. She is targeted, broken down and prepared for her new calling into the circle, and her transformation and ascension into the darkness.

Thomasin's final dark, feminine empowered ascension.

"It was alleged that when a sorcerer [witch] felt him-[her]-self summoned to the Sabbath it was impossible to prevent him [her] from going there, and that he [she] was able to make way past any barrier ... This accursed gathering, which will always remain one of the most disquieting features of the Middle Ages, was certainly the Satanic masterwork." -Grillot De Givry, from 'Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy' (1931)