This class will be both instructional and a circle of sharing with 4 online live meetings with pdf handouts.
All meetings will be recorded.
Everyone is welcome!
DATES AND TIMES
All meetings on Wednesdays at 6:30pm eastern:
March 6
March 13
March 20
March 27
The Magara and the Medicine
ITALIAN FOLKLORIC WITCHCRAFT
4 Weeks: March 6-March 27 2024
Who were the witches? Who are they today?
The “witch” shows up in cultures around the world in various forms from the village herbalist and healer to the Baba Yaga and death goddesses, the evil queen in fairy tales and the demonic child killer in Christian mythos. The word witch itself has multiple connotations. In Italian folk magic the witch has many names, but is often known as “strega” and plural “streghe”, a word that has become derogatory as well as accusatory in many circumstances. But they have many other names including those of endearment such as “Magara” coming from a Calabrian dialect to mean both healer, medicine person, and magician.
A witch, in this sense, is someone who can conduct magic from the elements of nature, from the earth, air, fire, and water, from the divine and vital spark of humans and other beings who have an innate creative and healing propensity. Witchcraft is a relational practice that originates in community and collective needs and values as it has emerged from Italian and Italian American culture.
In this course we’ll explore the many aspects of the “witch” from an Italian perspective (both Italy and Italian America) past and present. Witchcraft in some of its forms is a very ordinary, every day, way of life. In terms of Italian witchcraft or what might be called such it has been a part of the cultural system, it emerged from the people. It’s natural magic and medicine.
Note: We are using the term “Italian” here to describe the many folkoric healing practices of the peasants of Southern Italy and the way that these practices evolved in the Italian American diaspora. But it’s important to note that Italy was not a unified country until 1861 and there is no standardized Italian witchcraft tradition. The practices shared here may be similar across the many different regions of Southern Italy but were often uniquely formulated from family to family and village to village.
