Witches

The study of the occult is important not just as a historical fyi but because it touches on many different important aspects about the history of a culture. In terms of understanding the history of how witchcraft is understood, we can easily see that it is the history of a women's experience as told by a male perspective. Texts like the Records of the Salem witch trials uncovers the muted and legalistic way the history of these events were recorded, leaving out important details like the frequent use of torture and kangaroo courts. 

Elspeth Whitney's essay on the history of witchcraft as it relates to a gendered reading of history points out that how we understand the history of witch trials reflects a larger unwillingness to include women in our collective history. As witches grew in cultural acceptance, so too did our willingness to address and confront the anxieties that lied at the heart of these trials. 

Witchcraft also has an important spirtual dimension that shouldn't be overlooked. While western culture largely still demonizes witchcraft or views it as a pseudo-religious practice, many non-Western cultures till carry on many traditions associated with witchcraft. Understanding the sociological perspective of witchcraft in non-Western traditions uncovers important dimensions of feminism that have been largely overlooked. Matriarchal-centered creation myths and feminine goddesses can help reorient the value we associate with femininity. 

As Tanice Foltz argues in Women's Spirituality Research: Doing Feminism, femine spirituality still plays a vital role in both addressing and healing from acts of sexual violence, domestic abuse, and addiction. In understanding the spiritual side of feminism, we come across a framework for understanding not only the international role that contemporary witchcraft plays but also how we can develop entirely new dimensions for counteracting violent patriarchal insitutions.