I Was a Witch Before The Craft Made It Cool

Greetings my lovelies,

I have a confession that may get my Gen X witch card revoked.

I love The Craft.

There. I said it.

It came out in 1996, gave us Nancy Downs in all her gloriously unhinged glory, enough black eyeliner to supply an entire decade, and four teenage girls stomping around like they had just discovered the supernatural equivalent of unlimited data.

It was dark. It was dramatic. It was fun as hell.

It was also not the witchcraft I knew.

And that’s something I’ve been thinking about lately, because The Craft didn’t introduce me to witchcraft.

I knew witchcraft before the movie came out.

I didn’t sit in that theater watching Sarah, Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle and think, Ohhhh, so that’s what witches do.

I was sitting there thinking:

What the hell are these girls doing?

Witchcraft Wasn’t About Becoming Supernatural

The craft I knew wasn’t about becoming powerful enough to control everyone around you.

We worked with herbs. We made preparations and potions. Healing mattered. Knowledge mattered. Learning what plants were traditionally used for, working with intention, understanding what you were doing and why you were doing it—that was the craft I recognized.

And historically, plants, herbal preparations, charms, protective objects, healing practices, and folk remedies really have existed alongside magical traditions in many different cultures.

People have used herbs and plants for healing, protection, ritual, and folk magic for centuries. Different traditions developed in different places, often blending local plant knowledge, spirituality, family practices, folklore, and healing.

So that part?

Very real.

What wasn’t part of my experience was changing the color of your hair with magic because you were pissed off at somebody.

Or making some guy become instantly obsessed with you.

Or causing someone’s hair to fall out because she was cruel to you.

And it certainly wasn’t invoking some mysterious god so you could stroll across the ocean like Nancy Fucking Downs.

That’s where Hollywood enters the chat.

But Here’s Where It Gets Complicated

The funny thing is that The Craft didn’t completely invent its witchcraft out of thin air.

The filmmakers actually hired a Wiccan consultant named Pat Devin because director Andrew Fleming wanted the rituals to feel believable.

She advised them on spells and ritual elements, and Fleming later explained that some of the incantations used in the movie came from existing traditions while others were written or adapted specifically for the film.

And Manon?

Not an ancient god I’d somehow missed while learning the craft.

They made him up.

The filmmakers deliberately invented Manon rather than using the name of an actual deity.

And honestly, knowing that makes the movie even more interesting to me.

Because it explains why the witchcraft in The Craft feels just believable enough to convince people.

There are circles.

Candles.

Elements.

Incantations.

An occult shop.

An experienced practitioner warning the girls about consequences.

Pieces of recognizable Wiccan practice and occult tradition are sitting right next to completely fictional mythology and supernatural movie magic.

It isn’t entirely real.

It isn’t entirely bullshit.

It’s Hollywood doing what Hollywood does best:

Taking reality, sprinkling glitter and special effects all over it, and hoping nobody asks too many questions.

Witchcraft and Wicca Are Not the Same Thing

This is another distinction the movie understandably doesn’t spend much time explaining.

Wicca and witchcraft are not interchangeable words.

Modern Wicca developed as a Pagan religious movement during the twentieth century and includes many different traditions and individual practices. Nature, seasonal cycles, ritual, elements, gods and goddesses, and magical practice may all play roles depending on the person or tradition.

Witchcraft, however, is much broader.

People have practiced things described as magic, folk magic, charms, healing, divination, curses, protection, and ritual in cultures all over the world and throughout history.

Some witches are Wiccan.

Some aren’t.

Some witches belong to other Pagan traditions.

Some follow folk traditions.

Some practice alone.

Some work within covens.

Some incorporate religion into their practice.

Others don’t.

Which is why saying “witches believe…” is almost always where things start getting messy.

There isn’t one universal witchcraft.

There never has been.

And there certainly isn’t a Witch Headquarters somewhere handing out the official Witch Employee Handbook.

Which brings me to one of my favorite ridiculous moments in the movie.

“Witch Betray Her Coven…”

Oh, Nancy.

By this point, Nancy is completely off her rocker, drunk on power and acting like she personally wrote the bylaws for witchcraft.

The whole idea is delivered with such seriousness that if you knew nothing about witchcraft, you could easily believe there was some ancient universal law stating that witches never betray their covens.

Girl.

Your coven is approximately fifteen minutes old.

You found Sarah, realized you finally had your fourth, called the corners, invoked your freshly invented movie god, and suddenly you’re the regional manager of witchcraft.

Calm down.

Covens absolutely can have rules.

Some traditions have initiation requirements. Some have oaths. Some keep rituals, teachings, or practices private. Individual groups can establish expectations about loyalty, secrecy, behavior, or membership.

But that isn’t the same thing as one universal law applying to every witch everywhere.

There is no worldwide Witch Supreme Court.

Nobody from corporate was coming to audit Nancy’s coven.

Different magical and religious traditions developed independently, with their own beliefs and practices.

Which makes Nancy’s sudden promotion to Chief Witch Compliance Officer even funnier.

And Yes, Witches Have Absolutely Used Curses

Here’s another place where I don’t want to accidentally swing too far in the opposite direction.

Just because my experience of witchcraft centered much more around herbs, healing, knowledge, protection, intuition, and intention doesn’t mean darker or coercive forms of magic never existed.

They absolutely did.

Archaeologists have found curse tablets from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Historical sources describe spells intended to influence love, business, legal disputes, competition, revenge, and protection.

People have used charms and magical practices in attempts to attract lovers, punish enemies, protect homes, influence powerful people, heal illness, locate missing things, and change their circumstances.

Humans apparently discovered magic and immediately thought:

Fantastic. Can I use this against Brenda?

Of course we did.

So curses, love magic, protective magic, charms, healing practices, and coercive magic didn’t originate with The Craft.

But Hollywood took ideas with long and complicated histories and compressed them into a two-hour supernatural teenage drama where spells work instantly and visibly.

Real traditions are rarely that tidy.

That’s the Part That Gets Me

You have to remember what 1996 was like.

There was no smartphone sitting in your hand while you watched the movie.

You couldn’t pause Nancy mid-breakdown, Google “Who the hell is Manon?” and spend the next three hours falling down a rabbit hole comparing Wicca, folk magic, ceremonial magic, Pagan traditions, historical witchcraft, occultism, and sixteen people arguing on a message board.

Most people had libraries.

Bookstores.

Maybe the early internet if you happened to be online already.

Whatever practitioners they happened to know.

And whatever television and movies showed them.

So if The Craft was someone’s first major exposure to witchcraft, why wouldn’t some of it stick?

The movie looked convincing.

There were herbs and candles.

There were rituals.

There was an occult shop.

There was an older woman who seemed to know what she was talking about.

There were circles and elements and warnings about consequences.

And we now know some of those details were intentionally made to feel authentic.

It had just enough recognizable material mixed into the Hollywood bullshit to make the bullshit look authentic too.

Meanwhile, I already knew another side of the craft.

That’s probably why watching it has always been different for me.

Nancy Didn’t Want Witchcraft. She Wanted Control.

This is where I think The Craft accidentally says something much more interesting than all its supernatural theatrics.

Nancy wants power because Nancy has spent her life feeling powerless.

She’s poor.

She’s angry.

She’s humiliated.

Her home life is horrible.

She’s been treated like shit.

And when she suddenly believes she has access to enormous supernatural power, she doesn’t simply want her circumstances to change.

She wants to make damn sure nobody can ever make her feel powerless again.

And that’s when power becomes control.

She controls.

She punishes.

She intimidates.

She demands loyalty.

She decides who deserves consequences.

She isn’t becoming spiritually enlightened.

She’s becoming consumed by the very thing she thought would free her.

Now that is an interesting story.

Because whether you believe in magic or don’t believe in a damn bit of it, humans have been screwing themselves up with power since somebody first realized they could tell somebody else what to do.

You don’t need Manon for that.