Witchy Women

Stevie Nicks, Rhiannon:

She is like a cat in the dark
And then she is to darkness
She rules her life like a fine skylark
And when the sky is starless
All your life you've never seen
Woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?

Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?

“Unruly women are always witches. No matter what century we’re in.”

It was that quote from American writer Roxane Gay that got my fellow Substacker Jennifer Louden thinking that maybe it’s time to get witchy. She writes that it “feels like the sanest way to handle the insanity that is life now.”

In her post titled We Are All Witches Now, Jennifer Louden states that the vitriol aimed at women has become acceptable. “Enough, she says, to threaten us, hurt us, even kill us.” She adds that her muteness over the last election “is crossed with rage and she doesn’t know what to do”. She says that “Saying “I’m a witch” always gives me such a shiver of joy and pride and energy.”

I’m looking forward to reading her upcoming fantasy novel about a magic school for mid-life women. Jennifer says the women learn to use desire and regret to control newly hatched magic. Their goal? To turn back the climate crisis and then, rule the world.

I’ve always been fascinated with witch stories. I’ve read the Deborah Harkness trilogy Discovery of Witches and watched the televised series twice now.

Back in the 70s, Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks wore the crown of the Welsh Witch in one of their hits …

Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night
And wouldn't you love to love her?
Takes to the sky like a bird in flight
And who will be her lover?
All your life you've never seen
Woman taken by the wind …

Stevie Nicks didn’t shy away from the role of witch. In fact she embraced it. Later she accepted a small role in the American Horror Story episode “Coven” because she could identify with the premise …

Why I relate to it and why I relate to Glee is because I think that Ryan just writes about misfits, whether they're kids that don't fit in in high school, or whether they're witches that don't fit into society. He just writes about people that don't fit in and I love that. Yeah. And I, and I just think it's brilliant.

I have a feeling that Stevie Nicks would agree with Roxane Gay and Jennifer Louden that perhaps witches might play a positive role for women in today’s world. On a recent episode of Sunday morning Nicks explained why she decided to get an abortion after getting pregnant with the Eagle’s Don Henley…

And it was like, why I have an IUD. I am totally protected. I have a great gynecologist. How come this has happened? So you took all the precautions? Yes, and I'm like, this can't be happening. Fleetwood Mac is three years in and it's big and we're going into our third album. It was like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. It would've destroyed Fleetwood Mac if you had a baby. Absolutely. Because many reasons I would've like tried my best to get through. You know, being in the studio every single day expecting a child, but mostly having a child with Don Henley would not have gone over big in Fleetwood Mac with Lindsay and me because we'd been broken up for two or three years. It would've been a nightmare scenario for me to live through.

She has since launched herself into the abortion rights movement with her latest recording. The Lighthouse is a rallying cry for women. It’s about fighting for women’s rights …

I wanna be the lighthouse
Bring all of you together
Bring it out in a song
Bring it out in stormy weather
Tell them the story

It’s interesting that the so called Welsh Witch took that leap in the 70s just as the women’s movement was getting underway. Jennifer Louden writes in her We Are All Witches Now post on Substack that getting witchy is nothing new. She says,“Feminists in the 60’s called themselves witches for just this reason, and practicing witches do political actions everyday.”

There are people who criticize your choice, condemn your choice, anything you wanna say to them? Well, I'd like to know. So are you just the few guys who are making the decisions for us? And ultimately the choice was mine. And you know what? If people wanna be mad at me, be mad at me. I don't care. Had I made the other choice, had I gone the other way, I'd have been a great mom. I went this way and I've done great..

You've gotta get in the game
You've gotta learn how to play
You've gotta make a change, you've gotta do it today

Because everybody kept saying, well, somebody has to do something. Somebody has to say something. And I'm like, well, I have a platform. I tell a good story, so maybe I should try to do something. I was also there. I’ve been there, done that.

Eagles, Witchy Woman:

Woo-hoo, witchy woman
See how high she flies
Woo-hoo, witchy woman
She got the moon in her eye