Wyccecræft: Down to the Roots

We delve into the spiritual heritages of Old Europe, carried by wisewomen, healers, seers and enchantresses. In her visual talk, Max Dashu examines the meanings of ethnic names for the witch, her sacraments of spinning, weaving, and chanting over herbs; divination, incantation, sacred dance —and the spirit flight of the wolf-riders. The witches guided their communities through their knowledge of the plants, animals, and land, and offered foreseeing counsel, drawing on “the knowledge of the raven's head.” We reclaim the Witte Wieven of ancestral megalithic sanctuaries and the sweathouses of Eire, Portugal, Russia and Suomi. We remember Wyr∂, the Fates, fatas, faeries; reverences to the Waters, stones, caves and trees. And we are still the “women who go by night with the Goddess."

Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research women in the global cultural record. She teaches with images, presenting visual webcasts on matriculture, ceremony, medicine women, witches, female rebels and all kinds of indominable women. She is the author of Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, and Pythias, Melissae and Pharmakides: Women in Hellenic Culture (forthcoming). Her videos include Woman Shaman: the Ancients and Women’s Power in Global Perspective; open access shorts on youtube; and stream-on-demand titles at https://suppressed-histories.teachable.com/courses. Access thousands of photo essays at @Suppressed-Histories-Archives-333661528320