"When Myth Incarnates in the Waking World"
The Spirit of a Place
The following is a excerpt from a short story I wrote, entitled, 'The Spirit of a Place'.
Sarina was never really sure how it all started. She was a bit taken by surprise at
the cruel nature of the mob mentality that possessed people at times. The
strange truth was she fully expected the worst. The sheep-like conformity of the
mindless mass of humanity was driven home, as if slated for slaughter by
morning’s light. All she knew was that she felt like a witch during the pre-
inquisition era. Curiously spied on, but at the same time feared and loathed, by
the seemingly normal neighbors that lived in the tiny seashore town of Beuhler’s
Point. At any rate, she knew she was always the talk-of-the-town.
It seemed to the locals that Sarina held to the strangest practices and beliefs.
It’s really no wonder she was regarded as a witch, though she emphatically
denied this when questioned by the one or two folks whose curiosity about her
could no longer be held at bay. Perhaps it was the way her eyes looked…so
strange. It was as if she were looking beyond, behind, and through you all at
once. At other times, she would gaze off into space, with the weirdest of looks
about her. It looked like she was adrift on a placid sea, as distant and deep as
the green eyes that beheld it.
People said she practiced witchcraft, but her most beloved object denied the
epithet. A Christian cross on her key chain, that she often fingered when they
were in her hand. Conversations with her often left the other person in a state of
amazement. This was especially so if the other party were the only listener.
There was a peculiar ease and lack of self-interest about her, that somehow
compelled and repulsed people equally. The overall effect of her physical
presence had on most people was to somehow validate and diminish the other
person she was talking to at the same time, and herself likewise. Needless to say,
most of the town folk avoided her at all possible costs, rather than expose
themselves to her penetrating eyes and unfathomable bearing. Yet there was
another effect that she had on people just as bizarre as what has just been told….
Sarina was never really sure how it all started. She was a bit taken by surprise at
the cruel nature of the mob mentality that possessed people at times. The
strange truth was she fully expected the worst. The sheep-like conformity of the
mindless mass of humanity was driven home, as if slated for slaughter by
morning’s light. All she knew was that she felt like a witch during the pre-
inquisition era. Curiously spied on, but at the same time feared and loathed, by
the seemingly normal neighbors that lived in the tiny seashore town of Beuhler’s
Point. At any rate, she knew she was always the talk-of-the-town.
It seemed to the locals that Sarina held to the strangest practices and beliefs.
It’s really no wonder she was regarded as a witch, though she emphatically
denied this when questioned by the one or two folks whose curiosity about her
could no longer be held at bay. Perhaps it was the way her eyes looked…so
strange. It was as if she were looking beyond, behind, and through you all at
once. At other times, she would gaze off into space, with the weirdest of looks
about her. It looked like she was adrift on a placid sea, as distant and deep as
the green eyes that beheld it.
People said she practiced witchcraft, but her most beloved object denied the
epithet. A Christian cross on her key chain, that she often fingered when they
were in her hand. Conversations with her often left the other person in a state of
amazement. This was especially so if the other party were the only listener.
There was a peculiar ease and lack of self-interest about her, that somehow
compelled and repulsed people equally. The overall effect of her physical
presence had on most people was to somehow validate and diminish the other
person she was talking to at the same time, and herself likewise. Needless to say,
most of the town folk avoided her at all possible costs, rather than expose
themselves to her penetrating eyes and unfathomable bearing. Yet there was
another effect that she had on people just as bizarre as what has just been told….
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by CS Thompson on -
Thanks for posting this- please feel free to post the rest of the story!
Most witches in Medieval Europe would in fact have been Christians, would they not? At least if the term is applied to "cunning folk," village wise women and the like.
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Permalink Reply by alchemistra on -
Regarding your statement, I think yes, they probably were, being the people of the times. But there is something about them that causes the people/clergy to regard "the witch" as such. In the book, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, by Willem de Blécourt, Ronald Hutton, Jean Sybil La Fontaine, it states "From legend texts one of the most striking characteristics of the witch that appears is her being a neighbor of the bewitched". A sort of guilt by association is the general idea.
In this story, Sarina is a witch in 'other people's eyes' because she possesses qualities in her character that are deemed strange, un-natural, and outside the norm. They literally are be-witched by her presence. Why she holds the Christian cross is a mystery; the revealing of which takes place later in the story.
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