When reading Mather I began thinking about a lot things that are now present within our culture and society. But first, relating back to his writing and his Puritanical roots, the idea of women having any voice of power whether it be good or evil was probably almost a kick in the face to him to fathom that idea.
I honestly have never really heard of any "witch-hunts" within my time. However, I do recall two different instances in my past where I guess one could say I encountered some people who shared some of these practices. When I was in high school there was a girl in my biology class who claimed that she was a practicing witch. One day, she proceeded to take her Tarot cards out in class and attempted to contact spirits to help her perform her reading. I just watched from the back of the class, interested to see what was going on. On another occasion, there was a guy in one of my classes who claimed that he was Wicca. He explained to me some of the stuff he practiced and did. It was very interesting to hear.
When considering the existence of evil in our contemporary world, I believe that evil always exists. Not to sound trite, but I think that with all good there is bad. Especially in our society today I feel that evil is more easily displayed sometimes almost as a good thing. Rather it be through books or television shows, I think that this existence of evil in our world is almost twisted into something intriguing and luring. For example, as mentioned in the prompt, modern day shows such as Charmed and Practical Magic display this sense of magical fantasy that draws us to be attracted to this idea of something mystical and dark.
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3 comments:
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for the good post. Great picture, by the way. I think there are a lot of people who believe they are witches, and I think believing is a way of creating. What you believe to be true will become true. but I personally have not had any specific encounters with the supernatural world. Wish I had.
Best,
Dan W.
Hi Stephanie, I appreciate your perception on the glorification of evil in our culture. Evil, I'm sure, looks different to each and every person, but I am always intrigued how it seems that evil has become good and good has become evil, or at the least, often ridiculed as boring. Cotton Mather's writing does reflect the trials but I also think his witch-hunt was self serving.
I like what you said about "with all good there is evil". One person once said to me that he believed there is an opposite for everything. Even for something like cancer, if it exists, it has an opposite, or cure, somewhere out in the world. These things rely on each other to maintain balance in the world. I like to believe that as well, besides, without evil, what would we define as good it not the opposite?
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