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The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the execution of twenty people, fourteen of them women, and five men. The trials began when a group of young girls in Salem Village claimed to be possessed by witches. They accused several women in the community of practicing witchcraft and causing their afflictions. This sparked a wave of hysteria, and more and more people were accused and arrested. The trials themselves were based on pseudo-scientific beliefs and superstitions.

"Acknowledging the dark african mother who preceded patriarchal world religions does not, to this sicilian/american woman, seem all that iconoclastic. It may be a matter of how we think. Erik Hronung, egyptologist of the University at Basel, refers to the complementarity of egyptian logic, which resembles complementarity in physics. 'For the Egyptians two times two is always four, never anything else. But the sky is a number of things--cow, baldachin, water, woman--it is the goddess Nut and the goddes Hathor, and in syncretism a deity a is at the same time another, not-a.' For Hornung, 'the nature of a god becomes accessible through a "multiplicity of approaches," [and] only when these are taken together can the whole be comprehended.' Sicilians, as Justin Vitiello reminds us, know this intuitively. So do artists, craftsmen, poets, and peasants of the world. In the 1970's, when I began to research my italian godmothers/grandmothers, I came across a tile with a blue-black star with thrity-two points in a blue green sea. The tile was named Iside, italian for Isis."

Isis is often depicted with a laurel wreath and two prominant ears, symbolizing that she listened with both ears to the prayers of all those who came to her, an image that can be found to this day in italian folklore. I can only speculate on why sweetness is so important to Italian and Sicilian celebrations of the dead it could be because children play a prominent role in this feast, being seen as gifts from or perhaps emanations of the ancestors.

The trials themselves were based on pseudo-scientific beliefs and superstitions. The accused were subjected to harsh interrogations and often forced to confess. Many were also subjected to physical torture in the form of "witch tests," such as being dunked in water or having body parts crushed in vice-like restraints.

Saint John

Happy Saint John’s Day! In Italy as in other parts of Europe, the feast of Saint John the Baptist (or San Giovanni Battista) is inextricably tied to magic, witches, and divination. Celebrated starting the night of June 23 into the day of June 24, the feast was popularized as a Christian alternative to (or innovation on?) the celebration of the summer solstice. Carol Field writes in Celebrating Italy (p. 92):

Christianity simply grafted the pagan fires to the celebration of the Feast of San Giovanni. The prophet was born precisely at midsummer, just as Jesus was born six months later at the turning point of winter, two moments in the calendar that mark passage across a critical threshold. Bearded and dressed in animal skins, subsisting on honey and locusts, San Giovanni also resembles an ancient god of the fields, or the mythical King of the Wood who married the Great Goddess in dark midwinter. Six months later, the King of the Wood was put to death beneath a great sacred oak by his successor. So this sacrificial death, with its intimations of rebirth and renewal, was meant to encourage the fertility of the fields.

The Salem witch trials were also influenced by social and political tensions in the community. Salem Village was a divided community, with conflicts between farmers and merchants, as well as disputes over land ownership. The trials provided an outlet for these tensions, as people used accusations of witchcraft as a way to settle old scores or gain power and influence. The trials finally ended in May 1693 when the governor of Massachusetts disbanded the court and pardoned those still in jail. The surviving accused and their families were left to face the stigma and shame of their ordeal, and the legacy of the trials remained a dark stain on the history of Massachusetts for many years to come. Today, the Salem witch trials are often seen as a cautionary tale about the dangers of hysteria and the importance of due process and the presumption of innocence. The trials have also become a symbol of the persecution and marginalization of women throughout history. In recent years, Salem has embraced its dark past and has become a popular tourist destination, with museums, memorials, and reenactments dedicated to preserving and educating visitors about this dark chapter in American history..

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