Burning the Witch, part I: Projection and the Limits of Control (A Puritan Rant)

I've tried, and found, that there is no escaping the fact On Witchcraft could just as easily have been called On How to Hide One's Desires Lest We Fry in Hell!.  Excuse the ramble that’s about to follow, as I will attempt to skim the text in as best an imitation of free verse as I can.  And…here…I…go…

Cotton Mather spends, pardon the pun, an ungodly amount of time condemning witches (excuse me, Witches), and talks on and on about Spectres, and the Power of God, and other capitalized Ideas that, in the end, amount to a whole bag of simple air...that stifling, Puritan variety that caused such a commotion back in that heyday...the fear of what we want, and the ignorance of that we do not already know and have.  Yes, Mather talks about Evil, in all the capacities he sees It (yes, I too can capitalize to make sure you understand the Gravity of the text!), but I’m more intrigued by all the things he doesn’t say.  For example, what exactly was the foundation for all this talk of witches in the first place?  The new world?  Native Americans existed long before Plymouth Rock was mounted, and they never burned their family members because of a deep-rooted fear of this unknown territory.  Did Mather really believe the trials were the surefire way to get the masses (no pun intended here, either) to unify under one cohesive whole (in this case, fear)?  For my money, he fails almost completely in convincing that what his book is about is truly witchcraft.  No, it’s about the stifling and miscommunication of an individual’s needs and rights not only as a proper human being, but as a proper inhabitant of a fresh colony, meant to start anew, and yet, grounded by the very notions that will seed themselves into what we now call America.

Let me explain simply: A part of Mather, perhaps secretly or unconsciously, desired the very thing he was fighting, in this case the bizarreness of original thought, the road only the true Individual can follow, i.e. free will.  Now, I have nothing against religion (only Religion!), and even less with faith.  With that in mind, very little makes me angrier than sanctimonious little priests (perhaps he was tall, was he?) daring to speak for God (or a God) and daring to control and stifle two of the gifts we are given at birth: our voices and our minds.  Being an intelligent man himself (I know, I begrudgingly admit this much, otherwise his influence on the Trials themselves would have been marginal at best), he knew how to manipulate the people, the groundlings so beyond from achieving his higher Purpose or Station, in order to mask the truth he would have never wanted to let them see: he too is a wanting, hungering creature of God.  What better way to make oneself better in the Eyes of the Mighty Lord if not to point the finger and enact a national hunt for the Witches preying on our children and our lives?  Even Freud (Bless his soul) would have sat agape at the blatant display of Projection Mather has enacted.

This isn’t to say Mather is a Witch (ha!) but that his accounts of the trials are really a reflection of his own frightening notions under the Hands of God…that feeling of unworthiness, of sinning and sinning without an end…things that could have been avoided had Mather (and, well, the rest of Puritan County) accepted that which comes from their very nature: instinct and desire, yes and no, right and wrong.  Yes, he believes Evil is wrong and he believes Witches are evil, thus he is Right and Good and they all deserve to BURN!  But, no!  This is precisely the problem.  All this becomes is punishing the people brave enough to confront their own wills and their own selves…all this becomes is the Scapegoat on which we lay all the blame for our mistakes and our incapability to realign our faith with our good will and our understanding that humanity is an imperfection, not a doomed culture at the hands of an angry God, not the sinning mob of useless cretins Mather no doubt was in despair for (or rather, ‘despair’).  I wonder, had Mather been another kind of man, what would have become of Puritan County, there yonder…what of Witchcraft then, if Mather did not feel so desperate a need to project his own fears on the rest of his world?

Anyway, more to come soon, I promise.  This is but a brief taste of my beginnings with the text (soon to be finished on Tuesday!).  Quotes will surely follow, as well as the obligatory connection to that classic slice of Puritan pie...The Crucible.  Until then, adieu, adieu...


In the meantime, here are two links.  The first for Mather, who I think should have heard these immortal words before sitting down to scribe his maddening sermons, and the second for all of us, and in a way, Mather too, because I'd like to think now, so many years after the fact, so many feet under ground to think on his deeds...he's grown a sense of humor.  Here's to you, Mather, here's to you:


Know Best Yoda Does

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