Sabbat: Hybrid Work

  “Sabbat” (1) is a reflection on the history of how witchcraft has been perceived in Europe and the American colonies across time, taking inspiration from among the most prolific of witch artists: Francisco Goya (1746-1828.) One of Goya’s most famous works, “Witches’ Sabbath” (2) provides the appearance of the looming, goat-like figure to the right of the piece: The Devil himself. Satan was an active participant in the life of medieval witches (or so they confessed under torture (3)), who invited them to dance and offered them magical boons often made with the bodies of unbaptized infants; beneath Satan’s hooves rests a cauldron of bones, and the female figure cradles a crow to her chest instead of a baby in a profane imitation of breastfeeding. This woman dancing with the Devil is not wholly human, either: she is transforming into a beast, much like the women in Goya’s The Witches’ Kitchen (4). Witches taking animal forms to travel to the Black Sabbath or disguising their true, ugly selves under an alluring illusion was a common myth in medieval Europe. It perhaps reflects the desire to turn all women into monsters, to fit them into the narrative of inherent female idiocy and evil that was circulated by men in power. Swirling around the dancing Devil and wolf-headed woman are words from the Malleus Maleficarum, written on a thin strip of paper as if a spell: “What else is a woman but a foe to friendship, a necessary evil, a natural temptation. . . . to satisfy their carnal lust they consort even with Devils.” (5). To medieval authors, women were beast-headed (thinking only evil, carnal thoughts) temptresses, who existed to test good Christian men. “Sabbat”’s dancer is even depicted with the feet of a bird, a trait associated with the quasi-Biblical “Lilith”, who opposed the good, meek, and obedient Eve for Adam’s affections and was cast out of the Garden of Eden for the sin of independence. But even Eve was eventually turned against by medieval authors, blamed for causing the Fall of Man by disobeying God and deceiving Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. As Lyndal Roper puts it, the struggle faced by medieval women was: “no woman can be both maiden and mother.” (6). No one born female, no matter who she was, could ever be pure or perfect enough to be a “good” woman; she was born to dance with the Devil.

But she does not stand alone in “Sabbat”. The dog-headed dancer is joined by another woman, dressed modestly, wand-wielding, and more assertive in her stance. This witch is inspired by the central figure in John William Waterhouse’s “The Magic Circle” (1886) (7), created when witchcraft was beginning to reemerge as an intrigue to society. She is not a seductress, nor involved with Satanic arts. Instead, she is attuned to nature, with a bundle of herbs tied to her waist as her familiar, a simple goat, kneels to her. Above, an owl (harkening back to the symbol of wisdom in Greek mythology and Goya’s etching, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” (1798) (8)) carries a long scroll with a quote from modern Wicca author Starhawk: “I am a witch [...] who believes the Earth is sacred and that women and women’s bodies are sacred being.” (9). This side of “Sabbat” is a combination of the ancient tradition of women as mystics and healers, and also the modern Wiccan teaching that celebrates femininity and female magic. This woman is seizing her own power, wielding her own wand and commanding her own cauldron, with smoke rising into a five-pointed star. It is witchcraft finally separated from the masculine demonization of female bodies and minds, and viewed through a woman’s eyes: witchcraft is empowerment, and a woman’s body is sacred.

The final feature of “Sabbat” is the circle around the feet of the two women, binding them together and separating them from both the animals and the Devil. Even though the popular quote, “we are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn” has historical inaccuracies, it’s so widespread for a reason: we want to acknowledge the women persecuted in the past, and honor their memory. The beast-headed, bird-footed woman who dances with the Devil and the modern Wiccan who casts her own magic now stand together, united across the centuries. Our perspective on witchcraft has changed, but women have always defied norms, fought for their freedom, and reclaimed their power however they could. “Sabbat” is a gathering of women across time, those who were wrongly accused of witchcraft and those who now embrace it. Femininity has allowed modern witches to form a community and a sense of connection with the past. No longer do we dance with the Devil. Now we dance with one another.

Bibliography

(1) Spinner, A’liya, “Sabbat”, Graphite on 11in x 14in Paper, December 2023, in Possession of the Artist.

(2) Goya, Francisco, “Witches’ Sabbath”, Oil on Canvas, 1798, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid.

(3) Kors, Alan, and Edward Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History (University of Pennsylvania Press: 2001), 359-367

(4) Goya, Francisco, “The Witches’ Kitchen,” Oil on Canvas, 1797, in Private Collection

(5) Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, “The Malleus Maleficarum,” in Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History, ed. Alan Kors and Edward Peters (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2001), 189

(6) Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2004), 150

(7) Waterhouse, James William, “The Magic Circle”, Oil on Canvas, 1886, Tate Britain, London. 

(8) Goya, Francisco, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”, Aquatint on Laid Paper, 1797-1799, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

(9) Starhawk, The Spiral Dance:A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (Harper Collins: New York, 1979)