What Is A Witch?

"A witch is someone who can see and command spirits..."

Introduction

Witches today do not typically worship the Judeo-Christian God, or G-d. While some of the Mayfairs, most notably Marguerite, Mary Beth, Stella, and Great Nananne, practiced Vodou, they werre also firmly rooted in Christianity via their Catholic faith. The Mayfair family, including Merrick, remain Catholic today.

However, witchcraft, or Wicca as is often called, takes issue with various aspects of Christianity, including but not limited to its historically documented tendency to "borrow" from older traditions and religions. Ancient Egyptian practices were often sampled to entice people to convert to the new Church. Below is a picture I found that compares the imagery of Isis nursing Horus to the imagery of Mary holding the Baby Jesus.

Also, I have included a portrait of Cleopatra VII, who was in fact Macedonian but adopted the spiritual practices of the country she ruled, Egypt. She was a devoted follower of Isis all her life, though there is nothing that says she ever considered herself a witch.

Modern wicca and witchcraft separate themselves from Christianity as a whole. However, the blend of the innate abilities of the Mayfair Witches, their knowledge of and practice of Vodou and their devotion to their Catholic faith all combine to make an exotic combination of mystery and power.

Isis (Goddess) on Wikipedia

Cleopatra VII on Wikipedia

Witches in Popular Culture Today

The popular image of a witch today is of those who identify themselves as Wiccans, or even Pagans. Sections have been designated in bookstores for books on metaphysics and New Age spirituality. Many of those books concern the practice of Wicca, the use of divination and the casting of spells - magic.

The practitioners of this earth-based spirituality have no dogma and no religious hierarchy, though many choose to meet in covens with High Priestesses and High Priests, and the older traditions have varying degrees of adeptness assigned to coven members. The ways Wicca is actually practiced is as varied as the Wiccans themselves; however, there are some basic tenets of this spirituality that seem to be universal to witchcraft.

Of course, there are the cauldron, broomstick, cape and pentacle (as sacred to a Wiccan as the Crucifix is to a Catholic), and the image of a witch brewing concoctions with herbs and oils by the light of a candle. The witch is usually saying words that are the spell, and the words have to be correct or said with a particular delivery. Then there is the magic circle, the elements, the directions, and the altar itself.

These are the tools and "trappings" of witchcraft. What is actually going on is more profound, and it is this deeper meaning that is central to the Mayfair Witches.

Wicca and the Mayfair Witches

The witches who describe themselves as Wiccans often keep grimoires, or a "Book of Shadows," in which spellwork is recorded along with other information the witch may refer to later on. Julien Mayfair kept grimoires, found during the renovation of First Street, and an assessment of them seems to indicate that this is the kind of information recorded in them. It was described as being the same as what information about witchcraft was already widely available.

However, the Mayfair Witches, for the most part, did not make a regular practice of rites such as circle-casting, or use divination tools such as Runes or Tarot cards to "see". This is not to say that no Mayfair has ever tried these things; it is only to say that it was not common. Below are some examples of the times the Mayfairs used what could be defined as witchcraft, particularly in a notable way.

Examples of Witchcraft among the Mayfair Witches

Suzanne Mayfair called up the spirit Lasher by mistake in the circle of stones. A witch, according to the Talamasca, can command spirits at will, which is exactly what Suzanne did. All of her direct descendants since have had this ability, hence they are called the "Mayfair Witches". It is this very ability that determines which female child will be the next Designee of the Legacy.

Marguerite Mayfair commanded Lasher to try and animate the dead bodies of slaves and their stillborns with no success. Though she could command the spirit Lasher, she was not strong enough to use her will to command cells to return to life and replicate, nor was she able to determine if there was life left. The jars left over from her experiments are found in the attic at First Street upon the death of Carlotta Mayfair. They are sent by Rowan and collected by Aaron Lightner for the Talamasca archives. The remaining tissue on the heads in the jars bear evidence of Lasher and Marguerite's attempts to change matter and restore life.

It would be Rowan who would be able to command cells in such a fashion, but even Rowan had limits. She can only bring life back if life is still inside, which is how she was able to rescue Michael from completely drowning. However, she would not have been able to revive her mother, Deirdre, because as she verified for herself, there was no life left in Deirdre. This "diagnostic sense" would be something akin to telepathy, as her ability to use the sheer force of her own will to kill someone is called telekinesis.

Magic and the Mayfair Witches

This sheer force of will, the operative word being "will", is part of the basic definition of what magic is, according to many magic-practicing Pagans. It is by the focused direction of our will that change can occur. The tools of magic are meant to aid the magician in focusing that will and in signaling the spirits and gods with rich symbolism. If one has a direct line to spirits, though, these tools just may not be necessary.

Many Mayfairs, not just the Legacy line, can hear people's thoughts and divine things from far away. This is not an example of will but of ability. The Legacy witches, heirs to Lasher, seemed to exert their will through him. Stella, Antha, and Deirdre were all expelled from one school after another because of their involvement with Lasher - a commonly occuring incident is the floating flowers that scare and enthrall the other classmates. Otherwise, the three were simply caught with him at one point or another and accused of breaking rules and/or consorting with a young man.

Mary Beth Mayfair may have been the only witch in the line capable of exerting her will for short periods before Rowan. If she was truly capable of bilocation, the act could not have been completed without the strength of her own will. Even so, Mary Beth still relied upon Lasher but unlike the others, whom Lasher exploited through their dependence, Mary Beth was strong and willful enough to exert her will over him, to "whip him and make him obey." Julien did this as well.

All of the Mayfair Witches were able to see and command Lasher as well as a host of other ghosts and spirits over time. This means they fit the Talamasca's definition of what a witch is. Witches may also have certain abilities that do not necessarily fall in the category of magic, such as telepathy, precognition, postcognition, clairvoyance, and in Rowan's case, telekinesis. As for magic itself, let me suggest that the Mayfair Witches might not be considered natural practitioners of magic as their will to create change beyond conventional parameters was accomplished through Lasher's aid.

Rowan and Mona Mayfair

According to the Talamasca, or because it did not include this in its definition, witches are defined by their ability to see and command a spirit, but not by their ability to perform or practice magic. What they are able to do in varying ways may be loosely defined as magic, but not if you apply the simple definition of magic. Rowan and Mona Mayfair are able to see and communicate with spirits and sense whether or not life is still present in a person who is unconscious or even clinically dead. They are telepathic, able to hear other people's thoughts.

There is little evidence of Mona's actual abilities or examples of her exerting her will, but it is clear from her ability to survive delivering a Taltos that she does indeed have strengths and capabilities comparable to Rowan Mayfair. It is by this and by the genetic blueprinting of all the Mayfairs in the wake of Lasher's fatal mating rampage that we know Mona is a witch as more fully defined by the family's genetics.

Further Definition of a Witch by Heritable Traits

It is evident that only a witch, one with the extra chromosomes, can produce a Taltos, but even a Mayfair with 46 chromosomes can produce another witch with a person who has the extra chromosomes. Curiously, Deirdre Mayfair managed to produce Rowan when she herself did not have the extra chromosomes. Therefore, Cortland Mayfair must have been the parent who passed the extra chromosomes to Rowan. Cortland Mayfair had the same abilities as the other Mayfairs who could be described as witches besides the Legacy line - the clairvoyance and telepathy, most notably. He was also the son of Julien Mayfair, the disputed 8th witch of the line.

A witch, in this sense, is also someone who inherits dominant alleles expressed as psychic abilities from one or both parents. These psychic abilities would then have to have a physiological vehicle in the individual through which to work. The most obvious possibility would be sensory perception, meaning heightened awareness through sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This means the second possibility is the nervous system itself.

A Witch's Nerves

If a witch is defined by inherited psychic abilities triggered by physiological and psychological responses, the core of those abilities would have to be seated in the nervous system. An individual has nerve endings in every part of the body that exchange information with and interpret the external environment. This information flows to and from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) via the peripheral nervous system, the major nerves that branch out from the spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system is divided into three subdivisions, the autonomic (maintains homeostasis by regulating the heart and internal organs, pupil dilation, etc of which the parasympathetic system is yet another division), the somatic (voluntary movement such as musculoskeletal movement) and the enteric (gastrointestinal function, of which the sympathetic system is yet another division). The somatic nervous system is also what controls reflexive arcs, or what we do when we are in imminent danger and must protect ourselves.

If the nervous system, which controls our "five senses", conducts information via its synapses, dendrites and axons in a witch as defined by genetics, traits that enhance perception and ability would express in the nervous system. The "energy" that is such a popular topic in New Age circles could be broadly defined in scientific terms as an external layer around a human witch produced by the nervous system that is designed to exchange information in much finer detail. The witch's nervous system is genetically enhanced to receive this information but it is the reasoning, logical mind which must deduce its meaning.

Conclusion

Clearly, the Mayfairs have passed on traits that express abilities such as the ability to see and command a spirit, Lasher in particular. Some of them are more able to do this than others, and have more psychic ability than others, even in the Legacy Line (compare Deirdre to Mary Beth, or her own daughter, Rowan). Genetics are a crap shoot as a rule and there is no way of knowing exactly which traits will be passed or which traits will actually express. A trait being passed on chromosomes does not necessarily mean it will express, even if conditions that would normally trigger that trait are optimal. Clearly, the Mayfairs were not exempt from this law of biology despite their extraordinary abilities.

Please see Merrick and Mayfair Witches Religion for more discussion on the religious and spiritual practices of the Mayfair Witches.