The witch no. 1 (1892) lithograph by Joseph E. Baker (1837-1914) imagines events at the Salem Witch Trials. Source: Geo. H. Walker and Co./ Public Domain

Has anyone ever called you a witch? Have you called someone else a witch? How would you describe a “witchy” person? Can a man be witchy?

Once, when I was little, my mother told me she had eyes on the back of her head. She convinced me that she could see through walls to whatever mischief I was up to; I’d better not get into the cookie jar. I thought she was a witch and had special powers against which I was powerless.

Sometime later, I played the Wicked Witch of the West in a camp production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I still remember the ecstatic power I felt in saying my lines.

I have torn the scarecrow into pieces, battered t

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