"A witch is someone who can see and command spirits..."
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.
Cleopatra VII on Wikipedia
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.
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| Mary and Jesus, the beginning of Christianity - Right |
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 Religion for more discussion on the religious and
spiritual practices of the Mayfair Witches.
