Is a wise woman a woman who knows things? Is she a woman who heals using non-Western medicine? Is she a witch?
Yes. Not exactly. What is a witch?
Going forward, I will be using she/her to talk about Wise Women; however, note that it is due to my own association with womanhood and she/her-ness.
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Ok, let’s set the scene. Not long ago, around the mid-1400s, printed text became available to the masses. Not a lot of printed text, mostly religious, but this influx of available words set the world on a tail spin of advancement. Don’t believe me? In 1994, the first smartphone was
made; and the world will never be the same. (Shout out to those of you born in the early 1980s.)
Anyway, this advancement happened around the time of the Renaissance in History classes, and prior to that the History texts claim that “not much happened.” Which is why they call that time the Middle Ages. It was just the time in the middle of things. (And if you’re wondering what it was in the middle of, like what came before it, that would be the “Classical Period,” I guess when classical music was popular? Definitely the ancient Greeks were around.)
So, during the Middle Ages, the Classical Period, and even the “Pre-historic” period – sorry, I have to explain that now, anyway, pre-historic means before things were really written down to be taught in History class, so they come before the first page of the History books, but if
you are a history buff, then it includes things like the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age – guess what was happening?
People were living and reproducing and worshipping their Gods (or Goddesses). They were having babies, having breakfast, having parties, and having the craic (not going to explain that one). They were sniffling, sneezing, falling, drinking, walking, building, harvesting, you name it. And guess who they went to when they needed something for their runny nose or fever chills or injured appendage or difficult childbirth? They turned to their local wise woman. They even went to her for advice on marriage, where to live, how to know when is the right time to take the clothes in off the line to get the maximum amount of drying and least amount of rain (it’s a skill).
She was a woman who knew shit. And maybe because she knew a lot of things, she wasn’t a joy at parties, so she mightn’t have had a lot of friends. And maybe she was a bit weird. But who isn’t? And maybe she wasn’t that pretty. Well, do you put on makeup if you don’t have to leave the house? I don’t. But hey, she was one smart woman. And with all her experience, one could even say she was Wise . . .
And she was there if you needed her. And since there weren’t a lot of words to be read at the time, people didn’t write down what she knew. (I mean, who was going to read it anyway?) She trained local girls (probably the ones who weren’t lucky in love – or were very lucky, depending on your views). And the knowledge passed on, orally, and so did the stories.
And then came the words on paper, and the books. And with all those books came the spread of Christianity, which did not give women many rights or a voice; therefore, when the writing down of things occurred, it did not include the Wise Women’s knowledge. And the wise women . . . they were just getting in the way. And then they became witches.
In 1487, The Malleus Maleficarum was written by a German inquisitor (no, not with the Spanish Inquisition, but just about every country had an Inquisition at some point). The title translates to “Hammer of Witches,” and it stated that witches were real, they could be justly persecuted, and explained how to find them and punish them.
Photo by Miriam Espacio on Unsplash
Oh, and witches were most likely female because females were weak in spirit (and other ways according to the opinions of the time). And who else used herbs and incantations and knowledge of unknown origins but Wise Women?
So, come back to today, with our AI smartphones and our hundreds of water bottles and bingeing of programs and taxis for our food, and our lack of Wise Women.
What is a Wise Woman today? Or who can be a Wise Woman? You tell me.
Why do I call myself “Your Local Wise Woman”?
Get to know me and you’ll see.
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