From time to time he slips serious
statements about them into his amusing stories. I sometimes wonder where he got
his ideas about witches and witchcraft from.
There is a little more to add to the article
about a good definition of a witch; the new material is based on more quotations
from Terry Pratchett’s books.
What a witch really is may not match what many
people think a witch is; some of the attributes may be unexpected, but
they are the sign of the real thing.
Witches are different
The feeling of being fundamentally different
from the people around them is common in creative people - Stella Benson is
one example - and in witches. Terry Pratchett describes this very well:
“But witches were not only very busy, they
were also apart; Tiffany had learned
that early on. You were among people, but not the same as them. There was always a kind of distance or separation.
You didn’t have to work at it, it happened anyway.”
“The witch was different. The witch knew
things that you did not. The witch was another kind of person. The witch was
someone that perhaps you should not anger. The witch was not like other people.”
- From I Shall Wear Midnight
Respect for the truth and the value of words
From a witch’s viewpoint, much of what people
say and do seems like playing silly games. The words and actions involved have
little value when looked at objectively.
A good witch will put respect for the truth
above all else. A good witch will try to get to the heart of a situation and
tell it how it is rather than tell people what they want to hear:
“'But
they’re witches. I don’t like to ask them questions.’
‘Why not?’
’They might give me answers. And then what would I do?' “
- From Lords and Ladies
“Ordinary fortune-tellers tell you what
you want to happen; witches tell you what’s going to happen whether
you want it to or not. Strangely enough, witches tend to be more
accurate but less popular.”
- From The Wee Free Men
Terry Pratchett confirms that a good witch
knows how important it is not to utter empty words and that her word is her
bond:
“A witch relied too much on words ever to go
back on them.”
- From Equal Rites
Out on the edge
Living between two worlds and continually making assessments and evaluations in terms of what is off-the mark and what is
spot on, what is right and what is wrong, is part of being a witch:
“A witch is always on the edge, between the
light and the dark, good and bad, making choices every day, judging all the
time. It was what made her human.”
- From The Shepherd’s Crown
“She was a good witch. That was
her role in life. That was the burden she had to bear. Good
and Evil were quite superfluous when you’d grown up with a highly
developed sense of Right and Wrong. “
- From Maskerade
Invisibility
I have
mentioned invisibility in several articles. It has been the unwanted
side-effect of having been in the company of an energy vampire; it is a useful
attribute when it can be used on demand on occasions when a witch wants to pass
unnoticed.
Terry Pratchett confirms that it is not real invisibility, just a smoke screen or a blind spot in the people nearby:
Terry Pratchett confirms that it is not real invisibility, just a smoke screen or a blind spot in the people nearby:
“Tiffany ... stepped
back a few paces and let herself disappear. It was a knack and a knack that she
was good at. It wasn’t invisibility, just that people didn’t notice you.”
- From I Shall Wear Midnight
Where does the ability to perform magic come from?
There are many theories about this. Having
certain abilities could be the result of what might be called a dislocation of
the personality. Terry Pratchett has some interesting ideas:
“There was nothing like that not fitting in feeling to stimulate the
old magical nerves...”
- From Maskerade
He also mentions 'a twist in the soul'.
If I find any more material in Terry
Pratchett’s books that resonates with my ideas about witches and unseen
influences, it will be the subject of another article.
