About Witches in Society

There are stories about people riding on broomsticks and casting spells that have since been discredited in this age of objectivity where, as more people agree, the more valid it sometimes becomes. That's a hard point to argue against because you're bucking public opinion, when you might have objective evidence that they're all wrong, like this. Then it's your side against the non believers, a war of faiths, complicated by intolerance and the perception of intolerance.

Objectively speaking, the term "witch" has become a derogatory way of describing the result of an apparently universal human tendency to get wasted drunk or stoned and then try to convince straight people that the hallucinations are real, while trying to avoid responsibility for violating social courtesy.

Before the Middle Ages that term didn't have the same meaning. In fact Norsemen would sometimes prefer to kidnap witches. Why? Because in Ireland they were brewers and curers. The trend was widespread enough that rumor had it that most women in Ireland were witches, and they really were a positive addition to beer drinking communities in Norway.

In this reguard, the Vikings were enlightened and tolerant of people with differing opinions and background. Or maybe they just didn't care about things that couldn't be turned into wealth.

Irish witches used cauldrons, they also used a kind of watertight stone trough, probably for fermenting or steeping ingredients. The cauldrons are seldom found but the stone troughs are all over Northern Europe, especially Ireland, probably because they're not portable. Their number gives an idea of how widespread the practice was. DNA tested residue from the troughs indicate a wide selection of plants, some of which had medicinal properties, and some were (probably) for flavor.

Later, during the witch trials, the solution was mandated by the church and state to control the social effects of popular drug "abuse", much the same extreme way as Reagan, and Duterte handled it, when it began to infringe on the official version of reality.

Not that the Official version of reality is a bad thing, It helps people get along and settles disputes (unless it causes a war). There was an American Indian culture (in Ohio?) around the 12th century that some say apparently fell apart at the same time as (because of) their state sanctioned (over)use of Bufotine, a narcotic derivative of some species of toad skins that causes hallucination. The chiefs used it and stopped caring about the people.

Beer hasn't always been made with Hops and Barley. Sometimes poisonous plants like monkshood and henbane were added for alchemical or apothecary properties. Without FDA inspectors, toe of toad & eye of newt could likely have had regionally recognized pharmaceutical properties, though their use in Macbeth was recognizable for the implied innuendo by association with stupid, greedy and ignorant creatures. Vikings intentionally took Henbane concoctions to make them more fierce and immune to pain. Vikings also imported pharmacology from other countries too. Medicine has always been a big trade item. The legal definition of Rum, Pepper, and Cocaine changes by region and government, for example Portugal and Singapore promote opposite solutions to subjectivity: Portugal makes all drug use legal with social support to re-direct drug users toward objectivity. While Singapore gives the death penalty for the same thing (change or die druggie, not the state's responsibility).

In Andean countries there is a drink called Chicha made from fermented corn. It's a lot like corn mash used for moonshine but is never distilled and has to be consumed within a few days because it's said to be poisonous if it spoils. It's traditionally made in big round 15 (+/-) gallon pots (like big cauldrons). Which are ordered several weeks ahead of some occasion, party, or for Indian bars called Chicharias. By coincidence (maybe) a skeleton was found in a Viking cemetery in Norway with six vertebra in his neck. People usually have seven vertebra, except in the high Andes where six is a local (and defining) genetic trait. Not saying that guy was kidnapped from South America in the 10th century to make hooch in Norway, but he was. The tradition of getting whacked with your friends goes way back, still the same problem. Try to be objective.