Witch

Witches have been reframed negatively by Christians. This is not a Christian character, with deep historical roots, and have other virtuous names.

Actual Names

Witch: drug sorceress, pharmakea, healer, root cutter, doctor, founder of medicine, midwife, echidna, viper, Sybil, priestess, drakaina, Medea, Circe, Hecate, christē (χριστή), Κόρη (Kore)

History

Witches have got a bad rap. And sometimes deserved and largely undeserved. Rather than framing them negatively, let's look at what they were historically

Pre Christian era

Before paganism was made illegal 491CE, the Hellenic world revered their Echidnaic or Oracular priesthoods, those Parthenos who defined justice, and those priestesses going by various names: Kore, Parthenos, Echidna, Sybil.

The feminine form of χριστός

If christos (χριστός) was a man who was christed, or does christings... and we know there were pharmakea (drug sorceresses) who by definition were being christed and christing others with their salves/ointments with their pharmakon magia, then what would a woman be called?

χριστή (christē)

This is the feminine nominative singular form of the adjective or participle, used to describe a woman who has been anointed—perhaps ritually, symbolically, or pharmaceutically. She might be:

• An initiate in the Eleusinian or Dionysian rites,
• A priestess prepared with oil or fragrant ointments,
• Or even an embodiment of a sacred principle, prepared for divine union or ecstatic experience.

ἡ χριστή easily denotes a female initiate or hierophant who has undergone christing (χριω) as part of a sacred rite. You might even imagine her as a counterpart to a male χριστός, in terms of application of the visionary pharmakon in her rites, running ritual, facilitating transformation, and certainly in status and role to her initiates. For example, every oracular priestess who applied the burning purple in rites, was by definition a christē (χριστή)

See Also

• The Sybil
• The Parthenos
• Kore