The Legends Behind Witches: MARINETTE-BWA-CHECH

Episode Four: Vodou, Introduces a visitor to the Witches world, Marinette.

Marinette-Bwa-Chech is a loa in Haitian Vodou. It is believed that Marinette was burned alive for fighting against slavery and for the Bois Caiman ceremony that began the Haitian revolution. She relates to the horrible conditions that slaves had to endure. She is often considered to be angry loa, used in black magic. She is feared and acts upon those she possesses violently. The screeching owl is the emblem of Marinette. When she posesses someone they behave as an owl, hooking their fingers, lowering their heads and scratching. But she can also be seen as one who frees her people from bondage. Marinette is not cruel.

She is called up by the bokor (pronounce baw-kaw) who are priests and priestesses who work black magic. The ones who would be consulted to have an enemy killed, raise the dead necromancy, or bind someone in blind love. They will call upon Marinette. She has been known to be invoked for revenge against cheating boyfriends and husbands. Many say she should never be invoked because she is too dangerous and hostile. She is not a spirit for a Vodou novice like Sunder, no matter how self confident. In fact, Marinette can immediately identify a novice.

Marinette should never be invoked within the home. She literally burns with rage and may burn down buildings while within them, intentionally or not.

Marinette is the matron of werewolves and loups-garoux. She protects them. She is respected by werewolves, and some hold services in her honor. She likes salvia, black pepper, lavender, and sweets. Her colors are black and deep blood red. She is a bitter spirit who prefers to be alone. People disappointed her.

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The Legends Behind Witches: WIZARD STONE CLAD

Episode Three: Stone Cold, brings a legend of the Cherokee to the Witches world, Stone. He comes seeking revenge. 

An internet search for the word Adawehi (Ah-dah-way-hee) in the Cherokee language returns several meanings: the spirit of healing, water conjurer, medicine man, magician, conjurer witch.

One of the Adawehi of legends is called Stoneclad or Nûñ'yunu'wï, which means “dressed in stone” or “Stone Clad”. He was an ancient ada'wehi that preyed on the Cherokee. Then later, before they killed him, he gave them many of their traditional medicines and ceremonies.

The stories of Stoneclad vary from one telling to another. In some versions there is only one. In others there is a race of Stoneclads. Stoneclad can be a man-sized human witch that turned himself into an invulnerable monster. Or he can be a stone-skinned giant. Always, he has rock armor that protect him from weapons, fire, and cold.

In the Creek account the monster is stone-covered and his only vulnerable spot is in his ear. This myth has variations at other places in North America. The monster may be cad with stone, scales, or metal. Or may be only magically invulnerable. The vulnerable spot may be located in the foot, nose, ear. He can only be defeated through draining his power. This may be achieved by destroying his talismans or exposing him to menstruating women.

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The Legends Behind Witches: SEVEN RAVENS

Episodes One: A Bad Spell and Episode Two: Finding Aron are woven around an old fairy tale, and Sunder fumbles the magic from the tale to create unexpected results.

Sunder uses a spell called Blackened Swan from her mother's cook book. This is based on the variations of The Seven Ravens, a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. In The Seven Ravens, brothers were turned into birds. Other variations include The Six Swans, The Twelve Wild Ducks, Udea and her Seven Brothers, The Wild Swans, The Twelve Brothers, and The Magic Swan Geese.

A peasant had seven sons and one daughter. She was sickly. He sent his sons to get water for her, or to be baptized in the German version. In the Greek version, the water came from a healing spring. The brothers rush and drop the jug in the well. When they did not return, their father thought they had gone to play instead of fetching the water, and he cursed them. Unintentionally, he turned them into ravens.

When the sister was grown, she searched for her brothers. She asks for help from the sun, the moon, and the morning star. The morning star gives her a chicken bone (in the Italian) or a bat's foot (in the Greek) and tells her she will need it to save her brothers. She finds the Glass Mountain where they are. In the Greek, she opens it with the bat's foot; in the German, she has lost the bone, and chops off a finger to use as a key. inside the mountain, a dwarf tells her that her brothers will return. She eats the brothers' food and drink, and leaves a ring from home in the last cup.

When her brothers return, she hides, and they turn into human form and ask who has been at their food. The last one finds the ring, and hopes it is their sister, in which case they are saved. She emerges, and they return home. In the Six Swans version, one of the brothers returns with a wing instead of an arm.