Number 2 Witch of All-Time: The Wicked Witch of the West

Top Ten Witches of All-Time (Real or Imagined)

Unnamed by L. Frank Baum in the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book (1900), Elphaba Thropp earned her name in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) by Gregory McGuire. Perhaps best remembered from her portrayal by actress Margaret Hamilton in the Hollywood classic, The Wizard of Oz, her image changed the face of witchcraft forever. She is and always will be the measuring stick for witches, whether they like that stereotyped image or not.Wicked Witch of the West: Ah! You'll believe in more than that before I'm finished with you! 

Seldom do fictional characters dominate an image in popular culture for several generations, let alone present an everlasting icon of every wickedly witchy character to come after her. That is exactly what the Wicked Witch of the West has done. I’m sure that a lot of real witches do not care the stereotypical picture of the black clothed, wart nosed, and pointy hat witch, but I love it. Witches are just like any other people from any walk of life: some are good and some are bad. Then you have the Wicked Witch of the West, who is scrumptiously bad!

WWW: Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of spears! Thought you were pretty foxy, didn't you? Well! The last to go will see the first three go before her! And your mangy little dog, too! 

Yea, the Wicked Witch of the West definitely put the ‘wicked’ into ‘witchcraft’. Her character was as threatening as any character in any movie I can think of. Dracula? He would run from the Wicked Witch of the West. Freddie Kruger? Jason? They wouldn’t want to tangle with her, either. The thing is though, like a cat, she would rather play with her prey than kill it. Oh, and she doesn’t like dogs either.

WWW: How about a little fire, Scarecrow? 

Like I mentioned earlier, she could be downright vicious. Yea, she could have torched the Scarecrow man to ashes in a New York minute, or had him stuffed into a mattress, but she chose to play mind games instead and just sort of singed him. Great intimidation tactics, right?

WWW: Who killed my sister? Who killed the Witch of the East? Was it you?

Dorothy: No, no. It was an accident. I didn't mean to kill anybody.

WWW: Well, my little pretty, I can cause accidents, too! 

Dorothy surely raised the ire of the Wicked Witch of the West. I mean, she didn’t really kill the witch’s sister, but after her timid, way too polite way of trying to talk herself out of trouble, she became an easy target. C’mon, that’s no way to talk to a wicked witch! The pureness of Dorothy’s character certainly endeared her to generations of movie fans, but it definitely made her public enemy number 1 in the witch’s mind. Poor Dorothy…

WWW: Poppies... Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeeep. Now they'll sleeeeep! 

Almost forgot to mention, the Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t afraid of using poison to do her bidding. Rather than a poison apple, she used magic poppies that put Dorothy and her entourage to sleep. Anyone see the hidden in plain sight reference to drugs here? If Alice in Wonderland has hidden references to hallucinatory drugs, then the Wicked Witch of the West is a heroin dealer!

WWW: You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I'm going! Oooooh! Ooooooh! 

Ok, so maybe the Wicked Witch of the West and wasn’t so bright after all. Think about it, if you were a wicked witch, and the one thing that could kill you was water, why in the world would you leave a bucket of the stuff lying around?! Really, you would never catch Superman leaving Kryptonite lying around his pad!

WWW: Going so soon? I wouldn't hear of it. Why my little party's just beginning! 

That’s right! The party is just beginning! Next week, on this very blog, I will unveil my number one witch of all-time! Yes, you are more than welcome to guess who it may be, or add your own personal favorite. All I can say is that the number one witch of all-time is really the only witch that could possibly out-wicked the Wicked Witch of the West!

If you’re like me and can’t get enough witches, take a minute and visit my website to check out the details of my psycho-sexual/dark fantasy novel about dragons, undead knights, and you guessed it, witches! It’s called Rise of the Raven Knights, Suffer the Witch Volume I and can be found at http://sufferthewitch.com.

My apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, The Devil’s Prophet is also available at http://thedevilsprophet.com.

Top Ten Witches of All Time: Honorable Mention Witches

The Witches that didn’t make it.

When I started writing this blog series, I knew I would face a dilemma. There were a lot of great witches to choose from! Not a bad dilemma. What followed was my personal top ten witches, which is certainly not official by any stretch. Here are the witches that didn’t make my list. Maybe some of them should have. Maybe there are others I didn’t even think of.

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Aislin from The Devil’s Prophet

Ok, I know I’m tooting my horn here, but I couldn’t resist. I loved writing this character. Named after a Norse goddess, Aislin is raised by a family of ages old witches whose heirloom is Dr. John Dee’s famous crystal ball. Oh, and by the way, her first cousin is the Anti-Christ. As he takes over Europe and Asia, she flees with her crystal ball to America, where she has foreseen the rise of unknowing Col. Robert Franklin, the one man who can stop the Anti-Christ. Problem is he just wants to find his missing children and he knows she knows the secret to their whereabouts.

Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus

With perhaps the worst makeup job in movie history, Bette played the part perfectly and pulled a horrid storyline out of the…

Blair Witch

Freaky story if there ever was one! This movie crept me out the first time I watched it. Not because I believed it was real, but because of the way it was filmed. A lot of movies are made this way now.

Jeanne Dixon

She was so famous she was called to a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to do a private reading. She revealed to him he was going to die, and die he did a short time later. She also is credited with predicting JFK’s assassination. She is remembered as America’s Prophet.

Joan of Arc

Ok, I know, she was technically a saint, not a witch. That being said, she is the only women on this list, or the top ten for that matter, who was actually burned at the stake for being a witch. The damning evidence: She claimed direct communication with God. Sadly, that claim has gotten more than a few people martyred. Her real sin: Challenging the male authority. That has also gotten more than few people killed.

Melissa Joan Heart in Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

A teen sitcom, my kids loved to watch it. It had some cool elements like a talking cat named Salem and awkward romance drama that teenagers easily relate to. Sabrina is kind of like their Samantha from Bewitched.

Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great

What a great story here, right? She weaved her wicked web on the king of Phillip, King of Macedonia and produced an heir that would conquer the world and leave his mark throughout history, even  to this day. A devout member of the snake-worshiping cult of Dionysus, she dreamt of a lightning bolt striking her stomach and exploding the night Alexander was conceived. She later told Alexander that his father was really Zeus and had him schooled by Aristotle. He became an unstoppable military leader the likes of which the world had never seen...and has not seen since.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the Owens sisters in Practical Magic.

A great story of two sisters fighting of a curse that haunts their witchy family. All the women in family who use witchcraft lose their husbands to untimely deaths. So, as the story goes, they try not to be witches! Hilarious!

Selena Gomez in The Wizards of Waverly Place.

Get the same kind of feeling from Selena’s character of Alex as I do with Sabrina, but my kids like it so I have to throw it in here. J I have to give Selena credit though; she is very talented and will have a long, enchanted career. Now, if she could just make Justin Bieber disappear...

Sybil Leek

Another of my favorites that just missed the cut, Sybil was as famous in her day as any woman alive. She came to prominence in her native Britain after ages old anti-witchcraft laws were repealed.  Coming from a long pedigree of witchcraft, she sort of inspired my character, Aislin. She became a media darling when she moved to the USA, appearing in newspapers, magazines and television. She was admittedly related to the evil Aleister Crowley.

The Witch from Hansel and Gretel

What is not to like about a witch that lives in a house made of cake and candy? The fact that she likes the flesh of children more than cake and candy for one! Unfortunately for this witch of lore, she was easily outsmarted by young Hansel and Gretal, who promptly made witch roast of her.

The Witch from Sleeping Beauty

Maleficent is this witch’s name and she is outraged the king didn’t invite her to bless his daughter, the princess Aurora. Out of spite, she curses the baby to die on her sixteenth birthday. Rival good witches hide her with a peasant couple. They also soften the curse so that instead of dying she is doomed to fall into a deep sleep until her true love kisses her. Problem is her true love thinks she is a peasant girl. True love wins in this one though and the evil witch gets turned to ash. Look for Maleficent to get her own live action movie this summer, played by the lovely, Angelina Jolie, who ironically, also played Alexander the Great's mother on the silver screen.

The Witch from Snow White

It was difficult keeping this witch, simply known as the Queen, out of the top ten. She has everything you would want in a witch. Beautiful, smart, spiteful, jealous, rich, powerful, owns a talking magick mirror and uses poisonous apples. The only reason I kept her out was because she was so similar to the witch from Sleeping Beauty.

The Witch from Rosemary’s Baby

Minnie Castevet, played by actress Ruth Gordon, was the witch that tricked Rosemary into wearing a dreadful tanis root charm that makes her unable to stand food and eating poison chocolate mousse so Satan can rape her in a black mass ritual. She conceives a son, Adrian. Poor Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow, finally discovers the witches ruse and tries to escape, only to fall right back into their trap. Great movie, creepy as Hell, with one of the dizziest witches ever, but boy was she clever!

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Number 4 Witch of All-Time: Stevie Nicks

Top 10 Witches of All-Time (real or imagined)

#4 Stevie Nicks

Without a doubt, my favorite witch on this list is Stevie Nicks. Whether she is or isn’t a witch is a matter of debate. She definitely has a mystical image and has lived an enchanted life. Her music has haunting themes that could be viewed as ‘Wicca’ oriented, Rhiannon comes to mind. But her religious beliefs aren’t really any of my, or anyone else’s business. Stevie Nicks’ music and image clocks into the Top Ten Witches of All-Time at number 3.

The truth of the matter is Stevie Nicks is a very spiritual person. She is also very private. And who can blame her? When one reaches to level of popularity which Stevie has attained, why set yourself up for criticism and attacks from other religious groups? For that reason, I will focus the rest of this post on her life and music.

Stevie met Lindsey Buckingham in the late 1960’s and quickly starting performing together. Star-crossed lovers that they were, the duo ended up becoming famous for their songs, many of which were about their relationship gone awry. And you thought Taylor Swift invented that idea!

Anyway, across the pond over in merry old England, Fleetwood Mac’s frontman/guitarist Peter Green feel by the wayside because of mental illness brought on by psychedelic drug abuse. Green, a blues guitar player on par with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Leslie West, left the band in 1970. The group floundered on without a powerful frontman until 1975. Enter Nicks and Buckingham.

The duo brought an entirely new pop feel to the band, gaining them mega-star type popularity. With that type of success and a ‘gypsy’ lifestyle of a touring rock band brought lots of pressures. Add drugs to the picture and everything else starts becomes a smorgasbord of excessive behavior. The pressures eventually took their toll and Stevie and Lindsey broke up. The next series of events was truly shocking. As the band carried on despite the relationship drama, Nicks and the band’s founder/drummer Mick Fleetwood started an affair, which would lead to more broken relationships and the band’s demise.

After the band crashed, Stevie Nicks began her solo career, which was also stellar. Her first solo album made it to #1 on the Billboard charts and her fame continued to grow, as she mesmerized audiences with her beautiful voice, perfect sense of melody, and elegant mystical imagery.

Some of my favorite songs of Stevie are from her Fleetwood Mac days. Tunes like Landslide, The Chain, Rhiannon, Silver Springs and Gypsy are simply unforgettable. I get cold chills every time I listen to her sing. Stevie still tours with her solo band and Fleetwood Mac.

Even today, Stevie has become somewhat of a cultural icon. Her and her music is featured prominently in the hit television series American Horror Story on AHS. Misty Day, a lone witch named with the power of ressurection, is infatuated by Stevie. Every scene she is in plays Stevie's music in the background. The character is played by Tony nominated actress Lily Rabe, and one cannot deny the resemblance. She kind of dresses like Stevie and even has her pirouetting dance moves down. Great actress! One of the best scenes on AHS Coven was when Stevie Nicks made a surprise appearance, playing herself of course, serenading Misty Day and Fiona.

Misty Day as portrayed by Lily Rabe

I really wanted to make Stevie Nicks the number one witch on the list, but the three witches that are ranked higher were just impossible to knock down. Before I reveal the top two though, my next post will be about the wonderful witches that didn’t make the list, an honorable mention, so to speak. 

Then I will give you a teaser bio of a new witch I would like to introduce you to. Her name is Lori Windstorm and she is the female protagonist in my dark fantasy novel, Rise of the Raven Knights, book I, Suffer the Witch Chronicles. She is a headstrong woman who battles an evil coven with the power of shapeshifting, as well as her intellect. I believe you will find her fascinating as I find Stevie Nicks, and very magickal as well. Please give her a look!

Thanks for reading my blog. Please follow me, share and tell an enemy and a friend. I look forward to seeing you next time. I also encourage you to visit my author website to check out my novels and short stories. My psycho-sexual/dark fantasy novel about dragons, undead knights, and you guessed it, witches is called Rise of the Raven Knights, Suffer the Witch Volume I and it can be found at http://sufferthewitch.com.

My apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, The Devil’s Prophet is also available at http://thedevilsprophet.com.

No. 7 Witch of All-Time: Hermione Granger as portrayed by Emma Watson (Harry Potter)

Top Ten Female Witches of All-time (real or imagined)

What fantasy author can resist a witch that loves the library? Certainly not this one! For that reason, and many more actually, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter’s female sidekick, comes into my list of the Top Ten Witches of All-Time at number seven.

The character of Hermione, portrayed in the Harry Potter movie series by the lovely Emma Watson, is more than just a sidekick. Her magick is as powerful as any witch on this list, and without her unique and well studied magickal talents, Harry Potter would have been up the proverbial crap creek without a paddle on more than one occasion.

In a world where female protagonists with super powers are much more common than yesteryear, I certainly like Hermione better than Bella on Twilight. My daughter might feel differently, but Hermione always had a purpose and that purpose usually had more to do with righting wrongs than falling in love. There, I said it…whew!

Another thing that impresses me about Hermione is that she doesn’t have to be perfect. She has doubts, fears and questions everything, but when push comes to shove, she isn’t afraid to shove.

As I researched this character I learned that she has a lot in common with her author and creator, JK Rowling. It’s nothing unusual for an author to put tidbits of themselves into their works, but if JK is anything like Hermione in real life, then she must be as good a person as she is an author.

As the series grows, so does the character of Hermione. Nothing more than a child in the first Potter books, she is a fully grown young woman by the time it all ends. I always kind of wished she and Harry Potter would fall in love, but Rowling chose the third protagonist from the series, the ever loyal Ron Weasly to be her love interest. Through all the bickering they slung at each other, a strange chemistry developed between the two and by the epilogue of the final book, they were married and had children. Perfect fairytale ending, right?

Beyond her magickal abilities, I think the things that make Hermione so charming are her intellect and her loyalty. Never one to back down from a challenge, her response to the antagonists in the series, such as the ever frowning Malfoy, was to get revenge by outsmarting the bad guys. And she did quite a good job of that!

Though some might have seen Hermione as standoffish, I felt relatively the opposite. Being a book worm and someone who did outstandingly well in class, I can relate to her character, even though she is meant to be a geeky female heroine. There is far more to Hermione than that. Seemingly always the first to master new lessons and spells, who else would Harry Potter call upon when he was in a bind against the formidable antagonists he had to face? I am sure Harry would have Hermione a bit higher on the list, but I think she is perfect here at number four. Do you agree?

What this says for the final four witches on my list is that they are amazing! I can’t wait to reveal them to you! Stay tuned!!!

Thanks for reading my blog. Please follow me, share and tell an enemy and a friend. I look forward to seeing you next time. I also encourage you to visit my author website to check out my novels and short stories. My psycho-sexual/dark fantasy novel about dragons, undead knights, and you guessed it, witches is called Rise of the Raven Knights, Suffer the Witch Volume I and it can be found at http://sufferthewitch.com.

My apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, The Devil’s Prophet is also available at http://thedevilsprophet.com.

Number 6 Witch of All-Time: Marie Laveau, the New Orleans Voodoo Queen

Number 5 Witch of All-Time: Marie Laveau, the New Orleans Voodoo Queen

Was Marie Laveau a witch or a saint? No one will ever know. The clouded history of the infamous New Orleans Voodoo Queen has been clouded by time, leaving us with an ambiguous legend that is part truth, part myth and mysteriously compelling. Because of that, Marie Laveau clocks into the Top Ten Witches of All-Time at number Five.

A Creole woman of color, Marie was freeborn in New Orleans sometime between 1794 and 1801 to free mulatto parents. Married at a young age to Jacques Paris, a Haitian immigrant, she bore two children, neither of which survived childhood. Her husband died of mysterious circumstances and the Voodoo Queen’s legacy was born.

She later bore several children with her long time lover, Louis Christophe Dumesnil de Glapio, one of which grew up to follow her mother’s footsteps and became known as Marie Laveau II.  Whether she was a witch, voodoo priestess or just an adventurous Catholic, does nothing to take away from this woman’s true legacy. Heck, being born free in a land of slavery was astounding enough for a woman of color. The fact that she owned her own land, her own business as a liquor importer, was a slave owner herself and served as a faith healer only serves to make her more hyped accomplishments, real or imagined, even more impressive.

There are many legends about Marie. Supposedly she served as a nurse during the yellow fever epidemic of the 1830’s, using her spiritual healing powers to heal many of the afflicted. She was also claimed to be a hair dresser for the affluent, a blackmailer, a snake handler, the leader of blood drenched voodoo rituals, and a brothel owner. But above all she will be remembered as a voodoo queen, though what she practiced was most likely a clever mix of Catholicism and Voodoo. Her mystical powers were said to include fixing court cases, and being a witch so powerful she killed a sitting governor and lieutenant governor with nothing more than a magick spell and voodoo ritual.

It is also claimed that Marie Laveau is immortal. Whether that is true or not cannot be proven, however, her legend has truly become immortalized. Even today, at the place of her reputed tomb, curiosity brings tourists who draw ‘X’s’ on her mausoleum, in hopes of being blessed, while also praying not to be cursed.

In popular culture, Marie Laveau’s legend has been kept alive by many sources. There are novels about her, her likeness has appeared in Marvel Comics, there are pop songs about her, including one by Dr. Hook and another by Jazz pianist Joe Sample. There are also biographies based on her life and times. She even has a part in one of my favorite shows, American Horror Story, whose portrayal of her by Angela Bassett is spot on!

No other witch on this list, or any other for that matter, can claim the staying power achieved by Marie Laveau. I hope I haven’t insulted her greatness by listing her at only number 6. That being said, the next five witches on the list are very strong. Be sure to check back Thursday, April 4, for the number 5Witch of All-Time: Hermione Granger from Harry Potter.

Thanks for reading my blog. Please follow me, share and tell an enemy and a friend. I look forward to seeing you next time. I also encourage you to visit my author website to check out my novels and short stories. My psycho-sexual/dark fantasy novel about dragons, undead knights, and you guessed it, witches is called Rise of the Raven Knights, Suffer the Witch Volume I and it can be found at http://sufferthewitch.com.

My Apocalyptic Dark Fiction Thriller, THE DEVIL'S PROPHET is available at http://thedevilsprophet.com