The Top Ten Witches of All-Time

10. Cordelia Fox

Click to read entire story

Sara Paulson has to be commended, respected and feared for her portrayal of Cordelia, who tried to kill her mom, stabbed her own eyes out to gain second sight, and burned her mentor at the stake to cement her ascension to Coven Supreme. Well played, Cordelia!

9. The Charmed Ones

Click to read entire story

Sexiest witches ever. The three sisters are also pretty darned good at snuffing out demons. What’s not to love about this group of witches? They are still extremely popular in syndication.

8.  Glenda the Good Witch, Wizard of Oz

Click to read entire story

She rides bubbles and has one of the most recognizable voices in movie history. Oh yea, she isn’t scared of wicked witches either. By empowering Dorothy, she made female heroes possible.

7. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter

Click to read entire story

The self-conscious perfectionist from the megahit Harry Potter series. She doesn’t get much credit, but were would Harry Potter and Ronald Weasly be without her and her timely spells?

6. Samantha, Bewitched

Click to read entire story

She brought witchcraft to the mainstream. Her popular television series is still beloved today, decades after it originally aired. How many of you can twitch your nose like her?

5. Marie Laveau, New Orleans Voodoo Queen

Click to read entire story

A true life witch of the highest order. People still go to her grave to pray for wishes granted. This is usually reserved for saints and whatnot, but New Orleans has its own way of doing things.

4. Stevie Nicks

Click to read entire story

The ultimate white Wiccan, Stevie doesn’t like to be called a witch, but it’s pretty obvious. It goes deeper than her wardrobe too. Listen to the occult imagery in her songs and you will know.

3. Fionna Goode, American Horror Story Coven

Click to read entire story

Fionna is as wicked as any witch on any list. She’s slashed throats, drowned girls, beheaded a minotaur, slept with ghosts, then had the ghost hack up her enemies. She is the Supreme, simply put.

2. Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz

Click to read entire story

She had her flaws, like keeping the one thing that could kill her, water, just laying around. But her image has endured decades as the classic face of an evil witch. Green witches with warts, yea, that’s her. Her obsession over her late sister’s ruby slippers is timeless.

1. Morganna LeFay, King Arthur

Click to read entire story

King Arthur’s sister, had sex with him, bore him a child that would bring down his Kingdom of Camelot and trapped Merlin the Magician, or Druid, in perpetual frozenness.  Yes, that’s pretty wicked.

Click to read Top 10 Witches of All-Time Honorable Mention 

Click To Purchase Paul DeThroe's Dark Fiction @ Amazon

NUMBER 3 WITCH OF ALL TIME: JESSICA LANGE as FIONA GOODE, AHS COVEN

The first time I can remember seeing Jessica Lange was in The Postman Always Rings Twice. As a young teen, the blatant sexual prowess portrayed between her and Jack Nicolson was simply mind blowing. If this was what sex was all about, I had to have some! It was awkward, in your face, gritty, powerful. There is any number of powerful adjectives one could throw in here if inclined to grammatical gymnastics. You get the picture though. All references to Mrs. Robinson from 1967’s classic, The Graduate, aside, at that tender age I would have done Jessica Lange.

Back to the present. Jessica has lead an all-star ensemble cast through three seasons of American Horror Story. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if her character is good or bad. Not since the days of Larry Hagman’s portrayal of J.R. Ewing in Dallas, has an actor played a character that is so reviled, yet be nearly universally loved. Scruples could never get in the way of juicy roles such as these, which would explain her three year run, with talk of a fourth, before she goes her merry way, as she has publically stated.

This year she is once again, the ‘supreme’. Ironically, she is one of the few actresses I know that could steal the show even when she is the show’s main focus! Her delivery of the character, Fiona Goode, is flawless. A powerful leader of a dying witch coven, Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, Fiona is both strong and diabolical. She doesn’t flinch at killing anyone that stands in her way of achieving the power she so desperately craves. Her antics would rank her with some of the wickedest witches in fictional history. In my Top Ten Witches of All-Time Blog Series she comes in at #3.

There is more to this character, however. Jessica is as talented an actress as there ever was, so being able to flip the script and tug on the hearts of her audience is something she accomplishes effortlessly. Fiona’s character has a soft side after all. Fi as she displays a convincing, yet un-crippling, amount of self-esteem issues. She aging, and in fact dying of cancer. Huge ego hit on both counts. Years of affairs have left her feeling unfulfilled in her love life, with her only choice at present a ghostly axe murderer. Add this to the fact that as a new supreme emerges among the younger coven witches, he powers wane, leaving her quite defenseless as her wasting disease progresses.

Fiona’s answer to this? Dig up a centuries old witch, buried alive while carrying the curse of immortality. The problem is that the person responsible for the curse is equally evil New Orleans Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, who is also an immortal. She also has a profound dislike for witches, white girls and particularly, Fiona.

The biggest sin in the coven is murdering a fellow coven member. Halfway through the season, Fiona has killed three in her attempt to gain and preserve her title of Supreme. First she offed her predecessor Supreme, when she was just a teenager, to take power the old fashioned way: in a coup.

Next, after her daughter brought in perhaps the final class of coven witches, she slashes the throat of the one she first fears to be her replacement, thinking it would restore her power. But, she picked the wrong one.

After that, Fiona executed her longtime rival, Myrtle, by casting blame on her for the murder of the young witch she thought was stealing her powers. Burning Myrtle alive at the stake, Fiona sets an indelible impression on the young members of the coven, who decided to take Fiona on in a high stakes game of chicken. The climatic final episode of the season looks to be extraordinary, if only to see who wins control of the coven, and title of Supreme. I wouldn’t count Fiona out!

Meanwhile, I will be thinking to myself that the 17 year difference between Jessica and myself isn’t as big as it was when I was 15. Yes, I would still do the beautiful Ms. Lange!

Click To Purchase Paul DeThroe's Dark Fiction @ Amazon

WITCHCRAZE: A LOOK AT MODERN WITCHCRAFT

Alrighty folks, being a lifelong football fan, I know when to punt. Today’s blog was supposed to further the Knights of Lore series, but an older series of mine, The Top Ten Witches of All-Time, is still far surpassing the Knights’ series, so I’ve decided to jump back on the bandwagon and further explore the new ‘Witchcraze’!

It’s hard to believe that just a few hundred years ago, claiming to be a witch, or even being accused of being one, would get you burned at the stake! My, how times have changed. It seems like the only mythical creatures that can rival the skyrocketing popularity of witches is vampires. From a personal standpoint, I see witches winning that battle.

Nothing against those immortal blood sucking creatures of the night, but I will take witches any day! Hey, witches are pretty sexy! All one has to do is look at shows like American Horror Story: Coven, to see what I’m talking about.

That show, which is my favorite AHS yet, has sexy witches from all age groups and walks of life. From perennial bad girls, Fiona Goode and Delphine LaLaurie (portrayed by the esteemed actresses Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates), to younger bad girls like Madison Montgomery and Zoe Benson (Emma Roberts, Taissa Farmiga) and even witches in between, Marie Laveau, Misty Day and Cordelia Foxx (Angela Bassett, Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson, respectively).

The AHS: Coven witches are bad to the bone! And like all naughty witches should be, they are charming and beautiful, thus belying their own wickedness. So far, the Coven witches have shown incredible powers of second sight, telegraphic fire starting, resurrection, death by sex, control over zombies, reverse empathetic pain, and, of course, murder.

During the upcoming blog installments for Witchcraze! A look at modern witches, we will explore these incredible witches and see what makes them tick. 

On the flip side, American Horror Story producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk aren’t the only production company zeroing in on witchcraft. We also have the Lifetime television series Witches of East End, and Fox’s Sleepy Hollow, which has witches that Ichabod Crane must deal with.  CW’s The Originals is full of witches too.

In the land of Hollywood we’ve recently seen witches on the big screen in Beautiful Creatures, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Snow White and the Huntsman, Oz, the Great and Powerful, and Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem. Later this year we can expect to be enchanted by Disney’s upcoming cartoon movie, Frozen.

2014 promises to be just as epically wicked with potential blockbusters such as Maleficent, Seventh Son, The Last Witch Hunter, The Good Witch’s Wonder and Into the Woods.

Is this just a result of the last witchcraft trend, in which the kids that grew up watching Buffy and Charmed are putting their own spin on things? I think it is, and I also think that is a very good thing. When the Harry Potter kids and the kids that are currently learning the ins and outs of witchcraft from today’s shows, grow up, the cycle will repeat and their witches will be even bigger and even more wicked and epic.

In real life, witchcraft is more openly popular than ever before. However, even in today’s time there is still a great degree of discrimination for those who practice. Just mention the word Wicca to a fundamentalist of other religions and you will see exactly what I’m talking about. It seems that some just can’t get past the ‘do not suffer a witch to live’ mentality from religious edicts from thousands of years ago.

Though these aren’t the burning times, I wouldn’t encourage any kid to go to school and claim witchery. While it’s ok to be proud, it invites too much negativity. Who would want to deal with all that in a religion that teaches positivity? Let’s not be like the religions that preach peace and practice war! We are witches damn it! Like good heavy metal music, it’s a helluva lot better when it comes from underground!

Somewhere in the midst of this series, I would like to take a close look at Wicca, what it entails, how it works, and what real coven witches are like. So, if you know some fantastic witch, particularly one that is an author or one that lives in or around Cincinnati, I would love to chat you up and profile you on my blog. Hit me up on facebook or twitter and let’s talk!

In closing I can only add this: Witches: You’ve come a long way baby!

Click To Purchase Paul DeThroe's Dark Fiction @ Amazon

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.