Latest / CelinaSpookyBoo / I Can_t Believe This Is True _ WITCHES

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I Can_t Believe This Is True _ WITCHES · CelinaSpookyBoo

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, Boo Crew, and welcome back to the Haunted Estate,
0:02
Speaker 1: where we explore the darkest corners of the past, the present,
0:05
Speaker 1: and possibly even the future. As usual, I am here
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Speaker 1: with a hot plate of paranormal madness. I'm your hostess
0:13
Speaker 1: with the mostest, Selina Myers, and boy, oh boy, today's
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Speaker 1: plate is steamy. Can somebody get me my broomstick? Ha
0:20
Speaker 1: ha ha! Got it! I've got a trip to visit
0:23
Speaker 1: the witches throughout history. The real deal spells slinging, accuse enchantresses,
0:28
Speaker 1: and even a modern-day pop princess who might have been
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Speaker 1: stirring up a lot of controversy. That's right, and we
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Speaker 1: are going all the way from medieval mischief makers to
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Speaker 1: Taylor Swift herself. Becca's gonna lose her mind! So before
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Speaker 1: we start mixing potions, don't forget to smash that like button,
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Speaker 1: hit subscribe, and ring that notification bell. You do not
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Speaker 1: want to miss out on future episodes. You also don't
0:53
Speaker 1: want to miss out on my makeup and merch, which
0:54
Speaker 1: is all for sale and on sale. So click that
0:57
Speaker 1: link down below. Also, guys, don't forget to drop a
1:00
Speaker 1: comment below with your own witchy encounters. Who knows? Your
1:03
Speaker 1: story might end up in a future episode of The
1:05
Speaker 1: Haunted Estate. So now grab your broomsticks and pointy hats because, bitches,
1:10
Speaker 1: it's time to fly. Let's talk about first Joan of Arc.
1:13
Speaker 1: the teenage witch, sort of. Let's kick things off with
1:17
Speaker 1: a real firebrand of history, and I mean that quite literally.
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Speaker 1: I am talking about none other than Joan of Arc,
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Speaker 1: the boss lady of medieval France. It's 1412, and little
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Speaker 1: Joan is just your average farm girl in northeast France.
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Speaker 1: She's hanging out maybe milking a cow or two, when suddenly, bam,
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Speaker 1: she starts hearing and seeing voices. Now, I don't know
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Speaker 1: about you, but if I started hearing voices, I'd probably
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Speaker 1: check my cheese for mold or maybe even lay off
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Speaker 1: the medieval meat, but not our girl Joan. Oh, no.
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Speaker 1: She decides that these voices are coming straight from the
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Speaker 1: big guy upstairs. Yeah, that's right. Joan claimed that she
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Speaker 1: was getting divine visions from Jesus Christ himself. Now, if
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Speaker 1: someone today said that they were getting messages from the divine,
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Speaker 1: we'd probably nod politely, back away slowly. But in the
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Speaker 1: 15th century France, that's a whole different ballgame. Joan took
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Speaker 1: her holy hallucinations and ran with them, right into the
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Speaker 1: heart of the Hundred Years' War. She marches up to
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Speaker 1: the future King Charles and is like, Hey, big guy,
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Speaker 1: God told me you need to let me lead your army.
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Speaker 1: And here's the kicker, Charles actually goes for it. Can
2:29
Speaker 1: you imagine? Sure. Random teenage girl hears voices. Why don't
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Speaker 1: you lead my entire army? What could possibly go wrong?
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Speaker 1: So Joan trades in her farming threads for some shiny
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Speaker 1: armor and a sweet sword, and off she goes to
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Speaker 1: fight the English. And get this, they actually start winning.
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Speaker 1: Joan is out there kicking ass and taking names, all
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Speaker 1: while claiming she got a direct line to the almighty
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Speaker 1: man himself upstairs. But here's where things take a turn
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Speaker 1: for the witchy. See, the English are not too thrilled
3:01
Speaker 1: about getting their butts handed to them by a teenage girl. So,
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Speaker 1: they start spreading rumors. Oh, she must be using witchcraft,
3:08
Speaker 1: they say. How else could a mere woman be defeating us?
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Speaker 1: Because apparently in their minds, it was more believable that
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Speaker 1: Joan was a witch than just, you know, a badass
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Speaker 1: military strategist. Things really heat up when Joan get captured
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Speaker 1: by the, oh my gosh, what is this word? Burgundians. Okay.
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Speaker 1: Who were all allied with the English because medieval politics
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Speaker 1: were more complicated than a season of Game of Thrones,
3:34
Speaker 1: which I just started rewatching. Thank you. They hand her
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Speaker 1: over to the English who are all too happy to
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Speaker 1: put her on trial and not just any trial. a
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Speaker 1: Hersey trial, because apparently kicking English butt was against God's
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Speaker 1: plan or something. Now, you'd think that being accused by
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Speaker 1: the Hersey would be bad enough, but nope. They had
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Speaker 1: to throw witchcraft into the mix, too. They claimed Joan
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Speaker 1: used magic to enchant her sword, and that her visions
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Speaker 1: were actually from the devil, and that she was genuinely
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Speaker 1: up to no good in the sorcery department. Poor Joan
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Speaker 1: tries to defend herself, but let's be real here, the trial...
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Speaker 1: was about as fair as a rigged carnival game. The
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Speaker 1: judges were all pro-English clergy, and they had already decided
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Speaker 1: that Joan was guilty before she even walked in the door.
4:25
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Speaker 1: Despite her best efforts, Jonas saw guilty of witchcraft. And
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Speaker 1: you know what the punishment was back then? That's right.
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Speaker 1: A one-way ticket to Burnsville. On May 30th, 1431, at
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Speaker 1: the ripe age of 19, Joan of Arc was burned
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Speaker 1: at the stake in Rowan. Rune? Rune? But here's the kicker.
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Speaker 1: Fast forward a few centuries when the Catholic Church does
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Speaker 1: a complete 180. In 1920, they're like, oops, our bad.
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Speaker 1: Joan wasn't a witch after all. She was actually a saint.
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Speaker 1: Now talk about a glow up. Now she's Saint Joan
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Speaker 1: of Arc, patron saint of France. Soldiers and people who really,
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Speaker 1: really don't like the English. So what's the moral of
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Speaker 1: Joan's story? Well, for one, maybe think twice before telling
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Speaker 1: everyone that you're having divine visions. And two, if you're
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Speaker 1: going to lead an army into victory against the English,
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Speaker 1: maybe wear some flame retardant armor just in case. Poor
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Speaker 1: Joan went from farm girl to war hero to crispy
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Speaker 1: critter to saint. Now that's what I call a roller
6:46
Speaker 1: coaster ride through history. Uh-huh. Next up, we have Tituba,
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Speaker 1: the Salem scandal starter. The year is 1692, and Tituba
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Speaker 1: is the woman who accidentally kicked off the biggest witch
6:58
Speaker 1: hunt in American history. Tituba wasn't your average 17th century colonist.
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Speaker 1: She was an enslaved woman, maybe from South America or
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Speaker 1: the Caribbean, living in the household of Reverend Samuel Parris.
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Speaker 1: Little did she know that she was about to become
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Speaker 1: the reluctant star of the most twisted reality show of
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Speaker 1: the 1690s. The Real Housewives of Salem Village. It's a cold,
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Speaker 1: dreary February in Salem, and the Puritans are doing what
7:25
Speaker 1: Puritans do best, being uptight and suspicious of anything remotely fun. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: Reverend Paris' daughter Betty and niece Abigail start acting strange.
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Speaker 1: They're having fits, screaming, making weird noises, and contorting themselves.
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Speaker 1: You know, a scene straight out of The Exorcist. If
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Speaker 1: that happened today, we'd probably assume that these girls were
7:45
Speaker 1: having a psychotic break or on drugs. But in 1692 Salem,
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Speaker 1: oh no, it must be witchcraft. Because obviously there is
7:54
Speaker 1: only one explanation for teenage girls acting weird, and that
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Speaker 1: is that they're definitely under a spell. Spoiler, sometimes teenagers
8:02
Speaker 1: are just weird guys. So, the witch hunt begins, and
8:06
Speaker 1: guess who's the first one in the hot seat? That's right,
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Speaker 1: our girl Tituba. Now why Tituba? because damn, she had
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Speaker 1: three strikes against her from the start. One, she was
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Speaker 1: a woman of color in a very white, very Protestant community. Two,
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Speaker 1: she came from a culture with different spiritual practices that
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Speaker 1: the Puritans did not understand or like. And three, she
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Speaker 1: had the audacity to tell the local kids stories from
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Speaker 1: her homeland, probably just trying to make her enslaved life
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Speaker 1: A little less miserable. But in the eyes of the Puritans,
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Speaker 1: that was like waving a big neon sign saying, Hey,
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Speaker 1: I'm totally a witch. Come and get me. So they
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Speaker 1: hauled Tituba in for questioning. And let me tell you,
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Speaker 1: this wasn't your average line of questioning. No, this was
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Speaker 1: more like, answer this the way we want, or we're
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Speaker 1: going to torture you until you do. So faced with
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Speaker 1: this charming ultimatum, Tituba does what any sane person would do.
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Speaker 1: she starts telling them exactly what they want to hear.
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Speaker 1: Her confession is like the 17th century version of a
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Speaker 1: best-selling fantasy novel. She spins a tale of black dogs,
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Speaker 1: red cats, yellow birds, and a tall man from Boston
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Speaker 1: who made her sign the devil's book. Well, it's like
9:22
Speaker 1: she took every scary bedtime story, mixed them all together
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Speaker 1: into one big witchy smoothie, but here's where it gets crazy,
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Speaker 1: if that wasn't already crazy enough. Instead of saying, Okay,
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Speaker 1: we've got our witch. Let's call it a day. The
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Speaker 1: good people of Salem go into panic mode. They're like,
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Speaker 1: oh no, if Tituba's a witch, there must be more. Quick,
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Speaker 1: accuse everyone who has ever looked at you weird ever
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Speaker 1: of being a witch. Yeah. And just like that, the
9:49
Speaker 1: Salem witch trials kick into high gear. It is a
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Speaker 1: colonial version of Among Us, and every good Puritan is
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Speaker 1: suspecting their neighbors of being a secret devil worshiper. Before
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Speaker 1: you know it, they're accusing everyone from homeless women to
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Speaker 1: respected community members poor tituba She may have thought her
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Speaker 1: confession might save her neck. Instead, she opened up the
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Speaker 1: floodgates to a year of paranoia, false accusations, and kangaroo courts.
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Speaker 1: By the time the dust settled, 20 people had been executed,
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Speaker 1: many more imprisoned, and the reputation of Salem was forever
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Speaker 1: linked to witches and hysteria. As for Tituba herself, she
10:27
Speaker 1: spent 13 months in jail before being released. Some say
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Speaker 1: that she was sold to pay for her prison fees.
10:35
Speaker 1: Talk about adding insult to injury. While others think she
10:38
Speaker 1: may have escaped. Either way, she disappears from the historical record.
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Speaker 1: So what can we learn from Tituba's tale? Well, for one,
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Speaker 1: maybe don't tell stories to Puritan children. They can't handle it.
10:50
Speaker 1: And two, if you ever find yourself accused of witchcraft,
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Speaker 1: Maybe don't confess a bunch of stuff that you didn't do.
10:57
Speaker 1: It might seem like a good idea at the time,
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Speaker 1: but yo, trust me, it's not gonna end well. Teachable.
11:04
Speaker 1: Next up, we have Anne Bolin, the Queen of Hearts.
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Speaker 1: We've all heard of her. Let's hop in the time
11:09
Speaker 1: machine and zip back to the 16th century England. We're
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Speaker 1: talking cod pieces, elaborate roughs, and more drama than a
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Speaker 1: season of The Crown. Center stage in this historical soap opera?
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Speaker 1: None other than Anne Bolin, the second wife of King Henry,
11:24
Speaker 1: and the woman who gives a new meaning to the phrase,
11:28
Speaker 1: lost her head over a man. Now Anne, this gal,
11:31
Speaker 1: had an ambition with a capital A. She caught the
11:34
Speaker 1: eye of King Henry, who was at the time married
11:37
Speaker 1: to Catherine of Aragon. But Henry had a problem. Catherine
11:41
Speaker 1: hadn't given him a male heir, and he was getting antsy.
11:44
Speaker 1: Enter Anne, stage left, ready to turn the English court,
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Speaker 1: and the entire country, Upside down. Henry was so smitten
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Speaker 1: with Anne that he decided to break away from the
11:53
Speaker 1: Catholic Church just so he could divorce Catherine and marry her.
11:58
Speaker 1: That's right. He created an entire new church, the Church
12:00
Speaker 1: of England, essentially saying, screw you, Pope. I do what
12:04
Speaker 1: I want. So Henry marries Anne. And for a while,
12:07
Speaker 1: things are great. She gives birth to a daughter. Spoiler alert,
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Speaker 1: it is the future Queen Elizabeth. The first. And everyone
12:14
Speaker 1: is hopeful that a son will follow. But here is
12:16
Speaker 1: where things start to go downhill. Anne, bless her heart,
12:19
Speaker 1: just can't seem to produce a male heir. And Henry,
12:22
Speaker 1: being the patient and understanding guy he is. That's sarcasm,
12:26
Speaker 1: if you can tell, my dudes. Starts to get a
12:28
Speaker 1: bit testy. Meanwhile, Anne's getting more and more desperate. And
12:32
Speaker 1: the court vultures are starting to circle. Now this is
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Speaker 1: where witchcraft accusations begin to bubble up like a bad potion.
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Speaker 1: You see, people at court couldn't understand how Anne had
12:42
Speaker 1: managed to beat Witch the King so thoroughly. I mean,
12:46
Speaker 1: it couldn't possibly be her wit, her charm, and her intelligence, right? No!
12:51
Speaker 1: It must be witchcraft! The... Rumors start flying faster than
12:56
Speaker 1: a bat out of hell. They say Anne has a
12:59
Speaker 1: sixth finger. Spooky, okay. And that she has moles all
13:02
Speaker 1: over her body. The horror. And get this, apparently she
13:06
Speaker 1: has a literal third breast. Now, I don't know about you,
13:09
Speaker 1: but if I had three boobs, I'd be more likely
13:11
Speaker 1: to join the circus than to become the Queen of England.
13:13
Speaker 1: But hey, different strokes for different folks. The wildest accusation
13:19
Speaker 1: is that Anne had bewitched Henry by using magic. and
13:22
Speaker 1: that in their minds there was no other explanation for
13:25
Speaker 1: why Henry would go to such lengths to marry her. Obviously,
13:29
Speaker 1: a man couldn't possibly be attracted to another woman because
13:32
Speaker 1: of her personality or anything crazy like that, or a
13:34
Speaker 1: third boob, like, whoa. Things really hit the fan in 1536. Henry,
13:39
Speaker 1: being the stand-up guy that he is, decides that he
13:41
Speaker 1: has had enough of Anne. But divorce is so last season, darling. No,
13:45
Speaker 1: Henry decides the best way to get rid of his
13:47
Speaker 1: problematic wife is to accuse her of high treason. And
13:51
Speaker 1: what's a little witchcraft accusation to just spice things up?
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Speaker 1: The charges against Anne were unbelievable. They accused her of
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Speaker 1: adultery with five men, including her own brother, ew, high treason,
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Speaker 1: and yes, witchcraft. They claimed that she had seduced the
14:07
Speaker 1: king with her magical powers, and that's why he had
14:10
Speaker 1: acted so out of character pursuing her. The verdict was
14:13
Speaker 1: a foregone conclusion, and on May 19th, 1536, Anne Boleyn
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Speaker 1: became the first English queen to be executed. Talk about
14:23
Speaker 1: losing your head over a guy. Literally. Almost as soon
14:26
Speaker 1: as Anne's head had rolled, Henry married Jane Seymour. So,
14:30
Speaker 1: was Anne Boleyn really a witch? Unless she was secretly
14:33
Speaker 1: running a Hogwarts night school out of the Tower of London,
14:36
Speaker 1: probably not. More likely, she was just a woman who
14:39
Speaker 1: played the Game of Thrones and she lost. She went
14:42
Speaker 1: from being the woman who sparked the English Reformation to
14:45
Speaker 1: to a cautionary tale about the dangers of royal romance
14:49
Speaker 1: faster than you can say, off with her head. Lavoisin,
14:53
Speaker 1: the poisonous Parisian psychic. Let's sashay over to 17th century France,
14:59
Speaker 1: where the wigs are high and the morals are low,
15:02
Speaker 1: and the poison is flowing like fine wine. We're talking
15:05
Speaker 1: about none other than Catherine Mouvoisin, better known as Lavoisin,
15:10
Speaker 1: the witch who put the gal in Gallic black magic.
15:13
Speaker 1: It's Paris in the 1660s, the son, King Louis, is
15:17
Speaker 1: on the throne, and the city is a glittering playground
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Speaker 1: for the rich and the fabulous. But beneath all that
15:23
Speaker 1: silk and powder is a dark underbelly of jealousy, revenge,
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Speaker 1: and other people who really, really want to get rid
15:29
Speaker 1: of their spouses. La Voisin wasn't your average fortune teller
15:33
Speaker 1: reading palms in a back alley. Oh no, this lady
15:37
Speaker 1: had style. She set herself up as a respectable midwife
15:41
Speaker 1: in the herbalist community because apparently in 17th century France,
15:45
Speaker 1: the path from delivering babies to delivering death was a
15:48
Speaker 1: short one. But her real talents? Fortune-telling and love potions
15:53
Speaker 1: for the ladies of the French court. Now, when I
15:55
Speaker 1: say love potions, I don't mean some harmless concoction of
15:59
Speaker 1: rose petals and unicorn tears. Lavoisin's idea of a love
16:03
Speaker 1: potion was more likely to include arsenic than aphrodisiacs. She
16:08
Speaker 1: was like the anti-Cupid, helping women take care of inconvenient
16:12
Speaker 1: husbands or rivals. But La Voisin wasn't content with just
16:16
Speaker 1: poisoning people and reading palms. No, she had to take
16:19
Speaker 1: things to a whole new level of witchy weirdness. Rumor
16:23
Speaker 1: has it that she was into some seriously dark stuff,
16:26
Speaker 1: including black masses and sacrificing babies. Woo! Her clients were
16:31
Speaker 1: the who's of who 17th century French society. Marquises, duchesses,
16:37
Speaker 1: and even the king's mistress, Madame de Montespan? These ladies
16:43
Speaker 1: weren't coming to La Voisin for love advice or tarot readings.
16:47
Speaker 1: Oh no, they wanted the hardcore stuff. Poisons, black magic,
16:51
Speaker 1: and rituals. The post-resistance of La Voisin's witchy repertoire. The
16:56
Speaker 1: black mass. Now, this wasn't your average Sunday service. Imagine
17:01
Speaker 1: a naked lady lying on an altar, a bowl on
17:04
Speaker 1: her belly filled with blood. sometimes from sacrificed babies. Upside-down crosses,
17:08
Speaker 1: black candles, and a rogue priest reciting Latin backwards. And
17:13
Speaker 1: they baked the blood and other ingredients into communion wafers. Delicious.
17:17
Speaker 1: But as they say, all good things, or in this case,
17:20
Speaker 1: terrible evil things, must come to an end. In 1679,
17:23
Speaker 1: French authorities finally caught wind of all this deadly hocus-pocus
17:27
Speaker 1: that was going down in Paris. They called this massive
17:30
Speaker 1: scandal that rocked the French court the Affair of the Poisons.
17:34
Speaker 1: She was arrested, and suddenly... all her high society clients
17:37
Speaker 1: were sweating harder than a sinner in church, the king
17:40
Speaker 1: set up a special court to deal with all this mess,
17:43
Speaker 1: aptly named the Burning Chamber. During her trial, she confessed
17:47
Speaker 1: to all sorts of gruesome deeds, including murdering thousands of babies. Wow, thanks. Now,
17:53
Speaker 1: was she exaggerating? Probably. But even if she was only
17:56
Speaker 1: responsible for a fraction of what she claimed, It was
17:59
Speaker 1: enough to earn her a one-way ticket to the stake.
18:02
Speaker 1: On February 22nd, 1680, La Voisin met her fiery end.
18:07
Speaker 1: In a twist of irony, she went out the same
18:10
Speaker 1: way many accused witches did, burned at the stake. The
18:14
Speaker 1: scandal kept on burning, the authorities arrested hundreds of people,
18:18
Speaker 1: and the whispers of poison and black magic hung over
18:21
Speaker 1: the French court like a bad smell. King Louis eventually
18:25
Speaker 1: shut down the whole investigation, probably because he was worried
18:28
Speaker 1: about how many friends he would have left if it
18:30
Speaker 1: all continued. La Voix went from being a humble fortune
18:33
Speaker 1: teller to the center of one of the biggest scandals
18:36
Speaker 1: in French history. So the next time you are tempted
18:39
Speaker 1: to visit a sketchy psychic for a love potion, maybe
18:43
Speaker 1: just stick to swiping on Tinder and set. It's a
18:45
Speaker 1: lot less likely to end in a fiery execution. Now
18:49
Speaker 1: on to one of my favorites, Marie Laveau, the Voodoo
18:52
Speaker 1: Queen of New Orleans. Marie Laveau, the voodoo... New Orleans!
18:56
Speaker 1: New Orleans! Marie Laveau, who ruled the spiritual scenes of
19:01
Speaker 1: the 19th century with an iron fist and a killer hairdo,
19:04
Speaker 1: it is New Orleans in the early 1800s. The city
19:07
Speaker 1: is a gumbo pot of cultures with French, Spanish, African,
19:11
Speaker 1: and Caribbean influences all simmering together in the swampy heat.
19:15
Speaker 1: And stirring this metaphysical pot? Marie wasn't your average run-of-the-mill witch,
19:19
Speaker 1: oh no. This lady was a voodoo priestess, A hairdresser,
19:23
Speaker 1: a businesswoman who could charm the scales off of a
19:27
Speaker 1: swamp gator. Born a free woman of color in the
19:29
Speaker 1: French Quarter, Marie quickly made a name for herself as
19:33
Speaker 1: a practitioner of voodoo. Now, I know what you're thinking. Voodoo.
19:37
Speaker 1: Isn't that all sticking pins into dolls and turning people
19:39
Speaker 1: into zombies? Well, hold your voodoo dolls, guys, because it's
19:43
Speaker 1: a little bit more complicated than that. Voodoo, as practiced
19:46
Speaker 1: by Marie, was a mix of African religious traditions, Catholic seminaries,
19:50
Speaker 1: and a dash of good old-fashioned showmanship her services were
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Speaker 1: in high demand among both high society and common folk
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Speaker 1: of new orleans of new orleans need to win a
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Speaker 1: court case she's got a gris gris bag for that
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Speaker 1: Want your cheating husband to come crawling back? Marie's ripping
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Speaker 1: up a love potion as we speak. Hoping to curse
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Speaker 1: your annoying neighbor? Marie's got a voodoo doll with your
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Speaker 1: name on it, like literally she does. But she wasn't
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Speaker 1: just about hexes and love spells. She was also known
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Speaker 1: for her charity work. Nursing yellow fever victims back to health.
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Speaker 1: Advocating for enslaved people. It's like she was trying to
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Speaker 1: keep a balance in her karmatic checkbook. A little curse here,
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Speaker 1: a little good deed there, and voila, spiritual equilibrium. Now
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Speaker 1: let's talk about her legendary powers. Rumor had it that
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Speaker 1: she could bilocate. That's fancy talk for being able to
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Speaker 1: be in two places at once. People said she would
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Speaker 1: control the weather, which, to be honest, would be pretty
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Speaker 1: sweet squill to have in New Orleans because is there
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Speaker 1: a hurricane coming? Not on Marie's watch. But her real
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Speaker 1: power came from her vast network of informants. See, as
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Speaker 1: a hairdresser, she had access to all the juicy gossip
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Speaker 1: in town. And when you combine that with her voodoo reputation, well,
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Speaker 1: let's just say, Marie knew everyone's dirty laundry. Probably, honestly,
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Speaker 1: before they knew it themselves. Her home on St. Anne
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Speaker 1: Street became a mecca for those seeking her services. But
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Speaker 1: here's where things get very, very interesting. Marie Laveau supposedly
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Speaker 1: died in 1881. Except people kept reporting sightings of her
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Speaker 1: well into the 20th century. Now either Marie discovered the
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Speaker 1: secret to eternal youth, in which case, girl please share
21:31
Speaker 1: your potion with me. Or there was some serious voodoo
21:35
Speaker 1: trickery going on. The truth is Marie had a daughter,
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Speaker 1: also named Marie, who followed in her footsteps as a
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Speaker 1: voodoo priestess. So when people thought they were seeing the
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Speaker 1: original Marie, they were actually seeing Marie 2.0. Even today,
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Speaker 1: people still visit Marie Laveau's tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
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Speaker 1: They leave offerings, make wishes, and draw three X's on
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Speaker 1: the tomb in hopes that Marie will grant their desires
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Speaker 1: from beyond the grave. I want to do that if
22:02
Speaker 1: we ever go there, please. Now we have Isabelle Godey.
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Speaker 1: The Confessions of a 17th Century Scottish Witch. Imagine it.
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Speaker 1: It's 1662. An alder? A wee village in the Scottish Highlands.
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Speaker 1: The witch hunts are in full swing and everyone is
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Speaker 1: extremely paranoid. Isabel Gaudi is a local farmer's wife who
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Speaker 1: is about to spice things up. Now, most accused witches
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Speaker 1: of the time either denied everything or confessed under torture.
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Speaker 1: But not Isabel. Oh no. This gal volunteered information and
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Speaker 1: let me tell you, her confession is wild. Over the
22:39
Speaker 1: course of four weeks and four separate confessions, She claimed
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Speaker 1: that she was part of a coven of 13 witches.
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Speaker 1: Because apparently, even in the supernatural world, it's all about
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Speaker 1: who you know. According to Isabel, she and her coven
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Speaker 1: would regularly meet with the devil himself. Now, you might
22:56
Speaker 1: think meeting Satan would be a formal affair. Maybe a
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Speaker 1: nice dinner, some light conversation about a terminal damnation. But no,
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Speaker 1: the devil is more of a party animal. Isabel described
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Speaker 1: wild festivities were that they would dance. feast and generally
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Speaker 1: carry on like it was spring break in hell she
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Speaker 1: even claimed that they would transform into animals her favorite
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Speaker 1: form a hair she even had a special chant for
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Speaker 1: it i shall go into a hair with sorrow and
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Speaker 1: sigh michael care and i shall go in devil's name
23:31
Speaker 1: i while i come home again that's meekle isn't it
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Speaker 1: i don't know i don't want to say it right
23:37
Speaker 1: anyways i want to say it wrong Guys, I don't
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Speaker 1: know about you, but if I had the power to
23:42
Speaker 1: transform into any animal, I'll probably pick something a bit
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Speaker 1: more impressive than that. Like a pterodactyl. Or a dragon. Maybe.
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Speaker 1: But Isabel did not stop at hairs. Oh no, she
23:53
Speaker 1: claimed that she could turn into a cat, a crow,
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Speaker 1: and even a grain of corn. What? You could poop
23:59
Speaker 1: her out. That was weird, Adam, but yep. Why? Why
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Speaker 1: would you want to turn into a grain of corn?
24:05
Speaker 1: because nothing strikes fear into the hearts of men quite
24:07
Speaker 1: like a piece of popcorn. Now, you might be saying, Selena,
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Speaker 1: surely this is just the ramblings of a madwoman, right?
24:15
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, yeah, but there's this thing. Her
24:18
Speaker 1: confessions were given voluntarily, without torture, and she walked into
24:22
Speaker 1: the courtroom and basically said, yo, pull up a chair, lads,
24:25
Speaker 1: I got a story for you. Surprisingly, despite her wild confession,
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Speaker 1: there's no record of Isabel being executed, which is kind
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Speaker 1: of miraculous. Considering it was the 17th century Scotland, you
24:36
Speaker 1: could have been burned at the stake for looking at
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Speaker 1: a drawing of a witch. So, that's weird. Now we're
24:41
Speaker 1: going to talk about somebody pretty close to my heart
24:42
Speaker 1: and someone I love a lot. We're going to talk
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Speaker 1: about Taylor Swift, the pop princess of modern day witchcraft.
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Speaker 1: And that's a question mark, guys. Let's get into it.
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Speaker 1: Now we're on our final witch of the night. None
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Speaker 1: other than our pop superstar, Taylor Swift. Now before you
24:55
Speaker 1: start shaking your head in disbelief, I need you to
24:57
Speaker 1: hear me out. Swift might not be brewing potions in
25:00
Speaker 1: a cauldron or cackling over a crystal ball. At least,
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Speaker 1: that we know of. She hasn't sang about that yet.
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Speaker 1: But in recent years, she has been stirring up a
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Speaker 1: lot of controversy in the witch arena. It all started
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Speaker 1: with her albums, Folklore and Evermore, in 2020. Suddenly, her
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Speaker 1: music was filled with ethereal vibes, forest imagery, and even
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Speaker 1: witchy references. Songs like Willow had Swifties wondering if she
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Speaker 1: had traded in her guitar for a wand. The music video?
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Speaker 1: Pure magical forest coven realness. But it didn't stop there.
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Speaker 1: Swift's era's tour has been raising a lot of eyebrows.
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Speaker 1: Some of her performances, particularly during Willow, have been described
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Speaker 1: as looking more like ritualistic ceremonies. Now, let's be clear.
25:45
Speaker 1: Swift has publicly identified as Christian, but that hasn't stopped
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Speaker 1: the rumors. Some fans have embraced her witchy vibes, while
25:52
Speaker 1: others are clutching their crucifixes in terror. Swift herself has
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Speaker 1: leaned into the mystique. She's referred to her fans as
25:59
Speaker 1: casting spells. shared witch remixes of her song, and even
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Speaker 1: called herself a witch. Though to be fair, it was
26:06
Speaker 1: very tongue-in-cheek. It's like she's winking at us saying, I'm
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Speaker 1: not a witch, but I play one on stage. So
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Speaker 1: is Taylor Swift actually practicing witchcraft? Is she secretly leading
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Speaker 1: a coven of chart-topping sorceresses? I don't know. But she's
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Speaker 1: certainly tapped into something powerful. The ability to enchant millions
26:26
Speaker 1: with her music and, in a way, isn't that her
26:29
Speaker 1: very own kind of magic? As we wrap up our
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Speaker 1: witch search across time, from Joan of Arc to Taylor Swift,
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Speaker 1: one thing is clear. Society's fascination with witches isn't going anywhere.
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Speaker 1: Whether feared, prosecuted, or celebrated, these women have left an
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Speaker 1: indelible mark on our culture. And with that, guys, we
26:48
Speaker 1: call it in. Until next time, I'm Selina Myers, and
26:51
Speaker 1: I'm signing off from the haunted estate. And I'm gonna
26:55
Speaker 1: go get some spells and go get naked and dance
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Speaker 1: in the forest. Am I lying?