Lifestyle
Witches Are Having a Cultural Moment. Maryland Is Taking Up Their Cause.
It was February 1698, and disease was sweeping through Leonardtown, a small village in southern Maryland. Locals knew whom to blame: They set fire to the hut of Moll Dyer, a single woman living alone on the edge of town who had been deemed a witch.
She escaped the enraged citizens, only to die in the frozen wilderness. Her body was found clinging to a rock, on which her knees and hands supposedly left impressions.
Ms. Dyer, arguably, inspired one of the most famous fictional witches in American pop culture: the one at the center of the 1999 horror film “The Blair Witch Project.” Although the film never explicitly mentioned Ms. Dyer’s fate, it is widely believed to have been based on her story. Ingeniously marketed as found footage, the hit film also endowed Maryland with a haunted reputation.
Ms. Dyer is one of seven people who were tried and convicted of witchcraft in Maryland in the 17th and 18th centuries. Only one was executed: Rebecca Fowler, a widow who was hanged in 1685 after a servant accused her of witchcraft. But all had their reputations sullied for centuries.
Now, the Maryland delegate Heather A. Bagnall, who represents a patch of the state north of Annapolis, has introduced a resolution in the general assembly to exonerate them all. The proposed resolution, which had an initial committee hearing on March 10, has been criticized as out of step with Marylanders’ priorities, but Ms. Bagnall bristled at any suggestion that the measure was frivolous. In an interview, she said she was partly motivated by the demise of Roe v. Wade, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2022, and by the anti-abortion measures passed in states like Texas.
“I’ve got a real appetite for it, and the more I talk about it, the more people realize, ‘No, this is serious,’” Ms. Bagnall said. “This is not just like a flight of fancy. It’s relevant today.”
She compared the campaigns against witches to those against transgender rights and racial diversity initiatives, which have recently come under sustained assault.
At the initial hearing last week, Ms. Bagnall was joined by witch exoneration advocates, including an Episcopalian priest. Afterward, her staff was thrilled but unsure of just when the measure might come up for a full vote. It could be months, even years.
Daniel Myrick, who co-directed “The Blair Witch Project,” said he supported her effort. “We are a flawed nation, and were born out of doing some incredibly cruel things,” he said in an interview. Better “symbolic” reckoning, as he put it, than none at all — and better late than never.
“It’s a social justice issue,” said Elizabeth Pugliese-Shaw, a family law attorney in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. “These people should never have been accused.” She became interested in witch exoneration after learning that other states had done so: In 2022, Massachusetts cleared Elizabeth Johnson Jr., whose conviction was the last to remain standing from the notorious Salem Witch Trials. Connecticut followed with its own witch exonerations in 2023.
Perhaps most notably, Scotland apologized for its witchcraft trials that led to the torture and execution of thousands of women from the 16th to the 18th centuries. “Anyone who didn’t fit the mold of what people expected would be targeted,” said Marlisa Ross, who recently staged a play about the victims of the Scottish witch hunt in Glasgow. Much like Ms. Bagnall, Dr. Ross said she saw a parallel between the witchcraft panic and the rising social animosities today. “It was a way to make everybody have a common enemy,” she said.
In the Puritan colonies of New England, witchcraft was a catchall accusation leveled against women for a variety of reasons: lack of a husband, personality quirks, an interest in herbal medicine or childbirth.
“The accusations are usually against outsiders within the community,” said Daniel T. Howlett, who is completing his doctoral studies in religion and disability in the American colonies at George Mason University in Virginia. Mr. Howlett is related to Mary Bradbury, who was convicted of witchcraft in the Salem trials. “Being a witch meant that you’d signed a covenant with the devil in most European traditions,” he said.
Often, women were simply convenient scapegoats. Beth M. Caruso, who led the exoneration effort in Connecticut, has written three novels about the state’s witch trials. Her interest was piqued after she learned of the plight of Alse Young, believed to be the first woman hanged for witchcraft in the American colonies in 1647. Much like Ms. Dyer, Ms. Young was blamed for a disease outbreak. “Where she lived was right next door to a cluster of child deaths,” Ms. Caruso said. “So then it made total sense as to why she was accused.”
The current cultural moment may be particularly auspicious. Witches have been enjoying something of a revival, and not only because of “Wicked,” the hit musical film starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. The “witchtok” hashtag on TikTok has millions of posts, as users flock to witchcraft’s moody aesthetic, as well as to its emphasis on alternative healing and nature-centered spirituality.
“Part of the draw for us to witchcraft is the acceptance and celebration of our personal identities, bodies, bodily autonomy, a love of our planet and, in many cases, healing from past religious traumas,” Devin Hunter, who runs the website Modern Witch, wrote in an email. “For example, many of us are women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and are members of other underserved communities. Like us, those convicted and tried for witchcraft were often vulnerable people living on the fringes of society.”
(In some countries and regions, women continue to be prosecuted for witchcraft.)
Today, the legend of Moll Dyer still permeates Leonardtown, a tidy waterside enclave where a horse-drawn carriage might pass a hip cocktail lounge. The rock, the one where Ms. Dyer supposedly met her end, is covered by glass — touching it is said to enrage Ms. Dyer’s spirit and bring bad luck. A cat cafe on the town’s main strip is called “Meow Dyer,” an apparent reference to the accused witch’s name. Since 2021, a weekend in late February has been devoted to celebrating Ms. Dyer’s memory. This year, the events included “paranormal investigations,” axe throwing and a cocktail contest.
Historical markers on the road to Leonardtown proclaim Maryland’s legacy as a haven of religious tolerance. Nevertheless, when England passed an anti-witchcraft act in 1604, the state adopted it. But Ms. Bagnall is not bothered by the fact that centuries have passed since the injustices were committed under that law. “It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing,” she said.
Zoe Latta, a co-founder of the fashion brand Eckhaus Latta, saw the clock on Instagram and started searching for pharma swag on eBay. “It was just a hole I got in,” she said. Latta soon rounded up some examples at “Rotting on the Vine,” her Substack newsletter, describing them as “silly byproducts of our sick sad world.”
Pharma swag feels somewhat like Marlboro Man merch — “like this very specific modality of our culture that’s changed,” Latta said, adding, “At first, I thought it was ironic and cheeky. But it’s also so dark.”
In particular, swag like the OxyContin mugs that read “The One to Start With. The One to Stay With” is regarded as highly collectible and highly contentious. Jeremy Wells, a newspaper owner and editor in Olive Hill, Ky., remembered, for example, seeing the mugs sold at a Dollar Tree in New Boston, Ohio, in the late 1990s or early 2000s. “At the same moment that the epidemic is blowing up,” he said.
“You can do a chicken-and-egg argument, and I doubt very seriously that those mugs made anybody get addicted,” he said. “But I do feel like things like those mugs did add to the mystique and the aura of seduction.” (After a protracted lawsuit, Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has been dissolved and is on the hook to pay more than $5 billion in criminal penalties for fueling the opioid epidemic.)
“I was surprised to see how much this stuff was selling for in general — there is demand,” Latta said, pointing to a vintage Xanax photo frame listed for $230. Latta said she could imagine buying it for a friend who takes Xanax on planes (“if it was at a thrift store for under $10”) or maybe a pair of Moderna aviator sunglasses that she found, which seem to nod at Covid vaccines and the signature Biden eyewear, she said.
Pharmacore — medical-branded pieces worn as fashion — has found new expression at the confluence of identity, medicine and commerce, and at a time when skepticism toward pharmaceuticals is at a high (see: the MAHA movement).
Goth Shakira wears a Blumarine jacket, vintage Jean Paul Gaultier top from Wild West Social House, Jane Wade bra and Ariel Taub earrings.
My ex-boyfriend, whom I just got out of a relationship with, had a pure heart and was a loyal lover. However, he lacked ambition and his family didn’t have the best values. I don’t see myself raising children with him because I don’t want my kids to be surrounded by his family. (I broke up with him on the night of his birthday because his sister got violent with me.) We dated for over a year and I’d always be the one to take care of the check when we’d go out on dates. He had no network, so we would always hang out with my friends and colleagues. Am I wrong for leaving him? Is his loyalty worth going through all that?
Girl. (“Girl” is a gender-neutral term of endearment, by the way.) I’m going to need you to take a deep breath, look at your gorgeous self in the mirror and relish in the fact that you have made the right decision.
First, let’s focus on the good. Loyalty and purity of heart are beautiful traits that many, many people on this earth have. When you find someone who does, and then combine that with your attraction and attachment to this person (along with the reality that many, many people also lack these traits), it makes sense that you’d be feeling like your ex is a rare find that you might not encounter again. However, you can care for someone, and also acknowledge the truth that the life they are setting themself up for is not the life you envision living — or, crucially, the life that you envision your children living. A long-term partnership is so much more than love. It requires a shared vision for fulfillment and happiness, based on compatible values. It necessitates a wholeness from both parties, wherein two individuals take ownership and accountability over their own success and well-being. It is loving to let someone go so they can live their life in peace and free of judgment, and even find someone else whose version of an ideal life more closely matches theirs. Most importantly, letting someone go who you know is not aligned with the life you want to live is a deeply self-loving act.
The meaning I glean from your words is this: It’s not so much that you yearn for him romantically and fear you made a mistake simply because your life is empty without him. (In fact, it sounds like you were the one adding a lot of value to his otherwise limited existence through your resources.) It seems that you feel guilty for leaving him behind as you went on to pursue a better life for yourself. That kind of feeling is more caretaking, and dare I say maternal, than loving (at least the kind associated with romantic partnership). He’s your ex, not your son. Unconditional love is only healthy and appropriate in the context of a parent-child relationship, and that’s not the situation here. People who engage in romantic relationships with men — women, femmes, gay men, etc. — are socialized to be ever-forgiving, to have infinite patience and compassion. The lines get blurred when you do feel kindness and genuine compassion for someone you care about. It can be difficult to discern when you’re being too harsh, and when you’re just setting a healthy boundary. Society makes it difficult for us in that way. But we don’t have to succumb to that pressure.
You can’t fall in love with someone’s potential. If a person, especially a man, shows up to a relationship as someone you can’t envision spending an extended period of time with, then that’s not your person. Not only is it impossible to truly “fix” or “change” anyone, it’s simply not an efficient or productive use of your precious energetic and material resources. Of course, we all change over time, and hopefully in positive ways. But that change needs to be self-directed, coming from within each individual. “Change” exerted on another through force robs the receiving party of the dignity of authoring their own life path. Even the verbiage of your question indicates that you’ve already extended a lot of generosity and patience toward someone who didn’t feel like working toward social and financial independence, and setting boundaries with their family should have been a top priority. I can sense your exhaustion underneath the guilt. That’s the root of the matter. And what matters is you.
I can sense your exhaustion underneath the guilt.
Loss is just space. It can hurt and feel empty at first. But it also allows you the room you need to expand your world with abundance, not shrink it and drain it into scarcity. Affirm in your heart and in your mind that love itself is an infinite resource. If you channel the patience and generosity that you once put into your ex into a life where you are fulfilled to the utmost, the right person (or people) will find you.
And, girl. Some time from now, when you are loved by a man who takes his own dignity seriously, and supports you in the feminine energy of rest and calm that you deserve to experience and embody, you will be so grateful to this current version of you that had the courage to let go. I’m proud of you.
Photography Eugene Kim
Styling Britton Litow
Hair and Makeup Jaime Diaz
Visual Direction Jess Aquino de Jesus
Production Cecilia Alvarez Blackwell
Photo Assistant Joe Elgar
Styling Assistant Wendy Gonzalez Vivaño
The kiss finally happened at a Halloween party Chatterjee hosted at her apartment, while the two were watching “American Psycho” on the couch at 3 a.m., when everyone else had gone out for food. “We’re sitting so close our legs are touching and I’m freaking out,” Braggins said.
“I looked at Abby, and I was like, ‘I’d rather kiss you than watch this,’” Chatterjee said. So they did. About a month later, they were official.
On April 10, Braggins suggested they take a trip to Home Goods in Brooklyn. When they ended up at Coney Island Beach instead, Chatterjee was none the wiser. It was an early morning, so the two, along with the dog they adopted together, Willow, enjoyed having the beach to themselves.
Braggins ran ahead with Willow and crouched behind some rocks. When Chatterjee got a glimpse of Willow, there was a bandanna tied around her neck. It said, “Will you marry me?” Braggins pulled out a shell with a ring in it. The answer was yes.
A few days before, Chatterjee had proposed to Braggins amid a gloomy, cloudy sky on top of the Empire State Building.
The two were married on April 21 at the New York City Marriage Bureau, in front of three guests, by Guohuan Zhang, a city clerk. Afterward, they celebrated at Bungalow, an Indian restaurant in the East Village, with a few more friends.
Though Chatterjee’s parents were not present at the wedding, one of the couple’s most meaningful moments came in 2023, when Braggins traveled to India to meet Chatterjee’s family for the first time. Chatterjee had never brought a partner home before, and she had warned Braggins that same-sex relationships were still not widely accepted there. But by the end of the trip, Chatterjee’s mother had embraced Braggins as family, telling her, “I have two daughters now.”
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