ofwoodandbone:

That dualism between male and female that’s become so popular in recent days is quite in opposition to the witch folklore we have now. Witchcraft encourages the dissolution of binaries in a way that can confound even the historians who dedicate their lives to discovering it. What is male, what is female, what is black, what is white, what is good, what is evil, etc. 

The people that were commonly targeted by the Church and the Inquisitions were folks who defied or subverted the gender norms of their period. Women who acted masculine, who were outspoken or unquiet, who were sexually progressive or open, were the ones often suspected of witchcraft. The female sexuality to this day is still sometimes viewed as feral, wild, and unpredictable. It was considered dangerous. If women acted in a man’s gender role, they would be allowed to pursue their sexuality in any way they wished.

The suspicion did not lie with women alone, but with men as well. The word’s ‘male witch’ have come to denote some fort of feminized man, or a man who dabbles in what is considered a feminine art. Prior to Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, witchcraft was mostly seen as a genderless act. Be that as it may, the feminine male, who would’ve acted either quiet, reclusive, or flamboyant, would have also been suspected. These men were thought to engage in extra-marital affairs at Sabbats, with not only the other female witches, but the male witches and the Devil as well. These men were considered to be seduced by the Devil into sexual misconduct and subversive gender ideas. 

The idea of a witch as a sexually liberated person persisted for hundreds of years, up even into the 20th century with accusations of female politicians being witches who had lesbian affairs and who made their husbands into cuckolds. Recorded trials from the Early Modern Period contain confessions and stories of witches of all genders copulating with the Devil as well. In this, it’s quite difficult to separate sexuality and gender because at the time of these trials and the boom of the witch craze, they were quite tethered together. Men who would be seduced by other men, not necessarily the ones who seduce, would be considered feminine and therefore subverting their gender role. Women who pursued sexual relations with a person (or spirit in some cases) of whatever gender would also be considered to be breaking their gender role. 

Some folklore accounts for the Devil being rather flamboyant as well as other female spirits engaging in same-gender affairs and actively pursuing sex. Neither the so perceived ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ were pure or separate. They mingled together constantly. 

And though its relation to witchcraft is very little, even the Abrahamic God is told to be partly female or feminine in the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew word for Holy Spirit. Would it be fair to say that witchcraft is only one iteration of a more loose/intuitive approach to gender or sex found in gnostic sects? I’d say that older ideas about spirits and souls, and so too gender and sex, were far more complex than what they’ve been whittled down to now. But witchcraft’s approach is a bit different than most.

Witchcraft encourages one to break the norms, including that of gender and sexuality. Be true to yourself and act upon your own desires, for they are you. 

As such, it has been a space that has a deep history with LGBT people.