Honoring the Witches: A Lesson in Fear, Division, and Remembering

October has always carried a certain weight. Across cultures, this is the season of mystery — Samhain, Día de los Muertos, Halloween — moments when the veil between seen and unseen is said to thin. It’s also the season when witches step into the collective imagination, not only as symbols of the spooky and strange, but as reminders of something deeper: how suspicion and fear can reshape whole communities.

I came across a story recently that stopped me in my tracks. It was told by a mother whose daughter came home from school, wide-eyed, with something to share.

The Classroom Game

Her daughter’s history teacher announced they’d be playing a game. He quietly walked around the classroom, whispering to each student whether they were a “witch” or just a regular person. No one knew anyone else’s role. Then came the instruction:

“Form the biggest group you can without a witch. If your group has even one, you all fail.”

Immediately, the energy shifted. The room lit up with suspicion. Eyes darted. Fingers pointed. Some kids clung to one big group, others splintered off into small cliques. Whispers flew: Are you a witch? How do we know you’re not lying?

Students who hesitated, looked nervous, or gave off even the slightest uncertainty were cast aside. Trust dissolved in minutes. Side-eyes, finger-pointing, exclusion — the entire classroom had turned on itself.

Finally, after the chaos had run its course and every group was formed, the teacher called out:

“Alright, time to see who fails. Witches, raise your hands.”

The room froze.
Not a single hand went up.

The class erupted — “You messed up the game!”

But the teacher shook her head.

“Did I? Were there any witches in Salem, or did everyone just believe what they were told?”

Silence fell. The lesson landed.

Fear Did the Work

That’s when it hit them: no witch was ever needed for the damage to happen. Fear had already done its work. Suspicion alone was enough to divide the entire class — to turn community into chaos.

And isn’t that the real lesson of history?
The danger was never the witch.
The danger is the rumor.
The danger is suspicion.
The danger is fear itself — planted, whispered, and allowed to grow until trust crumbles.

Then and Now

What happened in Salem centuries ago is not so different from what we see today. The labels shift with the times.

Once it was witches and outsiders.
Today it’s:

Liberal vs. Conservative
Vaxxed vs. Unvaxxed
Believer vs. Skeptic
Rich vs. Poor
Educated vs. Uneducated
Traditional vs. Modern

The names change, but the pattern doesn’t. The playbook is always the same:
Create fear.
Fuel suspicion.
Sow division.

It doesn’t take an actual witch — or even an actual enemy.
All it takes is the story of one — the whisper — to unravel connection.

Honoring the Witches

This October, as we light candles, carve pumpkins, and tell ghost stories, may we also honor the witches — not as monsters or villains, but as reminders of resilience, wisdom, and misunderstood truth.

To honor the witches is to honor what was lost when fear ruled.
It’s to remember how suspicion can hollow out a community.
And it’s to stand today in refusal: refusing the whisper, refusing to join the hunt, refusing to let fear dictate how we treat each other.

Because the moment we start searching for witches, we’ve already lost.

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