Welcome to Thales’ Well
It gets its name from the philosopher Thales,
in sign language.
And from the sign for entering into a dark and mysterious well.
If you like mysteries, this is the place for you.
Today we’ll talk about witchcraft in Catalonia.
All the secrets will be revealed in Thales’ Well.
In Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia,
many witches gathered in the Iberian Peninsula’s darkest forests.
The magic of the menhirs also attracted them.
They came together to make potions and cast spells.
They held rituals in which they ate, drank,
danced around a bonfire.
and brewed magic potions.
But, do witches still exist?
Hey, can you get the door?
- What?
- Hello! How are you? I’m the teacher!
I’ve been ill and haven’t been at school for a while.
I brought the notebook. Can I come in?
- No one’s here.
- In town they say hear yells. How are you?
- People talk too much. We’re both fine. Leave us alone!
- Us?
- Where is she?
- My daughter’s with her mother.
- Your wife’s dead, that’s not funny. Where is she? Tell me.
- While I was mourning my wife, I neglected my daughter.
And now my daughter ignores me.
- You’re upset, you need help.
- Give me the key.
- You can’t come in here.
- I’ll call the police, I swear.
- Give it to me.
- What’s going on?
- I hear a wolf, a wolf! Around here, impossible.
- That’s between them.
I’m getting the shotgun.
- Hey, don’t be scared, it’s me.
How are you?
- I brought your books, in case you have any questions.
We miss you at school .
Com on!.
- I can’t. I’m busy.
- Who are you talking to?
- My mother.
She’s angry. You should go.
She says you have nothing to teach me.
- Come on, let’s go.
- I’m leaving.
- Mother isn’t happy. You open the door to anyone.
- It’s not anyone, it’s your teacher. Let her in.
- Mother isn’t happy.
- Mother is never happy, is she?
- Drink it.
- It’s been a while since you ate.
Have something. I’ll make it.
- Hold on. Drink it.
- If I drink it and die,
like mother, will I still be able to talk to you as mum?
- Drink it.
- Listen, listen, what’s 7x7?
Oh yeah, 49! Thanks!
Welcome!
Hello!
So? Were you scared, Laura?
Me, not at all!
I liked that they were after the farmer,
it was the other way around.
In the 17th century,
400 people accused of witchcraft
which were tried and murdered in Catalonia.
Most were women.
And in Europe, in the 16th and 17th centuries,
250,000 women were imprisoned.
These women kept pre-Christian traditions,
and the Church was afraid of them
because they didn’t follow Catholic dogmas.
They were experts in medicinal plants
and natural remedies for healing the body,
understood the process of pregnancy
and knew how to make giving birth less painful.
Unlike the Bible,
which says that labour should be painful.
Exactly!
As a result, the people, innocent, naïve, killed witches,
while doctors, scholars and scientists, all of them men, ridiculed them.
Without the witches, they’d have less competition.
In Catalonia they were hung.
Most people reported them for witchcraft,
while the others maintained a complicit silence.
But... what were witches like?
We imagine an old feeble lady
who had worked the fields and lived alone.
However, they were experts
in medicinal plants
and knew how to make love potions and hallucinogens.
But... what were witches like?
They used signs to predict the weather;
the movement of the wind in the trees,
the flight patterns of birds...
If the predictions for rain were correct,
people called them witches.
And if an ox got sick and died as well.
And what books did you bring?
This book teaches you how to identify witches, so they can be killed.
It was a best seller at the time.
It says the women were possessed by the devil.
And how did they know if hail was the work of witchcraft?
Joan Amades.
To find out if hail was caused by witches, you had to let two hailstones melt.
A black hair meant it was witchcraft.
A red hair was from Satan,
and if there was nothing, it was God’s work.
What’s strange about this painting?
Well, the witches have the brooms in front of them.
No, the other way around, if the aim was to smear the ointment around their vagina.
That way, the hallucinogens would really take effect.
What they did at the gatherings? Drink, eat, dance and have orgies.
They had a healthier view of sexuality
and didn’t prohibit or demonise it like the Church.
They held dances that would end in an orgy, presided by a demon.
The witches made a pact with the devil
and pledged allegiance by kissing his bottom.
After kissing his bottom,
they’d eat children, sacrifice animals...
That’s the nonsense they said in the trials
after being tortured
into making confessions and statements.
Under the influence of the hallucinogens they’d taken.
What films would you recommend about witchcraft?
There are two with the same title: The Witch, one is quite scary,
and the other is an interesting documentary.
Everything we’ve learned in Thales’
Well disproves the image of a big nosed,
ugly, dirty witch who flies around on a broomstick
makes strange potions and has orgies with the devil.
An image created by those who persecuted
and tortured witches, who, under the influence of hallucinogens,
confessed to absolutely everything.
These experiences infused feminism
with a desire to change an adverse and repressive world,
a world from which they wanted to escape using psychotropic drugs.
They understood plants, weather, psychology ...
And the Church and men of science and society wanted them gone.
We’re not proud
of everything that’s happened in Catalonia,
but it’s good to talk about it openly.
That’s all from Thales’
Well. If you like mysteries, this is the place for you.
See you soon!