Princess of Wands

“Wouldst Thou Like to Live Deliciously?”

Alright, I realize it’s been a couple of weeks, but March is kicking my ass in the motivation department. But like all women with ADHD and a flair for writing, I need a pivot, a refreshing take, and also a kick in the ass. And to be honest, I am having a hard time connecting with the Pages so I have decided to do what other readers do and I’m calling them princesses. And also, I am using women from horror movies to explain them. There it is, that’s my inspiration! If you don’t like horror you might want to skip these four blog posts.

My first horror gal, to represent the Princess of Wands is Thomasin from The VVitch. If you have not seen the movie and don’t want any spoilers, please skip this blog! Don’t read any further!! I won’t be responsible for pouts after the ending is spoiled for you. Okay, now that we’re all on the same page, let me proceed.

Thomasin’s family is uber religious in the Calvinist Christian way and of course, they are too religious even for the church folk in town. So dad decides to move the whole family out to the woods, so they can hack it out there without any lukewarm Christians to harsh their Bible thumping vibes. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s some freaky supernatural shit going down in those woods and these terrified, uppity colonizers can only become hysterical as they run out of food and hope.

Now Thomasin is the oldest child and she is pretty much done with puberty and is young woman. We know that this era of humans with a penchant towards fire and brimstone theology don’t fair well with the newly minted grown female humans. So her mom is looking cross-eyed at her and blaming her for everything that goes wrong, are we surprised? The other children are very annoying. But they play with this goat named Black Phillip, the icon. Thomasin starts saying things like, “When I sleep, my spirit slips away and dances naked with the devil.” Now we can assume that she is probably 14 or 15 years old and is saying this stuff to antagonize her very annoying younger siblings, or we can go the more esoteric route and assume that she is receiving these messages psychically. And we can assume that she is developing her powers, and so maybe paranoid, over worked and sucked dry Mother of Thomasin is correct in her deduction of who is to blame for their downfall. Her own daugher… A witch!

Now this brings me to the Page of Wands, or if you like, Princess of Wands. Pages would bring messages, they are also associated with being a beginner, an apprentice. Thomasin would be a Page of Wands in this case because she is a brand new witch, she is receiving messages from the coven in the woods that stalk her family, and she is stricken with this desire and willfulness to break away from her family. Many horror movies use this pubescent, post pubescent trope of young women, we go through puberty and we become possessed, or we want to kill, or we are easily influenced. And you could choose to see that with this story as well. But personally I find this story a little more nuanced and I enjoy how she makes her own choices in the end.

When I first watched this movie, I was afraid that she would end up running through the woods escaping some banshees, or she would be overtly sexualized. But to my surprise, the ending was delightful! Basically her whole family gets taken out, and it’s okay, they were really out of pocket with how they were treating her. But Black Phillip ends up being able to speak! And the annoying little siblings said they were talking to him, but we just shake that off, because they’re annoying. But in the end, he was speaking to them and he speaks to Thomasin and asks her if she wants to join up with the devil and the witches! We have the iconic line, “Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

And just like that, Thomasin joins the witches in the woods that killed her family and she floats up in the sky around the bonfire, skyclad. Once we see the ending, we can go back to the beginning to wonder if Thomasin had actually been receiving these messages of personal freedom, magic, and being willful with no human consequence. Or did she just luck out? How can we apply this tarot card to our own experiences? At the beginning of this blog post I described not having any motivation, nothing to light up my fingers to type like a mad woman in the night. And that my friends, is the Page of Wands reversed. No fire, no passion or enthusiasm, much like how young Thomasin was feeling when her insane parents took her out of the town and into a tiny house in the woods to live. Can you imagine being a teenager and not having any crushes to flirt with or friends to giggle with like a maniac? Tragic. We cannot blame the teenage girl for her choice to run off with the witches in the woods. Her parents had it coming and this was a happy ending!

I hope you enjoyed this take, I will keep it coming. Thank you reader for engaging with my work.

Blessed be.