Witches of Dracula's Homeland

“Transformă acest om în piatră.”

Using cat feces and garden herbicides, each delicately mixed in a cast-iron kitchen pot on their lovely homestead plots, these witches, or vrăjitoare as they say, of modern-day Romania including Maria Popa aren’t phased by advances being made in urban cities these days.

Utilizing these technologies to get paid, their practices remain virtually the same as the generation that paved their way years before they came. A royal tradition it is seen to be, spreading their maternal gifts to special daughters born with their mystical ways inherently at the ripe age of seven.

Acknowledgement has even been received by some European governments openly as tax implications and complete avoidance tactics have been placed, each harmful to their natural ways. ‘Gypsies’ are what they call the Roma people, most unusually found to be Romanian coven leaders, once thought to be Egyptian but always sought after as a foreign threat to keep at bay through discriminatory ways.

In the Holocaust these spiritual souls were even claimed, as many as nine million killed because of religious and non-believing ways comparatively to their Jewish relatives of six million gas chambered and tried at extinction of their bloodline, each paying the price for revenge for which they are not to blame.

After learning to fight for themselves after mass assimilation and attempts to be murdered away, various tools and devices have been sought after to secure their spiritual favours of both natural and evil ways. These mediums include tarot, stars and runes to tell the future and guide our souls; as well as spells, potions and brooms which can float either way morally, something which Maria has seen turn devastating.

Living in this restrictive and punishable way, Maria was fostered into an upbringing of witchcraft and spells hidden to most of her Romanian classmates for several decades, as the worst imaginable punishments were feared by her parents if they saw her wholly. With spells casted to protect their future coven leader, she made it until graduation day thanks to her grandmother and the community.

A Roma woman with witchy blood passed down through motherhood, she creates most of her income through unique revenue streams utilizing modern-day technologies. Spreading as far as the Middle East, Maria calls and instant messages clients every minute of the day her phone is within arms reach or someone is calling her way. Nobody can seem to get enough of her medium-like visions and life-changing manifestations, even paying her hefty fees to reach spirits weekly.

Of course, the services are not covered under any medical benefits, making this a niche market for serious inquiries only that can withstand giving up a paycheque.

The twelve other members of the group she enhances her mystical ways with each share their most bizarre money-making schemes during their weekly manifesting meetings. An anti-patriarchal position requires unique ways to get the bills paid, each used as a survival tactic to escape the capitalist structures in place.

Healing and protection is offered by some coven participants, while others sway both ways, playing with the devil along with angelic magic depending on the client or day. Red for love, yellow for riches, white for blessings and black for powerful evil magic rituals; these are the colours each potion brings, a rainbow of hope or despair depending on the witch brewing it.

Stirring strenuously over the burning stove brings a sense of purpose and belonging to these outcasted women, untrusted by their society and thrown away to divulge in mystical ways.

Maria has felt this since she was but just a young kid, losing both her parents to the war and hatred that Hitler reigned around her small Roma community just outside Bucharest, Romania one bright young July day.

Moreni is where she grew up and learned how to play, living a nomadic lifestyle her parents prepared her for during upbringing. White skirted women and ox-driving men spread across the land given to them as their small trades and labour provided less-than-luxurious ways.

As was always in their early summer mornings, the children would haul buckets of water from the stream to their mothers cooking breakfast for both their starving bellies and fathers all hard at work since before dawn came. That is, until they each failed to show face and the camp began to panic during this dreadful fate.

“The Nazi rumours must’ve been true” she could hear being whispered about as caregivers failed to cover their virgin children’s ears.

“I never imagined we’d get swept away so easily.”

“I hope they put up a fight the good Christian way.”

Each word of despair and defeat trickled into Maria’s soul until she felt herself being swept away by melancholic thoughts, slowly selling her on running away. Once her legs began to curdle with pain did she come to realize what had been done to her family. Off in the distance she could hear the wails those same mothers sang, tortured inflictions causing those ungodly tunes to play from the depths of their rising chests.

Smoke and smog began to cloud the way, providing her with a robe of protection to hide until the morning came again so she could stop her sprinting legs.

Unable to refrain her mind from becoming occupied, she decided to stay in delusional space as she sang prayers to the gods only spoken about in forbidden Greek mythologies and stories by brave classmates. The songs being relayed had nothing to do with torture or burning but of hope and revenge and conquering earthly beings in heavenly ways.

When mourning was over and morning sprouted again, Maria knew in her heart that the world would pay for the generations of wealth incinerated all because Wallachian witches were feared instead of praised for the knowledge they bring. Her destiny was set and the first order of business was targeting the government.

Fast forward to her current day and the mythical witchy ways are becoming mainstream in news articles across Europe and the UK as the Romanian president wears purple to ward off evil and resigns due to threats made the public’s ways. The group’s leader, infamous to Bucharest is Oana Anastas who led this fearful tactic on a day Maria dreaded silently, too afraid to voice her true intentions for the day.

The true meaning of pain overcame that innocent child as Auschwitz was forced upon her family, like herding cattle amidst the fresh spring dewy rain. Slowly her parents’ death decayed her brain until the thought of threatening her own life awoke young Maria to a life worth living, only for revenge's sake.

Each step was planned carefully from that day on as hope of watching leadership fall encapsulated her mind each fateful rising morning. First with attending a vrăjitoare meeting after being referred to by her maternal aunt, and after that she gained their trust and became a member of their private coven amidst the leaders of Romania’s clairvoyant Roma blood.

As their democratic leader crumbled to stone, his remains scattered across the elegant marble floor installed during WWII, the world was reminded of why you do not kill something extraterrestrial.

Maria's well thought-out plan was finalized as the spell was cast against the country's communist leader, ending his life in front of thousands and proving to the world just how deadly the witches of Dracula's homeland can be if you ignore their powerful ways.

~

Copyright © 2023 by Kalina Bethany. All rights reserved.

Like royal lineage, a witch's power is passed down from mother to daughter.

This is the [fictional] story of Romania’s witches [inspired by real events], the Eastern European country home to many Roma Wicca’s with their late coven still manipulating the country and its politics to this day.

Thanks for reading this short bit for the Under a Spell challenge.

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