Blood on the Wall

Defiance in a Sicilian Prison

By Emily Linstrom

Image courtesy of Emily Linstrom.

“Our Witches were more like medics who practiced white magic, a magic ad amorem (and not ad mortem), charms to make lovers return, propitiate pregnancy, protect newborn babies. Here men and women, dedicated to a varied range of magical practices, did not confess to Satanic Masses or coupling with the Devil, and only a few ended up at the stake.”

— Giovanna Fiume, Sicily

Palermo, Sicily

Sicily’s tagline as “the island that’s seen it all” is something of an understatement, and to this wandering Pagan it was an otherworldly homecoming. To be clear, I have no familial ties to the island. It’s possible my seafaring Viking kin passed through at some point, scattering runes and viscera and remnants of their own gods; so too is it possible that my Norman ancestors once held a place here, but if so it is one that’s been lost to time and memory and isn’t likely to reemerge. And yet Sicilia knew me, and called me by my name.

Image courtesy of Emily Linstrom.

Inside the Museum of the Holy Inquisition (Carceri dell’Inquisizione)