Kids These Days Are Still Sometimes Raised By Witches
Hi all and welcome back to week three of the 2025 So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular! We’re wrapping up this week with Maggie Stiefvater’s masterpiece series The Raven Cycle, which everyone should read, followed by the sequel trilogy, The Dreamer Trilogy. Get them from your local library, or indie bookstore! They’ll have the new graphic novel too, more likely than not! Happy reading and stay spooky!
So, The Raven Cycle is only kind of about witches, but the witches involved save the main characters’ collective asses enough times that it actually very much is about witches. So fight me. One of those characters, Blue Sargent, is the daughter of a witch and was raised by witches but is not (allegedly) a witch herself. The witches she was raised by do, however, play pivotal roles in the story at several times. And while the witches we’ve discussed so far, from the covens of The Craft and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls to the isolating powers of Weapons’ Aunt Gladys and The Witch’s Thomasin, have generally been originally innocuous seeming before being revealed as something much more sinister, the witches of 300 Fox Way are a real and true sisterhood. They are drifting, some coming in and out, some constant and unchanging, but they are always present, a guiding force for misguided teens looking for a dead Welsh king in West Virginia.
Of course, not all witches are benevolent. Some, like Blue’s Aunt Neeve, are here about human sacrifices made in the hills of Henrietta, fully prepared to do some of their own. But mostly, the witches of The Raven Cycle are just like the kids in that they’re doing their best to figure out how to live in a fucked up magical town. And this brings us to the kids themselves, and what connects them to the craft. Blue herself is the daughter of a witch, but she also acts as a magic amplifier for whoever she touches. Ronan Lynch can take things out of his dreams. Adam Parrish connects himself to the ley lines that cross the town through a mystical forest called Cabeswater, gaining the same kinds of powers bestowed on the witches of 300 Fox Way. Noah Czerny is a ghost, sacrificed on the ley line at the same time as Richard Campbell Gansey III died on it, resulting in Gansey’s continued, strange survival. All of them need the witches for their well-being, and for their fundamental understanding of the town they live in.
The witches of 300 Fox Way are not the typical hags of misogynist folktales written to cause women harm. They are an actual representation of witches in the modern day. They run a tarot reading business and have no qualms with turning people out. They will help, but not with violence. They teach their children to kick men in the balls. As benevolent as they are, the book never shies away from the fact that they are witches, just, they’re not the witches we tend to think of. They’re people, and they’re really just trying to live their lives and not let their daughter/niece be killed as a result of dabbling with ancient magics beyond her comprehension. Mostly what they are is connected.
The goings-on in Henrietta, West Virginia are due to three ley lines that intersect in and around the town, contributing to all sorts of magical incidents. The witches are important in many ways, as role models and family members, and people who can read tarot, but moreover, they are teachers for the kids as they explore the ley line. Persephone, the eldest, helps Adam learn his new connection to the ley line and what that means, even teaching him how to move it, then move with it. Maura teaches Blue how to interact with power while not letting herself get hurt, and tries to help Gansey with the same. Noah uses the ley line to keep himself alive, and Blue helps, until it’s time for him to go. No one can really teach Ronan because he’s basically an ancient demon in a human suit, but I digress. The point is that these witches are actual witches instead of hags, because what they do is teach, making sure that there will be people who can deal with the craft when they are gone, and they sacrifice a lot to make sure of it.
The Raven Cycle is, deep down, about sacrifice. Every character is made to sacrifice something, but no one more than the witches. They give their power to keep the kids safe. Maura gives her home, her resources, her daughter. Calla gives her patience and her perception to figuring out exactly what it is that’s happening in Henrietta. Finally, Persephone gives her life to helping Adam manage his power. Witches have always sacrificed. Some, like the ones I mentioned in discussing Witchcraft For Wayward Girls, gave their reputations to keeping women safe. Some, who were likely never witches in the first place, gave their lives to awful, bigoted men. Still others gave up their abundance or successes to help other women. Point is, Maggie Stiefvater understands witches in a way most contemporary creators don’t. Because most current people don’t really believe in witches. Or if they do, they’re vague malevolent forces, or metaphors for something or other. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good witch metaphor, but it’s always refreshing to see witches as actual people.
That’s the beauty of The Raven Cycle, really, is that it’s about people trying their best with what they have. People that will fight for each other, none more than the witches of 300 Fox Way fight for Blue and her Raven Boys. There’s a reason it’s such a success that even now, thirteen years after the first book was published, it’s being adapted to a graphic novel series. People like reading about people. Real, three-dimensional people, none of whom are stereotypes of anything at all. Maura doesn’t wear a pointy black hat, and Persephone doesn’t have a huge, hooked nose. They just practice magic and teach it to those who need to learn. And sometimes, that’s all a good witch has to be.
Thanks for reading, all! Bit of a short one this go around, but I promise I’ll make it up to you next week with our more family-friendly witches in Practical Magic and Hocus Pocus! Happy reading, stay spooky, and be nice to your local witch (because you do have one)! 🐦⬛🔮🌲🔪🩸
