I'm not so sure the Virpoa in northern Europe is a witch thing as such... don't get me wrong, I know it looks like that at a glance. Even at a good scratch. However... it's a heavy Russian Orthodox meets Karelian slant. There's a clash yet harmonization of cultures over there that's deeply complex. Same stock mixed, but different victors over time with refugees resulting throughout history. It seems great fun though, sorta like dressing up for Halloween is for American kids, or Easter Egg hunts. But not so much a witches echo in the tradition despite the kids actually saying I'm a witch... I mean in Northern European folklore the willow had some pretty icky connotations. Stronger bad than good, and long before the church.

Most herbalist would have avoided strongly outside of birthing or wound times (Salicylic acid, pain relief basically). When pain or ick was about you wanted the willow... but it linked to drowning/pain/birth a lot in those cultures so wasn't necessarily a good thing. Good bad sorta?

It does however look like it could hold roots in damaging the idea of the village wise woman or herbalist I guess..? It's an idea punted about by some. For instance the Näkki (a lot of similarities to the Turkic Ardow, a nasty critter.. a lot of northern European and Russian folkloric parallels across the board btw throughout the various mythologies) were known to hang around willows and drown kids. Part of me can't help but wander if it's because some of the bog terrain you get in those places. Easy for a little one to get sucked in and stuck if unattended. It may have roots in witches... but I think witch or magical anything wasn't a thing. In Vedic culture for instance to say you're a magician is basically to say you're a performer. The context of witch didn't arrive until the Brits did in India like the church solidifying (orthodox and catholic) through Europe and the the Soviet. Still today though... in a lot of (there's a lot btw) of lineage based Indian cultures they look for the rabbit to pop out the hat. Dunno... I guess I look for the logic in the folklore and the folklore in what we call logic sometimes?

Sorry for the long reply my friend. Been trying to track your blog as much as possible lately even if not signed in. Got into my cups tonight and figured I'd bug you with a good long response. ;) Btw what happened to all the creative writing stuff you used to promote/track/make? That still a thing on Hive nowadays, or is it all Splinterlands and cub? And before I return to my cups/in parting, have a google of Punky Night Hinton St. George. UK. It seems there's not a lot to that autumn holiday festivity at a glance but it's a strange meets fun one looking at its origins. When I was down there years ago with a group of friends metal detecting we found some neat stuff in the local archives (like village hall records over in the states, but they go back over 2 centuries) while looking for sites that had geographical abnormalities on 18th/19th century surveys. Punky night was fun stuff to read up on. Certain folkloric traditions are down right fascinating. Well I'm off. Hope you're keeping healthy up there. Again sorry for the long reply. :)