Porter of Hellgate: The Historical Reality of the Witches of Macbeth with Kadmus

The witches of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth have been understood to be  such a potent force that the play itself has been thought to be cursed  since its earliest performances. Actors have refused to appear in it,  people have died under tragic circumstances, and the very name of the  play itself is considered unspeakable in most theaters. Who or what  were, or are, these witches and what type of force did Shakespeare tap  into in his play?   

Answering this question will involve diving into the actual witch trials  during which a conspiracy to kill King James I and his wife with magic  was supposedly uncovered, a study of King James’ Daemonologie which was  written in response to his experience presiding over those same witch  trails as well as the anti-witchcraft laws he crafted (laws which  governed the witch trials in Salem itself), as well as other historical  and literary sources.…