Pointy Hats

[blue]

O.K. students of the occult, Mr. History has a question.

Not too very long ago I was looking at the cover of a deck of Gypsy Witch fortune telling cards and I noticed that the artist's conception of the witch wore the usual pointed hat. Then later, while looking at some Lord of the Rings promo shot I noticed that Wizard #1 also wore a pointy hat. Since that time I've seen a number of images portraying so called "magical persons" and they are all sporting hat of extreme pointitude.

Where do these hats come from? I'm assuming that they have some root in the historic reality of our dim past or they would not have become associated with magic in the general public mind.

Was it fashion, ritual, whimsy, or the imagination of a marketing wizard (like our image of Santa Claus starting with a Coca-Cola ad) that put the pointy hat on the magician's head?

 

[Greenman]

(oooh, a chance to BS my way to alledged credibility!)
i believe it is the result of a stereotype being heavily marketed. but there are some historical precedents i think.
it may have been in 'The Meaning of Witchcraft' by G. Gardner where i read that at one time around the 14th century the pointy hat came into fashion in the large cosmopolitan areas. after a period, this fashion gave way to a new one (as fashion always does). but the people who lived in the country, the 'Heathens' or 'Pagans' weren't subjected to the immediate fashion changes, nor did they have the money to keep up. so once a style finally reached them out in the sticks it stayed around for awhile, long after the city-folk had moved on to something more trendy. now this would have been right around the time of the great witch scare, and since the country-folk were generally more inclined to the old ways, they were persecuted more, and anything that was associated with them was labelled as 'witchy'. so it was with the pointy hat.
so, what do you think? anyone buying that?

another thing i read regarding the pointy hat was that it represented the 'cone of power', but i'm not sure i can believe that one. did these witches, who were persecuted so horribly, go to their local Pagan store and buy the latest new age 'power hats'? probably not.

 

[tarotbear]

Yes, I believe the 'pointy' hats represented a 'cone of power'; also- like the pyramids, the conical hat acts like a pyramid, bringing power to it's wearer. { Remember a few years back pyramids were all the rage and people were supposedly sharpening razors and keeping apples fresh in them?} Likewise, the stereotypical brim on a witch hat 'sends' the power out.

Don't you remember the old 'dunce' cap? The one that stupid people wore while being forced to sit in the corner? The pointy hat was SUPPOSED TO MAKE THEM SMARTER.

I think it's all a lot of folklore, myself.

 

[Pollux]

I agree with tarotbear, even though I'm not such an expert and reader...
The pointy hats have the same "function" of the pyramids: they gather and channel energies to the person wearing it.
The one of the dunce cap is fun, but it makes me think also...

Greenman: I didin't know the "story" was the one you have told. But, in honesty, it's really difficult to me to accept what you say!
I think that cones and pyramids have always been associated to energy, channelling and the like, from Ancient Egypt onwards.

You know, here in Italy the Carnival still oges on, and with all this speaking about pointy hats, you are making me feel like getting dressed as a Mage - I want a pointy hat!

 

[Major Tom]

Didn't it start with the King Arthur stories? Merlin was always pictured with a pointy hat.

 

[kayne]

I think greenman's story sounds pretty likely. Wouldn't the brim on the hat be for practical reasons - protection from the sun and snow etc? I am pleased no one has come up with a commercial reason like the Santa one. I was so dissappointed when I found that one out...

 

[catlin]

Very interesting comments. The cone shape has certainly gone in the right direction but frankly speaking, when I think about the persecution of witches in Europe, I cannot imagine them running around and wearing pointy hats in public.

Maybe ppl who were suspected of being a witch were forced to wear such hats in the same way Jews were forced to wear a mark like the yellow batch/star on their clothes.

 

[blue]

Greenman;

Your BS has gained credibilty with me. I think your version might very likely be the case. I have to admit that Tarotbear and Pollux's version makes sense from a ritualistic point of view. However, although it may be a contributing factor, actual ritual practice seldom (at least in the past) makes it way as a stereotype into the public consciousness.

Your version remined me of our shared image of the leprechaun. When the Irish headed to the New World during the Potato Famine, they were all desprately poor and their clothes out of fashion. No one in America was wearing buckled shoe, knee breeches, tail coasts or the tapered top hats. Some of the items they wore had literally been patched and handed down for two generations.

The popular press had a field day, caricaturing them as simians in cast-off clothing, interested in little other than drinking and brawling. The persicution was brutal! Thank God the Irish were too drunk to notice! (Just kidding, it's only a joke.) Regardless, to this day we still think of those racist stereotypes when we picture leprechauns and a sometime the Irish as well.

For this reason I think your version may have more than a grain of truth to it.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Malachite]

I'd always assumed it was derived from some medieval fashion/anti-fashion.....

oh well!...
malachite

 

[Pollux]

This one is gaining importance. The posts made me think...
My former post was jokish, however. It's really hard to do without fairy-tales images and all.
All the same, the pointy hat is traditionally associated to withces and wizards, and this can't be denied. Therefore any exaplanation based on fashionable clothing or similar, if related to post-17th century, sounds a bit weird... I believe the idea is much older than that.
I'll try to look for evidence - will Literature do? ???
Anyhow, I remember a part of Renaissance Italian Literature - maybe Ariosto or Torquato Tasso - mentioning a pointy hat linked to a sorcerer...