Equal Rites

3

A central theme of this book (as well as of the other Discworld witch novels) is the contrast between on one side the (female) witches or wiccans, who are in touch with nature, herbs and headology, and on the other side the (male) wizards who are very ceremonial and use elaborate, mathematics-like tools and rituals. This conflict rather closely mirrors a long-standing feud between occult practitioners in our real world. (And all the infighting within each camp occurs in real life, as well.)

My source for this also mentions that Pratchett’s witches, especially, are obvious stereotypes of the kinds of people one can run into at wiccan festivals.

One of my correspondents recalls that he interviewed Terry in 1987 for a university magazine. In that interview Terry said that one thing which had tickled him about Josh Kirby’s artwork for the Equal Rites cover was that it subliminally (accidentally?) reflected the Freudian overtones of the book (references to “hot dreams”, the angst of adolescence, things that might be called “magic” envy)… Kirby’s artwork “coincidentally” draws Esk with the broom handle where a penis would be (traditionally supposed to be the basis of the “witches flying around on broomsticks” myth).

Kirby caricatures himself as the pointy-eared wizard on the back cover — anyone who has seen his picture in The Josh Kirby Posterbook can confirm this.