Rhymes with Witch
ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A WITCH AT THE EDGE OF THE VILLAGE…
Spoiler alert! It was me, it was you, it was anyone who knew things in an uncanny way not obvious to others. We were permeable, relational people who cooperated with the indwelling Spirits of Nature. We apprenticed ourselves to the animals, the plants, the rocks, the stars and planets, and all the elements. The Earth was alive and we lived in kinship with it all.
We enjoyed mutual aid among the living generations and cared for the Dead, the Ancestors, and Those Not Yet Born. We also honored and sought blessings from local gods and goddesses. We had roots and belonging and purpose.
Individuals maintaining a direct connection with the Divine, bringing healing from the invisible worlds and freely sharing Nature’s abundance were and are dangerous to larger systems like patriarchy, cultural supremacy, and capitalism. People power in tune with Nature’s energies was and is a threat to systems that run on domination, fear, and scarcity.
This clash of worldviews came to a peak in old Europe, where witches and midwives and herbal medicine healers were seen as a direct threat to the rising male medical profession and male hierarchy in the Church. The witches had to go, and so were viciously persecuted and murdered in centuries of mass psychosis, The Inquisition led by the Catholic Church.
Like many of us in the healing arts, and many female-identified people, I have recall of past lives as a witch or healer. In those other incarnations, I died at the hands of people I served, drowned in the dunking chair, burned at the stake, etc. That cellular, cultural, gendered, generational trauma has given rise to a primal fear of being seen and heard and publicly using our intuitive and mysterious gifts. I still work to witness and release that ancient fear.
Our return as energy healers, wise women, herbalists, intuitives, bodyworkers, and midwives comes with both fear and excitement. If you, like me, know that your purpose is to bring your unusual gifts forward in service to others, our tragic history can be rocket fuel. Our gifts and our powers, our connection with the Divine and with Nature, are so needed in this world at this time. Let us dare to offer our balms not bombs.
NEXT TIME, I’ll write about the importance of those of us who work with the invisible worlds and energies to demystify what we do. In my own process with Ancestral Healing, past life work, and shamanic journeys, I’ve learned that we must create safety by explaining our work, not hoarding our skills in secrecy or creating a hierarchy of wisdom. We must come back into the center of village life where we always belonged with everyone else.
EVERYDAY MAGIC
Even if you don’t identify with the witch’s intuitive, spiritually connected qualities, try taking a walk holding lightly a question you’d like guidance with.
What do you notice as you wander? What catches your awareness? It may be a bird or animal or insect. It may be a specific plant. It may be a person you know or don’t know. It may be something on the sidewalk or path.
How is this in some way addressing your inquiry? For instance, I just noticed a light colored butterfly or moth fluttering in the plum tree top. I took it to mean to follow my own rhythm and timing. If it’s a moth, it’s galavanting in the afternoon, not seriously hunting for pollen as moths do in white, night blooming flowers.
Ask and receive! Be open to the signs and symbols!
