Witch, Reclaiming the Night

A journey of remembrance, empowerment and Identity

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TODAY is my last of three posts for this seasonal time of Samhain. The first one was about The Moon card from the tarot and its association with the Divine Feminine. The second, was my post on Samhain, as the beginning of the New Year. Today we dive into the WITCH. Here are my musings and meanderings around this. Love to you all!

Witches New Year

I love that the New Year starts with Samhain. We begin with the darkness. And it is the Cailleach that arises at this time. The hag of later years, the crone witch.

From my last post… “Days to the ancient Celts commenced at sunset and their years started with the dark half of the year, Samhain marks this transition. I am reminded that life begins in the blackness of the womb. Sleep is what happens when the harvest is complete. Hibernation as a refreshing of our being.”

To truly understand what a witch is, we first need to investigate this darkness, the shadow… To discover the beauty there!

Into the Darkness

We have all been taught to be afraid of the dark. To be wary of what creeps and crawls in the shadows and what goes bump in the night. And for good reasons we can never be too sure what lurks under the covers of blackness. Yet we as a culture have taken this fear to an extreme. At night in my neighborhood, every house has their front light on. Some have lights that shine the full perimeter of their property. Then there are the streetlights. I admit, this is one of my biggest pet peeves! So many illuminants I can’t see the fullness of the stars because the ebony backdrop is all lit up.

And there is another darkness that many run from, the shadows of the untamed and wild aspects of our lives. They get locked away into the far recesses of our being. Like a spiritual bypass with all its lights on, chasing the shadows away. This may provide a sense of security, but the price is high. For it takes away the ability to see the stars within our own soul, the phases of the moon inside our being. Shadows may be difficult teachers but the medicine they generate is the most potent. After immersion in the underworld and the subsequent return from the cave womb of darkness, we gain access to an innate power that provides both a sense of dominion and connection. The liminality of being with the light and the dark.

As for witches, they might not know how to be with the shadows and dark either, but they are willing to explore and take that deep journey, for this is where magic lives. So, let us travel back in time. Fulfilling that familiar wish, to know in our younger years what we know now! Why not start our life with wisdom and connection. Remembering being born before we were born. Time is not as linear as one may believe. So, lets step out of time, travel to long ago and remember.

Remembrance…

As above so below, as below so above.
As within so without, as without so within.
As before so after, as after so before…

My travels with the “witch” word has had its challenges. “Hag” and “crone” were easy comparatively speaking. It has been an unfurling through crazy time. A slow infiltration of remembering. Bits and pieces returning here and there, like ingredients of a potion gradually added to the cauldron. Dissolving together, heightening the potency of the spell; remembering myself wild again.

This remembrance was not just about recalling something from my childhood. No, it went way back… years, decades, centuries, millenniums. I needed to listen not only with my mind but with my heart, body and womb. I needed to awaken the DNA in my genes, the memories in my cells, the ancient myths that travel in my blood. I needed to come home to truth, that I am rooted and connected in unimaginable ways. I always have been.

I am embedded in life, life is embedded in me. I belong to the body of our world, from long ago to the current day to the future to be. I belong to this land! I belong to me.

Through this remembering I have witnessed countless ages. Many of my ancestors who were uprooted, extracted from belonging, disassociated from the earth. Lost were the ways of living with nature because they were stolen and rewritten as commodities. There were also the witch trials, times of denigration through shaming, demeaning, raping, torturing, burning…

A gaping wound exists in our collective and individual consciousness. It is called the shadow, the witch wound and it’s bleeding. Another name is the inversion wound. As I wrote in a prior post:

“Wholeness is ripped apart into polarities. Bodies seen as unclean, spirit as pure. Earth as material, soul as heavenly. Our Earth Mother became something to conquer, dominate and colonize. The Divine Feminine made into a demon, even as the devil itself. An indoctrinated view of seeing the Goddess as something blasphemous, God as reverent.”

We have mostly learned to tend to this laceration with denial, covering it up and pretending it’s not there. I personally can’t do that anymore! Healing is about speaking truth!

I am a crone,
a liminal walker,
a witch.

So, what exactly is a Witch?

There are so many stereotypes and misconceptions! From fairy tales, movies, TV shows and Halloween costumes. Witches are not satanic, nor do they serve the devil. They don’t practice malevolent magic, and they’re not woo-woo either.

There are countless types of witches, for there is no one-size fits all category. Each woman (“woman” because most witches are women) needs to find out what “witch” means for themselves and how they are called to live and practice it. Here is the definition I use…

Doing so unapologetically.
No longer will I be submissive, living from the neck up.
No longer will I dim my light for another.
No longer will I let shame control me.
No longer will I dumb myself down.

No, this is about connecting with the ground, feeling rooted and coming home. Living from that inherent and mystical power that runs through life and nature. Being both a conduit while also moving with my own agency. It’s about being with the polarities, not choosing sides!

A prayer spell I have been saying lately in front of my altar is this, “All of me is welcome here.”

My rage and my calmness,
strength and vulnerability,
fear and courage,
grief and joy,
playfulness and seriousness.
Being with what I know and being curious about what I don’t know.

What kept me quiet…

That’s easy, fear of persecution. Yes, the wound goes deep. And it is kept alive by many patriarchal religious and political structures that use the name “witch” for the sole purpose to minimize and disparage women. Especially women that are considered rebellious and too powerful.

Today though, I cannot live a fragmented life. All of me is welcome here. Every aspect has a place at the table of my being. Embodying this allows me to re-access the wisdom within the ages. To rely on and implement the authority of my intuition and instincts. To be sovereign unto myself because I am infused with the mythic and enchanted force of life that is all around and in me. Thus, I am taking back the name, “WITCH”.

I AM A WITCH!

Blessing

May this time of darkness be a vehicle of reclamation.
Bringing home the mystical and relational elements of existence
that have been ripped away and torn asunder.
May the wound be seen, tended to and mended.
A restoration of our organic connection with everything.
May we discover that every aspect of our being
has a seat at the table of our life.
A weaving together of the polarities,
for all is welcome here.

Blessed Be!

Questions for you…

• What emotions arise when you hear the word/name, “witch”?

• Do you experience "witch" as empowering, stigmatizing, or both?

• Do you identify with the term "witch" in any way? Why or why not?

Would love to know your thoughts and feelings. Let’s have a conversation…

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