Wow, Julie! This is incredible! 💖💖💖 As I was reading, I would think "that's the quote I'm going to restack. Wait no, that one. No, that one..." It's all SO good! As you know, I identify as a witch to honor all my grandmothers who were persecuted for it; and to help reclaim the word as a title of empowerment for all my sisters drawn to the craft and a relational way of life. I'm so honored to be on this witchy journey with you!
Thanks Jenna! I have internally accepted the "witch" word for quite some time now, but to do so outwardly has been its own journey. Fear of persecution has been strong. So many past lives have ended this way. Not all from being a witch, some from simply being different. Yet here I am again, speaking, because truth matters. And I need to live from truth. I too am glad, excited and honored to be on this witchy, priestess journey with you! ❤
Witch was a mysterious word to me. My mother was a white witch who taught me things aren’t always as they appear and to look deeper, to question and to remain open. Despite her own torment which she was unable to process, and visited it on me- the witch is the part of her that remains with me.
Witch is empowering and means to me someone who walks in all the many worlds -inner and outer -gaining wisdom through the ages. And now, most of all witch is healer and I am charged with healing the wound she was unable to heal herself, for me, and all those who came before me… including her. ❤️
Beautiful that you mom taught you to look deeper. That is a powerful teaching! And then there is the wound that they share with us as well. I include myself in that "we."
It truly is empowering to reclaim the power of what it means to be a women, to open to the divine feminine. For a witch to me is a woman in her power. Not over, not under, just unapologetically connected to life, being what she is called to be, bring and receive! I too am called to heal the wound, for me, for her, for my ancestors, and the one's to come. ❤️ Much love to you! ❤️
It’s amazing how much I resist the word witch when I so obviously am one. There’s so much baggage that goes with that word. Interestingly, we don’t really know the origins of the word—whether it comes from the root for “sorceress” or “holy”… only that it has always meant woman.
I see so much healing of the witch wound happening right now. How’s that for ancestral healing!
YES, Agree! Healing in this time dimension, is a healing for the ancestors. Glad to be able to claim the witch word, even thought I too feel an edge of resistance. I feel it is a residual that is still present, still part of the process of healing. Rarely is healing linear and quick. It takes is own meandering path.
I’ve been grappling with this word and on an exploration of claiming it. I am an herbalist and nature lover and spiritual being and sometimes I’ll own up to the Green Witch label but mostly I just say “I love witchy things” to family and friends. Because I do. I love your WITCH definition. By that, yes, I consider myself a witch. Otherwise, I just figure I don’t need to outwardly give myself any label, which frees me up to be “me” however that manifests. And mostly, to avoid all the silly humans that are taken aback by the word and then I feel like I need to lead with an explanation. I don’t have time for that. But, here I will say, hello fellow witches waking up to another way of being in this society we’ve created.
Thanks for sharing Chris! Yes I completely get it. Right there with you! We truly have our own journeys to take. I know I sure did! Opening up spiritually and authentically, with relationships and inwardly as the truth that lives within, is a process. Names and labels don't really matter, and then they absolutely matter. Funny how paradoxes work that way. Being a witch for me is about being liminal. Dancing with the opposites. Both can be true at the same time. Words are full of power and words can be meaningless. For me it distills down to intention, calling and longing. What truth needs to be revealed, spoken and lived... Thanks so much for your sharing Chris! ❤
Thank you Julie. What a loaded and complicated word. I have so much to say that it would be a tome. But I hope that “witch as earth venerating” grows to become destigmatized and respected in the mainstream and does not get co-opted into a capitalist witch-light marketing stream thus perpetuating our need for buying widgets that end up in a landfill at the expense of another living being. I hope which never loses the historical fact that women were suppressed and killed for their power, knowledges and voice using that term. 💚
Agree Becky! Funny I was writing a tome with this piece, the words were pouring out. And I like to keep my posts to a certain length, so I really had to scale it back. So more to post later... Yes, "witch as earth venerating”. Breathing with Gaia, honoring the sanctity of our home, worshiping the ground, soils and her many elements. In this way natural ways of healing arise through this relationship. It was these women, men and souls long ago who were called witches and killed so allopathic medicine could rise. And the voices are still here and they are speaking the truth!
I have been thinking about this post ever since I first read it. It still brings up those stigmatizing feelings for me but that is transforming into curiosity and positive feelings. As I dive head first into exploring my spirituality from a new perspective I have noticed most of what I’ve read about witches and spirituality is that it is women who do everything with intention. Spells and rituals are words and actions spoken with intention. That is something I’ve always admired in people I thought had it more together than did when I was younger. I was just going through the motions in life and the little things I just did without thinking about them. I am encouraged to start practicing doing more things in my life with intention.
Laura I agree, "witch" does bring up stigmatized feelings. Yet giving it voice, space, breathing room, the word begins to unfurl. An upacking of an amazing depth. That of wisdom, healing and seeing our natural relationship with life and our planet. Patriarchal influences has given the "witch" name demonic and evil connotations. Yet as you said, "curiosity and positive feelings" can come forward when latitude is given. And I agree again very strongly that being a witch is deeply grounded in intention. As I stated in this post, is I do spell prayers. And I do them with intention. Slowing down my speaking, giving every word its own space to come alive. And they do!
To recognise that the witch within us can come in many different shapes and sizes and they are all perfect for our time. We all go through that process of outing ourselves, which will get easier in turn. It’s beginning to feel more comfortable in that witchy role for sure.
I needed that wide meaning of "witch" for sure. Love that it has many ways of expression. I can find my place in that. Giving me permission to come home to myself.
Lovely piece. My mother was a self-identified witch who drew strength from the life energy around her. Her intuitive abilities were amazing. She could read a person's aura quite readily and had evolved precognition and retrocognition skills that were, by most accounts, above average. She used these gifts to help others throughout her life. I should add that in my experience, at this point in history, there are plenty of witches who prefer not identify as male or female.
D.C., your mother sounds amazing! Curious, what was it like being bought up by a witch-mother. Mine was so opposite of that.. And thanks, you are absolutely right, I stand corrected there are many witches that do not identify as male and female!
I think one of the many things my siblings and I learned from my "witch mother" was the value of disciplined introspection. The inner universe is vast and the manner in which we interact with it while we inhabit this physical dimension is significant. My mother taught us this. She was a role model.
@Julie Schmidt what you share here is so potent for me. I too am in this process, Remembering, Reclamation, and Emergence with all my parts having a place at the “table of my being.” I love this phrase and I love doing this work with you. 🌹
Thanks Lila! YES, it is POTENT work isn't it? I too love what we are doing together! Looking forward to seeing and being with you later today! Much love ❤
Wow, Julie! This is incredible! 💖💖💖 As I was reading, I would think "that's the quote I'm going to restack. Wait no, that one. No, that one..." It's all SO good! As you know, I identify as a witch to honor all my grandmothers who were persecuted for it; and to help reclaim the word as a title of empowerment for all my sisters drawn to the craft and a relational way of life. I'm so honored to be on this witchy journey with you!
Thanks Jenna! I have internally accepted the "witch" word for quite some time now, but to do so outwardly has been its own journey. Fear of persecution has been strong. So many past lives have ended this way. Not all from being a witch, some from simply being different. Yet here I am again, speaking, because truth matters. And I need to live from truth. I too am glad, excited and honored to be on this witchy, priestess journey with you! ❤
Witch was a mysterious word to me. My mother was a white witch who taught me things aren’t always as they appear and to look deeper, to question and to remain open. Despite her own torment which she was unable to process, and visited it on me- the witch is the part of her that remains with me.
Witch is empowering and means to me someone who walks in all the many worlds -inner and outer -gaining wisdom through the ages. And now, most of all witch is healer and I am charged with healing the wound she was unable to heal herself, for me, and all those who came before me… including her. ❤️
Beautiful that you mom taught you to look deeper. That is a powerful teaching! And then there is the wound that they share with us as well. I include myself in that "we."
It truly is empowering to reclaim the power of what it means to be a women, to open to the divine feminine. For a witch to me is a woman in her power. Not over, not under, just unapologetically connected to life, being what she is called to be, bring and receive! I too am called to heal the wound, for me, for her, for my ancestors, and the one's to come. ❤️ Much love to you! ❤️
It’s amazing how much I resist the word witch when I so obviously am one. There’s so much baggage that goes with that word. Interestingly, we don’t really know the origins of the word—whether it comes from the root for “sorceress” or “holy”… only that it has always meant woman.
I see so much healing of the witch wound happening right now. How’s that for ancestral healing!
YES, Agree! Healing in this time dimension, is a healing for the ancestors. Glad to be able to claim the witch word, even thought I too feel an edge of resistance. I feel it is a residual that is still present, still part of the process of healing. Rarely is healing linear and quick. It takes is own meandering path.
At least from our perspective stuck in a moment in time it does! Matter is tricksy like that 😉
I’ve been grappling with this word and on an exploration of claiming it. I am an herbalist and nature lover and spiritual being and sometimes I’ll own up to the Green Witch label but mostly I just say “I love witchy things” to family and friends. Because I do. I love your WITCH definition. By that, yes, I consider myself a witch. Otherwise, I just figure I don’t need to outwardly give myself any label, which frees me up to be “me” however that manifests. And mostly, to avoid all the silly humans that are taken aback by the word and then I feel like I need to lead with an explanation. I don’t have time for that. But, here I will say, hello fellow witches waking up to another way of being in this society we’ve created.
Thanks for sharing Chris! Yes I completely get it. Right there with you! We truly have our own journeys to take. I know I sure did! Opening up spiritually and authentically, with relationships and inwardly as the truth that lives within, is a process. Names and labels don't really matter, and then they absolutely matter. Funny how paradoxes work that way. Being a witch for me is about being liminal. Dancing with the opposites. Both can be true at the same time. Words are full of power and words can be meaningless. For me it distills down to intention, calling and longing. What truth needs to be revealed, spoken and lived... Thanks so much for your sharing Chris! ❤
I love this!
Thank you Julie. What a loaded and complicated word. I have so much to say that it would be a tome. But I hope that “witch as earth venerating” grows to become destigmatized and respected in the mainstream and does not get co-opted into a capitalist witch-light marketing stream thus perpetuating our need for buying widgets that end up in a landfill at the expense of another living being. I hope which never loses the historical fact that women were suppressed and killed for their power, knowledges and voice using that term. 💚
Agree Becky! Funny I was writing a tome with this piece, the words were pouring out. And I like to keep my posts to a certain length, so I really had to scale it back. So more to post later... Yes, "witch as earth venerating”. Breathing with Gaia, honoring the sanctity of our home, worshiping the ground, soils and her many elements. In this way natural ways of healing arise through this relationship. It was these women, men and souls long ago who were called witches and killed so allopathic medicine could rise. And the voices are still here and they are speaking the truth!
I have been thinking about this post ever since I first read it. It still brings up those stigmatizing feelings for me but that is transforming into curiosity and positive feelings. As I dive head first into exploring my spirituality from a new perspective I have noticed most of what I’ve read about witches and spirituality is that it is women who do everything with intention. Spells and rituals are words and actions spoken with intention. That is something I’ve always admired in people I thought had it more together than did when I was younger. I was just going through the motions in life and the little things I just did without thinking about them. I am encouraged to start practicing doing more things in my life with intention.
Laura I agree, "witch" does bring up stigmatized feelings. Yet giving it voice, space, breathing room, the word begins to unfurl. An upacking of an amazing depth. That of wisdom, healing and seeing our natural relationship with life and our planet. Patriarchal influences has given the "witch" name demonic and evil connotations. Yet as you said, "curiosity and positive feelings" can come forward when latitude is given. And I agree again very strongly that being a witch is deeply grounded in intention. As I stated in this post, is I do spell prayers. And I do them with intention. Slowing down my speaking, giving every word its own space to come alive. And they do!
To recognise that the witch within us can come in many different shapes and sizes and they are all perfect for our time. We all go through that process of outing ourselves, which will get easier in turn. It’s beginning to feel more comfortable in that witchy role for sure.
I needed that wide meaning of "witch" for sure. Love that it has many ways of expression. I can find my place in that. Giving me permission to come home to myself.
Lovely piece. My mother was a self-identified witch who drew strength from the life energy around her. Her intuitive abilities were amazing. She could read a person's aura quite readily and had evolved precognition and retrocognition skills that were, by most accounts, above average. She used these gifts to help others throughout her life. I should add that in my experience, at this point in history, there are plenty of witches who prefer not identify as male or female.
D.C., your mother sounds amazing! Curious, what was it like being bought up by a witch-mother. Mine was so opposite of that.. And thanks, you are absolutely right, I stand corrected there are many witches that do not identify as male and female!
I think one of the many things my siblings and I learned from my "witch mother" was the value of disciplined introspection. The inner universe is vast and the manner in which we interact with it while we inhabit this physical dimension is significant. My mother taught us this. She was a role model.
Oh I love that D.C.! "Disciplined introspection" Beautiful. Our world is in dire need of this.
Thank you 💜 I so needed this right now. 🌹🔥
Glad this could be a support! And it was wonderful to meet you the other day. Looking forward to circling with you. ❤️
Likewise 🥰💜
@Julie Schmidt what you share here is so potent for me. I too am in this process, Remembering, Reclamation, and Emergence with all my parts having a place at the “table of my being.” I love this phrase and I love doing this work with you. 🌹
Thanks Lila! YES, it is POTENT work isn't it? I too love what we are doing together! Looking forward to seeing and being with you later today! Much love ❤
Much Love! Julie. It was incredible spending time with you today. ❤️
YES! What a deep journey we went on together...