I am Witch.

If you grew up in the 60s, 70s or 80s then your idea of a witch was an old woman with a wart on her nose and a spine chilling cackle that rode the night skies on her broomstick! We can all thank Disney and other movie studios for the very biased and somewhat derogative point of view of witches. In the 90s witches became a little cooler with movies like The Craft and Practical Magic but still the term 'witch' was treated with disdain. However, if you look at the traditional meaning of 'witch' and the events that happened in the 1400s you can see that what really happened was one of the largest attempts at genocide in the history of humankind. Let me explain...

The word 'witch' wasn't always attributed to negative connotations. A very long time ago, the word witch was often interchangeable with words like wise woman, or healer, women who had gone through menopause and stepped into their power as the wise one in their community or village. They were the women who mentored younger women through child birth, child rearing, illness, etc and passed down the ancestral knowledge of those who came before them. Yes some of them cast spells or hexes but most of them used their knowledge of plants and the cycles to help the collective group.

Photo Credit: Bee Felten-Leidel - Unsplash

Women had the ultimate power. They were able to give birth, keep humanity ticking along, something men couldn't do. Before religion (in particular Christianity) came along many cultures worshipped a Mother Figure. Archaeological digs have found statues depicting women in the full bloom of pregnancy, rounded tummies and burgeoning breast full of life sustaining milk. It is therefore, understandable that women were revered and treated with respect.

Venus of Willendorf

When religion came along and the rich landowners and merchants wanted a way to keep the lower classes under their control, they started a systematic process of changing and outlawing the pagan ways so that we became disconnected from who we were. The church used pagan rituals and feast days and changed them into christian rituals and holy days. As they gained a foothold they started to outlaw pagan rituals and forced pagans to go underground.

Because patriarchy couldn't control women's ability to give birth they decided to demonise women and all they stood for in society. The term 'witch' became associated with the devil and evil and in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII (rather an ironic name in my opinion) gave the church authority to find witches and kill them without a fair trial. This was mainly aimed at women, but men who were deemed unsuitable were also caught up in the 'witch-hunt". Gays, Gypsies, Jews, and anyone who was foreign were persecuted.

So, any women who were classed as a strong woman, who were healers or who had authority in society were accused of witchcraft and killed, and the punishment was brutal. There was a trial by water where the accused was thrown in the water with rocks tied to them. If you survived, you were a witch and then burnt at the stake. If you drowned you were innocent but dead anyway. It became basically a shit fight for women, with women often accusing each other of witchcraft, so no one could be trusted. Some of the ridiculous accusations were things like your neighbour wanting your land, if you were caught talking to animals or if you had a cat!

I could go on and on about the atrocities that women were subjected to but at the end of the witch-hunts over 13 million women lost their lives globally and society was forever changed. Women were nothing more than objects to be possessed, sold and treated as men wished. We had no say in how society was run and what our place was. We were told to be "good girls", domestics whose only thought was to serve their husband, etc, etc.

Now, times have changed and are changing but we still have a long way to go before the balance has been rectified. Women all over the world are remembering their ancestral lineage and many of us are claiming it. We are taking our power back. We are remembering the old ways and how we are all connected to Mother Earth.

Moving forward we will start to see the old ways of patriarchy fall, along with the men, women, companies and governments who continue to believe that this is the only way for us to be. We are already seeing this happen. A new way is coming where women take back their power, where men take their place beside those women and where we become one with nature and the cycles of life that we have for so long thought we were separated from.

So why are we finding so many women claiming the word 'witch'? I think, and this is just my humble opinion, that we are remembering the positive connotations associated with the word 'witch'. We are remembering connections we had with the earth and the cycles of life. We are realising that we can no longer be separate from all that is, that for the survival of humanity we must make changes to a more gentle and harmonic way of living that is good, not just for us but for the planet.

Do I class myself as a 'witch'? It's not the first word I would use to describe myself, but I am a Healer, a Crone, a strong and sometimes opinionated woman (some would say). I work with energy and follow the cycles in nature, I use intention to release old beliefs and infuse new beliefs with positivity. Some would call that spellwork. I talk with Spirit and passed loved ones and see things that have not happened yet. I believe all living things have memory and wisdom to bestow upon us. I believe in reincarnation and multiple universes, so I'm classed by some as pretty 'out there', so yeah I do believe I am witch. But at the end of the day I believe that all women are witches, that we all have a witch or two in our ancestral lines who is waiting for us to remember. I believe that ultimately all women want to know the camaraderie that use to exist amongst women, the sisterhood that embraced us. The sisterhood that is once again forming as we walk into a new way of living.

Until next time...

NB: If you would like to know more about the witch trials or living as a modern day witch or just living in line with the cycles of life and nature, then I encourage you to look at the following books & YouTube Channel:

• Witch by Lisa Lister

• The Witch of the Forest's Guide to Earth Magick by Lindsay Squire

• The Witch if the Forest's Guide to Natural Magick by Lindsay Squire

• Wild Wisdom Companion by Maia Toll

• Coffee with Crones YouTube Channel

• Rise Sister Rise by Rebecca Campbell

These are just some of the ones I have read or watched. You can go into any good book store and they will have a really good selection of witchy type books. Pick one that resonates with you.