Healing the Burning Times...

Up until a few years ago I never really thought much about witches, I certainly never considered myself one, and whilst I’d heard of the witch-hunts, I didn’t really know anything about them. That was until they came knocking so loudly at my door, I had no choice but to let them in - metaphorically speaking.

I was navigating peri-menopause and had made a conscious choice to embrace it naturally as an initiation into the third chapter of my life as a woman. For almost a year and a half I followed my body on a journey through many of the usual symptoms - hot flushes, sleepless nights, achy joints, migraines, no energy, back pain, dry mouth, an elusive memory and brain fog…oh joy!

As if that wasn’t enough I was also taken on an emotional rollercoaster which rose and fell in line with the cycles of the moon even though my bleeds had pretty much stopped. As each new moon approached I would feel my mood drop and my emotions darken. I’d give myself the time to sit and allow them to come up to the surface so I could feel them fully…welcome the death of ego and the positive self-identity I’d worked hard for years to build!

Old childhood wounds would surface, patterns and feelings I thought I had resolved through almost twenty years of therapy and inner work. But no, up they all came again. This time however, I noticed they felt different and as I journeyed, I started to see images of the past in my meditations and shamanic journeys. Men and women from the witch-hunt era would appear and show me the often gruesome circumstances and experiences they had been subjected too. It was hard-hitting stuff that often shocked me to my core. I was being shown the tragic reality of my vast ancestral lineage descending back through almost 20-30 generations.

It was like I was being asked to feel all of their unresolved feelings…the unresolved grief of loss and misunderstanding, the rage at injustice and cruelty, the terror in the face of the oppression and threat to survival. I did my best to process it, clearing it out of my body through cathartic and somatic practices combined with ritual and ceremony. I researched the history of these so-called “Burning Times” and weaving in my growing understanding of epigenetics and inherited trauma, it became clear that the witch-hunts continue and I had one playing out in my own body!

Uncovering A Collective Wound...

I started to see that I was carrying ancestral wounds that hadn’t originated with me. My chronic self-esteem issues, fears of judgement and rejection, a deep sense of non-belonging. Whilst I could track some of this back to my own childhood, the intensity of the emotion had to be something far greater than mine alone.

I spoke with many other women during that time, curious to see if they resonated with my experiences and oh yes, I was definitely not alone. So many other women felt similar fears and emotions and I saw I had come face to face with not just a personal wound but a collective one. A wound in the heart of our shared humanity that affects all of us whether we realise it or not.

Working with my ancestors brought blessings and burdens! The more I understood and healed them within myself, the more I heard their whispers calling me to take what I was learning out into the world to share with others. Having overcome the initial terror I felt in doing this, I’ve now worked with enough women over the last 6 years on this wound to know there is something important here that needs to be faced on a collective level.

The witch-hunts of early modern Europe and colonial America may seem like a dark chapter in the distant past, but a mere 400 years ago is nothing in the grand scheme of our 300,000 year ancestral timeline. During the 16th and 17th centuries, tens of thousands of women (and some men) were persecuted, tortured, and executed under the accusation of witchcraft. Their real crime? Yes it was sometimes because of their knowledge of healing and their intuitive relationship with Nature, but more often than not, it was simply for being a woman who didn’t conform. A woman deemed “difficult”. A woman who found herself on the wrong side of a neighbourly dispute.

Whilst the hangings and burnings may be confined to the past, the witch-hunts themselves never really ended. They shape us still—woven into the fabric of our culture and into the stories we tell ourselves about safety, about power, about our place in the world, and about what happens when a woman dares to stand up for truth. If we are to fully reclaim ourselves, our authenticity, our humanity, we absolutely have to understand how this ancestral trauma lives on in us, threading through our lives like an old spell waiting to be broken.

The flames of the pyres may have burned out, but the trauma they ignited did not. As Gabor Maté reminds us, "The unconscious mind isn’t just an individual phenomenon but is also inherited from our ancestors, shaped by their experiences." The fear, the silencing, the scapegoating—these patterns didn’t disappear. They live on in us, shaping our personal and collective realities.

Witch-Hunt Dynamics in Modern Life...

The witch-hunts were not just a period of historical hysteria. Their impact runs deep, showing up in severed community bonds, forgotten ancestral knowledge, and fear and mistrust embedded into our relational dynamics—particularly amongst women.

Sylvia Federici, in Caliban and the Witch, highlights how the witch-hunts dismantled a vast body of traditional knowledge, replacing it with fear and control. She writes, "The witch-hunts destroyed a whole world of female practices, collective relationships, and a vast body of knowledge about healing and the land, replacing it with fear and division." The impact of this loss has rippled through time, leaving us with a fractured relationship to our own wisdom, intuition, and power.

As I look at what is happening in our world today, it’s not hard to see these dynamics still at play:

• Scapegoating and persecution of dissenters - Modern “witch-hunts” play out in cancel culture, political purges, and the discrediting of activists and truth-tellers.
• The suppression of feminine wisdom - Intuition, emotional intelligence, and holistic healing are often dismissed in favour of reductionist worldviews.
• Economic and reproductive control - The struggles around bodily autonomy, environmental destruction, and corporate domination are born out of past efforts to sever people from their autonomy and the land.

How the Trauma Lives in Us...

Trauma is not just personal—it is ancestral. Through the field of epigenetics, neuroscience now confirms that the effects of extreme stress, fear, and oppression can be passed down through generations. This goes a long way to explaining why so many of us today instinctively hesitate before speaking up, why so many of us fear standing out from the crowd, and why society as a whole struggles with trust and connection.

Some of the inherited trauma responses from the witch-hunts include:

• Fear of visibility – The deep-seated fear of being punished or rejected for standing out, for being different, or for being authentic.
• Internalised oppression and misogyny – Women, in particular, often unconsciously diminish themselves, self-sabotage, or turn against each other (echoing the forced betrayals of accused witches under torture).
• Hyper-independence and distrust – Centuries of persecution have eroded trust in community, leading to the glorification of the individual and self-reliance at the expense of collective wellbeing.
• Survival-driven conformity – Many feel the pressure to conform, to not challenge authority, to keep their heads down—patterns rooted in ancestral survival strategies.

The Personal and Collective Cost for Women...

The impact of these inherited fears and traumas on women is profound and often goes unnoticed, hidden beneath the surface of everyday life. Having worked with hundreds of women now, there are common themes that many experience:

• Chronic self-doubt and imposter syndrome, feeling they must work harder to prove themselves, fearing that visibility equals vulnerability and a dangerous weakness.
• Overwhelm and burnout, as they push themselves to meet societal expectations while suppressing their own needs.
• Disconnection from their bodies and intuition, struggling to trust their instincts and inner wisdom.
• Fear of claiming space and leadership, hesitating to step into roles of influence due to deep-seated fears of persecution.

Given we are not “islands”, these costs to us as individuals then extend to the collective in which we see:

• Fewer women in leadership and decision-making roles, reinforcing patriarchal structures.
• A culture of competition rather than collaboration among women, mirroring the divide-and-conquer tactics of historical witch-hunts.
• A loss of intergenerational wisdom, as traditional knowledge about healing, birth, and the cycles of life is dismissed or forgotten.

The Cultural Cost: Trauma is Leading us to Collapse

I don’t think it’s going too far to suggest that this inherited trauma stretches way beyond the individual level and has shaped our entire culture in the West. The collective nervous system of Western society is dysregulated, stuck in cycles of fear, competition, and scarcity. As Gabor Maté writes, "A society that disconnects us from our pain also disconnects us from our joy, from our capacity to love, to create, and to be fully present." This disconnection underlies many of the crises we now face:

• Environmental destruction – The severing of people from nature, a hallmark of the witch-hunts, continues to drive unsustainable exploitation of the earth.
• Political polarisation – A society rooted in fear and division cannot function collaboratively.
• Mental health crises – Anxiety, depression, and burnout are all symptoms of a culture held hostage to trauma wounds of separation and control.
• The Eradication of the Elder - The disregard for wisdom, life experience and the important role of menopause results in a loss of sustainable and moral leadership.
• The decline of communal structures – The loss of deep, trust-based community makes meaningful cultural transformation difficult.

Pathways to Healing: Creativity, Collaboration & the Return of the Wise Woman

The question is what do we do about this? How do we heal? The answer lies in undoing the damage—the severing, the silencing, the suppression—and reclaiming the wisdom that was supressed. Collective healing starts with the individual and my own work focuses on 4 important steps on the pathway.

1. Creativity as Reclamation

Creativity is one of the most powerful ways to break inherited trauma cycles. When we create—whether through art, storytelling, music, or ritual—we can reconnect to the parts of ourselves that were silenced or exiled. The act of creating beauty is inherently rebellious in a world that seeks to control and conform.

2. Collaboration Over Competition

The witch hunts thrived on division—neighbours betraying neighbours, women pitted against each other. Healing means coming back to deep collaboration, learning to trust and support each other again. This is why collective spaces for healing, learning, and creative expression are so essential.

3. Ritual and Ancestral Healing

Many cultures have practices to honour and heal ancestral wounds. Engaging in rituals—whether through guided visualisation, ancestral offerings, or simple remembrance—allows us to process and release what we have carried for too long.

4. Reclaiming the Wisewoman Archetype

The “witch” was never truly a villain—she was a healer, a midwife, and an Elder - a keeper of ancestral wisdom. The return of the Wisewoman means re-integrating these roles into our modern world: bringing back holistic healing, intuitive leadership, creative and supportive community-building, and reverence for the natural world.

Are you Ready to Step into the Fire of Transformation?

The fire that once burned so many does not have to be a fire of destruction. It can be the fire of transformation, of illumination, of renewal. The witch-hunts may have tried to eradicate the wisdom and power of those who came before us, but their knowledge is not lost—it is waiting within us, ready to be reclaimed.

Each act of healing, of speaking out, of creating and collaborating, is an act of defiance against a culture built on fear and control. As we heal, we change not only ourselves but the world around us. The witch-hunts are not over until we decide they are—and we have the power to write a new ending.

If you’re called to join the growing number of women working to heal the ancestral wounds of the witch-hunts, then please take a look at my Healing the Burning Times online programme specifically designed to help you transform the fears and feelings you may well have inherited. As the Ancestors told me, “A collective wound requires collective healing” and all of us play an important part.

With love and magic,
Cali White
www.thewitcheshouse.org