In the beginning was the word....WITCH!

“Are you a Witch?” is a question I get asked a lot. As founder of The Witches’ House of Healing Arts it would seem like an obvious thing to assume. But to be honest, I’m still not sure sometimes. It depends on who is asking and also on how you define it.

Ask a thousand women "what is a witch?" and you’ll get a thousand different answers. The growing number of women for whom “witch” is a positive identity will tell you she is a woman connected to Nature, a wild creative woman in her power, a free-thinker and shape-shifter, a magic-maker and spell caster, a woman who walks her own path and doesn’t care what others think.

If these things are what define a witch, then yes, I definitely aspire to become one, but I’m also aware that there are still many women for whom the word “witch” brings up feelings of fear or dread and a sense of darkness and foreboding. Given the witch’s history, it’s no wonder.

In the beginning, the word Wytch was a title of honour. She was Seer and Oracle, a gifted woman with skills that communities depended upon. Her visions, prophesies and ability to commune with the gods were vital to the survival of all. Kings sought her counsel and guidance. Despite her eccentricities she was respected and revered.

But as time passed, her power became a threat - to the Christian overlords, to the empirical scientists, to the capitalist mission of progress, and the Wytch was well and truly knocked off her pedestal, desecrated and demonised, hunted down and left for dead.

But so strong is her power that she did not completely die. For a good few centuries she has survived hidden from view in the dark forest of our psyche, but now she is coming out of hiding as more and more of us are breathing her back to life.

Mention the witch-hunts and we feel a strong resonance in some way; a felt sense in our bodies that we can’t quite put our finger on, a morbid fascination to visit the stories of those persecuted, a deep knowing that we carry an ancestral legacy that is calling to be remembered.

The Untold Hystory of the Burning Times...

The Burning Times is a complex chapter of European history that spanned three hundred years from 1450-1750. Instigated by the Catholic Church and a papal bull, witchcraft was the practice of magic to do harm and condemned as heresy. Since God would never provoke mal-doing, witchcraft and its outcomes must be the work of the devil. Witches therefore, were the devil’s own handmaidens and must be rooted out.

In 1487 came “The Malleus Malificarum”, also known as The Hammer of Witches; a comprehensive guidebook to witch-hunting written by Heinrich Kramer, a Catholic Inquisitor, and Jacob Sprenger, a Theology Professor of high-reputational standing. Aided by Gutenberg's first printing press, the book became an international best-seller of its day and spread across Europe into the hands of the learned - the Nobility, Priests, and Judges. The spark was lit and a wildfire of hysteria swept through the land. The Devil must be abated and witch-hunts were the way.

In God-fearing times, suspicion arose easily and accusations led to brutal torture as a way to extract confessions. Academics cite 40,000-60,000 deaths across Europe, 85% women and 15% men. With women deemed “the weaker sex”, witch-hunts were unapologetic in their misogynistic duty to rid society of devil-worship and evil practices.

Witch-hunt fever reached Britain in the late 1500’s with King James VI of Scotland fanning the flames. A King obsessed with witchcraft, his paranoia led to the first major trial in North Berwick in which 70-200 people were accused, tried and executed. In 1597 he published his own book, “Daemonologie”, and in the 150 years that followed, fear and suspicion gripped the land and five national witch-hunts saw 4,000 women burned for heretic crimes of witchcraft.

In 1603 as now King James I of England, his fear of witches spread south. In a protestant land, witchcraft was classified a felony with punishment of death by hanging. What remains of historical records captures the number at 1,000 deaths. Many “witches” died in prison awaiting trial and many through drowning during the “swimming” test.” Unlike Scotland where witch hunts were driven by the religious zeal of the authorities, in England the majority of cases were brought from within the community as witch accusations became a major way of ending neighbourly disputes.

In Wales, the numbers were much lower, somewhere in the 40’s. This is thought to have been because magic there maintained its mythical power and respect. Authorities and locals alike were reluctant to rock the boat for fear of unleashing its power against them. In Ireland, the unshakable Catholic beliefs deeply held across the country rendered witch-hunting unnecessary. A few did occur, in places of high Scottish immigration where the practice was exported from the homelands.

We Carry the Tragic Legacy...

The brutality of the witch-hunts traumatised everybody within the community not just those branded as ‘witch’. Whole nations have passed a legacy of inherited trauma down through the generations which scientists are now proving through the study of epigenetics.

Whilst today in western culture, we may not face the reality of burning or hanging, we still “know” it in our bones and continue to live our lives energetically and emotionally as if we too might be “taken out”. The Burning Times arguably left one of the deepest wounds in the psyche of humanity which we still haven’t recovered from.

Trauma is a wound of separation: from our own selves, from each other, and from Nature. It disconnects us from our authentic potential and numbs us out to avoid being overwhelmed by the pain, rage and horror. Trauma when untreated, renders us isolated, stuck, and powerless.

Our Ancestors may be dead, but they are still with us in spirit and in our unconscious false beliefs and destructive behaviour patterns. What were survival strategies for our Ancestors are now patterns we play out which are leading to our own demise.

This is a wound that affects both men and women, albeit differently. It is a wound which has two sides, the victim and the perpetrator. It is a wound that runs deep on both the individual and collective level and as such, it requires both individual and collective healing; all of us taking the courageous steps to understand how we are the living legacies of a violent and traumatic past.

A Collective Wound Requires Collective Healing...

This wound demands tending—not just for ourselves but for our Ancestors and for the future we are collectively shaping. When we look beneath the black pointy hats and peer into the historical cauldron with a sense of curiosity rather than fear we find a world of healing and treasures.

To reclaim the witch is not just to remember; it’s to reimagine. It’s a vast spell of weaving that calls us to mend the web between women, earth, and spirit, transforming our grief, rage and terror into joyful and connected living. It is powerful work and it’s beautiful work. It’s work that changes us from the inside out and takes us to places we never thought possible.

It is work that offers strong medicine, but be careful! It comes in a bottle with a warning label. For whilst this work transforms our lives, reclaiming the witch is not just about candles and crystals and full moon forest walks, important as these are! Reclaiming the witch is a radical act that requires us to go deeply within - to journey deep into our own hearts and wombs and to root out the horrors of the past that lurk there: the internalised misogyny, the pain and the shame, the fears of darkness, the feelings of powerlessness that lead to bitterness and resentment.

We cannot heal the past and create a more loving future without shining a light on the shadows. We cannot heal wounds of separation on our own. This is work we simply cannot do alone and must do together. To reweave the threads of sisterhood and create spaces of non-judgement and trust. It can be messy at times and it’s never perfect. But when we take the brave step and say yes to taking our place in the circle, we find ourselves on a pathway to empowerment and to a life more magical than we could ever have imagined.

Are you feeling the witches stirring in your bones?
Are you tired of feeling isolated, stuck, or afraid?
Maybe you want a more meaningful life?
Maybe you're just exhausted by the constant treadmill of playing it safe, and want help in finding a new direction?

Wherever you are on your inner journey, I invite you to be part of the thousands of women working to heal the ancestral wounds of the Burning Times and join my life-changing course.

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