Liberation of the Witch
With Some Shame in the Gut
Moonrise Mystic is the journey of a novelist connecting her love of story with her passion for the mystical into one moving, breathing prayer. It’s for those who love to read fantasy stories and intuitive writings that explore expanding through the initiations of life, death and rebirth, and transmuting shadow to light. Thank you for being here!
I’m supposed to be sitting down to write a scene for my next novel, yet I find myself called to write this instead. Maybe it’s a sign of procrastination of the work that really needs to be done. Or maybe the rising witch in me is calling me to speak on this while it’s fresh in my memory. Either way, enjoy.
This past weekend, I attended my first Pagan Pride in Long Beach, initiated by my friend
, who is quickly becoming a chosen sister along my path of returning. It was our first in-person meeting and a wonderful coming home experience with her and others who know the power of connecting with Mother Earth in sacred ways.We toured booths filled with all sorts of magical things—from card decks to jewelry and crystals to broomsticks—and attended community ritual and shadow/ancestral healing workshops. We even enjoyed lunch by the water. It is a day I will always remember, filled with friendship, gathering, and connection.
Yet, there was one aspect of this day that brought something to my awareness that is both rising in me and still slightly afraid to be seen. That something is the liberation of the witch. To be more specific, the liberation of the witch within me. Erica summed up this aspect of our day perfectly in this Note she shared earlier:
I’ve known for quite some time that the witch is a part of me that was silenced at an early age. Being raised Catholic, it just wasn’t something that I even had time to consider. While I loved all the stories about witches (and still do), I never once thought in my logical mind that it was something I could actually be. Though, looking back, I can see that I always knew it in my heart.
In recent years, as I’ve activated the mystic in me and my connection with the earth and cosmos alike, I’ve understood that everything I dreamt of and read about as a child, is something I am living now.
Yet, I still hide in the broom closet, afraid to fully be seen as a “witch.” My family can never know because they wouldn’t understand and part of me is afraid they would be unable to love me if they did. (If they read this someday, I hope it’s because they are ready to understand.) I also realize I have some issues with the word witch because of the stigma that has been built around it for centuries. This is why I choose to call myself a mystic—which, in my opinion, is just a softer word for witch.
I wonder, is this choice out of fear or out of resonance? I’m still figuring that out.
Why do people have such a hard time accepting those who choose to identify as witch? I asked myself as we walked in communal circle, chanting to Hecate and drowning out the megaphone projecting the men’s voices who thought it was their right to demonize us for our choice to live in unity with Mother Earth and each other.
I had such a mixture of feelings in that moment. I felt both liberation, sensing everyone else in the circle with me finding great joy and power to project their truth, and shame simultaneously. I remember as the shame rose in me, I acknowledged that I was afraid I would be persecuted for expressing my truth. I was afraid when the police came that we would be the ones in trouble—not the religious protestors who had invaded our peaceful afternoon.
Where does this come from? I believe so many still experience this contrast within as they rise into their sacred feminine power. I believe that it stems back to other lifetimes when we were persecuted and murdered for expressing our truth and our love of earth magick, which is simply be connected to a natural power we all carry within—both shadow and light.
For me, the shame comes from the Catholic Church belief systems that were ingrained in me from a young age that I still have to shed on a daily basis. And moments like this, are the perfect time to do so.
To be 100% truthful, I can’t even pass a police car on the street without my stomach tightening, even though I’ve done nothing wrong. I know this comes from lifetimes where I was locked away or killed by the law just for being me. I also use these everyday moments to break the chains and liberate myself.
Thankfully, after the Hecate ritual was completed, Erica and I left for lunch, and when we came back, the protestors were gone, we never saw the police come or go, and the event was carrying on peacefully again. So what do we take away from this?
On a personal level, I realize that it’s time for me to stop silencing my truth out of fear of getting in trouble or even getting killed. It’s time for me to start writing what I came here to write—the stories of the mother, the witch, the wild woman, the womb keepers.
On a collective level, there’s nothing more powerful than liberating the witch and healing the wounds from lifetimes past through coming together in community and in gatherings that honor the ancient ways. The sacred ways. The ways of our ancestors that are yearning to be remembered now.
If you’re feeling hesitation or fear about revealing your inner witch, know you’re not alone. Know that it’s okay to take it at your own pace—to act when you’re ready to act. Until then, love all of yourself deeply and passionately. Find a way to express and liberate the witch within, even if it’s done in privacy. You deserve it. Your sisters and brothers deserve it. Our daughters/sons and granddaughters/grandsons deserve it.
🌹 Note to self: Get your ass in the chair and write the novel scene tomorrow.
🌹 Share in the comments: Do you still struggle expressing your inner witch?
Soul Power (Alchemizing Darkness Meditation)
Many lightworkers, healers, and mystics have a hard time with the word power. It’s possible you were in a position of power you didn’t handle in a way you wished, whether in this lifetime or another. It could be that someone with power abused you or took advantage of you. It could be as simple as being afraid of your own inner power because in a past life, or earlier in this life, you were punished for wielding your power.
I struggle with it, expressing my witch-i-ness. There are those close to me that know I believe differently. I don't really know if they accept it, tolerate it, or are just indifferent to it. I still have a hard time saying I am a witch sometimes. I was raised Catholic too. I don't know if it's that or something deeper.
Sometimes I feel like I struggle with it because I don't have the right tools, I don't have a group I can join in with, practicing is sporadic on the best of days. I often feel like I am still deep in the recesses of the broom closet. I do want to change all that. One of the first things I think I need to get over or passed is that everything has to perfect and I have to have all the right things.
Owning the witch is super scary—so many of us have memories of being burned. I went as a witch for Halloween and actually told everyone that I was a real witch. It was bizarre and empowering, and no one was surprised. But I was surprised by how awesome everyone was about it.