By Sonia Smith
To follow on from last month’s article I am asking the question: How do you wake the witch inside of you?
Photo by Erik Mclean from Pexels
Well, traditionally witches were those who loved the Land they inhabited. Protectors of both the Land and its plant life and creatures. They had knowledge of herbs and healing for both mind and body. They helped the people into the world and out of the world. Death held no fear, and they were the ones often at the bedside of the dying, or laying out the body ready for its disposal. They did not fear death for themselves either as they knew of other realms, other dimensions where the soul could exist.
They were there at the birth of a new life. Knowing how to ease the pain of the birth and the ‘after pains’ of birth. Allowing the child to come into the world not hazed by the drugs of the doctors, allowing a life to take in the newness of the world, recognise its mother, its father. The first breath the sweetness of the air, and not a hospital prison room, airless, with bright lights that are not the sun.
They did not have to live a Christianised viewpoint of a ‘good life’ to achieve immortality, they just knew there was another place to be, or an incarnation back on the earth should they choose it. A witch knows what they Will and shall Be.
So how do you awaken the witch in this modern age?
There are many things you can do. Some of you will have already connected, and do these things naturally. The mark of the True Witch.
But we can all benefit from a reminder. So what can we do? We can get closer to Nature and the Land. Even if you live in the town or city you can get out into the parks, you can drive or get on a bus and go out into the nearest countryside. You can grow things, even if you only have a window box.
You can take off your shoes and feel the grass and the earth beneath your feet. You can go out at night and look at the stars and moon. You can swim or paddle in the sea. Make that journey if you don't live near the coast. Feel the elements on your skin. Dance in the rain, lay for awhile in the sun, go and walk onto a hill top or coastal path, feel the breeze and the high winds, let sand or earth trickle through your fingers.
Let the witch awaken as you feel that deep contact with Nature.
Keep pets, volunteer at a domestic animal or wildlife rescue, or visit a wolf sanctuary, a hawk conservancy, watch wildlife in your area. Feed the wild birds and see what contact they start to make with you. Keep making contact with as many wild and domestic creatures that you can. Really feel that deep kinship that is there with other living things.
Talk to trees, sit under their branches and listen. Can you feel the living being that is Them? Do the same with flowers and other plants. Start to feel their energy. What does each one feel like?
Find out about the Sabbats. Or if you know about them, honour them. It is all too easy if you are a solitary witch to not mark the occasion. Or to just do a grail and light a candle. So try to make it a special day. Make the effort to do a little ritual in the evening, perhaps make some nice food and have something special to drink. Bathe or shower, put on your best, or wear your robe. Wear perfumed oils. Put flowers in your hair or wear a circlet, or a hat or hood or veil. Sit only by candle light. Do this outside if it is possible. Feel the energy of the night. Stay up to the small hours and feel the difference as most people are in bed. Feel the quiet of the night. If you do have witch friends to share it with then do so, and feast and have fun too.
Witches were once a valuable part of the community. What can you do in your community? Do some shopping for an old person, or perhaps give them a lift to the supermarket? Baby sit for a tired mum? Help the local wildlife group clear the waterways for the wildlife to be safer there free of litter? Walk a dog for someone who can't? Take a pet to the vet with a person who perhaps has no transport? There are a myriad of things you can do to be of use in the community as witches once were.
You can waken the witch by playing with divinatory tools.
Tarot, runes, i-ching, to name but a few. Explore the tools of divination that you don't perhaps regularly use or are new to you. Hone your psychic abilities in any way that you can. Learn stage magic tricks, then do them in front of your friends. Allow a sense of wonder to come into your life. Go and watch stage magic. Go to the theatre. Go to live music. Soon you will see that there is magic everywhere!
So now you know what to do to awaken the witch. And you will think of other ways too. I would love to hear from you as to what you are doing to awaken the witch.
Next month's article will be exploring the connection between the witch and the Fay.
Until then Mabon/Autumn Equinox Blessings.
Sonia Smith is a Traditional Witch and Magician.