Witch Wound

Healing our “witch wound” is one of the most compassionate things we can do for ourselves.

Brought on by being marginalised and oppressed, the witch wound is more than the suffering and trauma due to our identification as witches. Pain of any kind in our community from this, whether it be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, can represent this. Together though, we will cover so much in depth here for you, including ways to work with it.

The Witch Wound, and it’s Psychology

Wounds in psyche (our spiritual essence combined with our minds) come from experiences that were never processed expressively and outwardly. If it lives in our mind then it lives in our blood. These experiences can be passed down from generation to generation, and these can be witnessed firsthand.

Witches have been victimised and oppressed because of our work and community position, which has left us reluctant in society at best, and terrorised at worst. Deep trauma may result from this, at individual, institutional, and cultural levels, contributing to systemic inequalities and oppression. Against patriarchal norms which don’t further the career of those in power, anything different sparked worry and then eventually, harm. The healers, the doulas, the mystics, the seers, the alchemists, the midwives, the herbalists and the counsellors – a merging of these vocational roles as a witch for the point of this article – we’re now left unsafe and unprotected. In cases where we don’t conform to popular societal norms or religious teachings, we’ve quite literally been ostracised, exiled and murdered.

The Church and Christianity/Catholic teachings are against witchcraft, which is a practice older than both religions, but religions utilise it as a benefit when it suits their agenda. Combining with governments and states, they also utilise witchcraft as an excuse to suppress and control women’s autonomy. Spiritual leaders, strong women, female landowners, female healers, female philosophers, female politicians and female mathematicians all threatened patriarchal rule, and needed to be restrained – even if they were not causing any harm.

The Malleus Maleficarum published in 1487 sparked a surge of witch hunts that impacted all the generations of communities since. People were massacred, butchered, and tortured horrendously during these witch hunts, which were frequent and most times insufficient of evidence. Both personally and collectively, this persecution caused an everlasting deal of suffering and anguish on humanity because of the prejudices and violence.

Even now, people have no idea who we really are. And the joke is – we are your people.

Now, to be seen is to be experienced, and that doesn’t feel ok. Whether it’s shame, embarrassment, fear or just unfamiliar, being seen in our role as witches feels dangerous, feels uncomfortable, and feels like we have to validate ourselves.

This perceiving becomes a form of oppression of who we are within society.

Oppression impacts thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviours and physical well-being.

This is our current Witch Wound.

It’s no surprise that most witches identify also as neurodivergent. This is because the system and society we live in isn’t there to support us, and so as a neurodivergent we turn to witchcraft practices as creative solution, even if ancestrally we are not linked. Remembering the Wheel of Privilege, the more “outskirt” you are the less power you have, sadly. So being a witch (non-religious or lesser-known religion), being neurodivergent, being female/trans/non-binary, from a poor area and poorer upbringing, being non-heterosexual, having vulnerable mental health, having disabilities…. anything “other”; it would have put you at the risk for being burned at the stake, drowned to prove a point, and ostracised and exiled without your possessions. Other reasons witches were accused weren’t limited to “otherness”, feminine oppression and spiritual warface, economic exploitation also included:

• organising; either circles, protests or gatherings. Power in numbers? Not if the local governments would allow it. Sanctions, job losses and more accompanied this.
• financial independence; suspicion on your freedoms, they’d be questioned and queried, and you’d end up interrogated or ostracised for your independence.
• sexual freedom; the bible said it’s a sin? so you’ve basically gotta go. Sacred prostitution is allowed only when it those in power get to benefit.
• healing people with herbs and plants; before Doctors and Big Pharma, understanding the local flora to sooth all ailments powered your words/opinions over those who felt formal education was more of a necessity.
• owning land and property; especially if the local government, or other businessmen, wanted it. If you were accused of witchcraft, you’d have been stripped of any possessions, which would have been sold off and profits likely split amongst your accusers.

Carl Jung and Carol Pearson both explored archetypes, primordial unconscious patterns made conscious, and it’s debated where we are with the Witch archetype in terms of general exploration. For the former, Jung very much didn’t want us collectively to focus on just one archetype as a human personality; the fact we are made up of multitudes and layers make us special, unique, and inherently alive. Carol Pearson wrote that for this role it’s more about transformation, power, healing, fighting back against oppression, and witches main traits (whatever gender) are revolved around naturally being intuitive, insightful, and inspiring.

In a modern setting, with the world still being filled with phobias and all the “isms” (fascism, racism, sexism etc), we have a fight ahead of us. Witchcraft has always been political. We may not want it to be, but we are only here because of those before us. This means we pave the way forward for those in front of us, too.

So with Jung et al blessing us with multitudes, let’s then merge the Witch archetype with others that benefits society, provides us safety, provides us with belonging.

Would you be the Hero Witch, leading with courage, magic and determination? Would you be the Sage Witch, who fearlessly shares their best practice, their best tools, their best creations for a better world? Would you be the Caregiver Witch, the one who nurtures those who are looking for healing, the one who provides a home to those who need it, and nourishes the land around us for the future? It’s food for thought for you, absolutely.

Ways The “Witch Wound” shows up

• fears around speaking up – boundaries and morals aren’t being catered to, around not speaking up because we fear our ideas are bad or we’re not good enough.
• fears around perception – because people frequently perceive us as being unusual or different, being secretive about the work, internalised oppression if you feel like you need to hide your true identity or keep your witchy ideas to yourself.
• fears around practice – not doing shadow work or spellwork, feeling “silly”, overthinking everything and second guessing yourself and your work.
• fears around knowledge – purposefully preventing yourself from reading up, exploring or even enjoying the learning process because it’s different or “other” or not expected of you.
• fears around power – shrinking yourself around others, using unethical shortcuts, or delaying any actions because things don’t seem perfect enough or that you shouldn’t be the one to step up.
• fears around other witches – have feelings of alienation or a lack of social integration, or because we have been told that our views are incorrect, we could also feel inadequate. Imposter syndrome kicks in to make us feel small or unworthy.
• fears around divination – past life recall or tarot being too intimidating indicates you think your powers are less than, or that you’re not capable of managing it.
• fears around stereotypes – navigating or leaning in to old stereotypes, or even internalized cruelty about our own appearances, value and taking up space (e.g. “we already have a witchy goth in our coven moots”).
• not trusting intuition – being rigid, ignoring messages you understand but dismissing yourself, not placing inner knowledge on balance with material concerns,
• expecting results, recognition or seeking attention – is there really a relationship with Self here? are you aligning with your intuition or other people’s expectations? are you rushing yourself based on misaligned expectations?
• misusing power – overpromising, being righteous, overstretching ourselves, seeing ourselves as the only answer for others, hurting others for our own benefit… which side are we on? Not being watchful in studying our own shadowier aspects.
• forgetting elements of our own practice – suppression, de-prioritising and not supporting our own healing. When we spend time healing others that we turn into a martyr about it, something’s missing.

Not all witches come from hereditary lines. Not all witches are white and from Salem. Not all witches are women. Collectively, and passed on through our ancestors trauma, looks different for so many of us. Wherever we can, we must avoid elitism in our witchcraft community, as we have suffered externally enough. But showing up for one another, changing the story from stereotypically misunderstood “Villain” to being of service to self, divine & community, being that courageous and important light for those who are ahead of us… we will make a difference.

This following quote from Kim Kran’s Wild Archetype deck shows the transmuting energy of the mystic witch, for sure, but I want to point out that witchcraft is not all love and light. Witchcraft is sometimes necessary cord cuttings, return to sender spellwork, showing up in protests, going to therapy, and holding the dark so it’s supporting the space for light. We work with shadow, so we can appreciate the radiant aspects of being human. And it’s ok to produce results, whatever they look like, that are outside the usual rules of life

“They do not fear the darkness, but sit in the presence of it, harness the potential and latent energy behind it, and embed it with light.“

Integrating the Witch Wound – Ways To Help Yourself

There is no fixing the witch wound on an individual scale. It calls for major restructuring of our current society, a ton of grief and forgiveness work, and a lot of things that are beyond our personal limits. But that does not mean we don’t have some power here.

Your experiences as a witch are valid. As we’ve seen, the witch wound can result in a great deal of self-doubt and insecurity as proof of your witch wound, as well as many other causes. It’s important to remind yourself that you are just as justifiable as much as anyone else is. You matter. Just because your witchcraft journey doesn’t look like others too, doesn’t make it less “witchy”.

Connection, and Support. One thing I’ve noticed from reading tarot, analysing folks astrology, reading comments on the articles, and your beautiful feedback is that you are crying out for each other. Truly, you want to find a place to be together safely. You want to meet up to explore things wonderfully. You want to express your passion for your spirituality in a secure setting with other likeminded folks. So find the community you want, or create it, witch. This means putting yourself out there, starting small, maybe creating a full moon circle, a coffee and cards session, or organising a group hike for witchy folks. It’s essential to form a support system for yourself. These people can provide a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen when you need to vent. They can also offer advice and guidance when you’re feeling lost.

Read Banned Books. Those in charge who do not want you to prevail, they do not want you to have access to old ideas, and they want to prevent the newer ideas from coming to light too. Reading changes our synapses, it changes our ability to interact with our middle eye (if that’s your belief), and it changes our ability to connect with our intuition and pattern recognition.

Courageously Build Own Personal Core Powers. Go to therapy. Volunteer. Evaluate your values, morals, beliefs. Challenge yourself. Add security to who you are, to provide you with a sturdier foundation, and add this to your rituals and workings. Self-empowerment can be a cornerstone to your practice, and building up your self-worth as a human in our collective.

Self Reflection. Fill your Book of Rest with past experiences and past beliefs about witchcraft and witches, and where you are at now with those. Identify any negative or conflicting perspectives and narratives you are allowing, or where you’ve dismissed your intuition, and maybe go one step further to disprove those negativities. Utilise cord cuttings with past lives, ancestors who’d cause you harm, and with anything that doesn’t serve you to your fullest. Inner work with meditations, energy healing, journalling, tarot sessions to better understand your emotions, your experiences, and let grief and loss, pain and trauma, wield this space to be processed. Writing with a nice pen can be incredibly cathartic, but use your phones noting app or whatever tool you have available to support you.

Express Yourself. Advocating for your boundaries, for your family boundaries, will help it become easier to advocate for your spiritual ones too. Don’t let the fear of being judged prevent you from sharing your passions, your intuitive gifts or your wisdom and insights. Acceptance work takes time too.

Access, Education and Conversations. If you don’t know something, but it’s something you’ve always wanted to explore, then find a way to do so. Find online PDF’s or e-books or audiobooks of expensive books, utilise lending libraries. Start a book club or find a forum/subreddit/fb group with a list of awesome resources. Apply to council for a community allotment slot, work with your neighbours to build a community garden or create your own allotment. Don’t let red tape prevent you from having access to things that fulfil you and provide you with knowledge. And when we have been learning these things? Then talk about it, share what you’ve learned or found, share best practice, share fun resources!

Flip the Wheel of Privilege. Fuck rich, white, awful heterosexual men, and find your people outside of this. Engage in more of the Female Gaze; you have your own desires, narratives and perspectives that have nothing to do with that inner circle, so create more space in your life for this. Find ways to be patient with yourself during your learning, and don’t give up on your journey or your path because society imposes barriers. You’re a witch; you ride barriers, veils and thresholds daily.

Treating yourself with self-compassion, kindness and grace, add ways to meet your safety and security needs, build this work into being habitual; there are no quick fixes here. You’ll get where you need to be by taking small steps each day. Build yourself a strong self care practice that helps empower you. When you take care of yourself, it helps to begin the process of healing, it kickstarts integration, and it’s the best way to start showing up for yourself. “I’m giving you this today, because you deserve it, and I love you.”

Final thoughts

As a human being, you deserve safety, love and support – without condition. Lean on your community, explore this “witch wound” for yourself, and it’s my hope for you that there’s some help and healing here for you. Until next time xox