We Are The Witches

We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn.
And the sisters and mothers and daughters and friends of the ones you did.

We hold the fire that consumed them
inside our bodies
It burns hot and volcanic in our bellies
flames licking at the edges of our hearts
relentless and fierce
Encoded in our DNA
Handed down as if a gift
To remind us from where we came
And how many of us were sacrificed.

Why do you think the dragons in your storybooks
breathed fire?
Why did you come after us
to slay us
to demonize us
to attack us
Our truth will defend us
The scorn of your fear-driven hate
Will turn to ash with the flames of our truth.

We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn.

The wise women.
The healers.
The midwives.
The counselors.
The messengers.
The prophets.

We counseled kings. We interpreted dreams.
We watched the movement of the stars and we foretold prophecies.

We delivered babies and we blessed and buried the ones who couldn’t be saved.
We brought the sick back to health with plants and leaves and herbs and tea.
We laid hands.

We safeguarded the knowledge
That nature contained everything in it that we needed to survive.
We studied the seasons.
We watched the moon wax and wane above us.
Our bodies bleed with its cycles and we surrender to the intimate dance of the universe.

Have you forgotten?!
That the same power that spoke Life into all of creation – the same power that keeps
Your heart beating
Your blood flowing
Your breath sour in your mouth as you scream
“WITCH.”

This same power
Could heal you
Could save you
Could sustain you.
The same power that keeps the earth spinning
The ocean tide returning
The mountains standing
The insects and animals and birds singing.
This power is your birthright.
The Divine spark of Light that makes you who you are.

To be a witch is to step into the power Source gave us, to be
Sovereign
Owned by no man, no culture, no religion, no government, no tradition.

We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn.

To be a witch is to embody and own the power
not given to us by any man,
not stolen from kings and countries
not taken by force or guile.

To be a witch is to know the difference
Between the power taken from conquering another
And the power gifted to each living being – the divine birthright of Life.
The power one does not strive to attain
But is simply accepted with open hands.

The golden light within us
connecting us to Source.
The power one can only lose if it is handed willingly to another.

How do you control those who need nothing from no one?
Why do you fear our autonomy?
Why do you think your images of witches have no husbands?
Belonging as property to another man?
Do you not believe we hold the memories of our ancestors in every cell of our bodies?

We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn.

We occupy the liminal spaces
Between this world and the next
We hold sacred knowledge of our history
Remembrance in our souls of a time when we knew where to find God.

To be a witch is to understand that to find God
One must look inward.
No religious pilgrimage
No Holy Land
No sacred text
No stained-glass window
Contains that Source.

To be a witch is to understand
God is not looking down on his creation
Judging it
Condemning it
Inciting Holy Wars
Holy Crusades
Death.

God will never be found among violence to her people.

To be a witch is to understand God as a
Mother
To be nurtured, cared for, tended to.

Who told you God was a man?

Does a man birth forth new life?
Does a man create flesh and blood from their own bodies?!
“To be a Mother is to say,
‘This is my body, broken for you,’
And, in the next instant, in response to the created’s primal hunger,
‘This is my body, take and eat.’”
-Allison Woodard

To be a witch is to embody the Divine Feminine.
To flow with the seasons and harness the moving energy of the stars
To be patient, to listen and meditate in silence.

To be a witch is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus
To heal the sick
Move mountains
Speak the truth even when the religious establishment tries to silence you
Discredit you
Murder you.

Who has historically plundered the earth?
Raped her of her natural resources, forced their way within her,
Claimed ownership of her, hoarded her gifts with insatiable greed?
Who told you God was to be feared?
Only spoken to through men?
In the right way, the right time, and the right place?
Who told you that women are the “weaker” sex?
Who told you strength was physical prowess? Postulating and bravado??
Who told you being a warrior only means spilling blood and stealing the life force of another?
Was it someone who grew life inside them?
Felt the all consuming pain of birthing another human being?
Was it someone who stayed up with their babies throughout the night, sacrificing their own bodies to keep another alive?
It’s easy to give up your life once and for all
It’s another thing to give of yourself over and over and over again. Day after day, year after year.

Who told you that it was not a Woman’s place
To be seen
To be heard
To be teaching
To be listened to and followed?

Who suppressed from the books of history
The voices of the Witches
The Women
the DIVINE FEMININE.
Who made you scared to hear the word
WITCH?

Who told you that the things you hide in your heart are evil
Simply because they are hidden?
Who told you that the power that is your birthright
The power that created your body and is keeping you alive –
Who told you that power was Evil?
To be a witch is to reclaim this power.

To be a witch is to step into the birthright that was always meant to be yours –
the power you were tricked into giving away.
To be a witch is to say,
“I belong to NO man.
Not my father, not my pastor, not my husband, not the men who have used me and abused me.
I belong to ME.”

To be a witch is to hear the Universe whispering to you that
You are loved
You are held
You are whole
You are ENOUGH.

To be a witch is to heal others, so they may once again find God within themselves.

To be a witch is to appreciate the divinity within Creation, Gaia, and every living thing.

To be a witch is to harness the energy of the rocks that cry out praises to Source.

To be a witch is to create sacred alchemy in our kitchens – blending ingredients into potions to heal, nourish, and protect.

To be a witch is to worship with our own rituals in our own ways, knowing we all connect to Source differently.

To be a witch is to weave spells with our words, spells of love over ourselves, our babies, our families, our planet.

To be a witch is to discover and cultivate our own unique talents, gifts to us from Source to guide us and be used to heal others.

To be a witch is to honor the symbolism within life, its numbers and pictures and animals and planets, and to interpret those symbols with our internal guidance from Spirit – our intuition.

To be a witch is to protect the Earth from those who want to own her and plunder her.

To be a witch is to understand the meaning of the narrow path not many find, as the open road ahead of us gets lonely sometimes.

To be a witch is to never again fall for the lie that one can only hear God through priests, pastors, religions – books written by men who did not honor the autonomy of the Divine Feminine.

To be a witch is to confront the shadow that lives in us all, that hides the Divine Spark within us. The witch does not hide from it, suppress it, deny it, blame others for it, but conquers it as only one can – through loving it.

To be a witch is to feel every sensation the body is capable of, to interpret it, to understand it, to honor herself above all.

To be a witch is to take responsibility for one’s own healing, and knows that by healing herself, she is healing all of Creation. By loving herself, she is loving all of creation.

We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn.