The Good Witch
Real witches are rooted deep
in the lore of the dark arts and
have been misunderstood for
centuries. History obscures the
importance of these gifted women,
once integral to the health of our
communities, before they were driven
into hiding or death.
The witch origin story is worth
retelling, as is the story of her return.
Her gifts are needed now more than ever.
The Main Character
The end of October highlights one of the oldest rituals in the world - honoring the transition between the living and the dead. Numerous holidays and festivals between September and November focus on this harvest theme and the end of summer’s bounty. Yet for those raised in modern Western culture, Halloween is the holiday that can’t be missed.
Today, Halloween still carries the themes of harvest and the symbolism of death, the afterlife, and sorcery. One of Halloween’s main characters, the witch, is a feature of this symbolism. Labeled as mysterious and untrustworthy, she has a penchant for cats and black gowns; she wears a pointy hat and tends a cauldron of potion, presumed poison. She is dangerous, unpredictable, and irresistibly wicked.
The witch's persona is so baked into our symbolism of the dark and forbidden that we have dismissed her as a wart-nosed, greenish ghoul who is not quite human. This version of a witch means we no longer remember where she came from and, more importantly, where she went.
Before the Hunt
Real Witches are rooted deep in our mystical lore and are mostly forgotten for who they originally were—gifted and wise women who were once integral to the health of their communities.
During Europe’s Middle Ages, between the 5th and 14th centuries, a class of women was considered the doctors of their time. They were medicine women and midwives highly trained in natural remedies, holy rituals, folk magic, and the sacred art of healing. They understood and wielded the power of nature to heal bodily injury and mental and spiritual ailments.
These “wise women” could be found in fields and glens collecting herbs and plants for their medicinal potions. They were often elderly, unmarried, poor, or without children by choice. These women gathered in groups, often in the forest, to chant incantations to honor the bounty of nature herself.
The Birth of Witches
Economic factors spurred the targeting of so-called witches in Germany in the late 1400s. The word witch comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “Witan,” which is related to the word “wit,” as in “Wise Woman.” This root origin was later connected to the old English word “Wicce,” originally pronounced “wit-cha” or “witch.”
The original words related to witches and witchcraft had no bad connotations until the book Malleus Maleficarum was widely published in 1486 by the German author Heinrich Kramer. This damning text became the authoritative source on identifying witchcraft and how to hunt and kill witches.
The new “witch fever” was only accelerated by the Protestant Reformation that began in the mid-1500s. The new doctrine declared that a woman’s place was in the home. Gender norms became more defined in the newly developing church, and a woman was considered most valuable when married and raising children.
The publication did irrevocable damage to the perception and value of the highly skilled medicine women who were suddenly declared “unnatural” sorcerers, assumed to be performing unforgivable acts of sacrifice, sexual indecency, and divination.
Once sought after for their healing, they were turned against and accused of causing sickness and ill health. The word 'witch' was then passed onto women who dealt with healing as a way to make sense of what was mysterious and thus threatening or feared as connected with evil.
This was the beginning of a new era where a woman’s natural gifts with plant medicine, midwifery, and intuitive counsel became her most untrustworthy and damned attributes, and she was reframed as a danger to a decent, god-fearing society.
One group also notably driven out of the public’s eye was the female brewmasters. They were seen in the marketplace in pointy black hats with their cauldron of “brew.” Since they worked with grains, they often had cats to keep the mice population at bay, and they used brooms to sweep up the hops. As word spread about the witch hunts, male brewers, who wanted a more significant stake in the beer industry, began to question whether these women were also witches in disguise. For this reason, these female brewmasters soon disappeared from the public, and the beer industry was quickly renovated by the larger commercial brewing companies headed by men.
The witch hunts swept across Protestant Europe, spanning a staggering three centuries. When found guilty through the ‘mark of a witch,’ the punishment was unspeakable and relentless torture of the most horrific nature, resulting in death or exile to the fringes of society.
The witch hunts continued into the late 1700s, resulting in the execution of an estimated 50,000 - 80,000 (or more) women and 10,000 men, considered agents of witchcraft.
The Wound
What was lost during the centuries now referred to as “the burning times” was more than just the lives of gifted women and men. What was lost in the process was the ecological mindset. Women had been trained and brought up for generations by their mothers and grandmothers to see nature not as separate from people but rather as an intimate, life-sustaining source, inviting active participation and co-creation.
As these women were silenced and killed, a fear of persecution drove most to stay in the safety of prescribed gender roles. This oppression became what we now call the “witch wound”. This wound is often related to the voice, speaking your truth, and tapping your ability to commune with the natural elements of earth and the spirit realm. It is also related to fear of judgment, being cast out or cut off. It can manifest as a fear of your shadow or darker side, or that of not fitting in or being seen as weird, unhinged, crazy, dirty, or unkempt.
We do not have to come from a direct lineage of persecution or be directly persecuted, to suffer the witch wound. It has moved beyond the experience of individuals during an historic period in time, and has integrated as a construct of our society.
In the majority of places, women are still seen as lesser than men, untrustworthy, and weaker-minded. Logic is valued over intuition. A woman is considered “weird” if she does not adhere to strict gender norms, feminine dress codes, or acceptable professions. She is seen as demanding, greedy, or even “crazy” when she knows her mind and speaks her truth boldly.
This wound has disconnected women and even men from their natural abilities to the point that we don’t even trust ourselves. We apologize for our emotions and have a default instinct to distrust other women as competitors or betrayers. We fear retribution if we ask for what we need, and we can become paralyzed at the idea of fulfilling our own desires without asking permission.
Scholars believe that our society has been suffering from this wound for generations, and it’s further perpetuated by praise. In most spaces, women are rewarded for conforming to defined feminine roles, putting others before themselves, and prioritizing decisions made with reason and logic.
The Healing
There is hope to heal the wound.
There are powerful steps to begin unlearning the deeply held beliefs that have been passed down for generations due to fear and misinformation. Healing begins with understanding the wound, where it came from, and how it sits in our own systems of family, religion, and society. This wound is deeply rooted in patriarchy and can be viewed through this lens of oppression.
Healing continues with reclaiming our power and voice, learning to trust in our intuition, and speaking what is true for us even when no one agrees. This can include embracing our feminine rhythms and passions, remembering that nature includes us (we are not separate from the natural world!), and attuning our attention to the seasons and the moon cycle. In this way, we embrace our own magic in our divine connection to the world around us.
When shared in a supportive community, healing becomes an ongoing, sustainable reality. Speaking openly, sharing stories, and identifying limiting beliefs can profoundly reconcile our wounds and provide a path to new ways of self-acceptance. Seeing our fellow female sisters as trusted companions in these spaces does more to heal the wound than almost any other act of mending.
We are worthy of this work and the gifts that await us. Our willingness to come together in vulnerability provides generational healing and breaks a lineage of suffering. We are not alone in this process and are not meant to do healing work independently. Many are bravely gathering in the light of day, to return to feminine wisdom and power, as a collective.
Stepping out of shame and fear is the direct path back to our original wisdom. You are the source and power you seek. The wise woman is inside, waiting for your validation and reconnection.
