Which Is Witch?

Audio Reading of the post is available below

You may have noticed the increasing fashion for 'witchiness'.

'Witch' has suffered the same fate as many personal and powerful things - it has become a brand, a marketing opportunity, an easy signifier for something that offers the promise of female power and control. In the 1960s and 1970s, 'Witch' suffered the same fate. In amongst all the incredible healing work, revelations and revolutions, commerce found a way to capitalise. Same with the 90s and 00s. What was once potent, when co-opted and swallowed by commerce, begins to lose its power.

Many clients and students who worked with me for spiritual insight, psychic development and strengthening intuition began questioning the authenticity of some of what they saw, and were sharing their thoughts, feelings and concerns with me. This was when I decided to write about it. This questioning was a good indication that they had arrived at a place where they began to trust their intuition for discernment, and this comes only with lived experience of spiritual practices and, ofcourse, listening to your gut. One of my flower essences - Truth Or Trick is a wonderful teacher for this and you'll find more on this below but for now, let's get down to business.

'You're a Witch, aren't you? A White Witch? You do spells?'

This was a question I was asked recently by an acquaintance. I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've been asked if I am a witch. It's a natural question. Witch is not a name I have chosen to use for myself; on the very rare occasion I have used it personally it has been through politeness - it helps people put me in a box so that they feel they can understand me better.

There is much to my practice that is not aligned with the modern definition of a witch. Witches are not automatically psychics, shamans, gardeners, healers. Witches may also be these things but these things are not an essential part of the job description for modern witches. Currently, it's a very low bar.

We each have the names we prefer to go by. I am a seer, an Earthworker, a shaman, a medicine woman who communes with different realms and works with these gifts for the healing of her community. You will see from this website that mine is VOLVA or Wise Woman. Whatever you go by, it does not matter. What does matter is that, if you are pulled toward a life of practice, of deep connection, of craft then we all have a duty to ensure our practices have integrity, truth and purpose.

Samhain

Once there was the celebration of Autumnal harvests, the berries, nuts, seeds and apples and there are still honourings of this - many Pagans continue to observe this celebration - but it has sadly been replaced in the mainstream. In Scotland a common practice at Halloween was dookin’ for apples. Apples were placed in a barrel of water and the aim was to dunk your head in the water and catch an apple in your teeth - being soaked in the process is half the fun! For me, Halloween as a child was at my grandmother’s house; it was the kitchen sink basin, brought into the living room, with a bath towel underneath. We each were given a fork, the handle gripped in our teeth and dropped it into the basin to spear an apple. Another tradition was guising, now Americanised as trick or treat. We each had to have a ‘turn’ - that is, a joke, song, poetry or party piece where we entertained our family and neighbours before receiving monkey nuts, toffee apples and sweets.

These may seem like sentimental memories of childhood - and I suppose in one way they are, a mourning for fading traditions - but they are reflective of a connection with the Earth and the seasons; rituals of honouring the beginning of the season of death, where the last of the fruits are dropped alongside the leaves, and the natural world begins to hibernate. Samhain was, and still is, a time to honour the dead. It is a time where we too begin to draw inward, reflecting and exploring the darkness, the cycles of life and death, the Wheel Of The Year. The time to honour our beloved who have died and the things we have lost, to hold our glowing lanterns aloft and light the way for their safe passage.

My apple rituals are now a little different. This year, the apples from my tree (photo above) have been harvested and made into four different forms to honour the four seasons - juiced, dried, cooked and fermented. Their neighbours, the raspberries and blackberries, get picked and munched every second day and the flower seed heads are gathered for saving and scattering. There is still so much The Earth offers us in Autumn, before the Final Harvest of Samhain.

Reclamation

Samhain involves re-acquainting ourselves with Death, the Harvester we spend our lives in fear of, desperately trying to avoid. In modern times, Halloween has slowly but surely morphed into an idolising of horror characters and general terror. In the old ways, Death and those She took throughout the year, were honoured, respected and revered at Samhain; now it is replaced by the worship of movie psychopaths. We also seem to have forgotten the sensitivities and innocence of children. Some of the decorations in shops and on the outside of houses, as well as some of the costumes for children, are an indication of a lack of reverence for both death and life.

So, this is what happens when we step into a costume, a ‘disguise’. Shamans throughout the world have specific robes and clothing they reserve for shamanic work and this is to be able to place ourselves in the mindset and energy of what we are embarking upon. The sacred clothing and tools are imbued with the energy of the work so that each time we step into these specific items, we are communing with the energy of that which we are calling upon. If you have a specific outfit you like to wear because it makes you feel confident or a pendant that helps you feel protected, this is similar. We all have a robe of one kind or another.

But we must be mindful of those energies which we commune with, those which we request, that which we draw down into the earthly realm. We are stepping into the energy of these ‘characters’, we are calling upon them. We are idolising and worshipping them, strengthening their energetic anchor in culture. When we think of costumes in these terms, the implications of modern Halloween - and the huge focused energy behind it - it actually does become rather scary. We must reclaim Witch and Samhain, wrestle them from the grasp of commercialism, ignorance, fashion, the ego, and of horror and terror.

Which Is Witch

It is important to explore those things we come across that don't 'ring true'. We are doing ourselves and the world no favours if we do not look at the shadow aspects, those things hidden under the cloak, under the guise of celebration, under the banner of ‘witchiness’.

It can be hard to avoid the stereotype. I can give you a checklist of all the things in my life that fit the stereotype of a witch. Broom. Black cat. Crystal ball. Cauldron. Hanging bunches of herbs - yup, check. But there is one very important thing we must remember - there is a difference between tools and props. These items are my tools (yes, the cat and I commune in certain practices together when he feels like it), they are not props, cosplay, window dressing or an aesthetic. They are ofcourse beautiful - practice is beautiful and what we surround ourselves with should reflect this beauty - but these things are first and foremost tools, allies and our partners in practice. This is one of the most important aspects that currently seems to be conveniently forgotten about. And here's why - if we consider that our tools also have their own individual energy and spirit, it's not very witch-like to use them solely as props to make us look good or as shorthand signifiers. That would make us a little disrespectful of our allies, would it not? You know what that means - we need to do some inner work.

We have the tendency to externalise those things that require inner work. Because the inner work is hard. Nothing cast or invoked will effectively change anything if we do not do the inner work. We need to develop our skill in communing with both the inner and outer worlds, seeing how we relate to each other and how the relationship can strengthen, and this requires dedication to truly knowing ourselves, exploring the world around us, communing with a higher power and being mindful of what we bring into this world. Then, and only then, can we begin to see which is witch.

Behind The Veil - Discernment - Inner Knowing

If you have trouble discerning what is genuine from what is not, or are ‘taken in’ by some things that appear to be quite different from what they actually are, this essence could be very useful for you although there are other essences that a little more gentle in their teachings of intuition - it is for you to decide which is best for you. 

Trick Or Truth throws some curveballs but this is all for training and strengthening your intuition, an essential sense that has been gifted to us. There is training for a battle of sorts, and here we have the alignment with an aspect of The Crow Goddess and, to a degree, The Valkyries. This is not necessarily a battle of blood but I could argue something just as precious - our inner knowing - and we need to be skilled.

Trick Or Truth Organic Flower Essence

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May your Samhain be the beginning of a wonderful new year,

Andrea

IP and Copyright © Andrea Doran, VOLVA and Contributors | For personal use and information only - not to be reproduced in any form - see terms and conditions | Adapted and updated from the original post 'Which Is Witch?': 27th October 2022

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