Witchy

What better day than Halloween, Nos Kalan Gwav, Samhein or whatever flavour suits, to talk about witches. I've always had a soft spot for the witch archetype: be she represented as the mad cat lady, beautiful Bewitchy type creature or hag throwing eyes of newts in a cauldron. We spent a fair bit of time discussing this archetype at the Redfox Retreat and I came away with renewed faith in the power of women and the magic we are all capable of making. Meghan shared a piece with us by Pamela Grossman that she had found in the Huffington Post which so eloquently explores these ideas and so in honour of my inner witch:

"The archetype of the witch is long overdue for celebration. Daughters, mothers, queens, virgins, wives, et al. derive meaning from their relation to another person. Witches, on the other hand, have power on their own terms. They have agency. They create. They praise. They commune with nature/ Spirit/God/dess/Choose-your-own-semantics, freely, and free of any mediator. But most importantly: they make things happen. The best definition of magic I've been able to come up with is "symbolic action with intent" -- "action" being the operative word. Witches are midwives to metamorphosis. They are magical women, and they, quite literally, change the world."

Pamela J Grossman