Once women could rely on each other’s wisdom,
embrace their intuition, learn about the
life giving power of their bodies, nurturing
everything until it reached maturity, earning the
trust and love of the community. Their sacred
cats sat at their feet as they mixed medicine and
cast spells, people brought their problems to
them and they found ways to make them well,
they made divinations, conquered the
randomness of love and war. They issued
invitations to spirits who might help,
whether the request was life, love or wealth.
Tribes trusted their insights, heard and heeded
their voices in the governing body. The powers
of the witch are still feared and sought for the
guidance they have brought. These days we call
them psychics or pagans, even opinionated
mother and grandmothers, those who pray for
intervention, try and get a deities attention.
White magic or black magic, blood magic or
sex magic, love magic or voodoo, know magic
and potions into which they pour their devotion,
not all witches are good, perhaps it’s better
that we are done with human sacrifice but
some are a shining light of hope for the helpless,
a comfort for the bereaved, a balance to
patriarchal systems, witches have learned to
use the power inside. Even though witches
were persecuted, the idea of them fires the
imagination and we approach them with
trepidation. We miss the emotion and life
experience they contribute to society, they
care for us if we let them, in ways both
ordinary and extraordinary, mother, nurse,
apothecary, advisory, the secret of our
history lies in the priestess who visualizes,
the friend who sympathizes and
synthesizes herbal solutions, the world is
a better place for the good witches out
there, closer to just, nearer to fair, listening
to our desires even if they cannot come
true. It is wise women who will survive to
rule.
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