Are You A Real Witch?

A little girl in my neighborhood asked, “Are you a real witch?”

I cackled in response. I asked her, “What do you think?”

She thought about it for a second and said, “Well, I don’t think you eat children.” She raised her eyebrows at me, “Do you?”

Another cackle. “Nope,” I said.

She thought for a moment and said, “I’ve heard you talk to crows, and you do have a white wolf for a dog. So, maybe you are a witch, but maybe you are a good one?”

Maybe I am. What is a real witch?

Make it stand out

Maybe I am, but what is a real witch?

There are people from the church of Wicca — a religion. They call themselves witches. There are numerous covens, pagan groups, and druids in western culture that call themselves witches.

I am a healer, natural and trained. I make medicinal teas from plants I’ve grown. I grow coneflowers, mint, rosemary, mugwort, lavender, and roses for tea, smoke bundles, herbal baths, and magic. Am I a witch?

I sit with other people and offer counsel when asked. I hold space for others to be heard and heal themselves. I communicate with spirit in many forms - elemental, ancient, land, dead, ancestor. I see dead people. The moon wakes me in the night along with other things that want my attention. Some of my dreams come true in my waking hours. Does this make me a witch?

I drink tea and know things. I sense danger and have premonitions about what people will say and do long before they say and do it. I avoid traffic and find routes without maps to places I’ve never been before, but am I a witch?

I’ve met healers and spirit workers from other countries, other lineages. They do not call themselves witches. They do not practice tarot or read for others, but they are magical and spirit-led. Some pray to a traditional god from their religion and others to gods etcetera. They throw bones, preform augury, deliver babies, and can tell by looking into your eyes if you’re well or ill. Are they witches?

When we leave western society, looking at indigenous groups in N. America, looking at the largest populations of the world in India, China, Africa, and Mexico, Central and South Americas — we find healers, medicine makers, magic makers, faith-based ritual leaders, dancers, artists, people who believe old ways, people who worship in new ways, people who believe in something other than themselves, who connect to faith and healing and cycles of the earth. Most don’t call themselves witches.

I use ritual to mark the passing of time in big, important ways, like coming of age or the death of a loved one, and in small ways like celebrating early spring with a small fire and barefoot snow walk. I met a person from Costa Rica that celebrated early spring with a fire on the beach and floating on the early morning ocean waters. We prayed a similar prayer for peace, renewal, and abundance in nourishment for our bodies and souls.

So many folks connect to earth, to land, connect to feeling and celebrating, to the dead, and to the rites of passage of the living through a craft of ritual and rites, of community and connection. Crafted, ritualized ways of connecting to seasons, moons and suns, the power of earth and sky, spokes on the Wheel, human ability to heal the body and spirit, our deep longing for work at the spirit level. A call to the power of the individual human spirit to plug into a collective non-human Spirit.

Maybe we are all witches. Maybe only the wiccans. “Only” feels like playing it too small when you look at the world. The word “witch” has been such a nasty word. Unused for centuries. It means wise. It means witty. Witch means healer, poet, baby-catcher, tea-maker, space-holder, wise-one, wild-one, weaver, spirit-walker, dead-talker, visionary. It also meant you were dead. If you were a witch, you were killed.

So what are we? Maybe none of this matters. Labels, names, calling ourselves witches. It all seems like playing it small to call ourselves any one word. Maybe that’s also why defining “witch” is so hard to do. There isn’t one way. There isn’t one definition. Maybe that’s why I like the word too.

What does it mean now? Are you a real witch? Is there even such a thing? Does it matter?

People need quick ways to identify to classify. I defy that for myself and for you.

Be a witch or don’t. Do whatever makes you feel alive. Call yourself a witch today and a prophet tomorrow. Or remain unnamed, unlabeled, undefinable.

Are you a real witch? Maybe better asked, Are you real?

I am real.