Witch and Womanhood.

Words have power.  The word Witch evokes strong images wired into our collective conciseness. 

The image of the black dressed hag with hooked nose, and spidery hands, and long stringy silver hair, stirring her cauldron of mysterious brew or riding her broom through the dark still night   Always she has her black cat at her side and often a raven or an owl as a companion.

You know this image don’t you?  You were told about her as a child.  You have seen her in your dreams. You feel you almost know her as an eccentric old aunt that no one really likes to talk about.

Also there is the dark raven haired enchantress who lives to lure unsuspecting men to her lair and ultimately to their destruction. 

Are there any such creatures roaming about? Do they actually exist?  Or are they just creatures created centuries ago to keep little children from roaming too far into the woods or from talking to strange and unsavory persons? Or where they created as a warning to little girls to keep them well behaved and well mannered and not to get too uppity and presumptuous in their thinking.  After all, you a mere female; act like one!   

Women who do not fit into societies neat little cubby holes of expectations often have the word WITCH hissed behind their backs if not to their faces.  This is unfortunate.  Why would we not want women to live to their highest potential?  Does it not do everyone a disservice if she does not speak and stand strong in her convictions?

I think so.  Yet, the word witch seams to be an archetype of wild, defiant, and unbridled womanhood.  She who does not obey and dares to follow her own destiny and doesn’t care to ask your opinion on it and will spit in your face and shred you to pieces if you dare try to stop her.   She may even turn you into a pig, or make you impotent if she feels frisky that day.

 In my mind I always was one.

I used to hear the call of the moon and wanted to dance under the stars.    I wanted to be the creature of the wilds and woods.

I drew pictures of witches even when it wasn’t Halloween, I cried when the Wicked Witch of the West melted. 

I developed strong opinions, dared to tell people. I modeled my life around it.

I became that woman that people hissed about.

I felt beaten down, condemned, 

For a while I have forgotten its value in my life, that word witch.  I tried to fit in and conform.  Then it called me back.  It was the lost part that I had missed and very much needed. And those people I loved around me also needed that part of me.

Witch is an archetype that I like. It is necessary that it never be lost   It is what I shall be.  Free of the constraints of perceived limitations. I will become my truest self, and I will only grow stronger. 

Dare it.  Shake up the world a little, bark back, stand strong.  Don't let them run over you.  And when they hiss that word at you, you tell them.  Yes you’re right and don't you ever forget it.

Blessings, Grumpy  Olde Krowe.