HellooooouUUUU hehe, that's me giving a wolfey-witchy hello.
Happy Halloween!
My favourite time of the year where we dip down into the underworld, where the veil's thinner, and where we can spook the feck out of ourselves while being as weird and wonderful as we like.
I’m so excited for you to read this article (or episode if you'd prefer to listen to the link above) because the more I researched about what to include in this year's Halloween article, the more wisdom sparked in my mind about what to share.
But firstly and most importantly, for this year’s Halloween article, I’ve had a deep desire to dedicate it to our dear ancestors. I feel that we’re being called upon by our ancestors (and have done for a long time now) to heal our lineage, to change those repeating patterns that don’t serve us any longer, and to release that suppressed pain and suffering that they didn’t get a chance to heal. If not for us, or for them, let's do it for our children and this new generation, so they won't have to.
This article, of course, is also dedicated to all of the wonderful witches out there, the earth medicine people, the earth carers, past, present, and future. and throughout all timelines.
And a more very important dedication, and one I don’t mention enough is to send deep, profound healing and love to those out there suffering from war, all around the world. The wars that we see, and the ones we don’t see, the obvious external ones, and the not-so-obvious internal ones we might have within ourselves.
This article is for you.
Let’s take a minute silence and imagine powerful love coming out of our hearts and enveloping the whole world, the whole globe, all of Gaia with that warm and healing love, so that we’ve covered everyone.
When I was doing research on witches, I wanted to research witches in Ireland and Celtic witches and I happened to come across a really interesting article by the Centre Of Excellence about Exploring the Mysteries of Celtic Witchcraft
Celtic Witchcraft Traditions
''The Celts viewed the Earth as a living entity with its own rhythms and energies. Each season was seen as a manifestation of the divine, and these shifts were marked by festivals and rituals that celebrated the changing face of the land.
Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain are the four major Celtic festivals that align with the solstices and equinoxes. Not only did these festivals mark the agricultural cycle, but they also provided opportunities to engage with the spiritual forces that governed life. For example, Imbolc represented the awakening of the land after winter and was associated with the goddess Brigid, while Samhain marked the thinning of the veil between the physical and spirit realms and was the inspiration for modern-day Halloween celebrations.
Celtic witchcraft is based on the pagan beliefs of the Celtic tribes in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and other parts of pre-Christian Europe. These ancient Celts were deeply connected to the natural world. They prayed to many gods and believed that things like the wind, trees, and mountains had divine spirits''.
I came across some dark stories and also some bright stories, I thought to myself, maybe I’ll just stick with the brighter witch stories, but then I caught myself out straight away and thought NO! I need to include both, we need to embrace both the light and the dark stories, just like we should acknowledge our light and shadow selves, cause when we bring the dark side of ourselves to the surface and to the light, we gain a more profound understanding, and that in itself is a big healing.
Talking about the dark side of witches, might help us find out a deeper reason for why they turned to the dark side.
This is literally just reminding me of a series Mind Hunter, if anyone hasn't ever seen it, it’s about an investigation on the minds of serial killers, where they investigate why and how they ended up being serial killers. It’s very interesting, and it gives a massive understanding. Quite a sad series actually.
'These are 2 of the stories of ''The witches of Irish history who had one thing in common: they were women who refused to conform''- The Irish Times.
ALICE KYTELER
''Born in Co. Kilkenny in 1263 to a family of wealthy Flemish merchants, Alice Kyteler has been remembered in history as the first person to be condemned for witchcraft in Ireland. She is referenced in the W.B. Yeats poem:
“Nine Hundred and Nineteen:”
But now the wind drops, dust settles; thereupon
There lurches past, his great eyes without thought
Under the shadow of stupid straw-pale locks,
That insolent fiend Robert Artisson
To whom the love-lorn Lady Kyteler brought
Bronzed peacock feathers, red combs of her cocks.
So who was Robert, and why did Alice honor him so? Well, we are talking in terms of witches, so the answer was never going to be a virtuous one. According to Alice’s house servant, Petronella de Meath, Robert was the name of the demon Alice made offerings to to gain her arcane powers; a right hand of Satan himself who often appeared as three distinct and imp-like men.
Petronella testified against Alice in court, and she was accused of heresy, sacrifices to and intercourse with demonic entities, making love and hate potions to corrupt Christians, and the murder her previous husbands—of which there were four, all dead. However, the servant woman’s testimonies against her mistress stacked the cards against both of them in the end: it became a popular belief that Petronella assisted Alice in her crimes, and Petronella was burned at the stake, becoming the very first person in Ireland to suffer this brutal fate.
Alice Kyteler was neither burned nor buried on Irish soil. The story goes that she fled to the safety of England, but this take is little more than an educated guess—after the death of Petronella, Alice disappears entirely from historical records. What we do know, however, is that she seems to have taken with her a ward in the form of Petronella’s young daughter, Basilia''
BIDDY EARLY
''Not all alleged Irish witches were the kind to consort with Satan’s helpers and lay hexes on those who did them wrong. The renowned Biddy Early, for example, is best understood as a kind of “white witch” or folk healer, beloved by many for her charming personality and clever way with natural remedies.
Born around 1798, Biddy was known to be heard “talking to the fairies” during her early years, and was as kind and full of wit as she was stubborn. Her mother, Ellen, was a renowned herbalist, and taught her daughter all that she knew.
Biddy was an unusual woman by many counts, and, as such, was a prime target for witchcraft accusations by the Catholic Church, who disliked her unorthodox streak. She married three times (and, in an unorthodox twist, her final husband was much younger than she); she traded natural cures for whiskey with her neighbors, then invited everyone over to drink and play cards; she trekked out to farms to help restore spring wells and treat dying crops.
Her immense popularity was, to the Church, a threat—but it was also her safeguard. In 1865, at the age of 67, she was accused of witchcraft and was brought before a court in Ennis, Co. Wexford. The small number of people who agreed to testify against her soon dropped their charges, and her many friends in the community rallied to support her. Before long, the case was dropped due to lack of sufficient evidence. And, as she had her whole life long, Biddy Early walked free. She died peacefully nine years later.
What powerful stories from both a witch from the light, and one form the dark side, both slightly sad, yet empowering. A lot of medicine women did suffer at that time back then when the catholic church took over and felt threatened by people connecting to their inner wisdom, their personal power and developing their natural abilities, which had been way more powerful than anything outside of themselves and still to this day, is.
I really do believe that this is a call and a reminder for us to tap into our own natural empowerment, our sovereignty, and our inner strength. When we work on those parts of ourselves, when we remember the gifts that we have, there's NOTHING outside of us that can invoke fear or anger. Even though we are humans and a natural part of being human is to have these emotions, we can still build unwavering empowerment when we go inwards, and find that natural wisdom, rely on ourselves more when making decisions, and work on our energy centres in order to release all of that ingrained, societal, doctrination or any kind of suppressed traumas or sufferings that we and our ancestors have had.
We can learn to become almost untouchable and learn to follow our own empowered path, where we don't allow the external world to control us. It's about not allowing ourselves to be brainwashed by news that isn't for our highest good, or be fear mongered to invoke guilt and anger in order to control us, or be convinced to go against what our heart is telling us. We then find ourselves choosing to not watch certain things, to be more careful and aware of the content we consume both visually and through our mouths.
It truly is immensely transformational.
So now let me tell you about the most exciting part of this article for me. It's about a very special being in my life called Salem. If you don't already know or If you haven't heard me mentioning her before, Salem is my new gorgeous black cat.
She is the light of our lives.
Let me first tell you about what Salem means, the name means peaceful, safe, complete and perfect. You can find this definition if you look it up.
So this is how Salem ended up in our lives.
Our friend's friend was looking for a home for Salem, he, the former guardian, had been moving around quite a lot and wanted to find Salem a more stable home, since it can be traumatic for cats to move around so much.
When Salem became available, and my friend announced it to us in the group, I literally jumped in straight away!
What sparked of my love for black cats was, when my friend at home in Ireland got a little black cat called Kiki, she was just gorgeous, with big beautiful eyes, and I remember when she was just a tiny little kitten, she was so playful and social and I just fell in love, and connected with her really deeply.
From then on, it was so clear to me that I needed a black cat in my life. One thing I must highlight is that my spirit animal is a black jaguar, which I was told about a long time ago through my friend's Mum who's a Shaman, and she helped me connect with my spirit animal. So, maybe it's not unusual that I was attracted to a black cat.
So when the cat became available, I jumped on the bandwagon completely. My boyfriend Andres was a way at a concert in Seville at the time, so me pestering him about getting a cat probably wasn't the best time. He was a bit unsure and apprehensive at first, since he's never had a pet before, and that made me a little sad. An overwhelming desire and need to have this cat came over me, I needed to have this cat. I felt like my emotions were a bit irrational, or was there a deeper connection to Salem that I hadn't discovered yet? Was it my spirit animal manifesting into a pet guardian for us?
At that time we had had conflict with the former owners of our house, and then our neighbours on top, it was like war was showing up on our doorstep. I was trying to heal and transmute that energy as much as I could, so when Salem appeared, with a name meaning peaceful, safe, complete and perfect, we just had to have her asap.
I'm so glad Andres agreed in the end.
He gave in, on the condition that, he could choose the types of doors we were changing at the time, as we were making some changes in the house and couldn't agree on the type of doors we wanted. So I said, without hesitation, of course! You can choose whatever doors you want!
I don't think he realised how easy that was, and might have regretted that deal haha. But in the end he also fell in love with Salem when she appeared in our lives.
I then did some research on black cats and discovered that black cats are actually spiritual guardians and protector! I was actually blown away, as little did we know, when we welcomed her into our lives, thinking we would be her guardians and protectors, that it would turn out to be a perfect symbiotic relationship.
Which leads me to the-not so- pleasant story of The Salem Witch Trials which I feel compelled to include.
''The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in the disease-ridden jails'' - Wikepedia.
How sad and brutal! This article also goes out to those who suffered during the Salem Witch Trials too.
To conclude this Halloween article, I'd like to kindly and highly implore you to try to tap into your own innate healing abilities, inner wisdom and personal power and sovereignty.
We need to, now, more than ever before.
If you need some guidance with this, feel free to follow my YouTube, social networks or send me a mail for a free consultation and some guidance.
Here are some ways to connect to our wonderful witchy natural abilities:
*Journaling when we first wake up in the morning, writing down our dreams and then setting the intention to receive guidance for the day ahead.
*Finding the natural healing properties of foods.
*Cleaning out and releasing our stagnant energy and blocks, and working on our energy body.
*Using music, our voice or chakra chants as a healing tool.
*Connecting to our hearts.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I hope some of it has resonated, if not, that's ok too.
I appreciate you.
Take care,
Sarah 💕
Comments