Full Circle

Reclaiming Sisterhood
 
Have you ever considered that 300 years ago, the healing practices that I do, such distillation, blending essential oils and herbs, pulling inspirational cards, as well as massage and energy work would have been reason enough to call me out of my home while the whole community was forced to watch as I was either hung or burned??
Harsh and disturbing, but true. This wounding is something that sits in my Being and in my energy field, and now science has proven it is coded in my DNA. 

The European Witch Hunt, also known as the Burning Times (1450-1750) is not readily taught in schools, nor is it really talked about at all, but it is a complex piece of our history that needs to be talked about because of the collective wound it has created. The science of epi-genetics explains how the traumatic experiences of our ancestors leave molecular scars adhering to our DNA. They become a part of us like a residue holding fast to our genetic makeup. In the healing work that I practice, we are always praying for the healing of 7 generations before us and 7 generations to come. It is the work to help to heal blood lineages and ancestors, which in turn, ripples forward to heal our children’s children.
Patriarchy was prevalent in those times however the scales were tipped radically following the release of the book Malleus Maleficarum. (Hammer of Witches) This book caused widespread madness and real fear of persecution, as it was essentially an instruction guide to identify a witch and describes methods of torture and extraction of confessions and many horrifying ways to eradicate witches. This molecular scarring coded in our DNA, shows up today and is sometimes referred to as the Witch Wound.
The Witch Wound may have us feeling massively misguided around power and right use of power, resulting in keeping us small because we are perhaps fearful of our power.
This fear is rooted in the persecution that was experienced during those times. 
A deeply imbedded imprint from the Burning Times is a fear of getting older, many older women were targeted, a Witch was often viewed as an older woman, ugly, gray and evil. This damaging portrayal has deeply wounded women’s belief around getting older and around beauty, hence the work to embrace our crone-ship, our wrinkles and the experience of menopause, which I feel, is actually a coming into our power, and hot flashes are a means of burning away what no longer serves us. 
Another way the Witch Wound may show up is around feeling disconnected from our intuition. We doubt ourselves. We all have the ability to be deeply intuitive, but it wasn’t safe to talk about feelings or intuitive knowing due to being labelled as a witch.  We question our abilities and feelings, perhaps even questioning whether or not we are crazy for having feelings and intuitions around certain things. 
In those times, there was no drug store on the corner. Every woman had knowledge of the medicinal plants in the forest and woodlands that would help her family when they got sick. Women took care of the land and the land took care of them and their families. This ancient wisdom of the healing of medicinal plants sits in our bones and all we need to do is remember. During those years it was considered heresy to have knowledge of the plants, herbs and their benefits, and so to keep safe we rejected this knowing and therefore have become disconnected from it. 
Perhaps the deepest wound of all, is the separation of our sisterhood. In the Burning Times, women were forced to betray one another to keep themselves safe. This division between women, this departure from trusting our sister, manifests now in us competing and comparing instead of collaborating. To survive within the community it was safer to say, I don't know her, or worse, caving in with an admission to stay alive. The fear of annihilation was a reality. These terrifying times and experiences have created a chasm so deep that we may not even realize our judgements and criticisms of each other. We have been betrayed AND we have been the betrayer, and we ALL need to own our shadow in order to heal ourselves from these times. 
There is NO separation. What happens to you, happens to me. We. Are. All. Connected.
The repercussions from this shadow time in our history are massive. Those times of persecution, oppression and discrimination continue today, as a result of current patriarchal attitudes. Despite progress being made over the years, objectification, sexualization and violence against women continue in examples such as, the crimes disclosed in the #metoo movement, increasing exposures of sexual assaults committed by men in power, and over 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada, tells us we are still wounded and wounding.
As a webweaver and a woman, I feel compelled to call the circle in order to come Full Circle. I feel deeply when we work in collaboration with one another healing happens. Every time we sit in circle and share our truth and our wounds we support each other to do the same and the hope is that by doing this we shed some of the residue holding fast to our field. I have the honour to be connected with a woman in the UK named Cali White who is currently travelling around the UK holding Women's Circles on the Full Moon to honour the ancestors and offer a safe space for sharing. She is an Ancestral Healing Practitioner, and I resonate very deeply with the work she is doing as well as the reasons why she is doing it. She is working to repair the disconnectedness and heal for those past generations and the future generations to come.  
I have been in conversation for a quite a few months with likeminded women to call the circle, to hold sacred space, to gather and create a safe container to connect and converse, to laugh, cry, shout, and allow all the feelings from what we experience today in the world we live in, to come up in order to heal. If you are interested in participating in a Full Circle Gathering, please join my newsletter to be connected and to come Full Circle.
​Blessed Be.

---