Witches, Women, and Psychology

By: Dr. Denise Renye

In previous posts, I’ve written about how to cultivate a spiritual practice and suggested an altar can potentially promote psychological healing. Spiritual practices and altar creation are both ways to create space (within the mind and in a home or nature environment) to allow a deeper relationship to form with the self and to explore one’s inner landscape.

A place where altars, ritual, ceremony, and spirituality dovetail is the earth-based practices of Wicca, witchcraft, or other Indigenous or shamanistic practices that may have stemmed from and/or been passed down through a person’s  lineage.  

These practices are great for anyone across the gender continuum. Historically, however, when there has been space created within or between women, there has been intense, violent ramifications, specifically, psychological and physical attacks. Yet these days, witchcraft, or the use of magic and affinity with nature, is experiencing a resurgence in the real world and online. And while this is proliferated through Instagram feeds and items for sale at trendy, popular stores at the mall, there are dedicated communities that meet up to discuss and practice witchcraft. (Just search for the word “witch meetup” and you’ll find many.)

Online, the hashtag #witchtok has amassed more than 24.8 billion views as of March 2022 on the video-sharing platform TikTok. Why? For one, witchcraft may appeal to marginalized groups that don’t feel a sense of belonging in other communities. It makes sense some folx would feel at home among witches because witches have a long history of going against the grain. Look no further than the witch trials and witch hunts in the late 1600s.

At that time, the women who failed to comply with men and/or were unmarried, childless, strong, and independent were branded witches and tortured, raped, and killed. At the heart of those trials was misogyny, which didn’t stay in the past and instead is alive and (un)well today. We see the “trials” today in the hatred and devaluing of women. Look no further than how frequently women are interrupted in conversation, how some refuse  to use their proper titles, and even the way sexual assault cases are handled, to name a few because of course I could go on.

No, we don’t have organized, governmental witch trials like in the 17th century, but women are still expected to act in certain ways or be ostracized. Common messages are: “Be independent, but also married.” “Succeed at work, but also excel at home.” “Juggle it all, act like a man, but never ask a man to do everything a woman does.” Meaning, women still bear the brunt of childrearing and household chores.

If a woman is unable to do everything society asks of her, she is shamed. It’s one of the ways we punish women. Sometimes the punishment is not only psychological and emotional. Sometimes, it’s just as extreme as in the 17th century: murder. No, the murder is not by being burned at the stake en masse, but murder is still murder. We see this in the regular disappearance and death of BIPOC women and girls that rarely makes the news as well as more publicized cases like that of Gabby Petito.  

A way to rise up against misogyny could be through the exploration and embrace of witchcraft and to read about and learn the history/herstory of how women have been victims of the patriarchy. Self-identified women and folx on that end of the gender continuum are saying, “no” to patriarchy and misogyny even if unintentionally by delving into witchcraft. By embracing the title of “witch,” they are reclaiming the attributes for which previous generations violently died. They are saying “yes” to their power. They are saying “yes” to being outside mainstream mores. And they are saying “yes” to the parts of themselves that might have gotten them killed centuries ago.

Witches, of today and yesteryear, accept all parts of themselves, which promotes psychological healing for us all. There is a depth of healing that can occur when individual work is done that enacts not only on their own psyche but also heals collective trauma.   When intergenerational and collective trauma are more richly understood and focused upon, deeper layers of healing can occur.

Stay connected by signing up for the newsletter. You’ll hear about topics such as these and receive insights I only share with subscribers. New Moon Meditation can be found here.

Reference

Iglesias, Gabino. “'In Defense of Witches' is a celebration of women.” NPR. March 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/11/1085993346/in-defense-of-witches-is-a-celebration-of-women