How Reconnecting to the Wild can Heal your Witch Wound
Mmm, we are releasing this blog on the run up to Full Moon so, given September’s Secret Witch Circle Facebook Group theme of ‘Rewilding’, it feels like a great time to offer some support around how getting out in the wild can offer you deep healing for your witch wound. The Full Moon energy is, after all, all about releasing what no longer serves you, and our shadowy, unconscious ways of being (fear, unworthiness, loneliness, guilt and shame) that are found deep in our wounds are what we want to illuminate and let go of.
If you’re not quite sure what the “Witch Wound” is, yet, then I’ll begin by explaining that - as it’s central to the powerful work we share here at Team Secret Witch. Here’s my definition:
“Witch wound: a deep-seated fear of being your fullest expression of self in case you are burned at the stake.” ~ Nicole Barton
The Secret Witch isn’t just a woman playing with potions, you see - your inner witchiness is not just a ‘nice to have’; instead, your Witch is a powerful mirror - what we call an ‘Archetype’ - for you to call in and harness to reflect all the areas in your life where you are living from your wounds, rather than in the radiance of who you really are.
Traditionally, the Witch is presented in stories about ugly, terrifying women who cast evil spells, and yet, the beauty of the Witch remains unseen. A true, *Wild Witch* is actually an almighty powerful Creatrix, capable of manifesting a magical life and serving greater good. Because of old tales, though, usually Wild Witches often unconsciously choose to become “Secret Witches,” hiding their much-needed magical powers for fear of being burned at the stake - as their ancestors were previously.
So, really, the Witch isn’t necessarily even a ‘Witch’ at all - she’s really the story of a powerful woman, who is living out the story of the Witch energy - and when you begin to use it as that, you get to choose which Witch story you long to create.
If you’re a Secret Witch, you’ll likely feel a desire for something *more* - a longing to fully express yourself. You’ll likely feel some shame, fear and guilt for living your life looking for other people’s love, approval and safety, instead of being the fullest expression of the woman you sense you could be. You’ll likely be burdened with feeling compelled to live your life at the demands of others, be burned out from looking after your family, feeling unworthy of really dedicating time to your dreams and investing in yourself. The ‘Witch Wound’ is really the deep-seated fear of being your fullest, most magical self - and that is what we are here to liberate so that you can be in your full power.
If we unconsciously take on the story of the ‘Witch Wound,’ we are being victim to our true power - and the path of Living your Wild Alchemy that we share here is all about helping you reclaim your Majesty and own your power so that you can be who you came here to be - i.e. rediscover your Soul and live your purpose.
And we’ve explored how this can express, but one of the biggest ‘symptoms’ you’ll likely know as a Secret Witch who is living in fear of the Witch Wound is that you are *disconnected* from your body. This will really show up in the way you may experience dull aches, pain or numbness, which you ignore, and feel you aren’t really fully ‘in’ your body.
So, it stands to reason why tending to our bodies is one of the very first steps into the path of Soul. One of the ways we can begin to liberate the Witch Wound is to become more deeply connected to ourselves as human animals - to our bodies. As Mary Oliver says in her poem, Wild Geese:
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”
The soft animal of your body - mmm, juicy. My experience of being a Secret Witch was that I didn’t let the ‘soft animal of my body love what it loved’ - until I eventually did, because I just couldn’t take a life of suppressing it anymore. And in my experience, that’s when I began to heal my body, because I listened to it. Of course, human animals are like any other animal; they thrive in the wild. So, to circle back to the title of this blog, this is why *rewilding* is one of the main ways we can begin to reconnect to our bodies.
We have become heavily domesticated in the spiritless society we live in - and we often feel so disconnected from ourselves because we don’t get out into nature enough to quieten down the noise. Of course, this also means we can’t really even *hear* the call of our bodies and hearts. So, rewilding - which is this month’s theme - is really a necessity in liberating the Witch Wound and creating magical lives because it invites us to step across the threshold of fear and dive deeper into the well of our bodies, listening in to who we really are, so that we can choose our path again. As Shikoba says, “Mother Nature reveals her secrets to those who walk her paths” - and nature really is that neutral ground within which we can step out of the chaos of our lives and into the clean, beautiful, truthful world to meet our truthful selves more deeply. In nature, we can find our true selves - the one that has been hiding, due to the Witch Wound.
And I invite you to choose *again* - because whether we chose to live this shallow, disconnected life unconsciously or consciously, we always have *choice* to recreate our lives and make them more magical. So, my deep invitation to you this month is to choose into rewilding with conscious intention - taking those tender first steps through the doorway into the portal of Soul. If you’ve not yet listened to this week’s podcast with Salina Walker, we talked about how to connect to the wild to discover your truth, so you might like to check that out here
So, how do we powerfully begin to rewild and heal the Witch Wound? Here’s a practice I’d invite you into for this Full Moon:
Rewilding the Witch Wound
The intention for this practice is to let go and release the fear of being your fullest expression of self in the safety of the wild.
To begin, I invite you to go outside, ideally, towards evening as it’s getting dark and you can see the full illumination of the moon. Find a sit spot that feels good to you - out in nature, under the moonlit sky.
For 5 minutes, simply sit there, feeling how held you are by the wild ground beneath you, noticing how the wild has a rhythm to it, just as you do.
Ask yourself - “what does the soft animal of my human body desire from me that I haven’t been listening to because I am fearful of being myself?” Begin to notice any sensations that arise within your body - granting yourself permission not to act on them - just relax and notice what is arising.
As you continue to lie there, ask yourself “what does it cost me to *not* choose to provide the soft animal of my body what it loves and longs for - to not be fully myself?” Let the answers come to you and make a note of them in your magical journal.
To complete the ritual, choose whether you desire to release these Witch Wound ways of being and consciously release them by speaking them out loud to the Moon, offering it appreciation.
As you move through this ritual, go gently - it’s likely you may not yet have created the safety to fully feel into your body’s signals, so I’d recommend you take those first steps in a supported way if you’re not yet ready to access them (i.e. if nothing comes up, but resistance). If you desire to deepen, then the next aligned action would be to check out our free, monthly Manifesting with the Moon circle which you can find here .
If your body is calling you to begin to listen deeper, then the next breadcrumb on the path of Soul could also be to join our Invoke Your Wild Creatrix program which begins in October and explores around the themes of body wisdom, soul alchemy and manifestation, and guides you to create your own safety to listen into the intuitive wisdom of your beautiful body, courageously choose into letting yourself dream bigger and recognise yourself as a powerful Creatrix - your Wild Witch - capable of intentional manifestation of magic.
Until next time, enjoy your rewilding...
With love,
Nicole x
