The Witch Wound and the Turning of the Wheel

As I prepare for the next Turning of the Wheel workshop, I’ve been reflecting on why Samhain is such a potent time to explore both the collective and personal witch wound we all carry.

The witch hunts of the dark ages left deep scars — not only on those accused, tortured, or killed, but on entire communities who lived in fear and silence. These brutal acts created a collective trauma that has echoed through generations. Today, science is beginning to confirm what the soul has always known: through epigenetics, we understand that trauma can be passed down in our very cells.

This wound touches everyone — women, men, and all beings — though it manifests differently for each. It carries both sides of the story: the persecuted and the persecutor, the silenced and the complicit.

It is a wound that runs deep within both the personal and collective psyche, and because of this, it calls for both individual and communal healing.

Healing begins when we have the courage to see how we each carry the living legacy of this violent and transformative past — and to reclaim the wisdom and wholeness that lie beneath it.

Common expressions of the Witch Wound include:

• The fear of speaking up or standing in our truth

• The fear of being seen, successful, or in the spotlight

• The fear of trusting our intuition

• The fear of feeling safe in our bodies

• The fear of embracing our femininity, wildness, or spiritual path

• The fear of being judged for living authentically or differently

• Struggling with female relationships and mistrusting other women.

These fears can lead us to people-please, shrink, doubt ourselves, or disconnect from the wisdom of the body and the earth.

A Short Practice: Reclaiming the Word “Witch”

Take a moment to notice what arises when you hear the word Witch.

• What do you feel?

• What images come to mind? 

Perhaps you see a crooked hat and broom, a warty old crone, or a darkly powerful woman feared for her magic. Maybe you think of a healer in the woods — someone speaking to plants, living close to the earth, walking her own path.

Our collective ideas about the “witch” have been shaped by centuries of fear, distortion, and suppression.

For hundreds of years, those who lived close to nature, practiced healing arts, honoured the unseen, or simply refused to conform — especially women, gender-diverse people, and indigenous wisdom keepers — were ostracised, silenced, or persecuted.

These inherited fears and judgments form part of what we now call the Witch Wound.

Reclaiming the word Witch is an act of remembrance and restoration — a way of honouring what was once feared or forbidden as sacred once more.

Reflection: The Witch Within

Take a quiet moment to reflect.

• What does the word witch mean to you, beyond what you’ve been taught to fear or ridicule?

• Can you feel the part of you that remembers her — the healer, the wise one, the truth-teller, the soul who walks in rhythm with the earth?

• Close your eyes and sense her presence.

• What does she look like?

• What does she wish you to remember?

• Perhaps she speaks through the rustle of leaves, the beat of your heart, or the quiet knowing that you are far more powerful, intuitive, and whole than you were ever told. 

This is where the healing begins — not in rejecting the word witch, but in reclaiming it as a symbol of wisdom, freedom, and sacred connection.

If these words stir something in you — a longing to remember, to reconnect, or to release — you are warmly invited to join me for the upcoming Samhain Ceremony & Yoga Workshop.

As we move through this season of descent, Samhain invites us to pause and listen — not just with our minds, but with our bones and our breath. Samhain is known as a magical time, when the veil between the seen and unseen worlds becomes delicate and thin. At dusk, the boundaries soften — allowing us to slip through the layers of space and time, beyond the limits of logic, and connect with wisdom from within.

It is a time of remembering who we were before fear and silence took root.

A time of reclaiming the wisdom, intuition, and power that have always belonged to us.

And a time of reflection, where we honour both the pain and the potential held in our shared history.

When we bring compassion to the shadows — within ourselves and within the collective story — healing begins to ripple outward.

We remember that the feminine, the intuitive, the wild, and the unseen were never wrong or dangerous, only misunderstood.

Together we’ll move gently, breathe deeply, and journey inward through ritual, journalling, yoga, and reflection.

We’ll explore the witch wound not as a story of fear, but as a path toward wholeness, belonging, and awakening.

*A sacred evening to rest, remember, and rise renewed from the stillness.*

Learn more & book