The Witch Wound: Healing To Reclaim Your Sacred Gifts
Take a seat at the table to the coven, she said. Let the heavy ropes around your wrists be loosened. Lay down the chains around your neck. Step free of the shackles at your feet - we are here to dance. We are here to reclaim. To honour the earth and bay at the moon. We are here to feel and howl and heal.
We are here to rise.
The term witch is laden with difficult connotations that tend to generate a subconscious aversion. So first, let’s remember that the term “witch” was historically used to instil fear and to demonise women—simply for being women. The most persecuted were midwives, healers, widows, and those who lived outside of what society deemed “acceptable.”
There was a time when women couldn’t gather in groups of more than two without a man present, or they’d be viewed with suspicion. Women’s wisdom and natural affinity with the earth were shunned as dark magic and banished to the shadows. Neighbours and friends would turn against each other. Women would turn each other in.
We’ve even seen echoes of this more recently during the pandemic, when people were encouraged to report those who broke social rules. Imagine what that sense of fear and moral policing would have felt like hundreds of years ago.
Women were taught to hide their femininity, authenticity, and magic—to stay small, to stay safe, to avoid punishment or even death.
They were scapegoated for society’s hardships—crop failures, illness, and financial struggles. Under a strong masculine dominance of the church, misogynistic views spread quickly, painting women as evil. The sacred roles once held by women—healer, midwife, medicine woman—were replaced by male doctors and physicians.
Generations of ancestral wisdom were erased from history, relegating women to the domestic sphere with very few rights. The voice of the feminine and the wisdom of the earth were discredited and suppressed by a patriarchal system that feared their power.
Why This Matters Today
We are still living with the residue of this.
The witch wound refers to the collective, intergenerational trauma that lingers in the psyche of women today. It can manifest as the fear of being seen or heard, the hesitation to speak our truth or shine too brightly. It can show up as self-doubt, low self-worth, fear of rejection, jealousy, competition, mistrust among women, or shame around our gifts. It’s what makes us suppress our feminine qualities and adopt a more masculine way of being in order to feel safe.
‘‘We are the granddaughters of the witches they didn’t burn’’
The burning times were only a few generations ago. For more than 200 years, a widespread torture, persecution and execution of women occurred throughout Europe, resulting in mass hysteria and paranoia. One can only imagine the measures taken by mothers to protect their daughters, teaching them to stay in line, be acceptable, find a good husband, don’t be too feminine, too beautiful, too bold, too loud or too wild. These messages don’t disappear—they’re passed down, womb to womb, long after the original trauma has ended. I certainly recognise echoes of this from my own upbringing.
That’s why it’s so important for us to recognise and heal these wounds now—so future generations of women can be free. We live in a time where we are (largely) liberated, and we have the privilege to reimagine what it means to be a woman—to reconnect with our ancestors, and reclaim our bodies and our innate wisdom.
For a deeper dive into ways to reconnect with your sacred cycles and feminine spirit, check out these articles - Embracing Four Archetypes of the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Cycling to Harness Your Energy & Power.
A Rising Remembering
Today, we are witnessing a reawakening: the return of goddess-centred practices, herbalism, earth-based spirituality, and sacred ceremony. Though still considered “alternative” by mainstream culture, women everywhere are remembering their roots and reclaiming their power.
I’ll admit—there’s even a part of me that feels apprehensive sharing this. A quiet fear that speaking too boldly might stir insecurity in the masculine and reignite old patterns of oppression. History has shown us how quickly this can happen. But I truly believe that healing the feminine also involves lifting up the masculine.
This is not about blame—it’s about balance. Instead of condemning men for the actions of their ancestors or the lingering cultural patterns of today, we can celebrate and nurture a healthy masculine—one that complements, supports, and honours the feminine. Like yin and yang, we need each other. True healing is not fear-based, but love-centred, appreciative, and interdependent.
Pathways to Healing the Witch Wound
Healing the witch wound is both a personal and collective journey—a call to remembrance, integration, and reclamation.
It begins with acknowledging that some of the fears, limitations, and insecurities women feel today are rooted in a complex and traumatic past. From there, we begin to soften, integrate, and rewrite the story.
Ways to begin:
Womb healing and connecting to your creative centre
Re-establishing your relationship with nature and Mama Earth
Somatic healing and nervous system regulation
Strengthening your intuition and learning to trust your inner voice beyond societal conditioning
Feminine embodiment and sensuality practices
Challenging the “good girl” narrative and releasing perfectionism
Making choices that are true to your heart, regardless of external expectations
This is what true alignment feels like—coming home to yourself, your body, your truth, and the sacred feminine power that has always lived within you.
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With much love,
Rebecca
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