I know what I will do when I grow up, with my tow gray hair, wrinkles as deep as ravines and missing a few molars: I will be a witch. It is a profession where women are allowed to age without needlework to slow down the wear and tear of time. Experience and scars are even an asset and add to credibility.
Despite everything, there is succession among the youngest. Witches are everywhere. And not just on Halloween, on All Saints’ Eve, Samhaim.
Saturday, the day of Saturn, for the October full moon, some will gather to perform secret rites specific to their circle. Dances, a fire in the night or candles, tarot cards, beaded eagle feathers, crystals, statuettes, they will pronounce incantations, magic formulas to protect the four directions, the east, the west, the north and the south. They will burn sage while addressing the world above, that of the gods, and that below, where the dead go.
Sooner or later, every independent woman is called a witch
Cocoa ceremonies or raspberry herbal teas serve as sacramental wine for these pagans, formerly heretics hunted and persecuted by the patriarchy and ecclesiastical power since the Middle Ages. They act in the darkness of secrecy to raise the feminine power, linked to the moons, to the cycles, to the passages from birth to death.
Already, since 2018, the book Witches by journalist Mona Chollet was a great success. I am not surprised that TVA broadcasts a series that bears the name of Witches — I devoured eight episodes in a week —, where law enforcement, the media and a Wiccan sect meet. The theme is supportive.
The world of spirituality is not just limited to a large tarot game table accompanied by interpretation books at Renaud-Bray. I am witches on Instagram and I notice that my young friends are rediscovering with fascination the same things that made us vibrate in the 1970s, a rituality, a little magic in a standardized world, a need to connect with one’s instinct through a thousand detours.
Shadow feminist
“Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t invent anything,” Anne (fictitious first name) whispers to me in a café in the Plateau. “Jade eggs exist in the Tao, we have used them for a long time. » This artist, who was part of a group of witches – disbanded during the pandemic – for almost 40 years, also practices female qi jong, sexual kung-fu, energetic sitz baths with herbs which heal sexual trauma , and brought several tarot cards to our meeting in broad daylight. I didn’t ask her if she wore her jade eggs to tone her pelvic floor.
In my book Witch, we define the witch as a woman who does not repent. She resists, she rebels, she grumbles, does not seek external approval, and takes back her power, the very power that we try to take away from her through all socially acceptable (or not) violence.
The man who prepares ointments and medicines is called an apothecary. When it is a woman who carries out this activity, she is called a witch.
The witch names, faces. She is neither in denial, nor in headlong flight, nor in agitation or overstimulation, she stands before her shadow, she probes. That’s why she’s still scary. She is not afraid of her inner twists and turns. L’empowerment (empowerment) is part of his approach. WITCH: Woman in Total Control of Herselftranslate some witches.
“There is a renewed interest in witches,” notes Anne, 65 years old. It came back in the 1970s with midwifery. For young people, it comes from a need to find a community, rituals. After the #MeToo movement, there was a desire to reclaim our sexuality. » Witches do not fear nudity in nature, sexuality without a screen, the taming of orgasms in groups, and accompany women in their stages of life, through puberty, pregnancy, menopause.
“Witchcraft is a creative space. We met twice a year for three days, around twenty women from across Quebec. We invented, we laughed, we could play, in unconditional love, a sisterhood, a safe space. »
Anne has not yet mourned her circle of witches with whom she went through several setbacks in life. ” Everything is going too fast ; I miss this moment of stopping that we gave each other. »
Witchcraft for dummies
Some witches speak of visions, of links with the dead. In his book Witches’ Sabbath, the American sorcerer Kelden gives an overview (he even gives the recipe for an ointment for spiritual theft) of the history of witches who renounced their faith to make a pact with the devil. We learn to dance with the creatures of the Other World. “Witches are said to have one foot in each of the worlds, straddling the mystical border that separates them. »
And the sorcerer emphasizes that each has its own definition and vision of this Other World. Each experience is unique and it is not enough to make a broom with bundles of straw.
Zibrt proved that throughout Europe, families nevertheless preserved the original teaching of their ancestors and cultivated a wisdom passed down from generation to generation, although it was considered pagan and, therefore, heretical
Anne has two witch hats and confirms that witchcraft involves a lot of superstition and symbolism. “I wasn’t the flyest of the group. It was very fun. I never claimed to have any special powers. And even though we were all feminists, we didn’t do bashing against men. The men are in distress too. »
Witches do everything sweat lodges (sweat tents), mush, MDMA (ecstasy). “We tried quite a bit together,” laughs Anne. For me, it nourishes my spirituality, and any form of spirituality helps us age. »
In a world that shakes us with its repeated violence, witches perhaps allow us to raise our spirits and chase away the evil one, but above all to regain feminine power which knows that weapons are never far from tears.