Walking in shadows

For me the time between the modern pagan festivals of Samhain and Imbolc are a quite special time. The veils between the worlds feel thinner, the darkness is filled with power and the shadows (spirits) walk through the night. Around Samhain this phase begins, around the winter solstice it arrives its high tide and ends around Imbolc.

Many people feel quite depressed in this time of the year, but for witches it is a time of strength and power. I enjoy the long nights, the grey fogs that haunt the landscape, I walk with my black dog through the darkness and feel the spiritual presences around me. I offer honey here and there on crossroads and on the edges of forests, sweet honey to nourish the walking shadows. The underworld feels much closer in this phase of the year. I enjoy the warmth and comfort of my home, with the burning candles that are lightning on my shrines and in our house in general. I use this time to focus on my self, to get some rest and to collect strength and energy for the time when the veils get thicker again (or feel thicker again for us humans). I give offerings to the ancestors, to the spirits around me, I am open for their whispers, for the dreams and they send me, I use divination to get in touch with them and to get glimpses of what will manifest in the coming cycles of the year.

I walk through the darkness in company with the shadows around me in spirit and in flesh.

I wait that the solstice comes, with the renewal of light. Most pagans focus on this side of this ancient festival, the rebirth of Gods, the rebirth of light, but there is an other more shadowy side of this festival too, the spirits have the most power, the nights are long and full of darkness. Here in Germany we still know the Rauhnächte, the 12 nights where the forces of the underworld have the greatest influence and power. A time of spirit contacts, divination, a time to protect the home and to stay inside of the house at night- as long as you are not a witch and are not scared to walk with the spirits through the darkness of the longest nights of the year.

Advertisement

The Tools And Symbols Of The Witch Archetype

Every child knows which tools witches are using.

Witches have brooms to fly in moonlit nights through the sky.

They have big cauldrons in wich they make potions from herbs.

They use flying ointment to leave the earth, through the chimney of the hearth.

They have black cats as pets, or toads. And the witches do wear the black pointy hats.

They have imps and familiar spirits that do their bidding.

They live outside of the village, in their scary houses, near dark woods filled with wonders and horrible creatures.

All these symbols are rooted in our modern witch archetype.

But many modern witches use the elemental weapons from ceremonial magic in their rites, the athame, chalice, pentacle and wand. Many think that the archetypical witch tools are just fantasy equipment. But if you look closer to this tools and symbols, they tell you stories of the past and of their way to use them as modern witchcraft tools.

I will look at these tools and symbols in the next days to tell you the stories behind them.

The cauldron and the hearth

The broom

The stang

Other tools Of the craft

The witches hat

The witches flight

Familiar spirits and witchcraft animals

The outcast witch

The witches woods

The Power Of The Witch Archetype

 Since the traditions of modern witchcraft came out of the broom closet, witchcraft has undergone a reinvention or a rebirth. Many modern witches shy away from the archetypical image of the witch, with her many symbols like broom, cauldron, pointy hat, black cat, toads and other nightly creatures, the famous familiar spirits, spells, hexes and curses, contact to the spirits of the dead, shape shifting into animals, the knowledge of herbs and poisons, the legendary flying ointment, meetings on crossroads and old cemeteries or the fly through the night on broomsticks or pitchforks.

Many modern witches claim that the stereotypical witch is only fantasy and that in truth witchcraft is and was different than this image.

Witchcraft evolved into a modern religion, which is a good thing. Modern witches gather on the seasonal festivals, celebrate the seasonal changes, belief in and honor the Great Goddess and the Horned God and some of these witches work positive magic- without harming or manipulating other people.

They use the the symbols of the ceremonial magic in their rites: the athame, the chalice, the wand and the pentacle. And their rituals are also influenced by the ceremonial magic in their structure.

But at the same time modern witchcraft has lost (for me personal) much of its  mystical side, a lot of the magic and its power.

The spells of many modern witches seem (to me personal) more like positive thinking with the help of some material supplies (like candles and herbs) and positive affirmations. And many modern witches don’t even belief in real magic, for them the magic, the rites and the spells are something psychological, through which them they are talking to their unconsciousness, through their spells they can work changes with their unconsciousness. This kind of magic is more a type of placebo effect sometimes.

But in the archetype of the witch, with all its many symbols, there you can find much truths about witchcraft. Our modern archetype of the witch has changed and evolved over time, the archetype of the evil witch is changing into something more positive and more ambivalent. For centuries the archetype of the witch was only seen as evil. Now in many movies, books and fantasy the witches can be supportive and good. They can be a guides for heroes, a helper in need AND someone who can also act against their enemies. And this ambivalent image of the witch is the original one. Even the most ancient witches of our culture Medea and Circe, could be helpers of the heroes, could heal and bless. But at the same time they could get a nightmare if you tried to work against them.

But you don’t have to look back into the shadows of the centuries- if you want to come into contact with the power behind the witch archetype. Our MODERN archetype is filled with many things, that can work if you use them. And when you use them- you will tap into a pattern. The broom can be a working tool in many witcheries, the cauldron can be used to empower herbal mixtures, amulets and to make potions. Even the pointy hat- that is so strongly connected to our modern archetypical witch, can be a powerful tool in your witchcraft. If you work with the symbols that are connected to the archetypical witch- you can draw power from this archetype in your rites and spells. But at the same time in our MODERN witch aretype lies the seeds of old witchcraft- there they were able to survive hidden and open to see at the same time. The symbols of the archetypical witch are telling us stories of the past, of the old witches in the villages not so long ago…

In the old times there were no books about witchcraft (exept some grimoires) and people who were drawn to witchcraft, could not learn it from books, like it is today. When people were interested in witchcraft they had to use the information they got from folklore about witches. Maybe they tried out things they heard in stories- what witches do. Stories about people that went into the night, in search for forbidden knowledge and power, about people that went out of the village, to secret places, to meet with the spirits of old and when they came back, they were changed, they got witches. And then when the inner draw of these people who wanted to be witches, was strong enough, they overcame their fear and went into the night themselves. To the old crossroads, gallows hills, burial mounds, or into the dark woods, where the veils between the human world and the other side were (and still are) more thin. If they had enough talent, will or luck, they would be able to meet a spirit and through the contact to this spirit (wich got their familiar spirit) they would learn witchcraft from this spirit- or the spirit helped to awake the witch-fire inside of them, this witch-fire lay dormant in them, sleeping in their blood, all the time and this fire drew them to their journey. And through this inner fire and the contact to the spirit(s) they got witches.

I think it is time that the modern witches reclaim the power of the old witch, the ability to make contact to familiar spirits, the dead and the spirits that surrounds us, the power to leave the body and fly through the night or to shape shift (in trance) into animals, the power to bless and to curse threw spells that make real changes- not just placebo effects. To find again the knowledge of the herbs. It is time to meet again on the old crossroads and dance with the spirits, to dig graveyard dirt on nightly cemeteries, to contact the underworld/otherworld, celebrate rites in moonlit clearings of the dark woods, with pointy hats, brooms and cauldrons that boil over a fire, or to work spells on the hearth of our home. And to meet with the Witchqueen on her crossroads in the time of the dark moons. It is time to awaken the witch-fire again…

The Archetypical Witch

The light of the full moon is illuminating the night. The moonbeams are enchanting a clearing in a dark wood. On this clearing a bonfire is burning. Over the flames of the fire, there hangs a boiling bronze cauldron. The solitary scream of an owl is cutting through the silence of the night.

On the clearing a woman is standing, clad in dark clothes, black  like the midnight in a moonless night.

In her hands she holds an old broom made from brush. On her head she has a black pointy hat, with a big brim that casts shadows over her face. You can not see her age. When someone is able to see beyond the shadows, that are veiling her face, for some she appears as ugly old hag. For some as the wise old woman, with a cunning smile and warm eyes. To some maybe even as a young, beautiful and seductive sorceress. But in reality she is ageless.

Near the feet of this strange woman three fat toads are sitting and it seems that they are watching the fire. And near this woman you can see a strange shadow, moving in the darkness. The eyes of this shadowy creature are glowing in the dark, they reflect the glow of the fire. You can see that this shadow is not a demon, but a black cat. Bats are flying around the fire and are hunting for insects, that were summoned by the light of the fire. The shapes of spirits appear for a second in the flames and in the smoke of the fire, it is like they are ensouling the fire and the smoke. But in the next moment they are gone.

The boiling in the cauldron gets louder and the witch is using the handle of her broom like a spoon, to stir her potion.

A loud laughing is haunting through the night, some crows are scared out of their resting places in the trees and are flying away from the fire. The cat makes an arching and is hissing but the witch didn’t stop to laugh. Her laughing can be heard all around the countryside.

She is the Archetypical Witch.

She is feared by many people, others are searching for her knowledge and her power, some are going to her when they need her help. Maybe to get a spell that hinders an unfaithful man from straying, or to banish an evil spirit, or to bring the luck back into a home, or to help a loved one to get healed in times of illness or maybe to curse an enemy.

When it is about these things, the people forget their fear- or overcome them and go to her.

And also when it is about the thresholds in life. At birth she is the midwife, she is guiding the elderly on their last journey while they are dying and after death she is the one that buries the corpse, she opens the doors to the light of the otherworld- if spirits lost their way after death.

In all these times the blessing of the Archetypical Witch is needed.

But many are fearing her dark side, she is the nightmare of all those people who do evil.

They are scared by her power, they are frightened that maybe she will curse them, for the evil things that they have done. And because of this fear, they are hunting her, try to control her or maybe take away her power. But the Archetypical Witch is cunning, even when her enemies are thinking that she is crazy, when they project their own shadows on her- all their fears and their own wickedness. They try to make the people believe- that she is evil and wicked- so that she gets feared also by other people.

The Archetypical witch was has never dissapeard, she was never truly beaten, nobody was able to break her. She was always there, lingering in the shadows, on the liminal places, on the crossroads, near hollow hills or gallow hill, on old cemetries and on the clearings of the dark woods, she was always was there beneath the things, in the edges and fringes and all the thresholds. She was hidden in the shadows, but always on the pulse of the things that happened.

She was waiting there, waiting that the times will change again. That the people will see more than the evil old hag in her, that the people will search again for her power and her many blessings.

She is standing on the clearing of her dark woods, in the shadows at midnight under the light of the full moon. And she looks into her potion, that is boiling in her cauldron, there she sees what once was, what is happening in the now ans what maybe will be come into being…. and the spirits talk to her through the shadows, whispering the secrets into her ears, she knows the ancient Queen of Crossroads- the Mistress Witchcraft. And she knows the Black Man of the Sabbath, the Horned Lord and Cunning Master. Through her they stayed alive too- and the Archetypical Witch brought their power and blessings into the world until this day…