Witches

Magic is calling me again. It has been a while since I've willfully connected to that part of reality. And it's not a coincidence that I am working on this spoon for @medicinespoonmemorial. Caren Thompson has created this project to remember and honor all the women persecuted for witchcraft in England during the witch hunts.

We are not aware of the huge collective trauma that this period left in Europe. Over 200 years, nearly 100 000 people were killed. In some areas it got so bad that no women remained in villages. Children were made to testify against their mothers. The accused were tortured mercilessly to obtain "confession". The terror for midwives, healers and just ordinary women living in this period must have been relentless.

In systemic constellations, this is regarded as a collective trauma, that is one that affects whole populations, on top of specific family systems. And many "safeguards" are put in place within the collective subconscious and some lineages to avoid the fate that befell these women. When I first moved back to France I could feel it so strongly, it was like a switch has been turned off, my connection to the invisible severed. Very often here, women who want to establish themselves as helpers of some kind (other than within the medical field) will feel huge resistance to making their work known, without really knowing why. It is just the system saying "this way is dangerous, you may die". It is up to us to acknowledge and honor what was, and reclaim our connection to the deep knowing of nature, the moon and our instinct for magic. With each stitch, I honor the fates of all who came before, and bind my own magic into my world.