There Are Legends of Witches

Written by: Idonea

It has become almost a joke that I am writing at all. Thinking and wondering are fine—but to have the nerve to put it in writing!

Oh dear. Once at work there was a meeting that brought together people from several departments. Everyone put on their neat, confident professional costumes and walked solemnly into the great auditorium, nodding, smiling, making sharp comments and offering criticism.

During the break we gathered at tables to chat informally, and what happened? Everyone sought approval and respect from the others. How? Out came the calendars, and everyone compared how little free time they had! The fuller your calendar, the more important you were. Simple as that!

When I meet another witch, formally or informally, the same sort of situation arises (will anyone admit it?). We ask one another how long we have practised, where, how, and so on. But the greatest classic is this: “My mother is a witch, and my grandmother, and her sisters, and mothers, and the lady next door …” If the other person has nothing to say in return, uncertainty sets in. Am I a witch at all? Hmm. I have heard that you can only be born a witch. But who gives birth to a witch? How does that work?

There are legends even in the life stories of the great women (including Doreen V.) and men (Raymond B.) we all know. In witchcraft’s major countries, Britain and the United States, and also Italy, where witchcraft has lived for decades, there really may be several generations of witches, even within one coven. That has led to the insistence that you must be born a witch, and perhaps at just the right time of year. There is a puzzle for every mother—or am I going too far?

Every new thing begins with a birth. A friend of mine on the other side of the world often says that the new therapy she has developed (Logoart) is still such a baby that it cannot walk without her and the people who believe in it. When witchcraft draws near and begins to interest you, it does not ask whether you were born rich or poor, to a witch or a priest. It is born if it is meant to be born. It was born in every one of us, and we responded: we grew interested, sought information, asked questions, questioned answers, learned and made mistakes. The wonderful thing is that it does not force itself on us. You cannot make it happen through effort alone. It leaves room to be born.

Yet people do not change. The next time I find myself in that discussion, I will have an ace up my sleeve: I am a witch born of a witch; my grandmother was a witch, three of my aunts too, and so is my daughter. (Hee hee hee … who would believe that now!)

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