Witch Wound Shadow Work: Reclaiming the Witch Can’t Be Done Above Ground — Episode 89

The archetype of the witch has resurfaced in modern culture, and it’s glorious! Reclaiming this energy, healing this witch wound around the archetypes of Medicine Woman and Dark Goddess that were demonized, ostracized, and forced underground is no small feat.

These feminine mysteries, the gifts of the witch, are tied to the deepest, darkest parts of ourselves. So to access the wisdom of ritual, of seeing, of hands-on healing, we have to go there too, we have to dive into our shadows.

There we can finally shine the light of awareness on our unconscious patterns, our ancestral imprints, and our deepest shame, fear, and guilt.

It’s not easy work. It’s not for the faint of heart. This podcast goes into what one can expect from shadow work, how to start, and the power we can access when we open up the full capacity of our wombs and unseen realms.

If you’re interested in journeying deeper with us, check out our FREE Birthing a New World Mini-Series.

Topics Explored in Witch Wound:

• What is the shadow realm, how do we access it, and what we can expect to find there
• What it really means to be “conscious,” to “know thyself”
• The gifts of the Medicine Woman & Dark Goddess, specifically of Hecate, and how to access them within ourselves
• How shadow work and these archetypal energies are intrinsically linked with womb wisdom and womb awakening
• A very real, honest look at what is keeping us (hint: how we are keeping ourselves) from being able to step into our full womb, witch, medicine woman power
• How we can trick our egos into doing this hard, sometimes ugly shadow work so we can reclaim this witchy aspect of Shakti
• A guided practice to introduce us to shadow work, and tips for how we can feel safe and supported as we do so 

Full Witch Wound video episode here…

Show notes… 

0:00 – Introduction into Hecate, the Dark Goddess, the Medicine Woman. She is seer, oracle, witch. She is the keeper of the feminine mysteries and womb wisdom. She opens us up to our ancestral lines, past lives, and the collective unseen realms.

2:45 – We all have a shadow realm, a part of self that is underground, hidden to us, yet is always operating, always magnetizing things to us, always working through karmas. Working with the dark goddesses takes us into our shadow realm so we explore it, embracing it, love it. That’s “shadow work.” It’s a necessary part of becoming “conscious,” of awakening.

5:45 – We cannot open to the gifts of Hecate, the gifts of sight, of knowing, of womb awakening, of ritual and spell-casting, without doing shadow work. Otherwise, we will misuse these powers, we will use them for ego-centric purposes.

9:30 – It’s beautiful that we can talk about rituals and spell-casting, call ourselves witches without being ostracized, chained up, or burned alive. But if we’re going to do it, let’s do it all the way. Let’s honor how big and deep this work is. Let’s honor what womb awakening actually means. Let’s honor what we have to go through in order to have these mystical magical amazing wombs.

12:45 – Welcome to retreat energy. We’re not bullshiting around. We’re opening to the Medicine Woman and the Dark Goddess, we’re reclaiming the witch that exists within each one of us. And that requires heavy excavation, because her juice, her gifts rise from the depths, from the shadow realms. So we’ve got to go into the basement, we’ve got to unclog our first and second chakras. And each layer deeper we go, the more of her energy rises.

15:20 – We can’t reclaim the medicine woman, the witch, womb wisdom, without doing ancestral and past life healing. And that can get real, that can leave us crying our eyes out for days, that can leave us puking in a bucket, releasing blocked energy that’s been there for generations.

16:20 – We are so scared of opening up to our power, our witch gifts. Because we don’t know what it’s going to do to our lives, we don’t know what we will see that we don’t want to see. We aren’t ready to magnetize everything we think about into our life. Because it’s real, those capacities are real.

19:30 – That’s how we trick our egos to doing this work. It’s too daunting otherwise. So we approach by opening up the gifts of the Medicine Woman, by asking to see, by asking to create rituals with juice, with Shakti. From the enticing, welcoming side of the coin. But the shadow work is just on the flip side. To fully receive Hecate’s gifts, we have to dig up everything that we’ve ever hid from ourselves, in every single past life.

22:10 – Then we run into fear. Fear buried under grief and rage. Fears that may not make any sense, but they are paralyzing.

Let’s do a practice:

23:00 – Let’s take a moment to find our breath, to relax our bodies, to unwind any of the tension or defensiveness in our systems. Start by surrounding yourself with loving energy, wrapping yourself up until your inner child feels safe, feels held, feels loved.

24:30 – Feel into your fullness, remember a time when you were expressing your gifts in the world without hesitation. Maybe when you were a child, when it was easy to connect to magic and with mother natures. Or just imagined what it would feel like to be connected, in tune, with your intuition switched on. To be a part of the world, not something separate or external, but a part of the whole.

26:00 – Feeling into how your gifts express themselves in the world, how love expresses itself through you. No blocks, no bounds, you have full access to all your gifts, to the depths of your being, to your womb.

27:10 – Now come back to this moment, this time, this body, this life you’re living now. Feel for the blocks, for the things that prevent you from opening to all the magic. The societal constructs. The conditioning. The fears. The people. What’s the first emotion that comes up? Is it grief that this world cannot handle all of me? Or is it rage that this world cannot handle all of me?

29:45 – This is the basement, we’re in the basement. The immense emotional reaction for not being able to be fully us, to be all of ourselves. And it’s layered. And it can move and shift. One moment you’re sad that part of you doesn’t feel accepted. The next moment you’re furious that they could deny you, deny the feminine.

31:35 – And then you uncover another layer, terror. Terror around what what will happen to you if you open up to this way of being. What will you lose? Who will you lose?

34:35 – Can you feel how big it is to reclaim the Medicine Woman? What it means for you? For humanity? For mother nature? For her children? What it means to say “yes” to this journey, to embody mysticism from the depths in this world at this time?

37:35 – Yes, the world is going to judge it. But we are going to do it anyways. We are going to find the courage to allow this aspect of the feminine to flow through us, to be authentic to self, to come home. Because of what it means for ourself and what it means for everyone and everything else. What it means to flow with Her, instead of trying to cage Her.

39:50 – The fullness of the feminine is calling for this, calling to birth a new world. Calling for us to accept a part of ourselves we’ve never even met, to embrace the vast amount of power that resides in the feminine. Individually, it’s going to be a wild ride. Collectively, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

41:50 – Wow. We made it. “Don’t forget to breathe!” I’m so grateful for all of you. For all the women in our community, for all the women joining us live, for all the women participating in the Birthing a New World Online Retreat, which will always be available online. It’s a huge honor to be able to do this with all of you. So much love, women!

*The ReWilding for Women Facebook group where this was recorded has been dissolved as the organization continues to evolve and adapt to best serve the moment. 

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