Witches

“Trick or treat!”

“Oooooooh what a beautiful little princess! Are you brave like the girl in the movie?”

“Yes, Princess Merida!” She paused to examine me. “Where’s your costume?”
“I’m wearing it!” I responded cheerfully.
“But what are you?” she eyed me inquiringly.
“I’m a witch!” I said, playfully swishing my ankle-length skirt and raising my arms to show off my purple wool knit sweater. 
“But where’s your hat? And your wart? How come you’re not ugly?”

---

To the little girl who didn’t think I was a witch because I wasn’t ugly:

I admonish you to ignore all the propaganda you’ve heard about witches from movies, books, and TV.

Witches are just people like everyone else. And (like everyone else) witches were imbued with gifts to do supernatural things.

The reason people don’t like witches is because we dare to do the things that others “can’t” or won’t do: heal our own bodies, use our words to create realities, comb our dreamscapes for clues to this reality, honor the life force coursing through every living thing, convene with spirits, observe what’s right beneath our noses as the ultimate reality, and so much more.

So they made witches into ugly women, monsters with warts and pointy hats, because they couldn't understand them. Because witches show people what they're capable of, and what people are capable of is scary. Our powers are challenging to the limitations of the human imagination and so-called logic.

Fairies, mermaids, praying women--all are witches in a manner of speaking.

Keep your eyes open and your ears, too, little one.

Ignore the propaganda.

And perhaps one day you’ll grow up to be a good powerful witch, too.