Witch: Unleashed. Untamed. Unapologetic.

by Lisa Lister

Heavy seasoning: celebrate and connect with the turning of the wheel – the Solstices, Equinoxes and seasons. Use the rituals I’ve shared in the book, or create new and personal ones that work for you. Go with the flow: honour and chart your cyclic nature. Check in with your body rhythms daily and connect with your menstrual cycle: it’s an ever-unfolding map to the truth of who you are. Grow Roots: breathe deep into your womb space for 10 minutes a day. This creates strong, connected roots so you’re less likely to feel pressured and manipulated or fall under the spell of the patriarchal constructs that the society we currently live in dictates.

Diane Stein, author of All Women Are Healers, opens her book with ‘Women were the creators of the world, the Goddess-birthgivers, the inventors of positive/peaceful civilization.’

It doesn’t matter whether it’s creating a life in our womb or an amazing piece of art. Whether it’s creating a network of women who speak out against injustice or an incredible aubergine, lentil and coconut curry. Wherever we put our thoughts and energy, we manifest magic. Good and bad. It’s as simple as that.

A spell is simply a prayer in action. It’s an active way of manifesting.

This or something better.

Manifesting Maven: be intentional but don’t fixate on the end result. Know what it is you desire, set clear intentions and focus your energy in that direction. Then let go of all expectations as to how it will manifest. You’ll find that SHE/the universe/Goddess/All That Is will deliver, just rarely in the way you’d planned it.

Express Yourself: creation and creativity come in many different forms – from casting spells to making a baby to moving your body to starting a revolution based on something you feel strongly about. However SHE moves through you, allow yourself to express it fully. Share it ALL from THAT place.

Being a witch is a path of learning. There might be moments when you think, Yes, I’ve TOTALLY got this whole life thing figured out. Then, in the next heartbeat, you’ll find yourself in the void – the cosmic womb – smack-dab in the centre of the mystery of it all, and knowing absolutely bloody NOTHING.

This reconnection with the Self and remembrance of your magic takes time, dedication, and lifelong commitment to the incredible, awesome, complicated and delicious messiness that is you.

the onset of Patriarchy didn’t kill the Goddess. She simply lay dormant underground in the darkness, growing roots. Really strong bloody roots, because she’s cyclic; and she knew that with every Great Forgetting, where women and their power are put in the dark, there had to come a Great Remembering. That Great Remembering is now.

a modern-day Oracle shares the very best counsel when she remembers herself – the deep intuitive trust of the wisdom and knowing held in her body.

That woman is an Oracle. She connects with nature and her cycles. She knows how to give healing and apply it, first and foremost to herself, before then sharing it with others.

Any time we fully trust ourselves – our body, our wisdom, our gut instinct, our knowing – we become an Oracle.

My go-to deck is the Crowley Thoth deck, because the cards in it are so loaded with symbolism. I also have a big love for the Gustav Klimt tarot: the artwork is insanely good.

A tarot deck consists of 78 cards. The first 22 cards are the Major Arcana, which each have symbolic meanings focused on the material world, the intuitive mind and the realm of change. The remaining 56 cards are the Minor Arcana, which are divided into four groups or suits: Swords, Pentacles (or Coins), Wands and Cups. Each of the four suits also focuses on a theme: Swords: conflict, mind or moral issues Cups: emotions and relationships Coins: material aspects of life, such as security and finance Wands: jobs, ambition and activity

One of the most popular layouts is the Celtic Cross. Other well-known spreads include the Tree of Life layout, the Romany spread and the Pentagram Spread. You can also do a simple spread, by laying out three, five or even seven cards in any shape you choose for interpretation.

patriarchal belief structures targeted women – healers and midwives specifically – and called them all witches. The result was our society experiencing what I can only describe as a ‘healer holocaust’.

The fear exists because we’ve been taught that, as women, our intuitive nature is not trustworthy. That WE are not trustworthy. ‘Woman is by nature a witch, healer, shaman and medicine healer.’ - CHUKCHEE PROVERB

We also have the capacity to midwife the birth of a new way of being here on Earth. I want to keep this as real as I can, but when we remember our power to heal, we can change up our role on this planet. I believe that trying to ‘fight’ Patriarchy is NOT the answer. Reacting to, and trying to change, what’s ‘already so’ will serve no one. However, YOU connecting to the truth that lies between your thighs? YOU creating a new version of what actually is? YOU remembering how to heal and then using what you remember to heal yourself? Witch, that is a fucking mind-blowing, heart-opening paradigm shifter.

When you reconnect with the wise woman – She Who Knows – as well as your ancestors and all those who have gone before, you become a powerful and potent healer.

And after the eight-year relationship ended, I decided I’d no longer seek a husband. I’d take lovers instead. Lots of lovers.

the Sorceress has the ability to change situations and ‘manipulate’. She’s an alchemist. She’s the mother who turns tears into laughter with a reassuring kiss. The friend who turns fear into ease with her words. The activist who changes thought into action.

If we all took life by the ovaries and actually spilled our hearts, guts and wombs – without censorship – with the waning of the moon or the waning of our menstrual cycle? A heavily patriarchal structure like the one we currently live in would (and should) be scared shitless. Because as Audre Lorde, African American writer, feminist, womanist, lesbian and civil rights activist so rightly pointed out, we’d be ‘powerful and dangerous’.

We worry that we’re being seen as ‘too much’, while at the same time struggling with feeling like we’re ‘not enough’. We’re scared to come undone, because how will we ever put it all back together again?

When you stir your cauldron – through dance, sound, movement and breath – you connect with an inner power source. That source is like an internal ignition switch: something the ancient yogis called Shakti. Shakti is divine feminine energy that, when activated, allows you to express yourself fully and creatively. You feel fertile in ALL the ways.

All of us need – more than anything – to have safe, courageous places, spaces and containers in which it feels safe for us to unravel. Places, spaces and containers where we can start to practise exploring the light AND the dark with other women. For many of us, there’s a LOT of dark attached to the idea of being raw and vulnerable with other women. To admit a perceived vulnerability or weakness. To declare, ‘Look, I haven’t got my shit together. My life isn’t always as shiny as it might appear on social media.’ But the trust between women that Patriarchy has broken over the last 3,000+ years by separating us from each other and tuning us against each other, needs rebuilding. And that rebuilding starts with us.

Pleasure shows itself to me in many forms: a hot bath, salted caramel raw chocolate, a delicious orgasm, having my nails painted, cuddles, belly dancing, fresh flowers, dry body brushing, silence, big redwood trees, swimming in the ocean, a massage, eating figs, SHE Flow yoga, listening to boy bands (yes, still), beautiful ritual, drinking tea, the smell of jasmine, a spa…

Asking for help from another woman, sitting in circle with other women, trusting another woman with your story, exposing your vulnerability in front of another woman? These are all acts of serious defiance and rebellion.

Some call this a red tent, some call it a coven and some call it a moon temple. I call it women gathering – and we need to do more of it, because when women gather, magic happens and revolutions start. They’ve separated us, disconnected us from ourselves and each other because they know that it’s when we gather together and share, that we are truly powerful.

Women, please gather.

Seek the truth in ALL things. Starting with you. Make your own rules. Then break them. Be the woman you are here to be in this lifetime.