A practical guide for modern witches and healers with rituals, journal prompts, visualization exercises, and other tools.

The "witch wound" is a collective, intergenerational, psychic wound that has scarred people, mostly women, for centuries. The roots of this wound run deep, going back to the historical witch hunts, the "Burning Times," when tens of thousands of innocent individuals were accused of practicing malicious magic and executed in the most inhumane ways. And extending perniciously beyond the accusations and murders was a general persecution and marginalization of people who were suspected of having certain "powers." The fear created by this oppression was passed down from generation to generation, becoming embedded not just in individual bodies and psyches, but in the collective unconscious.

Today, though not true everywhere, witchcraft is often now embraced as a tool for self empowerment and healing; yet the scars of the Burning Times remain. Many would-be witches turn away from the craft out of fear that they will be judged, shamed, mocked, vilified, or rejected by the people around them. This same sense of fear and shame causes many practicing witches and earth-based spiritualists to keep their beliefs hidden safely "in the broom closet." This is the witch wound at work.