If ever there was a moment in time for good women and men to be the wise ones,
it is now when we may indeed be called upon to be voices in the wilderness.
Time of the Witches
By Mary Byrne Hoffmann, Writer/Spiritual Director/Wellness Educator
Once upon a time
or was it just yesterday,
Those who sought power and dominion over
what they could not understand,
what they could not control,
what they could not see beyond their own
buffed up, bloated, blah! blah! blah! image
concocted a scorn,
a ridicule,
a banishment,
for those who they could not understand
who they could not control
who they could not recognize in their own
puffed up, pompous, portentous image.
They unwittingly name us …
Witch.
Ha!
Listen, this is the
Time of the Witches.
It is our time …
yay, nigh time
for women and men
to step up and forward and reclaim
the legacy of the witch
who is by definition
(yes, look up the etymology of the word)
the wise one
the holy one
the seeing one
the anointing one.
This is a call forth to all witches
to be the wild voice in the town square
that beckons us out of the
fractured, wounded, small and deafening places of
our personal and collective fear.
Go into your garden of healing potions.
Find the wise words to tell another story.
Lead us into the holy places of one another.
Envision the possibilities of peace.
Anoint our dying to power and security and answers
and nations and gods made in our own image.
Stand at the portal of your own courage
with open arms wide open
to midwife
the unexpected
the unimagined
the stranger in you
who may just light the way.
Practice magic.
Restore wonder.
Bewitch.
Be Witch.
And when they call you
“Witch!”
bow and say
“Thank you.”
*****
One of the most coveted trinkets from my Roman Catholic upbringing were laminated, sepia-toned 2 x3 cards each adorned with a rococo image of a Jesus, Mary and Joseph or any one of a litany of saints These cards, reverently known as “holy cards” were fiercely and irreverently traded on the playground exchange. The Holy Cards on this page will honor women and men, throughout the year, from all different spiritual and religious traditions, from thousands of years ago to the present, from all walks of life who shine a beacon to light the way to the holy.
Mary Byrne Hoffmann
January 2017
