In the old days…

People adored the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the stars, and all above and below. All that was greater and which gives us life. In the old days, community and friendship were the collective reality. Because even though “history” is written by the “winners”, which is not even a true sentence, deep down we still remember. We know.

Looking in someone’s eyes when you ask: So, do you think the Earth is a living being? People get weird. Like something inside them stirs up and they don’t know what to reply because “no” seems so much like an idiotic answer.

I teach that the opposite of the notion of being alive is not really being dead. It’s more in the sense of something we haven’t come up with yet, the river is alive, the mountains are alive, and the rocks, the pebbles, the crystals, and the walls… otherwise, what really is?

“The meaning of life is just to be alive” — Alan Watts

And to find meaning in living is to attain a certain level of certainty that we are meant to find our own ways out of the darkness. But what are you if you don’t adore the moon? If you don’t believe in the sanctity of the stars? If you don’t replenish in the vastness and beautiful infinity of the cosmos? If you don’t bask in the sun, be thankful for life and for each breath, are you really living?

In the old days, we’d be considered witches for believing in such things. The heretics, the heathens. But that is not darkness, even though Disney made it seem the witch is the evil stepmother who hates you. The witch is actually the princess who escapes finding true love and dances with the birds in the forest, talking to the trees and embracing the joyfulness of living. The witch is the girl who gets angry for not being her true self and finds herself in the midst of the chaos of her own life. The witch is that herb expert and that moon adoring nut in your family. The witch is your teacher who goes against what is publicly okay to teach in History classes. The witch is the police officer who says “it’s a wonderful night”. The witch is the apothecary, the pharmacist who hates pharmaceutical companies. The witch is the cook at your favorite restaurant, who turns food into alchemy. The witch is the cousin who never gives up on taking the world by storm by healing ancestral wounds and still loving the family. The witch is the storyteller, the future ancestor, the loving grandma who bakes you cookies on your summer vacation. You’re the witch who agrees with me, and I’m the witch writing this.

I fear a lot of things, real witches aren’t one of those things.

When I was 13 my dad gave me my first tarot deck, and now I’m a collector. I love the art, the meanings, and the object of the tarot or oracle deck. It’s fun to find those special ones and use them occasionally for special people who ask. I get all sorts of requests for readings, particularly love readings, but most are about people who are trying to find themselves. Lost in so many things.

I teach breath. I teach how to connect to your natural self and to nature. Things that for a lot of us seem obvious, but that a lot of people need courses about nowadays. I feel as though I don’t really deserve this job, you know? Like, it’s simple — go walk in nature, bask in the sunlight, talk to plants, grow a garden. I don’t really want to teach people witchcraft and magic, but I fear a lot won’t find it for themselves. The magic of understanding the stone as an animate living being… for some is a lot to handle. The witchcraft of tea instead of a pill.

That’s why I don’t celebrate Halloween. It’s not about the scary, it’s about the opposite, the truth. The meaning of life is to be alive, and the purpose should be to breathe in the idea of aliveness. Western scientists will tell you, “but if it doesn’t have consciousness”, and Eastern sciences will reply, “well, from the human consciousness perspective they don’t”. That’s why people fear the Chinese… it’s like they know something we don’t.

I’m not here saying: Wake up, sheeple. Quite the opposite. Open your eyes, and love the sheep, they know a lot about what it means to be here. They can be great teachers. Love yourself in the wake of it, because the real you inside is probably scared about all this. It’s how we find ourselves.

And if that means you find yourself adoring the skies, the cosmos, the earth in godly reverence, well… that’s wonderful. Welcome to the witches club.