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For some time now, I’ve been noticing an ancient pattern moving quietly through the collective - and through myself. Watching a recent series on the European witch trials brought clarity to what I was sensing. Here's an overview of the pattern, including several things that stood out to me:

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Women were the primary targets, though some men were accused too, and even members of the elite were not immune.  In general, women were poorer, less able to defend themselves, and regarded as being more susceptible to the Devil. This was the crux of it - the fear was that these people were deliberately bringing 'evil' upon others, conjuring negativity. Many of the accused held knowledge of healing plants, prayers, or folk remedies - and were therefore seen as capable of causing harm through unseen means. Their felt connection with plants, animals, elements, and the field itself was framed as danger. In truth, the 'witch' was often someone who listened.

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Once someone was named a witch, it was effectively over - If a person was branded "witch" in the marketplace, they were met with a rapid descent into darkness. Imprisonment was the next step. In court, sometimes children testified against adults. In certain cases, spectral evidence (dreams and inner 'visions') was treated as fact. In MOST cases, behind the scenes, torture was used to extract confessions. Large needles were stabbed into the body, in the hopes of finding a 'witch's mark' where no pain was felt. 

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There were other methods, like water submersion. A witch was said to float. Ironically, that meant some drowned when the theory was tested. 

 

Typically, the accused eventually said whatever was required to end their suffering. Often they named other 'witches' and village fervour grew, to the point where family and 'friends' marched their loved ones to execution.  A witch was also said to be unable to recite the Lord's Prayer without bungling it up. And yet in their final moments, many spoke it perfectly - and declared that their confessions and accusations of others had come about through torture. 

Those found guilty were hanged or beheaded, then burned - so the Devil could not re-enter the body. Thankfully, being burnt at the stake was not actually commonplace, though I imagine the whole process was a descent into a fiery hell on Earth. 

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In some communities, the devastation was so great - with grandmothers, matriarchs, and healers lost - that authorities eventually abandoned the entire idea of witches existing at all. The social fabric had been torn too far. And by then it was very clear that mistakes had been made.

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Witch hunters were mostly men who took it upon their own moral authority to set the world straight. They believed they were on a divine mission to eradicate evil, yet their attitudes and methods revealed cold and dark parts of themselves, severely disconnected from Love. Fear, power, and misunderstanding of the intuitive feminine healer ran the show. 

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What struck me most was this:
If 'witches' were those who brought evil upon others, it was the hunters themselves who projected their darkness upon the world and people around them. 

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Beyond History

Witchhunt energy is still among us. It has not disappeared.

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I witnessed it during Covid, particularly against those upholding the Sovereignty of personal choice amidst the measures. 
Modern Spiritual communities are not exempt either - Increasingly, people accuse others of acting from ego or “false light”, when their intention is Love, nobody is perfect and frankly, everyone is doing their best in a murky, changing time. 

It is holocaust energy.
It is our unconscious social anxiety and the "lightworker's persecution wound" that keeps us 'fitting in'.

It is the 'war on drugs' and pharmaceutical domination that keeps people parted from plant allies. 
It is fear, projected.
It crosses over to the nature kingdoms.

 

I glimpsed it in myself recently — swatting flies in my kitchen, while gently placing spiders outside.  I also noticed a habitual 'poo pooing' of  someone who announced themselves as a "High Priestess" - but how would I know until I met them? (Did part of me want the pedestal?) Everyone has a right to exist, to bloom in their own way. Everyone is doing their best, given all they carry: traumas, blind spots, and pure heartedness alike.

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The Modern 'Witch'

The modern 'witch' is the same as in medieval times: A person connected to plants, animals, elements, and the Earth through direct relational knowing from ancient pre-mammalian circuitry of the brain. This is embodied intelligence.

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From a Devic perspective, witch hunt energy arises when relationship is lost — when fear replaces listening, and authority carries no attunement.

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Vigilance Now

This old energy pattern asks something of us.

To notice when fear turns into righteousness.
To watch where we project our anxiety onto others.
To resist the urge to fix, exclude, or name an “enemy”.
To stay in the body and keep Love present.

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The work now is not to point fingers or hunt witches. Or even to reclaim the label. (Do we preserve the original definition of those who project evil onto others, or absorb it within ourselves to honour those killed as 'witches', who never were?)

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The New Earth will not rise through judgement and policing. 

It births through each of us doing our work. 

Feel and heal your heart. 

Stay human. 

This is the Temple work.