What makes you the resident know-it-all of witchcraft?

What makes you the resident know-it-all of witchcraft? I'm not trying to be ugly, I just wonder why you think you have all the answers?

Answer: Part One

I was waiting for this! I don’t have all the answers…no one does! I don’t take pride in my accumulated knowledge, intellectual pride slows down spiritual evolution. I’m a free-style spiritualist, meaning I don’t hold tight to any belief systems, my spiritual ideologies are constantly evolving. My focus is on soul development, God(dess) realization, becoming one with the Divine. I like to share what I’ve learned along the way. ~Each One Teach One~

I’m a ‘Hereditary Witch”. My Nana (Great-Grandmother, maternal side) was an Italian Witch. Her name was Consetta Magdalene aka Connie. She practically raised me, while my young mother was working. I spent the beginning of my life watching her give readings and healings in her basement reading room. She had a huge altar to the Madonna (Mary, Isis, Yemaya…Feminine Divine) and many other saints, where she kept pictures of clients and their families. She lit novena (prayer) candles and left offerings on their behalf. She read playing cards, gypsy style, and palms. Healed with herbs and laying on of the hands. She gave people “spiritual perscriptions” to take home. For example a spiritual bath of Hyssop herb and Psalm 57 to expel demons. She told me about her Visions and chased away the ghosts and evil spirits with holy water and a brass bell. She told me I was “the one” that I had “the gift” and I guess I just knew she was passing the torch. She was the kindest, wisest, Mother/healer I have ever known. She died when I was 16…I felt like an orphan.

A couple years before my Nana died, when I was in the 8th grade. I had taken an interest in Witchcraft after I was assigned to read The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a play based on the actual events that, in 1692, led to the Salem Witch Trials. That same year, my History teacher allowed us to choose our topic to write about. I decided to revisit the Salem Witch Trials. While researching I also read about the Witch Burnings during the Inquisition, the European Witch Trials. The Malleus Maleficarum. I came across images of the accused…graphic woodcuts, etchings and paintings illustrated the methods of torturing and murdering “Witches”. I saw photographs of iron torture devices. My young mind was flooded with complex emotions, the same feelings of shock, horror, and anger invoked by other subjects I studied in early history. Specifically, the enslavement of Africans and the attempted extermination and the plight of Native American peoples.

By the time I reached High School, I hated the church, I hated the government, I hated my parents, I hated my teachers, I hated the “cool kids” all of them…ignorant and destructive. I was a loaded gun, an angst-ridden, death rocker trying to find my way in the world. (not to mention a recovering Catholic school girl) Like I said, I was a loaded gun! And what did I load my gun with? Black Magick, Necromancy, Demonology and Goth/Death Rock Culture.

I started haunting “The Occult Bookstore” where I got my first deck of Tarot Cards “the Mythic Tarot”. I bought my first Occult books there like: A Witches’ Bible by Jane and and Stewart Farrar, The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey, and novels like The Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft, and Moonchild by Aleister Crowley. I discovered the legendary Wax Trax Records where I discovered favorite bands like My Life With the Thrill Kill Cult, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Dead Can Dance, Fields of the Nephilim, Ministry, RevCo, Christian Death, The Cramps, The Misfits, Danzig, 45 Grave, Alien Sex Fiend, Einstürzende Neubauten, Nitzer Ebb, Nick Cave, Miranda Sex Garden, Rosetta Stone, The Swans, Death in June, and Current 93. I idolized women like Siouxsie Sioux, Diamanda Galas, Exene Cervenka and Lydia Lunch…Queens of the Underworld!

That was 20 years ago…I’m 34. Every culture and religion has a myth or a fable about the Descent of Spirit into Darkness…the heroic act of leaving everything behind to journey into the Underworld. Those who return from the land of the Dead emerge triumphantly from the depths wearing a hard earned Crown of Wisdom. My favorite is the story of Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld and the Goddess of Spring. She left behind her friends and family, her worldly possessions including her velvet robes and jeweled crown. My story begins like a modern re-telling of the Perpsephone Myth…

It’s been a long road out of hell, but like I always say, “ya gotta raise a little Hell to get to Heaven” So “Witches” of Tumblr what chu know ‘bout that!? (Throws the Horns) More Fyah!!!!!

to be continued…