Chad Merritt
Early last year, with all of the
2012 Mayan Calendar End-of-Days hubbub reaching fever pitch, I thought it best
to figure out something to look forward to: after all, the apocalypse can be such
a drag, darling. Yes, the world is
supposed to end, but what next then?
Surely there had to be a light at the end of the voidant tunnel. So a few months ago, I proclaimed to my
friends and readers that 2013 would be the Year of the Witch - a statement made
with equal parts sincerity and salt.
The numerological symbolism was
obvious of course: 13 moons in a year, 13 fertility cycles, 13 witches in a
coven. It’s a number considered unlucky
and unlovely for so long, we’ve seemed to have forgotten why, while still
obliterating it from our tallest buildings.
And so it’s a number inherently bound up in feminine magic, and thus represents
a deification of something persecuted; a profanity resacralized, unsullied and
crowned.
The archetype of the witch is
long overdue for celebration. Daughters,
mothers, queens, virgins, wives, et al. derive meaning from their relation to
another person. Witches, on the other
hand, have power on their own terms.
They create. They praise. They commune with nature / Spirit / God/dess
/ Choose-your-own-semantics, freely, and free of any mediator. But most importantly: they make things happen. The best definition of magic I’ve been
able to come up with is “symbolic action with intent” – “action” being the
operative word. Witches are midwives to
metamorphosis. They are magical women,
and they, quite literally, change the world.
Amazingly, though not
surprisingly, as soon as I named 2013 the Year of the Witch, I began to see
synchronicities and sympathetic signs all around me. This year marks the 40th
anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the 50th anniversary of The Feminine
Mystique, two of the past century’s most quake-making reclamations of female
power. Obama’s inaugural civil rights
incantation of "Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall" (“...and Salem,” a friend of mine half-joked),
began with the name of one of the most pivotal women’s rights gatherings in
history. This year, four women were
sworn into all of the “Live Free or Die” state’s top government seats. And Hillary
Clinton, arguably the most powerful woman in American history, ended her tenure
as Secretary of State last month with the following words:
“If women and girls
everywhere were treated as equal to men in rights, dignity, and opportunity, we
would see political and economic progress everywhere. So this is not only a
moral issue, which, of course, it is. It is an economic issue and a security
issue, and it is the unfinished business of the 21st century.”
Already this year, we’ve seen an
unprecedented occurrence of powerful women emanating through our screens. The 70th annual Golden Globes were
hosted by two women for the first time; Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are the
respective stars of their decidedly feminist TV shows, and two awards were
given to Lena Dunham, the creator and star of her own appropriately enough
named show, GIRLS. Tavi Gevinson (a real
“voice of a generation”) publicly declared that she believes in magic on
her ever-more popular online teen girl magazine, Rookie. The Super Bowl - the most watched television
event in America - had entertainment exclusively by women (and all African
American women to boot). And whether or
not Beyonce’s half-time hand gesture was or was not an Illuminati sign is less
interesting to me than the fact that the triangle is also the symbol of the
triple goddess. Do I think that’s what
she intended? Almost definitely
not. Yet there it was, flashing in front
of millions of eyeballs, then self-replicating endlessly in a digi-jungle of
tweets and animated gifs. Symbols are
tricksters. Sometimes they speak in
the subtlest ciphers. And sometimes,
they bubble up in the collective cauldron via a black-leather-clad demi-goddess
for all the world to see. And witch
stories are being told all around us this year.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,
American Horror Story: Salem, Beautiful Creatures, Oz the Great & Powerful, are just a
few titles that are slated for release in 2013.
It’s not that we haven’t had centuries of these stories preceding us,
but it seems we are witnessing a witchly tipping point.
It’s long been considered that one
of the primary symbols of feminine magic is the snake. There’s Eve’s serpent of course, but also the
Minoan snake goddess, Medusa, Mami Wata, & Ix Chel to name but a few. Snake magic corresponds to the holiest cycle
there is: Life, death, resurrection. Like
a snake each month, fertile women shed their own inner skins. Double snakes show up in esoteric systems
around the world - ouroboros, caduceus, kundalini, Quetzalcoatl, the naga, the
yin-yang - and they symbolize the life force (Read Jeremy Narby’s The Cosmic Serpent
if you want to trip out about how this all maps onto DNA). They writhe together in the balance of
opposites, holding the tension of, well, everything, between their coils. Snakes channel the energies of the Great
Mystery. They’re associated with the
underworld, the moon, ancient wisdom. And
guess what this Chinese New Year will usher in on February 10th: Yup, the Year of
the Snake. The Black Water Snake, to be
exact. You can bet that when I heard
about this, it made my third eye bug out.
I know some of you are thinking:
but what about the men? Can’t males be
witches? Isn’t matriarchy just as bad as
patriarchy?
Well, that’s the beauty of an
archetype: it can be embodied by anyone, regardless of age, gender, looks,
background. Girls are taught from the
time they’re born to empathize with both male and female characters. When I was growing up, I didn’t only want to make
out with David Bowie (hello, Labyrinth):
I also wanted to be David Bowie. I could
relate to the Holdens & Morpheuses & Bernard Mickey Wrangles as much as
I could to the Phoebes & Rose Walkers & Princess Leigh-Cheris. And we’re starting to see a new generation of
boys who instinctively do the same.
Black and silver Easy-Bake Ovens and gender-neutral Harrod’s toys help,
but so do parents who take all of
their kids to watch Artemisian heroines like Merida and Katniss flinging their
arrows. And there are certainly plenty
of adult men who have been embracing the way of the witch. On a blatant level, I can’t help but notice
that each spell crafting class I teach has more male attendees than the last. But we also have leaders like Al Gore and
Nicholas Kristof and Richard Branson and Prince Charles loudly championing
environmentalism and women’s rights.
They are helping to usher in an age of higher consciousness and
responsibility, and, though they probably wouldn’t use these words themselves, they’re
positively swimming in yin.
And so, this is the year when I
predict we will all more fully channel the spirit of the witch. Honoring the earth and our bodies; shifting away
from mass-market medicines and agri-business toward natural healing and whole
foods; sharing our resources rather than focusing on mere accumulation of goods;
collaborating and communicating more openly; helping to elevate women and girls
to equality all over the world: these are all grand workings of feminine magic
that we are manifesting together.
So for 2013, I wish you more
witching. More opportunities to claim
your power, to slough off old skin, to ritualize your life. May your year have you feeling more attuned
to the rhythms of nature, more connected to one another, and more plugged into
planet and purpose. The apocalypse has happened,
my friends, and it’s still happening. Our
task at hand is to bring about the end of the old world, but then to create
something vital and shining and new. Instead of four
horses, we’re riding in on brooms.
. I felt resistant to blogging, emailing, planning, writing, talking on the phone. I battled feelings of guilt that I was not using my time off more "productively" or "creatively." I wrote lists of chores and errands to accomplish, and got through 1/3 of them. I refolded and filed all of my clothes (
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