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🌙 Witches at the Threshold: Reclaiming the Divine Feminine at Samhain
- Renee Boje
- Oct 30
- 16 min read
The veil shimmers open, and the night hums with ancient magic. The witches are stirring, and the Earth remembers.
We have entered the dark half of the year - the season of Samhain... the Season of the Witch! The final harvest has been gathered. The forests have a serene quiet feel to them now as if everything is falling into an enchanted sleep. And, when the veils of mist come dancing round - We feel a stirring from deep within. The air holds a shimmer of otherworldly presence, and the world between worlds breathes open like a great cosmic sigh.
Samhain is the cross-quarter festival that marks the turning from light to shadow, from life to the deep dreaming of Mother Earth. It is the ancient New Year of the Witches, the sacred threshold when time itself grows fluid and the veils between realms grow thin. At this moment on the Wheel, the ancestors draw near. Our Loved One's on the other side step closer, their spirits illuminated by the flicker of candlelight and hearth fire. We may feel them in dreams, in whispers, in sudden tears or laughter that arise unbidden. They are not gone - only transformed, only walking beside us in subtler form. It is also the time when the Faery Folk and unseen allies wander freely between worlds.
The Sídhe - the Shining Ones
The Sidhe - ancient and radiant, are said to be the Faery Folk themselves - the descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danann, ancient stories of the luminous race of gods and goddesses who once walked the Emerald Isle. When the mortal world turned toward the age of men, they withdrew into the mounds and hollow hills, into the unseen realms that lie just beyond the edge of sight.
They are kin to the Goddess herself, the living breath of Her mystery, moving between the worlds like moonlight through mist - neither fully spirit nor flesh, but the shimmer of both.
They stir in the hollows and hedgerows, in the rustle of autumn leaves and the glow of moonlit mists. Their presence can be felt in the hush between heartbeats, in the shimmer that dances upon the edge of vision....
For those who listen with their hearts, this is the time when each night becomes a communion - a time to speak with our loved one's who have crossed over - with our spirit guides, our ancestors, and the elemental forces that weave through the tapestry of all of existence.
Samhain is the Witch’s Threshold, the sacred doorway between what has been and what is yet to be. It is the time of remembrance, divination, and rebirth - when the fires of the old year die down and the souls prepare to dream themselves into a new form. To walk through this gateway is to step into the ancient current of the Divine Feminine - the power of death and renewal, of shadow and starlight, of silence and song. And who better to guide us through this passage than the Wise & Wild Witch, who lives within each of us... the eternal wise woman, keeper of thresholds... who teaches us that we too are Daughters of the Earth Moon and Stars.
✦ The Witch as the Divine Feminine Archetype
Origins of the Word “Witch”
To be called a Witch once meant to be wise. The word comes from the Old English wicce (feminine) and wicca (masculine), terms found in early Anglo-Saxon writings such as Laws of Ælfred (c. 890 CE). These words referred to those who practiced healing, divination, and the ancient arts of wisdom. Linguistically, they are linked to the Proto-Germanic wikkjaz or wikkōn, meaning “one who practices magic,” and further back to the Proto-Indo-European root weik- - “to bend, to shape, or to consecrate.”
This root is profoundly revealing. To “bend” or “shape” does not imply deceit or illusion, but the sacred art of weaving reality - bending energy, fate, or the unseen forces of nature toward harmony. Thus, the original wicce was understood as one who could shape the sacred, a practitioner of wisdom and ritual alignment.
The historian Ronald Hutton, in The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present (2017), reminds us that early uses of the word carried a sense of awe and ambiguity, not evil. Similarly, scholar Diane Purkiss, in The Witch in History (1996), notes that the wicce was often “a figure of both reverence and fear - the woman who knew too much, who healed, and who saw.”
The Wise Woman and the Web of Life
Long before persecution redefined her, the wicce was the village wise woman - the midwife, the herbalist - She who understood the secret language of herbs and stars. Her craft, wiccecræft (“witchcraft”), literally meant “the craft of the wise."
In early Germanic and Celtic societies, these women held a vital role as keepers of the balance between the human and the more-than-human world. Their power came not from dominance but from communion - listening to the wind, reading the flight of birds, tending to both birth and death as holy thresholds.
As Starhawk writes in The Spiral Dance (1979), the witch’s power “is not the power to command, but the power to connect.” To practice the Craft was to live in reciprocity with the living Earth - to know that magic is simply the movement of Spirit through all things.
The Fall from Grace and the Shadowing of the Witch
With the rise of patriarchal religion and the Christianization of Europe, the image of the wise woman began to darken. Her herbal knowledge and intuitive power were reinterpreted through the lens of fear and control.
By the late Middle Ages, wicce had transformed from a title of reverence into a mark of heresy. The witch became a scapegoat - the embodiment of all that threatened a rigid, male-dominated worldview. As Silvia Federici observes in Caliban and the Witch (2004), the witch hunts were not merely superstition but “a war against women’s bodies and knowledge,” a suppression of female autonomy and earth-based spirituality.
And yet, through centuries of silence and fire, she endured - the Witch, the Wise One, the Healer, the Oracle - waiting beneath the ashes for her name to be reclaimed.
Reclaiming the Witch: The Return of the Divine Feminine
Today, to call oneself a Witch is to reclaim that lineage of wisdom. It is an act of remembrance and resistance - a declaration that the sacred feminine cannot be erased.
The modern Witch walks in the footsteps of her foremothers, not as one seeking power over life, but with it. Her intuition is divine guidance; her creativity, prayer; her body, a temple of the Goddess Herself.
In essence, the Witch is the living embodiment of the Divine Feminine - cyclical, sensual, intuitive, and ever-transforming. She is both healer and wild one, light and shadow, maiden and crone. She is the weaver of worlds - bending, shaping, consecrating - as her ancestors once did beneath the moonlight.
Ancient Roots: Priestesses, Oracles, and Wise Women
Long before the witch became a figure of fear, she was revered as holy. In the temples of the ancient world, women served as priestesses - guardians of the sacred mysteries.
In Egypt, the priestesses of Isis invoked the powers of life, death, and rebirth through ritual and chant.
In the Norse lands, the Völva - meaning “wand-bearer” - traveled from village to village, performing seiðr, an ancient form of magic and prophecy said to have been taught by the goddess Freyja herself.
Among the Celts, the Druids and their female counterparts were the keepers of the groves, skilled in healing, divination, and the cycles of the seasons.
And in Greece, it is said that the Whispers of the famed Oracles of Delphi can still be heard in the Mists...
The Origin of the Delphic Oracles: Priestesses of Gaia
Long before Apollo’s temple crowned the mountain, Delphi was sacred to Gaia, the Great Mother - the living consciousness of Mother Earth. In those earliest days, her priestesses gathered in the shadow of Mount Parnassus, listening to the voice of the land. From a fissure in the rock, the breath of Gaia rose - sweet and intoxicating - and the women inhaled her spirit, falling into trance. Through rhythm, song, and sacred smoke, they received visions for the healing and guidance of the people.
Many scholars and historians have noted - that there is a great deal of evidence that these oracles worked with plant spirit medicines, sacred herbs and resins whose vapors opened the mind to the invisible realms. Modern researchers, such as Joseph Fontenrose, Michael Scott, and John R. Hale, have suggested that the prophetic ecstasies of the Delphic oracles were aided by psychoactive gases and sacred botanicals - perhaps a blend of natural ethylene vapors, laurel leaves, cannabis, and myrrh, whose aromatic smoke could induce trance and visionary states.
Others, drawing from the lineage of ancient entheogenic rituals described by scholars like Carl A. P. Ruck and Wasson, have proposed that the oracles may also have partaken in the sacred communion with mushroom sacraments or ergot-infused kykeon-like brews - plant allies long associated with divine revelation. Through these green spirits, the priestesses entered the living consciousness of Gaia, their breath mingling with hers, their visions becoming the language of prophecy.
Theirs was not an escape from the body but a deep descent into the body of Gaia herself, a surrender into the vegetal mind that spoke through leaf, smoke, and stone. The oracle’s song was the Earth’s dreaming voice - a song carried on the sacred breath of plants, born from the heart of the world.
These were not servants of any god, but women of the Earth, seers who spoke the language of soil and serpent. They were said to work for the highest good - not in service to empire, but in harmony with the cycles of life itself.
But as the patriarchal age dawned, the myth tells that the bright god Apollo came and slew Python, the great serpent who guarded Gaia’s oracle. With that act, he claimed the sacred site as his own and placed his name upon it. The women remained, Enslaved - now called the Pythia - but they no longer spoke for Gaia; they were forced to speak for Apollo instead.
This story echoes the larger transformation of human spirituality - from the earth-centered mysteries of the Goddess to the skyward religion of the gods. Yet the serpent wisdom was never truly destroyed. Even under Apollo’s reign, the breath of Gaia still rose through the stone. The priestesses still entered her trance, still carried her voice in their bones. The Divine Feminine endured, whispering beneath the hymns to the sun.
Yet even as the temples crumbled and the songs of Gaia were silenced by empire, the old ways did not die. Her breath moved on - through root and leaf, through the dreams of women who listened to the whispers of the soil. The serpent and the sacred smoke found new vessels in the healers, seers, and midwives of later ages. These were the wise women, the witches, who carried the ancient knowing in their bones. Though the world forgot their names, their lineage remained unbroken - a living current of Mother Earth's magic, flowing quietly beneath the surface of time.
The Witch Hunts and the Burning Times
As patriarchal religion spread across Europe, the sacred feminine was further suppressed. The healing woman - once honored as midwife and wise one - became a threat to authority.
Between the 15th and 18th centuries, thousands of women (and men) were accused of witchcraft. Most were herbalists, widows, midwives, or those who lived outside the rigid roles of their society. They were condemned by fear and ignorance - their wisdom mistaken for danger.
In Germany, Scotland, France, and England, flames devoured those who dared to live in tune with nature. In colonial America, the Salem witch trials repeated this cruelty on new soil. These were not just executions - they were an attempt to silence the wild feminine voice that could not be owned or controlled.
But even through centuries of persecution, the witch’s spirit endured. She became the enchantress in folklore - Baba Yaga in her forest hut, Morgan le Fay in her island sanctuary of Avalon, Circe on her isle of transformation. The myths kept her alive, hidden behind veils of story, awaiting her time to rise again.
The Reawakening: From Shadow to Sovereignty
Yet even after the fires dimmed and centuries of silence fell, the witch’s spirit was never lost - only sleeping beneath the surface of time, waiting for the world to remember. And remember it did.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the witch began to reemerge - no longer as villain, but as symbol of liberation. Writers, artists, and mystics invoked her as the embodiment of female autonomy - a woman who moves to the rhythm of her own soul, who walks in beauty and power ungoverned by the world’s fear.
In the mid-twentieth century, as the Earth stirred once more and the ancient voices whispered through the mists, two seekers heard the call. Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente became the torchbearers of this remembrance, rekindling the old flame beneath a new sky. Gardner gathered fragments of surviving folk magic, ceremonial lore, and the whispered stories of hidden covens - weaving them into a tapestry of reverence for Nature, the Moon, and the Goddess. Valiente, a poet and priestess, breathed soul into that structure, restoring the heart of the craft with her words, her wisdom, and her love for the Great Mother.
Together, they gave modern language to an ancient truth: that witchcraft is not wickedness, but a way of beauty, balance, and belonging. It is the living current of the Divine Feminine reborn - the same current that flowed through the oracles, the healers, and the wise women of old. Their work opened the path for countless others to rise, to call themselves Witch once more - not in fear, but in pride.
By the 1970s, the feminist movement embraced the witch as an icon of resistance - a woman who refuses to apologize for her power, her intuition, or her connection to the natural world. She became a mirror for every woman who had ever been silenced, shamed, or burned for her brilliance.
And now, in the 21st century, she rises again - not in secret, but in celebration. For this is her time of remembrance. The witch is the woman who remembers. The one who listens to her dreams. The one who refuses to be tamed. She is the wild heart of Mother Earth beating once more through us - the eternal Priestesses, Healers, Dreamers, and Daughters of the Moon.
Witches Across Time and Culture
Circe - The Enchantress of Transformation In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe turned men into swine - but not out of cruelty. Symbolically, she revealed the truth of their inner nature. Circe is the witch who teaches us that transformation is sacred - that to reclaim our power, we must first see through illusion.
Morgan le Fay - The Healer of Avalon In Arthurian legend, Morgan is both healer and enchantress. Demonized by later Christian retellings, she was originally a priestess of Avalon - a land where women healed with herbs and magic. Morgan reminds us that healing is power, and power is holy.
The Völva - Prophetess of Freyja The Norse Völva was the living descendant of the goddess Freyja, who taught women seiðr - the art of weaving fate and spirit. The staff she carried was both wand and serpent, symbol of transformation. To channel the Völva is to honor the wild, intuitive voice within.
The Cunning Women of the Villages In medieval Europe, “cunning folk” were the healers and hedge-walkers of their communities. They mixed potions, spoke charms, and served as midwives and counselors. They worked with plants, roots, and charms - the sacred lineage of folk magic that still lives today.
🌿 Ways to Embody Your Inner Witch
As the veil thins at Samhain and the ancestors draw close, the Priestesses of old are calling us to rekindle their magic - by embracing our own. Within every woman lives the remembrance of the Witch - the Healer, the Seer, the Daughter of the Earth and Moon.
We carry within us the collective wound of the witches who were silenced - and yet, within the same breath, we carry their power, coiled and luminous within our bones. This ancestral current calls to our wild hearts now -especially when the veils between the worlds grow thin.
This is the season to awaken that ancient knowing, to walk the spiral path back to remembrance, and to embody the living current of the Divine Feminine once more.
Magic is all Around us Now, as the Veils Thin -
As we stand upon this threshold, may we remember that the darkness is not to be feared, but entered - a womb of transformation where seeds of new life are sown.
The Witch within us awakens now, calling us to listen deeply, to walk gently, to weave with intention. Beneath the quiet earth, the pulse of becoming stirs.
The ancestors, the faeries, the spirits of the land - all gather in this sacred turning to remind us that we are part of an eternal cycle of death and rebirth.
So light your candles, speak your prayers, and open your heart to the Mystery. Magic is not something that visits from beyond; Magic is within you - ancient, radiant, and alive in this very breath.
🕯️ A Living Path of Remembering
If your spirit stirs at the edge of the veil, if something ancient within you is waking - the path of remembrance is open. Reclaim your magic and embody the witch within. We invite you to join our upcoming sacred journeys - Samhain, the Plant Priestess Path, and the Journey with the Elements - living gateways of remembrance.
The woman who listens to the stars, speaks to the Earth, and walks between worlds with grace.
Honoring Freja - Mistress of Seiðr, Keeper of the Golden Tears, Weaver Between the Worlds
📅 Date: Sunday, November 2nd✨ Time: Arrival 12:30–1:00 PM | Ceremony 1–3 PM | Feast & Sharing Circle 3–4 PM📍 Location: Private Residence in Wilson Creek (address shared upon registration)
As the final harvest wanes and the veil between worlds grows thin, we gather in the soft twilight of Samhain - the sacred turning of the year, when the realms of spirit and flesh waltz together in the hush of mist and moonlight. 🍂
Here, in the mystery of autumn’s descent, we honor Freja - radiant Goddess of Love and Death, of Magic and Beauty, of Passion and Prophecy. She who rides between the realms in her cat-drawn chariot, cloaked in falcon feathers, weaving the golden threads of fate through the shimmering current of Seiðr magic - the ancient Norse priestess craft of breath, chant, and vision.
This ceremony is an invitation to awaken the priestess within - to embody your sensuality, your sight beyond the veil, and your connection to the living Earth.
Through sacred chant, Seiðr divination, drumming, and communion with plant spirit medicine, we will weave a web of remembrance - honoring the ancestors, the unseen ones, and the eternal Goddess who lives within each of us.
💛 Reserve your spot: $55–$111 sliding scale🌿 Space is limited.
A 6-Month Journey of Feminine Awakening, Shamanic Training & Self-Mastery November 2025 – April 2026 (with a pause in December)
Women have been the caretakers of Mother Earth since the dawn of time. This journey is an invitation to remember your Divine Essence - to commune with the wisdom of the Plant Spirit Medicines, to hear the songs of Mother Earth, and to awaken the magic that lives deep within your being.
🌿 First Ceremony: Saturday, November 15th | 11 AM–5 PM
Sliding Scale Donation: $55–$111
Join us for the opening ceremony of this powerful six-month journey - a day of sisterhood, song, prayer, and communion with the Spirit of Cannabis, as our guide, our teacher in opening our hearts to the creative flow. Through sacred ritual, movement, and connection, we will soften into love, awaken creativity, and remember our place in the web of life.
This is an opportunity to experience the Magic of the Plant Priestess Initiation - Our Upcoming 6 month Initiation into connecting with our own Inner Priestess - a path of Empowerment & Self Mastery. Space is limited for this special offer so be sure to reach out soon if you want to reserve your seat in this introductory ceremony at our very low asking donation of $55-$111 (sliding scale - a $300 value).
💞 Tuition: Full Journey - $1,800 | Early Bird - $1,500 (by Nov 11, 11:11 PM) Payment plans available - reserve your space with $150 donation📧 plantspiritfairy@gmail.com | 📱 604-346-7376 Feel welcome to reach out via text with questions or to set up a free discovery call
“To walk the path of the Plant Priestess is to remember that every leaf, every breath, every heartbeat is sacred.”
A Transformational Shamanic Training on Working with the Sacred Elements for Guidance & Healing January – June 2026 (with a pause in March)
This 6-month transformational journey guides each woman in deepening her relationship with the Elements - Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Ether. Together, we rediscover how women have communed with the elements for centuries - for cleansing, protection, healing, inspiration, and divination.
Each ceremony blends Plant Spirit Medicine, song, movement, yoga, shamanic drumming, and feminine mystery teachings, creating a living container for transformation and remembrance.
🌿 First Ceremony: Saturday, January 25th, 2026💛 Early Bird Enrollment: Open until Jan 1, 2026, at 11:11 PM or until full
Each month we will explore one element through ceremony and song - guided by one Master Plant Teacher and the Orixas, the Nature Spirits of the Elements: Earth • Air • Fire • Water • Ether • All Elements
Through these ceremonies we call upon the Orixas of Nature - Jurema, Iansa, Xango, Iemanja, Oxum, and Cachoeira - bridging ancient traditions with the feminine heart of the modern witch.
✨ Tuition & Early Bird Offerings:
Full Journey - $1,800
Early Bird Rate - $1,500 (by Jan 1st, 2026, at 11:11 PM)
Payment Plans Available ($150–$300 monthly donations)
Donations via e-transfer to plantspiritfairy@gmail.com📍 Private residence in Wilson Creek, BC✨ Ride shares and Zoom participation available.📱 604-346-7376 Feel welcome to reach out via text with questions or to set up a free discovery call
“When we dance with the Elements, we remember that magic is not outside of us — it breathes within us.”
🕯️ A Living Path of Remembering
These sacred journeys - Samhain, the Plant Priestess Initiation, and the Journey with the Elements - are living gateways of remembrance. Each circle, each song, each shared prayer is a way to awaken the ancient witch within - the woman who listens to the stars, speaks to the Earth, and walks between worlds with grace.
The ancestors are whispering through the veils. The Goddess is calling her daughters home. The Circle is open - and your place awaits.
Written by Renee Boje, with love and reverence for the Eternal Spiral of Witches - Daughters of the Moon and Earth, who dance in the betwixt and between, ever weaving light through the veils of existence.
📚 References & Further Reading
Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. New York: Meridian, 1994.Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Autonomedia, 2004.Fontenrose, Joseph. The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations with a Catalogue of Responses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.Graves, Robert. The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.Hale, John R. The Trip of a Lifetime: The Delphic Oracle and the Ancient Mysteries of Greece. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2011.Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980.Hutton, Ronald. The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.Oxford English Dictionary. Entry for “Witch.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, Online Edition.Purkiss, Diane. The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. London: Routledge, 1996.Ruck, Carl A. P., and R. Gordon Wasson. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.Scott, Michael. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.Simpson, Jacqueline, and Steve Roud. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. 20th Anniversary Edition. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.Valiente, Doreen. Witchcraft for Tomorrow. Custer, WA: Phoenix Publishing, 1978.Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.Wasson, R. Gordon, Albert Hofmann, and Carl A. P. Ruck. The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. New York: Harcourt, 1978.
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