I had a flashback to the Salem Witch Trials this past weekend. And I am not a witch, though my fiction interests are witchy. I would love to write a novel about witches and energy healers. The idea to write a book came about when I enrolled in a creative writing class three years ago. The main character in one of my assignments was a psychic medium, and eventually it evolved into a short story about a witch. Now I see this short story as the first in a series of chapters, but the full novel is still on hold. I am putting all my efforts into graduating from Energy Healing school, writing my Diary of a Psychic Healer book and keeping my day job. Lots of stuff going on!
So one of my friends has been away. We haven't spoken in a while. At lunch, the first thing he blurted out was:
"How is it going Regina? Are you still into witchcraft?"
WHAAAAAT!?!?!
I did a huge double take. So did everyone else at the table.
"I am learning REIKI! It has nothing to do with witchcraft!"
To clarify, I am learning energy healing. I don't think there is a big difference between the two, but most people have heard of Reiki so it's easier not to explain. I went on to describe my kind of energy healing very briefly: clearing chakras, auras, emotions, etc. Then came the priceless question:
"But don't you put ROCKS on people?"
I had to laugh at this one, thankfully so did everyone else.
"NO! I don't put rocks on people!"
There is another friend who has crystal healing done. He mixed us up, but even then, crystal healing is not "putting rocks on people". Someone else stepped in and told him that she had Reiki done once too, and it was very relaxing. Not weird at all.
"That's witchcraft, it sounds like witchcraft!" he exclaimed.
To his credit the words seem very direct on paper but they weren't as aggressive in person, and I had to make an effort NOT to laugh. It sounds so absurd!
I kept pushing back, and he came back with:
"But don't you read tarot?!?"
"Yes, I do! But so did Carl Jung!" I exclaimed. "The cards have themes that speak to your subconscious. It triggers a response!"
Tarot can work on different levels and one of them definitely is psychological. The Mythic Tarot book says that you should only read for yourself, and that the things that come up will generally hold for about 6 months until your subconscious is in a new place. That being said, there is also a strong intuitive side to tarot. I bought a little Everyday Witch spell book, by Deborah Blake, as research for my fiction book, and there is a divination spell in there that talks about "guide my hand, and guide my heart" when reading the cards, runes or anything else. I didn't go into details here as I was making the point that I am a healer, and healing is not witchcraft. Not that there's anything wrong with it. I respect it as a spiritual belief system, same goes for any religion. It just so happens that witchcraft has a very negative connotation, probably a result of the power struggles during the times of the Inquisition and the Witch Trials.
I remember leaving a comment on a pagan blog a few months ago. It was during the Faith Blog contest, the one with all of the hoopla about whether or not pagans should be allowed to compete in faith-based competitions. A couple Christian bloggers started protesting and a huge blogg-o-war broke out. It was interesting to read but I stayed away from posting because a) I don't know enough about pagan religions to have an informed opinion, and b) thanks to my hobbies, the extreme Christians weren't going to listen to me anyway. My only comment was about how little people know about witches nowadays, how much of our intuitive and healing past was driven underground by the Inquisition, and how anything that seems spiritually paranormal is branded as witchcraft. This is particularly true for psychic readings, tarot, healing etc.
The thing that baffles me about our lunchtime conversation is how he made the jump from healing to witchcraft and missed psychic? To be fair, that isn't something I mention often. What would be worse, to be mistaken for a witch or a psychic? In the first case I would just say it isn't true, in the 2nd case I am not sure what I would say? Either way I sense a short story coming on! My imagination kept going wild after this session and though I intend to keep my thoughts and my mirrors positive, I might write some past-life-persecution into one of my fictional pieces. Funny thing is I'd been thinking about this as a potential plot, and just hadn't gotten around to writing it! So exciting!