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Throughout 2020 and 2021, I gathered a sisterhood of 33 women to work together on healing the inherited wounds from the Burning Times. Together, we explored how inherited trauma affected our lives and worked creatively to heal and shift beliefs and patterns of behaviour that no longer served us. This work was woven into an educational and experiential exhibition which debuted at The Storey in Lancaster in January 2022. |
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The Background...
From November 2018 I followed a calling to gather women for 13 Full Moon Ceremonies as part of a pilgrimage journey around the Celtic lands of the UK and Ireland. The intention of these Sacred Ceremonies was to call in our Ancestors of the Burning Times for healing whilst sharing the story of the European Witch Hunts of 1450-1750 so that each woman could understand how the inherited trauma continues to affect us some 300 years later. At each Ceremony we journeyed to clear these wounds and to rewire a new story of sisterhood, feminine intuition and safety into our bodies and lives.
Through simple ritual, we made offerings in the form of a silver spoon which each woman was asked to bring. These silver spoons were collected throughout the year a now form a collection of +500 which formed part of the I AM WITCH - Tales from the Roundhouse Exhibition.
Through simple ritual, we made offerings in the form of a silver spoon which each woman was asked to bring. These silver spoons were collected throughout the year a now form a collection of +500 which formed part of the I AM WITCH - Tales from the Roundhouse Exhibition.
Why are we doing this and why does it matter?
Our Ancestors may be dead, but they are still with us in spirit and in our own behavioural patterns. The scars we still carry show up in many ways; fears of being seen or heard, mistrust of other women, experiences of betrayal, playing small, irrational fears of fire or drowning, fear of rejection, fear of stepping up, fear of authority, struggles with feeling home in ourselves, lack of roots, lack of support, feelings of disconnection to nature, patterns of victimhood, inability to stand up for ourselves, difficulties in setting healthy boundaries. There are many and they continue to run deep in us, keeping us in a state of disconnection from ourselves, each other and the land and leaving us feeling powerless, isolated, unsafe and unsupported.
Whilst today, in Western cultures, we may not face the reality of burning or hanging, we still know it in our bones. We continue to live our lives energetically and emotionally as if we too might be taken out. Talk to women about the Burning Times and many will resonate in some way and experience a felt sense that they can’t quite put their finger on. The Burning Times arguably left one of the deepest wounds in the psyche of women which, through the inheritance of epigenetic memory, we continue to play out.
It is a collective wound that runs deep and as such, it requires collective healing. We need to work to clear our inherited trauma, transform how we connect as women and to restore true sisterhood held by the strength of our ancestral lineages.
Whilst today, in Western cultures, we may not face the reality of burning or hanging, we still know it in our bones. We continue to live our lives energetically and emotionally as if we too might be taken out. Talk to women about the Burning Times and many will resonate in some way and experience a felt sense that they can’t quite put their finger on. The Burning Times arguably left one of the deepest wounds in the psyche of women which, through the inheritance of epigenetic memory, we continue to play out.
It is a collective wound that runs deep and as such, it requires collective healing. We need to work to clear our inherited trauma, transform how we connect as women and to restore true sisterhood held by the strength of our ancestral lineages.
