On the Word “Witch” — and the Quiet Power of Witch’s Day

A reflection

I’ve always had mixed feelings about the word witch.

It carries weight — some of it sacred, some of it scarred.

Modern culture has turned it into a spectacle: hats, brooms, velvet cloaks, and Halloween theatrics. Online, it’s a trend. A brand. A mood board. But beneath all of that is a much older truth.

Historically, witch was not a word of power.

It was a word of punishment.

It was used to label — and often erase — women who lived close to the earth.

Women who healed.

Who worked with plants, tended births, listened to dreams.

Women who lived alone. Spoke too freely. Chose differently.

The wise woman, the midwife, the seer, the solitary.

To call someone a witch was often to mark her for exile — or worse.

And yet today, some of us are reclaiming that word — not in costume, but in quiet. Not to perform, but to remember.

At Friends of the Forest, we walk with the deeper meaning:

Witch as wise one.

Witch as woman of the woods.

Witch as keeper of rhythm, ritual, and remembering.

Which is why Witch’s Day, for us, is not a performance or a party.

It’s a pause.

A returning.

Observed near the end of July — as summer begins its slow shift toward harvest — Witch’s Day is a modern honoring of feminine magic and seasonal wisdom.

It’s a soft threshold, a whisper of Lammas, the first harvest. A moment to ask: What has grown? What is ready to be gathered, or released?

It’s a time to:

• Light a candle in quiet devotion

• Walk barefoot on the earth

• Sit with your intuition, your voice, your knowing

• Journal beneath a tree

• Reflect on your own seasons, cycles, and sacred slowness

Witch’s Day is not about theatrics.

It is about presence.

It is about remembering that you are part of nature. That you hold wisdom. That there is power in softness, and reverence in slowing down.

This is the essence of what we offer now:

Not more events. Not louder voices.

But spacious, rooted ways of remembering.

This summer, and in the seasons ahead, we’re choosing this quieter path.

You are warmly invited to walk with us.