Alchemy: “a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.” [Oxford dictionary]

Witch: “a person thought to have magical powers.” [Oxford dictionary]

What’s in a name?

Whether it belongs to a person, a place or a thing, it is always descriptive in some form. It can conjur up an image, good or bad, depending on our experience – and it stays with us, once memories are created.

I remember back when I was in college, I worked for a semester at an after-school program for kindergarteners. It was part of a larger daycare center & was usually pretty fun work. Having children run into your arms as they get off the bus, especially when they are not yours & you can send them off to their parents in a few hours, is – for the most part – a good job in your early 20’s.

However, there were moments that weren’t so grand – and for me it usually surrounded the hours that a particular child was in my care. His name was Jacob, and he was a… well, to be kind, he was a hellion. He didn’t color, he broke crayons & threw them. He didn’t play, he hit. His voice was decibels louder than every other child in the room, and usually was filled with words I don’t even want to type… he had a gift for combining the worst of them & spewing them at anyone who wouldn’t let him do what he wanted. Seeing him get off the bus was usually the end to any good day I was having.

And so? You guessed it… Jacob became a name synonomous in my mind with everything bad about having children, and a name I knew I would never be able to use whenever I had my own. I’m sure there are many lovely children out there named Jacob, but none of them would be mine.

So you see, when it comes to words – and choosing a name – it is hard! Even when our own associations with a thing are good, knowing that others may have negative ones make it even harder.

Thus the title of this post.

The Alchemical Witch.

It is a name I have chosen for myself & for an upcoming storefront I will be opening. When? I have no idea – creating what will stock it comes first. But in order to start creating, I needed a name – somehow, for me, that had to be the first step. Having a name would center me, and be the energy behind whatever I create.

The word alchemy is easy for me – creating, transforming. Combining elements into something new. It is a word I love & feels like me.

But the word witch? That’s a different story.

The dictionary doesn’t just say “a person assumed to have magical powers”. It also says that those powers are “often especially evil ones, popularly depicted as a woman wearing a black cloak and pointed hat and flying on a broomstick.” [Oxford, as well] Merriam’s dictionary defines a witch as, “a person (especially a woman) who is credited with having (usually) malignant supernatural powers.”

Evil. Malignant. Black cloaks, pointy hats & broomsticks.

That is society’s most current view, for the most part. It doesn’t seem to matter how mainstream the idea becomes, there is still a taboo element there.

How do I view a witch? Well, based off of the ones I know & am friends with – pretty damn amazing. 😅

But seriously – we are not evil. Or malignant. Do I have a black cloak? You bet – and I wear it to the Ren Faire. A black hat? Also yes – and it’s usually on my head in October. A witchy broom? Try 3 – one sweeps, one just happens to look cool & the other is above my front door. I also have a medicinal herb garden, loads of crystals, a few tarot & oracle decks & more books on self care & spirituality than I will ever finish. I create salt baths to wash away negativity, I create moon water to help me connect to the earth & I sage my house on a regular basis to clear the energy. I have a very down-to-earth husband who adores me & tolerates my oddities, who lets me put crystals by his computer & tries not to cough too hard when the incense is burning. He loves my herbs in my cooking & thinks they are weird in my baths – but he acknowledges that I am a happier person after using them. I believe in a Higher Power & a Creator, and I acknowledge their presence in my life & in this world.

All this to say – I call myself a witch in the very best sense of the word. I am one who takes what the earth has given me & uses it to create things that better serve my place in this world.

An alchemical witch.

However – having grown up in the church & having spent my school days in the conservative religious world, the words magic/witch/alchemy/astrology (as well as a myriad of other words that are deemed “bad”, or at least alarming) can still make me twitchy. Why? Because it was ingrained in me for over 30 years that there could be no room for them in mainstream life. A normal life. A life that acknowledged the existence of a Higher Power, but only the one most commonly associated with the modern day Bible. And with this twitchiness that still exists, you’d think I’d never use them – or at least not as my own.

However – an acronym I saw a number of years ago really struck me.

W.I.T.C.H.

Woman in Total Control of Herself.

Devon Cole turned it into a song in 2023, and I love it.

Because being a witch isn’t a bad thing. Can it be? Sure – just like being anything can be turned on its head into something negative. But that does not make it inherently so.

So. The Alchemical Witch is in the house. Twitches & all.

Now she’s just got some work to do.

✨️🌘🌿🕯🌿🌒✨️