Please, Don’t Think You Know Me!

Please, Don’t Think You Know Me!

Author: Lady Abigail

“I have no fear of who you see,
For I can be only me.”

For me, it was a wonderful gift, being raised in the love and nurturing compassion of my Great Grandmother and learning from her the wisdom of family and history of her heritage, which was mixed in Native American traditions, Ozark Magick, Healing and Wisdom. She was truly an amazing person, and, oh yes, she was a Witch.

But it was not something she dressed up in; it was just simply who she was.

My Great Grandmother was a small woman just barely five foot tall. I would have to guess that she weighed maybe a hundred pounds and that would if she was soaking wet. For most of my life, I remember her wearing dark skirts and long-sleeve blouses even in summer. She wore a bonnet and sometimes gloves to keep the sun from darkening her skin. She dressed much as she had in her younger days.

She was in no way a threatening-looking person. In fact she was quite the opposite. Reflecting back, I would have to say, she gave the appearance of a “little house on the prairie” schoolteacher. But, those who knew her, truly knew her and respected her for the force of nature that she was unto this world, a person of good, healing, and wisdom.

Occasionally I would hear people saying things about my Great Grandmother and her being a Witch. I understood, even as a child, people enjoyed saying things about other people as long as they were not around. Sometimes it was about her goodness, but it was often filled with their fear and ignorance for someone they were afraid to know.

Over the years I have had people assume that because my Great Grandmother was a practicing Witch, it must have been somehow hard on me. Perhaps they believed that my Great Grandmother’s house was filled with rat tails and bat wings. Others would assume that since I was born into a family of Witches, then that made me a Witch.

Okay, kind of, yes, but not exactly.

My Great Grandmother believed that you were whom you made yourself into, the choice being yours. She taught me and gave me the gifts of knowledge, magick, and understanding of the powers hidden within the moon, earth, and nature. However, I had to also study and learn them.

Then, as I grew, the lessons grew and in time I learned that living within a world of magick, meant you would be learning for the rest of you life.

Witches know that once we open that first book, that study and knowledge are like a thirst we can never quench; a thirst that truly gives us an understand that surpasses every part of life.

Recently I had a young ‘witchlit’ make the comment that, “people were afraid of her … you know, since she was a witch and all.” (scary) But that is only because they knew that they should not mess with her, or make her mad because if she got mad, no telling what would happen.

I laughed, since most people have no idea I am a witch. I’m not in the broom closet by any means; I just don’t announce it as I walk into a room. I don’t need too.

In time, I will tell those in my life, friends outside my magick world, if I feel they need to know, which normally comes after they have a chance to get to know me. Then I let them decided how they feel about me, who and what they think I am.

If they stay in my life, I will cherish them. If they walk away, I let them go with understanding.

My Great Grandmother taught me at a young age, that it is not fear that brings a person respect. It only brings fear. And fear will in time breed hatred and contempt.

Unfortunately, there are some in our life’s who seem to confuse the two of these. Respect and Honor come from what others see deep within us, from our deeds and not our words.

My Great Grandmother was a Witch, but she was so much more. She was a daughter of the old south with Native American parents who walked the trail and escaped into a new life. She was the sister of a brother who was taken away by a religion that was not of her family’s believing, then forced by the government to send him away on a train to never be seen or heard from again. She was a wife and a mother. She was a widow and understood the struggles and joys of marriage, life, family, as well as the pains of losing those she loved.

Her husband died in World War I and her only son died in World War II. She was an honored grandmother and great grandmother. (Now a great-great-grandmother, as well.) She was a woman of means who survived alone and raised a family with no aid from anyone during the great depression.

Yes, she was a Witch, a Shaman, a Healer and a Wise Women. But she was so much more. All anyone even needs to have done was ask and she would have welcomed him or her into her life.

I have had people tell me that it freaked them out once they found out I was a practicing Witch. I have had some people feel so uncomfortable with that knowledge that they had to separate themselves from me completely, somehow unable to see past a label to the person within. How funny that people want to think they can guess who we are by just looking at us or by the title we carry in our life.

I have to tell you it is not a good idea to think you know someone because of how they dress, how they look, or what they may do in their life’s.

If you met me on a street, it is possible you would think I was the church lady. Other days you might think I was a streetwalker. But you never really know who a person is on the inside, unless they share that part of themselves with you.

Most of us know how to carefully mask the secrets we protect within ourselves. But that is because we carry our power within our spirits. No one can take it, nor do we give it away. We don’t need to put on a show, or act high and mighty to prove to someone who we are.

We know already.

In peace and magick,
Lady Abigail

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Footnotes:
FYI: Practicing Witch- One who is actively working at the profession and skill of magick and/or Witchcraft. A Witch of continuing study and actively presuming additional levels of skill within the craft.

A Witch endeavoring to learn and grow beyond. Establishing magickal habits and continuing methods. Uninterrupted growth and study within the chosen occupation and skills of magick and/or Witchcraft.