The Witch of Forest Grove

I have a secret to share with you all: we all feel fear and doubt on this path, it will always come and go, and it’s completely normal -healthy even. We fear we’re not doing it right. We fear magic’s not real and what we do doesn’t work. We fear magic is real and our spells will work. We fear the otherworld and spirits are real and what will happen if we do take the steps to interact with them. We fear what we might hear, see, experience, or that it will alternately be nothing at all. We are afraid of success and failure at the same time.

If you’re not afraid, you’re either not human or you are stuck in a place of comfort and are instead afraid to move further along on the path preferring to stay in the safe zone you’ve carved out for yourself. If you don’t have those moments of doubt and fear now and then, it may be likely that you’ve stopped walking your path, afraid of the thorns and hidden dangers ahead. But we all fear, so chin up, hiking boots on, and walk bravely again on your path into the unknown.

I tell myself and others that if you are uncomfortable and feel a little chill of fear up your spine when you practice magic and ritual, you’re doing it right. The more uncomfortable you feel, the more barriers you break and the more progress you make along your path. Courage is acting anyway in spite of fear and doubt.  It is faith and action. We are all tested by the gods and spirits, to see what we will do. Will we stop where we are, will we give it up and run away, or will we keep going despite our fears?

Do things that take you out of your comfort zone; host rituals for others, perform rituals and practices you’ve been afraid to or put off for one excuse or another, reach out to spirits and gods on a regular basis and seek communion with them, listen to the voices within and follow your intuition, and set aside time to actually do the work – do it anyway even though you are afraid. The exhilaration of accomplishment from pushing through your fears is well worth it and you will need to do it again and again walking this crooked path. The initiation, the becoming, never stops. This path isn’t meant to be easy after all, if it was everyone would walk it, but they don’t because it is narrow, crooked, steep, and sometimes treacherous. Give into the dark night of the soul, face and deal with the secret fears you hide deep within yourself, embrace them, and come through it transformed. We all fear, you are not alone.