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How Witches Do Christmas
It was always our holiday…
The Modern Witch’s greatest power is reclamation. The karmic work of today’s witch is looking closely at the dominant narrative and finding what it’s really made of. This is generative work, finding truths, lost histories, and reframing what we’ve taken for granted in order to pull on the threads of our conditioning. This is deep, and often confronting work, which (witch) is why we need to take back all the holly, jolly moments we can get. The more we celebrate, the more we commit to the awe of the virditas. The more we celebrate, the more invested we are in the conditions that bring forth healing, goodness and connection. Luckily, the deep roots of our holidays (capitalist co-opting notwithstanding) are in the earth, in the cosmic cycles of life and death, rebirth and therefore, witchy as hell.
Red and Green
The colors of life: red for blood (hemoglobin) and green (chlorophyll) for growth represented by our plant friends. Without plants, we don’t have food, shelter, clothing, medicine, fuel and oxygen (life).
Blood and chlorophyll (witch gives plants their gorgeous green shades) are molecular cousins, almost identical. Both hemoglobin in blood and chlorophyll in plants make energy. The difference? Chlorophyll holds magnesium to capture sunlight while hemoglobin holds iron to carry oxygen.
Science is a magical art, witches.
Unabashed use of warming herbs
I’ve never met a witch who wasn’t a slammin cook. Cooking and baking is alchemy 101, the most ancient and potent of transformations using the element of fire. The line between food and medicine is dose and deliciousness, and one of the joys of being a witch is hanging out on that edge. Cordials, cookies, fruit cakes, candies, sauces, syrups and hot cocoa are the mediums of the kitchen witch to spread the Spirit.
A Tree Up in the House, and other Botanical Appearances
The evergreen is the perfect symbol of the triumph of life, and not just in the ice cold, winter buried, places. Date palm leaves were used as symbols of the ‘evergreen’ nature of life by ancient Egyptians at Solstice. We decorate our trees with lights to bring the starry cosmos into the frame, everlasting life extends into the infinite universe, after all. Holy holly, another potent symbol of the ongoing power of Life as well as the protective and ‘bonding’ powers of mistletoe all find places adorning thresholds (doorways, mantels) during the darkest time of the year. Plants are the earthly representations of the powers of the sun, and honoring them invites back the life giving Solar God.
The Shaman, The Witch and her Wardrobe
While the connection between Santa Claus, the Amanita muscaria mushroom and the Shamans of the Sami culture have been debunked as culturally appropriative and superficial, the pagan origins of elfin winter spirits lie underneath. In Slovenia, the pattern of the Turkish style coffee maker in every home called the dzezva is red with white spots, in honor of the fly agaric as a symbol of magical folk practices. Holiday traditions present an opportunity to dig deeper into each of our own cultural heritage. What is unearthed is far richer, and imbued with more meaning than any vague, appropriated tradition could ever offer. Let’s reclaim the magic that we already belong to, witches.
A Note on that Little Babe in the Manger
These last handful of years, right in step with becoming parents, we’ve found ourselves unexpectedly verklempt over baby Jesus at Christmas time. I mean, damn: the soul-tapping “Silent Night”, the image of giving birth in a stable the Solstice theme of life triumphing over darkness… it all hits differently when you see it through the symbol of a newborn. Why? Because new life also asks to be nurtured, held, loved, and protected. And tending that fragile spark is how we plug into the cosmic matrix, whether that “new life” arrives in baby form, social-cause form, plant form, creative-project form, relationship form, community form, animal form, or business form. Maternal magic transcends gender and social conditioning. It’s one of our purest power sources, and one that is essential to reclaim.
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