This Halloween, like many Halloweens, I didn’t celebrate in the way most people do, with costumes, candy, or parties.
Last year, I was home with a few witches, deep in ritual, when a little kid knocked on the door yelling, “Trick or treat!”
We froze. I looked around at my sisters and said, “It’s gonna have to be trick… because I’m a really bad witch and I have nothing prepared.”
We laughed, but the truth is, Halloween for me tends to be a working day. A time when the veil thins and spirits speak, not a night for costumes and sugar.
This year, on actual Halloween day, I found myself doing three pieces of deep, intense, magical work.
And it got me thinking, maybe this is why people think witches are scary.
Because here’s what that day looked like:
***
Trigger Warning: The next section contains references to murder, child abuse (including sexual abuse), and gun violence.
Please care for yourself and skip ahead if needed. I included a recap below.
Support resources: call or text 988 (in the US) or chat online at 988lifeline.org. Outside the USA: find free, confidential hotlines worldwide at findahelpline.com.
***
In the morning, I held space for a man whose father had murdered his mother. He was raised by his aunt, who, years later, presented him with a literal bill for the cost of his childhood. A spreadsheet of school supplies, food, and doctors' bills. She wanted to be paid back. We did a ritual for completion, release, and healing.
Later, I sat with a young man who finally found the courage to name what had happened to him when he was a child. He had carried that secret for years, and was suffering from nightmares and other symptoms common to survivors of sexual abuse. And together, we let truth do what truth does: begin to set him free.
Then, just before nightfall, I met a woman in shock. Her cousin had been shot in the head by a gang for refusing to pay a “protection” fee. He was on his way to pick up his two daughters, ages ten and fourteen. And because we live in 2025, she had a video of her cousin moments after the shooting, and wanted to show it to me. So I put my arm around her and watched it with her.
That was my Halloween.
I share this not to traumatize you, but to tell the truth about what witches actually do.
***
The difficult stories end here. Take a breath before reading on.
If you skipped ahead, here's the recap:
I shared three real-life stories from people who came to me for ritual and healing work on Halloween, each involving deep pain, loss, and trauma. Together, they show how witches often serve as witnesses and helpers in moments of crisis.
People fear witches because witches can face what others cannot.
We can walk through the terror, the sorrow, the unspeakable.
We can hold the unbearable and still find the thread of hope inside it.
Non-witches confuse our capacity to hold heaviness with being heavy ourselves.
They mistake our ability to face horror with being horrifying.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
When you’re sitting in the terror of your own life, when you’ve been betrayed, heartbroken, or traumatized, what you need is not someone who turns away. Not someone who hides, denies, or blames.
You need a wise woman.
Someone who can see your dignity even when you can’t.
Someone who can sit with you through the coldest night and remind you that there is another side to it.
That’s the real work of witchcraft.
To stay human through it all.
To walk through the pain without closing your heart.
Spiritual practice was never meant to lift us out of life, but to bring us all the way into it.
With love fierce enough to face anything.
So if you ever wonder why witches are feared, remember: it’s not because we’re terrifying.
It’s because we don’t look away.
And in a world built on denial, that kind of presence is the scariest and most sacred thing there is.
Courage, truth, and infinite love,
.
Love Liberation Letters? Forward this email to a friend so they can click below and receive them too:
|
|
I don’t believe in magic, but I know that it works!
Magic is not a belief system, it’s a practice that works. Don’t believe me? Come try it out. If it doesn’t work, you lose nothing. But if it does… your dream life is about to begin!
|
“El poder está en la acción.”
— Maritza Schafer