I believe that Witchcraft and Wicca alike are both a source that can be used for healing. I like the religious aspect of Wicca in the whole concept of the Goddess. Witchcraft can be used for healing just as it can be used to do harm. I am the first to admit that I have used magick to help me on my healing journey and I also see the Goddess and the God as the connected higher part of self as well.

In many cases, I have seen how Wicca has helped many Witches. Although Witchcraft is not a religion and Wicca is a religion. for me, they go together. I am leaning more toward being a Wiccan Witch than I used to think. I don’t believe that Wicca is for everyone and I honestly believe that whatever rules we follow, it is essentially our own rules.

For me, Do as you will but harm none made sense. I used to smoke tobacco. I don’t view it as a sin. I was completely fine with smoking and I don’t really care if others smoke. I don’t believe in Sin. I did, however, quit smoking of my own choice a decade ago. I believe that we all find ourselves in different parts of our path at different points in our life.

As I grew in the craft and grew emotionally, I came to points where I decided that smoking cigarettes wasn’t for me anymore. As I grew emotionally and began to heal some serious emotional damage, I decided that revenge wasn’t good for me either. I actually began to move into different stages of my emotional healing. I know this physical disease and pain is only part of this experience and for me, the emotional damage was severe.

I still face the scars of life but as I grow and heal, I have begun to see things differently. When I am being attacked regardless if verbal, physical or magickal, I know, the damage I am experiencing although it may affect me, I don’t feel bitter about it. I can see that it isn’t always about me. Sometimes it is simply about them. Their pain, their damage, their healing, their life.

We affect not only ourselves but each other. It has been through healing my emotional spirit that helps me to face each day. I don’t have to do things out of spite or teach someone a lesson. I believe that our lessons come as they will. If something is directed at me, of course, I defend myself and if it stings the sender then maybe that is their lesson. I have an obligation to care for myself and to protect myself because let’s face it, no one else will and part of my life lesson has been to step up and protect myself from the pain of others and to learn from my own pain.

Yes, sometimes we cause our own pain and sometimes we are simply being affected by someone else’s pain. We are all connected regardless if we know it or not. I affect others and others affect me. That is life and I hope that one day that my pain will not be in vain and somehow will help others on their journey through this tough painful life that we all live.

Emotional pain hurts and when we are in pain, we all tend to lash out in some way. Regardless of the path you may be on today, know that it can change at any minute. What goes up must come down, what goes in Will come out. We all feel pain and it is up to us what we do with it. While I am going through pain of my own, I try to make sense of it. What is it that caused it. What part did I play in it?

For me, This past two years has been about emotional and physical healing. Through this I have experienced a sense of spiritual healing, however, I define that to be. For me, It is through my belief in the Goddess and through my own practice of Witchcraft however I define it.

That is what inspired this poem for me. As I battle with the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I am growing and learning and developing a stronger relationship with self. I am learning to love myself and through that, I am learning to love others and to forgive. I have learned what it means to forgive although I can never forget. I have learned what it means to be alone and to be loved.

Through healing, I have learned what it means to actually be loved and not just love. I have finally felt the beauty of Love instead of just the pain of love. I have learned what it means when people say it is bittersweet.

Through the Divine Spirit, I have found the healing I needed most. The healing not of the physical being but of the spiritual being. All connected and all separate to me. Mind, body, and spirit.