Writing with Witch Archetypes (Part 1)
In the spring of 2020, a former poetry student reached out to me. I remembered her as exceptionally talented, intelligent, and engaged. What I didn’t know yet: she was a witch.
What I also didn’t know yet: I was a witch.
I took a class on creative writing and the occult with Pam Grossman and Janaka Stucky that awakened my inner witch. In this workshop, we wrote based on Tarot cards and I remembered my love for them during my college years. The way Grossman and Stucky framed art as witchcraft resonated with me.
I decided to start Witch Lit in the fall of 2020, drawing on my soul Tarot card The Magician’s tools to boldly begin a business, something I didn’t have much of a background in.
I was confident in my teaching and writing though. I’d been teaching for close to two decades, held an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a doctorate in English from UNLV, and had published an award-winning book of poetry. These are my Wheel of Fortune soul card’s greatest hits. The shadow side was that shortly after I earned the doctorate in the spring of 2013, I was rear ended in a car accident that left me with a disability of chronic migraine.
The isolation of teaching online and staying home wasn’t new to me. I actually become more connected to other people during the pandemic because of Zoom.
In my first Witch Lit class, I was afraid my students would call me out as an imposter. “Who do you think you are?” is something I’ve heard many times. Every time I had ambitions beyond my working class roots or my gender, this question was hurled at me. Every time I’ve claimed my own power, someone was there to shame me about it.
But not this time. Instead the young women gathered excitedly in class, showing only love and respect to me and to each other. Most were witch-curious, and a little unsure of whether they wanted to call themselves witches. But they were all talented writers, and since “art is magic” as the problematic but brilliant Aleister Crowley said, I’d say they were witches. Many continued on to attend prestigious MFA programs.
On our last day together, I pulled the 3 of Cups. This was the spirit of our class.