As you awaken to your purpose, you've probably heard the call to "show up", "speak your truth" and "share your soul's voice". After all, the world deeply needs your unique medicine. But as inspiring as this is, for lightworkers, it often comes with unexplainable fear and feeling a lack of safety.

This is because for centuries, it wasn't safe for us to be our authentic selves as healers, creatives, and mystics. It would've meant being shamed, persecuted, or even burnt at the stake (during the witch trials).

And although this memory is unconscious, it keeps so many of us in the spiritual broom closet, and from sharing our magic, because a part of us remembers a time when doing so meant difficulty or death.

This fear is known as "the witch wound", or "the persecution wound", and it's a wound that lives within us. It sits in our collective bones, and more specifically, in our throat chakras.

As I've stepped into my purpose, it's a lesson I've been reminded of again and again, and so in this post, I'll be sharing what the witch wound is, signs of the witch wound so you can recognise it, and how to heal the witch wound.

If you've been keeping your soul's voice silenced, I hope these words will help you set it free.

What is the Witch Wound?

The witch wound is an age-old spiritual trauma - passed down through ancestral lineages and past lives - that keeps you from fully embracing your soul gifts, voice and purpose.

It's rooted in capitalism and patriarchal culture, where those in power feared the rising of women, and sought to control them and their bodies through persecution and violence.

According to Kimberley Jones who coined the term, the witch wound is "the psychic scar in the collective conscious that mostly women start to awaken to and feel deeply in their bodies as soon as they consider stepping into their power".

9 Signs of the Witch Wound

Here are 9 signs and symptoms that you may carry the witch wound:

1. You have big dreams of sharing your gifts, knowing, and creations with the world, but you shrink yourself and shy away because you're afraid of what others will think and say.
   
   
2. You stay in the spiritual closet, hiding your love of oracle cards, astrology, and anything "woo", from your family, friends or co-workers.
   
   
3. You carry a deep fear of speaking your truth and being authentically seen.
   
   
4. You find yourself people-pleasing so as not to rock the boat or stand out.
   
   
5. You experience feelings of doubt, guilt and shame about your intuitive abilities.
   
   
6. You feel disconnected from your body, your emotions, and the divine.
   
   
7. You compare yourself to others and feel a deep mistrust, especially around other women. I believe this goes back to the historical witch hunts, when women accused others to spare themselves.
   
   
8. You fear authority or getting into trouble, even if it's something as simple as getting a parking ticket.
   
   
9. You often get a sore throat, feel tension in the neck or shoulders, or have difficulty speaking, where you can’t seem to spit our the words, swallow the lump in your throat, or your voice catches every time you open your mouth. These are all physical signs that your throat chakra is blocked, and this is the energy centre through which you manifest your purpose in the world.

Do you relate to any of these?

My whole life I could hear my soul's voice calling me, and that's how I found myself in various jobs where I had to use my voice, like answering police emergency calls and advocating in courtrooms, even though it petrified me.

In law school, I was trained in public speaking - so that I could give a voice to those that didn't have their own. The irony!

Every time I was told to "SPEAK UP", those words felt sharp, like a hot fire poker prodding at my soul. Choking back the tears, I angrily thought: "Why me?! Why does this have to be part of my calling?!" 

When I started my business, this fear surfaced again when I first shared my blog posts, YouTube videos, podcast, emails to my list, and social media content with the world. And it wasn’t like normal fear. Pressing "publish" literally made me feel like I was going to die. 

Looking back, I see that this was all part of my soul's training and growth.

And in having the courage to show up for these cosmic lessons, I was able to find my voice.

This was where I also discovered that as an introvert, I mostly prefer to express my truth through writing.

Healing the Witch Wound

Awareness and understanding is the first step to healing the witch wound and feeling safe in your truth.

You may also want to seek out sacred tools and practices to support you. Below, you'll find suggestions for your mind, body and soul. Let yourself be guided to those that you feel naturally called to:

• Being in a supportive, kindred community (such as sister circles).
• Writing or speaking regularly to create new neural pathways.
• Chanting, singing or humming to get your throat vibrating. 
• Relaxation techniques to regulate your nervous system.
• EFT (tapping) to release the energy below the triggers.
• Breathwork to move air across the back of your throat. 
• Yoga poses to stretch the throat, neck and shoulders. 
• Strengthening your intuition to develop self-trust.
• Affirmations to remind you of your truth.
• Releasing vows of silence.
• Connecting with nature.
• Spiritual life coaching.
• Past life regression.
• Energy healing.

Throat Chakra Tune-Up

If you like, you can also try this restorative yoga practice. You'll release tension in your shoulders, neck, and throat - so you can create spaciousness through which your spiritual truth can flow.

Sharing Your Soul's Voice

Even though it still requires extreme courage, there's never been a safer time in history to speak your truth and share your voice. The days of persecution that your soul may remember have come to an end. This doesn't mean that everyone will understand you or like what you have to say. But at least you'll no longer be holding your unique magic and medicine inside.

And when you express your unique tone - whether it's through poetry, art, song or story - you not only heal yourself, but the planet, too.

So take a deep breath, place your hands over your heart and affirm aloud:

It's safe for me to share my soul's voice. I now release any past vows of silence I have taken, in this lifetime and any other. I let go of anything that is preventing me from stepping into the full radiance of who I came here to be.

Go Deeper

If you feel called to go deeper, Discover Your Soul's Purpose is a sacred 3-month coaching journey through the chakras to remember why you came into this world.