old thread witch

Why do most stories, legends or actual accounts have the witch live on the outskirts of the town? I am referring to the ones that were accepted by at least most of their community.

There are now books on how to be an urban witch, or a city or apartment witch, and I have even heard neo-pagans angrily denounce those who put forward a very earthy, country-dwelling witchery, as ridiculously impossible.

But as usual, this comes down to the confusion with the word ‘witch’. Crafters, witchcrafters, those whose witchery is about magic, can live almost anywhere and work at almost anything.

Witches of my ilk cannot.

Once you start down the conscious road of witchery (obviously you are always on it and always have been), there are certain changes that take place within you that will turn your world upside down. This inner transformation affects your perception of reality, and as you begin to fit more snugly into your own skin, certain environments or conditions will be as anathema to you.

A simple example is living in urban landscape. A witch is no witch at all without the regular, even daily, contact with soil, plants and animals (including wild ones). Living on the outskirts affords better surroundings, but it also means privacy as well as quiet. Isolation is part of the witch life. Many choose not to partner with another. Those that do, stay close to home.

Many witches, because of our disconnection to the tribe, clan, or family, have only discovered their bloodline later in life. They may live in the city and work in a business environment. Something will have to give. Either she will be wracked with headaches and worse ills, or simply never feel fulfilled and suffer that agony, or she gives up the full expression of her path. Whilst a crafter, herbworker or folk mage can be a judge, social worker, hospital porter or CEO, the witch will wither and die in such a role.

A blood witch, once consciously on the path, will seek the green. She will withdraw from society, she will give up a career, sometimes a chance for children, sometimes a partner, she will seek the woods or the fields. This witch, living in urbanity, is an eagle in a cage, a bat forced to live in constant light, a dog away from its pack.

This is not about how the witch should live, but what the witch will live if she is of the bloodline. The blood witch resides on the heath out of necessity.