Hey folx,
I was at powells bookshop on one of my favorite streets in Portland, Oregon and browsed through several different books. One part caught my attention since I’ve been thinking a lot about my upcoming travels including the trip I will take to Salem, Massachusetts.
As we know, the Salem witch trials were complex and had a lot of factors involved. Quite unfortunate in many of the folx who were condemned to die were actually innocent of any crime except of being who they are in their brilliance and magick. At that time, the community was very religious and….. to be different, to stand out, that was a crime in itself. That theme is a very old one and still runs rampant in today’s society.
Here is a list of those who were condemned at Salem witch trials. Remember, this was in 1692.
Bridget Bishop, hanged, June 19.
Mary Bradbury, convicted, September 6, escaped.
Rev. George Burroughs, hanged, August 19.
Martha Carrier, hanged, Auguat 19.
Sara Cloyce, convicted, September 6, reprieved.
Giles Cory, pressed to death, September 19.
Martha Cory, hanged, September 22.
Rebecca Eames, convicted, September 1, reprieved.
Mary Esty, hanged, September 22.
Abigail Faulkner, convicted, pleaded pregnancy.
Ann Foster, died in jail.
Sarah Good, hanged, July 19.
Dorcas Hoar, convicted, September 6, reprieved.
Abigail Hobbs, convicted, September 6, reprieved.
Elizabeth How, hanged, July 19.
George Jacobs, hanged, August 19.
Mary Lacy, convicted, September 6, reprieved.
Susanna Martin, hanged, July 19.
Rebecca Nurse, hanged, July 19.
Sara Osborne, died in jail.
Alice Parker, hanged, September 22.
Mary Parker, hanged, September 22.
Elizabeth Proctor, convicted, pleaded pregnancy.
John Proctor, hanged, August 19.
Ann Pudestor, hanged, September 22.
Wilmot Reed, hanged, September 22.
Margaret Scott, hanged, September 22.
Tituba, held in jail.
Samuel Wardell, hanged, September 22.
Sarah Wilds, hanged, July 19.
John Williard, hanged, August 19.
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Witch hunts still happen today. It is true. The burning times never stopped. Countless women (mostly), some men and children all died at the hands of religion and patriarchy and science. Families were torn apart during the salem witch trials and many other communities too. They’re just not as famous or public as the Salem ones became.
See, when science was starting to get a foothold into the practices of medicine and childbirth – they wanted to take over the control and process of how these would be done. The centuries old practices and support given by midwives and herbalists were pushed out since men – for some reason – came up with the idea that women couldn’t and/or shouldn’t know better than them in that particular space among other areas. Women were not allowed to be in university or to learn medicine during that time.
Today’s shows it to be different in some ways – ie. Women being able to attend university, study medicine, be doctors, midwives, nurse-midwives, herbalists, etc…. Still, despite those “progresses”, there is still a HUGE imbalance with the gender polarities.
Witch hunts still do happen today. It is true.
I do not want nor do I wish for another Salem to happen. I hope that it will never come to re-occur.
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To be able to work with plant medicine, to have working relationships with the Earth Mother, to be able to heal one’s self in the natural ways – those are the best ways to be in right relationship with self, community, land, and energy. It is an absolute gift and blessing to learn from different plants and the medicines, the teachings, the lessons they offer to us.
It truly is terribly unfortunate how religion and the Church became fractured in many ways. It also is unfortunate in how people left their countries in Europe that were persecuting them and left for the New World with the idea of religious freedom – however, those people – colonists – who came to the New World …. They started a mini-Europe after their own fashion without even noticing the subconscious influence of their ingrained culture from the home country.
The colonists became colonizers. In the beginning, perhaps, they didn’t come with that intention. Somewhere, something became lost in translation and colonization happened.
Indigenous peoples were pushed out of their villages, sent to other places, etc. That is another common theme that has happened over the decades.
Amerikka has a bloody history, her story, our story. This is true. This stuff isn’t easy to listen to and/or to accept.
I’m not going to sugar coat things that I share in this blog. I will share some hard and not-easy things in this blog because it is more than essential that we have dialogue and conversation about these heavy past happenings so we can learn & know Deeper in with the “how” to unravel the cycle and extract the roots out of this so this cycle does not continue in the future centuries.
Back to Salem and the witches – the main reason why I decided to share that list of folx who died? I will be going to Salem, Massachusetts next month-October to do some healing work with those witch ancestors, to go to the places where they died, to apologize to the Mother Earth, and do ceremony with them to bring peace and healing, to lay their bones to rest.
I will also go to Plymouth, Massachusetts to do ceremony with the earth there, to see Plymouth Rock, to apologize to the land there, and bring healing and rest to the restless colonizer spirits there.
This is part of the Ancestor Workings that I will be carrying in the coming months. I will be at Cherokee Country, North Carolina in November – during Amerikka’s “thanksgiving” time. I personally don’t celebrate thanksgiving as portrayed in the “thanksgiving” stories. These stories have been sugar coated and white washed since people don’t want to face the truth in the actual happenings of bloodshed, land loss, racism, people-pushing out among many other things that have happened.
My intentions with going to Cherokee Country? To do workings and healings with the mountains, the land, and my ancestors.
I am part Cherokee via the East Band Cherokee as well as indirectly related to the Powahatan people. I am mixed blood through my paternal biological line – my dad’s ancestral line hails of the black Irish-Scot mixed with those two indigenous/first people tribes. I stopped identifying as the skin color white. It didn’t feel right to me in that as well as it felt important to recognize the balance of my European and indigenous/first people’s bloodlines.
I will also be undertaking a pilgrimage to Europe sometime in early 2016 – to work with the Collective Ancestors as well as do healings/ceremony with the lands over there. It is important this work is done, especially now, indeed.
This is part of what has been brewing in my internal cauldrons. I will share more soon as things unfold into place and align for the path ahead of me.
As always, your interest and support in my work and what I offer to the world out there is deeply appreciated!!! Thankees you, Thankees you, Thankees you!
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if you’d like to donate to the work that I’m doing and/or are interested in booking a session with me, then please do contact me on here! I will respond as soon as I can in a timely way. Also, please be patient with any delays since Mercury goes retrograde (in libra) tomorrow – until October 7th or so.
Blessings be!!
-mr. Thorne