During a recent conversation I said that the Anderson Faery/Feri lineage of witchcraft is helpful for trauma survivors because it is an embodied lineage with a focus on ecstatic experience – all things that steer us out of over intellectualizing and into body awareness – but only insofar as we work to heal our trauma, else it will retraumatize us. I’ve been pondering that statement ever since, because while I feel it to be true I have never upacked it. I’m going to try and do that a bit here.
What is trauma, and what does it mean to be retraumatized? We often think of trauma as tied to emotional, physical or sexual abuse, war, or natural disasters, but there are a whole range of life experiences that can be traumatizing, like surgery, the loss of a loved one, etc. Trauma happens when our nervous system is overwhelmed and our coping strategies don’t work. If the trauma is not processed or if we aren’t able to fight, flee, or in some way manage what is “attacking” us, then we freeze in a way that the unprocessed fear gets locked into our body.
A way some of us deal with the trauma locked in our body is by dissociating – we try to get away from our body, and thus the traumatic situation — but other expressions of trauma are anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, avoidant behaviors, and addiction. These expressions of trauma are almost always enveloped by a sense of shame. Something happens, we get traumatized and we cope the best we can, then hate ourselves for it because it doesn’t look or feel good. It’s the shame that binds the entire process together.
Effects of early trauma are a laundry list: a disrupted sense of self in relation to others, emotional instability, social dysfunction, difficulty recovering from stress, disorganized thinking, a limited window of tolerance, a limited capacity for relationships, poor impulse control, low self-worth, core shame, inability to recognize one’s own needs, a sense of isolation…. Oh, so much! And oh so many of the very reasons we seek out spirituality, even witchcraft; we are searching for healing.
If that search leads a person to the Anderson Faery/Feri lineage of witchcraft before therapeutic work with a qualified therapist has been done to address past trauma the very tools of the tradition could be dangerously retraumatizing. In this lineage we are asked to be present in our bodies, to be fully present for Sex, Self, Passion, Pride and Power. Meditators are now realizing that mindfulness meditation is retraumatizing for the same reason; in mindfulness practice we are asked to be present with the feelings and sensations of the body. If we have unprocessed trauma fear locked in our body, our own breath and body awareness can be jarring, flooding us and popping us right out of the body. We feel the trauma all over again and dissociate. In fact, we will happily watch our body sit and breathe on the cushion – we are well used to dissociating – thinking we are engaged with the practice, when in actuality we are not experiencing embodiment at all.
Retraumatization is a conscious or unconscious reminder of past trauma that results in re-experiencing of the initial trauma itself. It can be triggered by a situation, an attitude or expression, or by certain environments that replicate the dynamics (loss of power/control/safety) of the original trauma. – by Patricia Shelly, MSW, Shelley Hitzel, MSW, and Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW, Preventing Retraumatization: A Macro Social Work Approach to Trauma-Informed Practices & Policies
For those of us who dissociate, clearing the mind and entering stillness is a familiar state of numbness. It can be a blissful state, and hard to distinguish from altered states of consciousness. Yet, it is not the mindfulness taught in yoga, and it is not the embodiment required to engage Faery witchcraft safely. Embodiment is the beginning and foundation for more advanced practices in Faery.
Dissociation vs presence?
Meditation instructors and health care professionals who work with trauma survivors are taught to use trauma informed practices which focus on a sense of safety and stabilization (it is not in most of our scope of practice to offer trauma-specific work that focuses on processing trauma). One thing Faery witchcraft is not is safe, and its tools are notoriously destabilizing. Some do survive the crash course of a Faery induced healing crisis, others do not. With so many qualified therapists who specialize in integrating trauma, and so many excellent protocols, like EMDR, there is no reason to risk a student, or risk ourselves.
If you are drawn to Faery, but come from a trauma background, seek out a skilled EMDR therapist first. Give yourself a year of calming the central nervous system and finding safety within your body. You will be grateful you did.
*I am not a professional therapist. My insights come from my own experience and what I have found effective.
Incantation; Francisco Goya
Confessions of a Hedge Witch 