what do witches and theta brainwaves have in common
2023 the year we learn to listen to life
Week 25--in which a strange connection between witches and the theta brain wave state surfaces
Last week for the birthday sale!
Friends, soul writers, mystics, witches, and lovers of prayer,
Before we begin, let me send a hearty welcome to the dozens of new subscribers who found me last week on Eimear Stassin’s The Golden Grail witch summit. And thank you for all your lovely comments on my contribution to that summit, my talk about “Redefining Witch.” Eimear kindly sent me the video and it will appear on my site once we set up a new mystic witch section. Lot of fun changes to my site are coming.
As long-time subscribers know, witch dropped into my life in August 2020, and so far she has indicated no desire to leave. I hope she never does. I have fallen deeply in love with this once-revered title and fully embrace her command (and yes, it’s a command) to transform witch from the worst thing a woman can be called to the most sacred.
On the surface that should be an impossible task. After all patriarchy was and still is totally invested in making witch the ultimate evil. It wasn’t a quick decision. It has been a journey. A walk. A long walk with lots of twists and surprises. I’m still walking that witch path and probably always will.
In these Sunday letters I talk about a few steps on that path that surfaced during the past week. My hope is to invite you to reflect on what is unfolding—because it’s not my story, it’s our story—and perhaps even take a few steps with me.
There’s a clue to this “walking” concept in the odd name of this newsletter: Notes from the Field.
When I first started using that title in 2017, field meant the unified field of prayer. I was (and still am) obsessed with what prayer really is, and how beautiful and delightful and powerful it was, and can be again. Once we let go of all that patriarchy has told us prayer has to be. Turns out they lied. They lied about prayer. They lied about witch. They lied about the two things dearest to me.
This idea of walking isn’t a metaphor for me; it’s a living reality. I am literally walking a sacred path to the renewed and restored whole and holy witch.
In last Sunday’s newsletter, I talked about “the path to the path,” a concept that has intrigued and fed and prodded me for several years.
This word path keeps talking to me. She talks to me in dreams as I wander where she leads. She talks to be as I’m reading and suddenly path pops off the page for me to notice. I sense path is trying to get my attention. And when something wants my attention, I notice. And I respond.
Path has been grabbing my attention this past week in two ways: one oracular and one visual. On the surface, these two media seem to be very different, but I think they’re really sisters. I think they’re singing the same song, just in two different ways.
The Oracle Path
I’ve spoken often of the oracular chandras, one for each degree in the zodiac, in Ellias Lonsdale’s Inside Degrees. This book is food for me. I am ever grateful to shamanic astrologer Emma Kupu Mitchell for recommending it. She, in turn, first learned about it from star sister Marcia Wade. Two cosmic witches if ever there were.
So, at Solstice on Wednesday, I celebrated the sun by reading the Chandra for Cancer at 0 degrees, which is Cancer 1. The word path isn’t directly in it, but the Chandra for this moment absolutely speaks to the path of redefining and re-sanctifying witch.
I bet it has something to say to you, too. Here’s just the opening bit:
“Carving out a sacred place for what you most care about to flourish. Giving your all to a task or project, a way of life, or shared stream.”
Yup. That’s exactly where I am right now. I’ve been carving out a sacred place for the re-sanctification of witch.
The Visual Path
And I’ve been carving it out in a unique and powerful way all week. Which is the second path, the visual path.
I’ve been walking the path of the ancient 7-circuit Goddess labyrinth, seeing it not in its classic form—luscious as that is—but seeing it in a dramatically different, multi-dimensional way.
The labyrinth is the ultimate mystical path. Although you might see one on the ground or on a piece of paper, but the labyrinth is not a flat surface. It’s a living field that holds the wisdom, knowledge, and memory of all those who have ever walked it, especially those who created the first labyrinths thousands of years ago. In other words, the labyrinth is a morphic field. The past is totally present when you touch or even look at a labyrinth.
If you’ve ever walked one, whether a classic 7 or an 11-circuit medieval one like the famous labyrinth on the floor of Chartres Cathedral, you know that as you turn one way, then another, and another, and facing yet another 180-degree turn, your poor brain, trained to think in straight lines and aim always for the goal, finally stops. It just gives up.
And that’s when the magic happens. That’s when your non-linear mind, your creative mind, your theta mind beckons you across the threshold between worlds. As you take one more step on the path, the magic path, something surprising happens.
You have entered the magic of the theta brainwave state.
I first stumbled upon how to drop into theta while writing 26 years ago. At the time, I didn’t know I was shifting brainwaves. I just knew that a divine voice would surface on the page when I wrote. And following the guidance and comfort I received on the page, everything in my life changed. Everything.
But it was only when I began to dig into science to try to discover what is actually happening when you write this way, that I learned about the theta brainwave state.
I was in the midst of an interview with a pair of consciousness coaches in New York who were massive fans of journaling. They went so far as to say "writing is the most effective spiritual practice!” Clearly, they were my kind of people. So I began to describe what happens when I’m writing really fast and can barely lift the pen, when a voice comes through with guidance I know did not come from me.
There was a long silence. Finally, the husband said something that changed my life completely and actually opened the door for work I’m doing all these many years later to heal witch.
He said, “Janet, I do not know how you did it, but you have trained yourself to enter mystical theta.”
The key words here are not theta, but “trained yourself.” Trained myself? How could I have done that when I didn’t even know what theta was.
That set me off on a path to learn about theta, especially mystical theta, and explore other ways I can “train myself” to drop into these slow delicious brainwaves. Theta is pure magic. And, it turns out, not only can you drop into theta while writing, that’s what happens when you walk a labyrinth. When you pray. When you chant. When you meditate. When you dance, create, sing. When you rest in the liminal space before waking. I’ve now discovered and practiced well over a dozen ways to drop into theta.
And I now see that theta has a direct connection to witches.
Think about it. Why were pre-patriarchal witches revered? Why were they seen as sacred?
- They knew how to step through the threshold between worlds.
- They were mistresses of the threshold.
- From that “round open door” as Rumi calls it, they returned with prophecy, divination, healing, prayer...
- They brought the community everything to live a life of peace, harmony, and reverence.
No wonder patriarchy killed witches. They had to.
Because anyone who knows how to drop into theta and cross the threshold between worlds cannot be controlled.
Once you have access to the endless well of real divine knowledge, you know you can trust your own intuition. And you don’t need or want to hear any supposed spiritual authority tell you what you have to believe or do.
I guess you could say that witches have eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!
I’m deep in creating a multi-intensive exploration of the 7-circuit labyrinth to awaken, remember, and trust each of the 7 essential spiritual gifts. (I'll write about the seven next Sunday,)
The first of what will be seven intensives just ended. I didn't know when I created it that it was actually just the first on a labyrinth! I was as surprised as everyone else.
- Now available on demand at a reduced price of $202 with an additional 22% discount on my birthday sale which ends this week.
- If you missed that intensive, you might wish to purchase it now and experiment with your intuitive senses throughout July.
- If you are one of my new subscribers through Eimear's event, this 22% discount is a little bigger than the one I offered as a gift for her event, so take advantage of it this week.
The 2nd intensive walking the 2nd circuit of the labyrinth will open in August. I’m creating it right now and hope to have a full description ready for you the first week of July. It will be called:
The A.R.T. of Becoming a Witch:
How to Awaken, Remember, and Trust
Your Innate Ability to Cross the Threshold Between Worlds.
All the intensives with have this pattern. They're all The ART of Becoming a Witch. And they all help us awaken, remember, and trust a spiritual gift.
But the third line will change for each one. The 2nd is all about Theta, we'll experiment with five ways to train yourself to enter theta. And have five radical mystical journeys. And a whole lot more.
It's going to be a theta feast.
to the magic of theta, the elixir that restores the power of the original, whole, and holy witch,
Janet
PS: All my On Demand intensives are in the birthday sale, not just the first ART intensive.
Follow the link, open the OnDemand tab, peruse the offerings, put them in your cart, and add coupon code birthday to receive 22% off.
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