On my recent visit to Salem<\/a>, I was amused with thoughts of what Cotton Mather and the Salem town fathers of 1692 would think of what has become of their town. The true cause of the panic may lie in hysterical teenagers, petty jealousies or ergot poisoning, but these were people who seriously believed in malefic magic \u2013 they were terrified of it. They did their best to rid their town of witchcraft, an effort that killed twenty innocent people and ruined the lives of hundreds more. But in doing so, they insured Salem would forever be associated with witches.<\/p>\nToday, Salem is known as \u201cWitch City.\u201d There is a bronze statue of a famous (though fictional) witch in the center of town. The official town logo is a witch on a broom. There are numerous magical shops and hundreds of people who proudly and openly claim the title of witch.<\/p>\n
Stories are powerful things.<\/p>\n
In the ancient Celtic world, kings respected the power of bards. A happy bard could sing songs of praise and build support for a good king. An unhappy bard could write satires and destroy the influence of the powerful.<\/p>\n
What stories are you telling yourself? What roles do you play in those stories? Most importantly, who\u2019s writing your stories?<\/p>\n
Are you the hero, on a quest to find the holy grail and restore life to your land? Are you the warrior, protecting your tribe and doing what must be done? Are you the Druid, leading yourself and your community into deeper connection with the gods and Nature? Are you the modern witch, bending and shaping reality in accordance with your true will?<\/p>\n
Or are you the princess, locked away in a tower and unable to control your fate? Are you the redshirt, beaming down to a planet to die in support of someone else\u2019s adventure? Are you the medieval witch, burned at the stake for something you didn\u2019t do?<\/p>\n
Stories are powerful things. If you don\u2019t like the story you\u2019re in, change it. If \u2013 like Salem \u2013 your story has gone in ways you never intended, change it.<\/p>\n
Fair warning \u2013 changing your story can be hard. It\u2019s hard to accept that what you thought would make you happy really doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s hard to accept that who you\u2019ve been trying to be \u2013 and who you\u2019ve been told you should be \u2013 isn\u2019t who you want to be. It\u2019s much easier to double down on the old story, to work harder and harder on what\u2019s familiar rather than risk trying on a new role and a new story. But that\u2019s not going to help you become who you\u2019re called to be.<\/p>\n
You may not know how to play the role you\u2019re called to play. That\u2019s OK \u2013 someone does. Find them and learn from them. You won\u2019t be them any more than Christian Bale\u2019s Batman is Michael Keaton\u2019s Batman, or vice versa. But you can learn enough to get you started. Once you\u2019re started, you can add, subtract and remix elements and characters and make the role your own.<\/p>\n
We tell ourselves stories and cast ourselves in stories all the time, but we rarely think about what we\u2019re doing. That\u2019s dangerous \u2013 stories are powerful things. They can take our lives in directions we don\u2019t want to go. The good news is that stories can be changed.<\/p>\n
Change your story and you change your life.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2013\/05\/Beltane-2013-31-1024x847.jpg\" "\\"Denton")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We tell ourselves stories all the time but we rarely think about what we\u2019re doing. That\u2019s dangerous \u2013 stories are powerful things. They can take our lives in directions we may not want to go. The good news is that stories can be changed. Change your story and you change your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":1213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[125,4,5,95,97,72],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magic","tag-bards","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-salem","tag-salem-witch-trials","tag-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2013\/07\/04-17-Salem.jpg\" "\\"04")
<\/a>On my recent visit to Salem<\/a>, I was amused with thoughts of what Cotton Mather and the Salem town fathers of 1692 would think of what has become of their town. The true cause of the panic may lie in hysterical teenagers, petty jealousies or ergot poisoning, but these were people who seriously believed in malefic magic \u2013 they were terrified of it. They did their best to rid their town of witchcraft, an effort that killed twenty innocent people and ruined the lives of hundreds more. But in doing so, they insured Salem would forever be associated with witches.<\/p>\n