My unexpected Word of the Year for 2024
Following on from my reflections about my 2023 Word of the Year, ‘Truth’, today I’m exploring my initial thoughts on my upcoming Word of the Year for 2024: Witch.
Witch found its way to me by accident. At Samhain (Hallowe’en), I began an experiment with a coaching colleague exploring the scribble drawing technique and how it might support my intention-setting practices as part of my following the Wheel of the Year. My intention for these final six weeks of the year until the winter solstice was to find a balance between being creative and finishing creative projects while also looking after my physical body and not spreading myself too thinly (over toast!)
I mused for a moment that perhaps balance was my word for 2024, not that I was looking for my word in early November. But as soon as I thought about it, I instantly discarded it. Balance didn’t feel right. I was about to carry on with my day when the right word whispered in my ear… witch.
Witch felt like a gut punch. Witch felt like the air being sucked out of my lungs. Witch felt like an airlock opening and being dragged out into space. Witch felt like a full-body YES.
Within 30 minutes I had a migraine. Within days, acne erupted all over my chin and I was uncontrollably skin-picking my thumbs until they were bleeding and raw, exactly where I once had warts as a child. Physically I was becoming the hag, the witch we’re taught to be so afraid of. I wondered if I’d misheard my word and perhaps something else fit better. I wracked my brain and scoured online ‘word of the year’ lists looking for other words that may feel like a yes… to no avail.
So naturally the more I wanted to run away from it, I became even more determined to embrace it.
Witch is officially my Word of the Year for 2024. I’m apprehensive and intrigued by what may come of it.
What I’ve learnt about having a Word of the Year and why I find it such a helpful practice, particularly as a creative person is that it’s open-ended. If I said my New Year’s Resolution was to go to the gym twice a week and then stop by February, I would know I had ‘failed’ and not met my expectations.
Word of the Year sets up your mindset differently because there are no real expectations. It’s a word and it’s up to you to interpret what it means to you and how you bring it into your life. Your word can manifest in so many expected and unexpected ways and can change through the year. Your word is a theme, a focus point, an anchor to keep bringing yourself home to, not a set of rules or expectations to stack yourself up against. There is no right or wrong with a Word of the Year.
I’ve also found that the words, because they become a part of you, they embed into your psyche, and as such, they begin to layer. I talked about this in my reflections for this year’s word which you can read below if you’re interested to know more about it.
And that’s my first thought with the word Witch. It’s being built on the foundations of Joy (2022) and Truth (2023). Witch is a loaded word for me, I simply can’t go through a year of walking with Witch without looking it square in the face and finding my joy and my truth within it.
Being born on Hallowe’en, I’ve always joked that I’m the original witch. My other joke is that I scared the hell out of my parents the day I was born and I’ve been doing as much ever since.
Being a Hallowe’en baby initially was awesome. I had the best fancy dress birthday parties you could imagine. I did tend to skip over trick or treating because depending on the day, I was either having my birthday party or having a family get together. Besides, it was my birthday, I already had plenty of sweets and chocolate, I didn’t need more!
As I got older and girls at school got meaner, my spooky origins got used against me. I became known as the girl whose eyes glowed red when she was angry. I was called a witch like it was a bad thing (I grew up in the 90s, hag-like witches were the only depictions of witches any of us really saw). I tried healing a friend’s twisted ankle one day and was immediately cast out from the group and called a freak. Suddenly, it wasn’t cool to be born on Hallowe’en and I grew to resent it. I stopped with my fancy dress parties and began to resent the whole culture of Hallowe’en.
However, over the years, the call to lean into my spiritual side and embrace my witchy ways has never left. It’s come up time and again, a crossroads on which to choose my fate. It’s only in the last few years since meeting and going on my personal healing journey that I’ve felt even vaguely able to look at it.
And then last year, I wrote a book that would throw me firmly out of the spiritual closet. In my walk with Truth this year, it’s been an ongoing inner battle to publish the book and not be afraid. The persecution complex was very real and very much alive in me all year. I combed over my manuscript looking for anything that felt unsafe to share, then through a combination of EFT tapping and rewriting, I would work through whatever came up until the manuscript (and my mental state) felt safe to put it out there.
I kept tapping (and crying!) and tapping (and sharing my fears with friends) and tapping (and threatening to delete the manuscript!) and tapping (and crying some more!) until finally, I’d run out of runway. It was now or never. Take flight or taxi back.
I took the leap and put the book out into the world and what I found was relief. I was able to let go of all the fear I’d been holding onto, able to breathe easier than I had all year. In sharing my deepest vulnerabilities, I’ve found it resonates deeply with people who read it and that’s made it worth all the tears and fear.
So now what? Why is Witch my word for 2024 if I’ve already come out of the ‘spiritual closet’?
Because there’s coming out and there’s coming out.
As a self-publishing author, I can say the book is out there in the world, but if no one ever reads it then did I even come out of my spiritual closet?
My intention for my Year of the Witch is to do exactly that, embrace it the whole year through. That means putting myself out there and letting the world see me and my magic. Instead of downplaying my skills and knowledge, I intend to step out onto the biggest platforms I can find and scream it from the rooftops. Instead of publishing a book and telling no one, I’m going to tell everyone.
And now I’ve started writing, I don’t want to stop. I want to take it further and embrace my hang-ups around my fiction writing abilities by delving into writing fiction that explores Norfolk folklore and yes, Norfolk witches. Unravelling Inwards is getting a follow-up book (hopefully in 2024?)
Witch is going under the microscope in every aspect of my life. I plan on embracing even more of the Wheel of the Year, working with seasonal energy and my creative flow to hopefully avoid my usual summer burnout.
Perhaps, for my 35th birthday, I will finally return to form and celebrate with a fancy dress party once again!
I most definitely intend to explore what the word Witch means to me now. My emotional landscape is entirely different to what it was when I was a child, a resentful teenager or a wounded young adult. Who am I now when I embrace the word, Witch? I guess we’ve got a year to find out!
With love,
Camilla x
P.S. Do you work with a word of the year? What’s your word for 2024? I’d love to hear from you!
If this resonates with you and you feel called to share it with someone who needs to hear this, I would be very grateful.
