There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218�224
These words from Shakespeare seem to me to contain virtually the whole of witchcraft. The point for us as witches is to recognise when the flood is happening, which means knowing what the time is, to pick the right moment to act. It can also mean recognising when we must ask.
Sometimes this takes an initiatory form for us: as we go through life endings & beginnings necessarily happen, but often how we react to them determines how & to what extent we emerge transformed. In fact the signal that we are about to be transformed is usually that another challenge appears.
We've all heard the stories of people who take one Witchcraft 101 class & go around in a cloak zapping people. A real understanding of the witch's role involves understanding the ups & downs of the life, the responsibilities of often being the last person people turn to, & the obligations of being at the gate, the hedge, the door. As somewhat shady figures, witches often find themselves in odd corners & shadows.
I think the telling thing that we are at a turning point is that we must have our back to the wall. It is a saying in the craft that the teacher appears when needed, & that also goes for situations as teachers. I would personally extend this to say that the resources we need become available as we need them, & only then.
This means in some ways acting against the natural human inclination to try to preserve things as they are (at least in relationships this is probably less the case than it has been), which is to ignore the plain unpalatable fact that all things come to an end. Everything must come to an end. My personal opinion is that life as we know it on this planet will come to an end & nothing we can do will evade this for ever.
Where does this leave the witch? Exactly where we started off really, with the need to be aware of signs & times, so we can recognise how to act & when. The personal application for this is that when my poor old ginger tom dies (I really can't face moving him at this late stage, & anyway I may need to rent for a time), I'm going to sell my house & move, having lived there for 13 years. It's more than a little emotional, since I never wanted a house in the first place, I wanted a flat, but bought it to be near my mother. It's always been too much for me: what I really want is a shoebox in the city. In true maladaptive psychological fashion I've attached my stress on the frankly awful tenants next door - don't worry, they're as good as gone.
Did I say the other important thing for the witch is to be honest with herself? If I'm honest I have a sense of bereavement for my mother, bereavement for my cat, bereavement already for a house that I like lots but can't cope with & have never got in order. Actually, when I put it like that it's no wonder I'm feeling stressed! I also have to own up to the fact that at least some of these things are of my own making - not neglecting my tendency to over-analyse, of course!
But it's time. It's well past time. This is something that's been hovering for years. I will not avoid the challenge, because that would mean remaining in old patterns of behaviour that I thought served me at the time but don't any more, & maybe never did.
It's time!
------------------