Description

I created this piece for Samhain 2025, as a way to honour all the women whose life and liberty were forfeit because they shared their knowledge and skills in order to heal and care for others. For the betrayals of trust, for the demonisation of practices, for the burnings and sacrifices I hold their wound in my body and soul, and will not forget.
“Witchwound” speaks of deep wounds and the sacrifices, of courage and unity in the face of violence and hate, the rise of the goddess. It was painted in response to a vision shared with me by a Scottish witch and long standing pagan author, Barbara Margaret Meiklejohn-Free. The piece will be the cover to her new book “The Witch’s Wound – Reclaiming the Bloodline of Power” …. and the best way to convey the deep emotions and connection I have for this piece is to quote Barbara on her vision…

“A Witch is bound at the stake at the centre, flames curling around her. She looks wild, her eyes gleaming with defiance. Her hair is as dark as the night sky. She is unafraid — her face is lifted skyward, sovereign and unbroken. Around her stands a great circle of twelve goddesses — Barbelo, Sophia, Epinoia, Nammu, Tiamat, Naunet, Neith, Nyx, Gaia, Asherah, Shekinah, and Lilith. Each carries her own essence, radiant, shadowed, born of sea, star, or stone. Together, they form a cosmic coven encircling the Witch.

At her feet runs the Witchblood river, full of skulls and bones, holding the countless dead of the Witch, the Mother, and the Goddess. From the Witchblood river rise black ravens, their wings tipped with dripping blood as they carry the spirits of the dead upward into the storm-dark sky. Above, the heavens swirl with starlight, and within that cosmic veil, the Mothers appear as constellations — eternal witnesses who cannot be forgotten.

This image should hold both sorrow and strength. It must speak of wounding and remembrance, persecution and resilience, and empowerment. The Witch does not stand alone. She is encircled by the First Mothers, forming thirteen in the circle — the sacred number of the coven, the moon, and the eternal feminine.”

With these words echoing in my soul I created “Witchwound”

Barbara’s response and connection to aspects of the piece was just what I hoped for…

“Naomi, the moment I saw your painting, I felt the serpent immediately — not as symbol, but as the living current beneath it all.

As you know before they turned her into danger, the Serpent was the first language of the Goddess.

Long before she was buried by religion, she arrived as serpent — coiled around the Tree of Knowing, spiralling through the womb of the land, the life-force that rises from root to crown. She was never temptation — she was remembrance. Every ancient lineage once knew her as healer, renewer, awakener. Always female. Always the initiator.

In the true bloodline, the serpent doesn’t crawl — she ascends

And this is where the wound began — the moment they turned the serpent into a warning instead of a blessing. To sever woman from the serpent was to sever her from her own rising. That is the root of the Witch’s Wound.

But she has never gone.

She lives in the spine.
She lives in the bloodline.
She lives in that river of red you have painted beneath the burning body.
She rises every time one woman refuses to die in silence.

Your painting captures that threshold with unflinching truth.

That woman at the stake is not defeated — she is the doorway.
The river of blood is not ending — it is transmission.
The skulls are not death — they are the memory-keepers.

And that serpent on her shoulder… Naomi, I feel her. She is the First Mother whispering:

“I am still here. Remember me. Rise.”

“They did not fear my death
They feared my remembering.
For once, the witch remembers,
The bloodline awakens in every daughter
who thought she was alone.”

The Witch’s Wound — Reclaiming the Bloodline of Power, written by Barbara Meiklejohn-free published with Moon Books.

I thank Barbara for her vision, her magick and her inspiring words. Just as I thank all the women come before me, who spoke their truth, called out oppressors and defended the defenceless. With this image I will remember them each Samhain and give thanks for their life, as I carry their sacrifice like a sacred wound.