So, if you want to call me a witch

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 20, 2023

There was a lifetime joke in my family about me being a witch. We lived near Salem MA, and visited there several times a year. My oldest brother gave me my first baby broom. When my daughter was young as soon as she discovered we were going to Salem for the day she'd smile and say that we were going to visit my relatives. Well, she had to be reminded if they were my relatives, they were her's too!

This may seem strange considering I not only went to church, I was involved in it, taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, and served on a charity board. Later in life, I was an Administrator of Christian Education and then ended up becoming a Chaplain. So how did this "witch of the family" end up doing all that? Easy! The spiritual power I was born with.
 

Season of the Witch: Mind-Body-Spirit Books

Publishers Weekly
By Lynn Garrett
Aug 02, 2019

Witchcraft is one of the hot trends in the mind-body-spirit category

“Mystical Wellness”

Mental and physical health is under siege in the modern world, and preserving and enhancing wellness has become a central cultural quest. In Wellness Witch: Healing Potions, Soothing Spells, and Empowering Rituals for Magical Self-Care (Running Press, Sept.), author Nikki Van De Car offers rituals, spells, and recipes for healing remedies—tinctures, tonics, mantras, and meditations—that aim to unite body and spirit for what she calls “mystical wellness.” “Everyone’s connection to their own spirituality is different, and my goal here is to invite readers to investigate what feels right to them,” she writes. “Whether it’s hearkening back to the herb witch practices of our ancestors, or calling on their own intuition to create something entirely new, there is something deeply powerful—even magical—in making something yourself, for yourself. For me, wellness magic isn’t just something you do, it’s a way of life.” Van De Car is the author of Practical Magic and Magical Places. (learn more here)

It may be hard to understand for some readers but when you consider how people once viewed those using their gifts of the spirit to help humanity while asking for nothing in return have been recorded throughout history. If you know anything from the bible, consider the following examples of what you will not hear repeated in church, yet is there for you to find.

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

You only hear about the 12. Not the others. When they returned, this is what was reported.

Luke 10:17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Acts 1:15-16 lists their numbers at even more.

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.

And there you see there were far more than just 12 with Him. You also see that the Holy Spirit was active in what Judas did.

And in John 4:24 you see why we know that when you hear anyone say "In God's Image, it is the spirit that lives within all of us and not our bodies.

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Each of us has gifts within us that we were born with. I suggest you read all of 1 Corinthians 12 for the rest of this.

7 The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. 8 To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. 9 To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. 10 To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. 11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides.

One thing that keeps popping up lately is when some religious Christians condemn those whom they call witches. What they ignore is the reality that the only ones being condemned in the Scriptures are harming others and not helping them heal. Those condemning people using their spiritual gifts to help others are either uninformed or living in fear of such goodness.

Many of those accused of witchcraft in Salem and around the world were using their spiritual gifts to heal and were hated by others. We see that happening today. We all need to heal our minds if we have #PTSD. We also need to heal our bodies since our minds affect our bodies. The thing we need to heal most of all is our spirituality. That is what makes us who we are. Being able to turn to a healer is a wonderful thing. Being told they are evil and banned by scriptures is BS!

As for the word witch, I am not offended by it. After all, Jesus was accused of serving Beelzebub by the Pharisees. They wanted Him dead. That fact shows that Jesus was not religious since the religion He was born into wanted Him dead. He prayed and preached outside with the people and gave away what He had to give without asking for anything in return. He did not interrogate anyone. He didn't ask for payment. He didn't even ask the Roman Centurion to renounce the gods he worshiped or to walk away from serving in the Roman army.

This is also why most of the people I helped over the years said they were spiritual but not religious. We are able to contact God directly. That reassurance also came from Jesus when He taught the people to pray to their Father wherever they were.

So, if you want to call me a witch, I suggest Ekklesia witch. It means "called out" and became the "church assembly" but not the way you may think. It was a gathering. Where did Jesus gather the people? Outside~

Kathie Costos

Author of The Scribe Of Salem, The Visionary Of Salem, and the 13th Minister Of Salem where you can open your eyes to what has been there all along.

How common is #PTSD? The answer may surprise you.

Let it be this if you take nothing else away from this article.

“Recovery and healing is certainly possible and this is important to name for trauma survivors,” explains Verhulst. “Within this recovery, initial symptoms can become much more manageable and individuals can go on to experience better qualities of life with significant improvement.”

PTSD Statistics And Facts: How Common Is It?

Forbes Health
By Rena Goldman
September 14, 2023 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after someone experiences a traumatic event. While not everyone who goes through a traumatic event will experience PTSD, those who continue to deal with problems related to their social, physical and/or spiritual well-being after experiencing trauma may be dealing with PTSD. It’s also possible to experience higher levels of PTSD symptoms at different periods of time, such as during events like war, a pandemic or a natural disaster.

PTSD Statistics By Gender The type of traumatic event and the age at which it occurs can determine whether or not someone develops PTSD, and certain types of traumatic experiences put people at a higher risk. Women are more likely than men to develop PTSD, but that may be because women are more likely to experience sexual assault, a type of trauma that can cause PTSD.

About 8% of women and 4% of men get PTSD at some point in their lifetime.
Women are two to three times more at risk for developing PTSD when compared to men.
In women, about 10% to 12% develop PTSD during their lifetime.
In men, about 5% to 6% develop PTSD during their lifetime.
Women are also more likely than men to experience another mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression.
Men are more likely to experience trauma from physical violence, combat, accidents or disaster, while women are more likely to experience trauma from rape, sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse.
learn more here

Now you know that you are nowhere close to being alone even though you may not know someone like you.

The other good thing this article does is it breaks down how #PTSD strikes other people and not just veterans. Once we see that survivors are human first, we realize that we are all survivors of what could have killed us and need help to heal. It's a lot more powerful to have the reassurance others struggle too and we can all learn from one another and lean on them.

Miracles come without warning too!

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 12, 2023 

We woke up on September 12th with a reminder that normal no longer existed. That's the way all survivors of traumatic events wake up to what becomes a different normal to us.

It wasn't just the people running out of the buildings. It wasn't just the police officers and firefighters running into them. It wasn't just the people in the area, or across from it in New Jersey. People all over the world watched what happened in real-time.

Then searchers operated on pure adrenaline being fed by the hope they would find their friends alive. With each day, it was all being slowly drained away. They didn't see what all of that was doing to them. With each passing year, they didn't know that day would become a continuous danger to them.

U.S. Marines pray over a fallen comrade after he died from wounds suffered in fighting in Fallujah, Iraq, April 8, 2004. AP Photo/Murad Sezer, File

20 years post-invasion, many Iraq veterans haven’t found peace on the Harvard Gazette is a reminder that those we sent into combat in Afghanistan and Iraq didn't see it coming either. None of them saw #PTSD coming until it had already dug into them.

Miracles came to survivors on 9-11. Firefighters and survivors on Stairwell B and more stories came out. They happened but we didn't know about them until afterward. Miracles happened in Afghanistan and Iraq too. Can they happen to us too?

And now for the good news. None of us saw the people coming to help us, but they came. We don't see healing coming until it arrives proving hope still lives. Not just in us but in those taking the time to help us. Had they not had hope they could help, they wouldn't bother. Honestly, it can be damn draining to work with people after trauma but they do it and most of the time, it is because either someone helped them at some people in their own lives or they knew someone.

We don't see the day coming when we can actually feel the smile come over our faces. We don't see it coming when we suddenly pick up the guitar and play it again, or let our fingers caress the keys of a piano. We don't see it coming when we pick up the paintbrush, molding clay, or any of the other tools we use to create something out of love. We don't see it coming when we sit and write our thoughts, and visions, or attempt to allow inspiration to flow through us. That all can happen after hope returns to us and we don't see it until it arrives. Miracles come without warning too!

#PTSD is the invader you don't see coming

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 10, 2023

After surviving the traumatic event, you may have felt lucky to remain alive. Figuring you are safe, you try to get on with your life, going back to whatever that life was like before it happened to you. The thing is, that event opened the door to the invader. It is a war you didn't start. #PTSD is the invader you don't see coming.

If you are prepared for this enemy, you start to fight it right away. You know you have 30 days to conquer it and begin to heal the wound it caused. Should you not be prepared, your choice is to surrender to it or fight with everything you've got. Unarmed, you don't have much to fight with.

Waiting to just get over it, pretending nothing has changed in you, allows it to feed off everything you are and suck out the life you once lived. Family and friends tell you that you're not acting the same way you did before. They try to get you to cheer up. When that doesn't work, frustration takes over and they tell you to just get over it. They have no clue this isn't a wound that time will heal. This is a wound that spreads like an infection. While everyone else is miserable, including you, PTSD is all too happy to claim more of you.

That's what the Ministers Of The Mystery Series is all about. The first book, The Scribe Of Salem, is about a war reporter. Chris Papadopoulos was nearly killed by a bomb blast in Afghanistan. His friends serving in the Army saw it happen. That event wouldn't leave them alone.

When he returned home to a hostile wife, he had to fight to heal his physical wounds. He didn't know his soul was wounded too. He had too many other things to fight, including his wife. The wounds to his body eventually healed but the other wound grew stronger until he lost everything he had, including his faith in God.

Returning to Salem as a failure, he relied on drinks being poured by his favorite bartender and only friend, Ed. On the 7th anniversary of the bomb blast, he didn't want to spend one more day suffering without any hope of anything getting better. God agreed.

If you want to see how this demon can be defeated by a broken man, you'll have to read The Scribe Of Salem. If you're guessing it has something to do with witches, you're right but the witch in this one is one. You may have never heard of witches like her but chances are, ones like her are waiting for you to turn to them too.

Become an unashamed survivor with PTSD

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 8, 2023

It is a shame that you get blamed for what it did to you. Isn't it time for you to become unashamed of being a survivor of whatever caused #PTSD? It happened to you. You survived it. There is no shame in that. 

People will blame you for the way you've changed because they don't understand why you changed. Most of the time, survivors have no clue and cannot begin to help the people around them understand. Fear kind of removes the ability to say the words that you need help and are not doing anything on purpose other than trying to get over what happened. We all want to go back to the way we were before but we need to remind ourselves that whatever we survive in life changes us. No matter what happens to us, good or bad, we change on a daily basis. Even after you end up with PTSD, you are changing on a daily basis too. The thing is, either it is taking control over you or you are taking control over it.

Forget all about the doom and gloom that people say. It leaves you trapped in suffering in silence. There have been many times when you may have been around other people talking about what they think about PTSD. Bet it was all negative, like it isn't real, or even worse, those with it were too weak to handle stuff that happens in life. Spending time listening to them is wasted time. It's much better to spend that time learning what you can about what is causing you so much sadness and then listen to others who did heal.

Forget about investing money in groups claiming to raise awareness that veterans are committing suicide, no matter what number they use. No one needs to be reminded of people not finding the help they need to heal but you do need to be inspired by those that did heal. It's a lot better to find something that works for you. Isn't it?

There are a lot of good groups and sites out there. Make The Connection is from the Veterans Administration and is awesome. Anyone can gain information and inspiration from their videos. If you are not a veteran, you can still hear what others went through and how their lives got better. All you have to do is stop thinking that what they say is only for veterans. PTSD is PTSD no matter what caused it. There are videos from military sexual assault survivors too. 

The cause of PTSD is different but the way to heal is universal. You can #takebackyourlife and #defeatptsd. Plus don't forget that it was already lost when you survived the cause of it in the first place.

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