A Discovery of Witches

Tracing My Italian Bloodline, Ancestral Traditions & the Women Who Came Before Me

Since I was a teenager, I've been fascinated by folklore, witchcraft, and the spiritual realm. In my last journal entry, I talked about how I hid that part of myself for a long time and used substances to cope and numb what I was feeling. Today, I'm free from that addiction, and I embrace my badass witchy self in ways I never thought I would. I genuinely feel more like myself these days than I ever have, especially when it comes to my spirituality.

But I've always wondered, where does this part of me come from? Why have I always felt so connected to tarot, rituals, energy, and the spiritual realm?

For context, I don't consider myself a psychic. However, I've had experiences throughout my life that some people might describe that way.

I've always been incredibly intuitive. Sometimes I'll have a strong feeling that something is going to happen, and then it does. I'll randomly mention someone I haven't seen or heard from in YEARS, only to run into them or hear from them within the next day.

Other times, I'll hear someone's name repeating in my head, almost like my own inner voice saying it over and over. Eventually, I'll say the name out loud, and every damn time, it turns out to be someone connected to the person I'm with.

For example, a few years ago, I was spending a couple of days with my boyfriend and one of his colleagues. I kept hearing the name Sheila in my head. Over and over again. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, so I blurted out, "Hey, do either of you know a Sheila?"

Turns out, Sheila was his colleague's sister.

Things like this have happened to me for as long as I can remember.

I'm also someone who feels things deeply. I can pick up on people's emotions, moods, and the overall energy of a space. I can walk into a room and immediately sense the mood, and there have even been times when I've felt what I believe to be the presence of spirits. Thankfully, over the years, I've learned how to separate what belongs to me emotionally from what I'm picking up from others. That took some practice!

But I never really knew where any of this came from.

My mother and grandmother weren't, as far as I knew, particularly spiritual or interested in these things. So, for most of my life, I just figured I was the weird one in the family. LOL.

Well, apparently, I was wrong.

A few days ago, I was having lunch with my mom, who's in her early 70s. Somehow, the conversation turned to my spiritual practices. Apparently, my mother is just now discovering that I'm "into this," as she put it.

Maybe all those years of hiding who I really was worked a little too well? LOL.

She asked if I would read her tarot cards.

I gently told her no. Sorry Mom!

I don't typically read for family members. It can get a little messy, and because I know so much about their lives and personal histories, I find it difficult to separate that knowledge from my intuition. It just feels better to keep those boundaries.

Anyway, after I told her no, she casually blurted out:

"You know, my grandmother Anna was a witch."

I swear my head turned so fast I almost gave myself whiplash.

UMM, EXCUSE ME? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!

She went on to tell me that her grandmother Anna, my great-grandmother, used to have people come to her home for card readings.

She also remembered Anna performing the traditional Italian evil eye ritual, known as malocchio, using drops of oil in water to determine whether someone had been affected by the evil eye.

And suddenly, another childhood memory made sense.

Growing up, we all had those little Italian horns. I had so many of them! Gold, silver, red, you name it. They're called cornicelli, and they're traditionally worn as protection against the evil eye.

I had grown up surrounded by little pieces of Italian folk tradition without ever really understanding their history or significance.

Naturally, I spent the next hour interrogating my mother. Sorry again, Mom. 😂

I wanted names, places, regions of Italy, family stories, ANYTHING she could remember about my great-grandmother Anna.

And somewhere in the middle of that conversation, something shifted.

I felt validated.

Oddly enough, I also felt this overwhelming sense of relief.

For so many years, I'd wondered why I was drawn to these things. Why spirituality, witchcraft, tarot, and ritual had always felt so natural to me when nobody else in my immediate family seemed particularly interested.

And now, here was my mother, casually telling me that her grandmother had been practicing some of these very traditions decades before I was even born.

Of course, I went home and immediately started researching.

I reached out to cousins, started asking questions, and began piecing together bits of our family history.

And then I discovered something else.

Not only had my great-grandmother Anna practiced these traditions, but according to family stories, so had her mother.

My great-great-grandmother.

Another generation of women who read cards, practiced folk traditions, and were remembered by their families as witches.

Once again, I felt that same sense of validation.

It's in my bloodline.

I'm not just the weird one in the family after all. Ha!

I come from a line of women who practiced their own kind of magic.

Now, I realize that Italian folk traditions, spiritual practices, and what people historically called witchcraft are not necessarily all the same thing. That's actually part of what I'm excited to learn more about. I want to understand what these women practiced, what those traditions meant to them, and how they were passed down through generations.

But regardless of what we call it, knowing that these women existed, that they practiced these traditions, and that they are part of my family history means more to me than I can really explain.

Over the last few days, things have felt different.

I've had this strange but beautiful sense of coming home. A feeling of connection to women I never even had the chance to meet.

I've started collecting photographs, family stories, names, and whatever records I can find. I'm diving into my Italian roots, exploring the traditions of the regions my ancestors came from, and trying to understand how these practices traveled through generations and eventually made their way to Massachusetts.

I'm also curious about why these traditions seemed to fade with my grandmother and mother, only for me to find myself drawn to them all over again.

Was it something that was quietly passed down without anyone realizing? Was it simply a coincidence? Or is there something deeper about the ways we connect to our ancestry?

I don't have those answers yet. And honestly, that's what makes this whole experience so fascinating.

I've always felt that part of my purpose in life was to break certain generational patterns and create a different path for myself. But I never imagined that looking backward into my family history would help me understand so much about who I am today.

For years, I wondered why I felt so different.

Now, instead of feeling different, I feel connected.

Connected to my roots, to the women who came before me, and to a history I'm only beginning to uncover.

This is just the beginning of what I imagine will be a pretty interesting rabbit hole. And if you know me, you know I'm going ALL the way down it. LOL.

I don't know exactly what I'll find, but I'm excited to keep exploring, learning, and sharing what I discover along the way.

Because sometimes, finding yourself means discovering the people who came before you.