Healing Through Remembrance: An Embodied Exploration of The Basque Witch Burning Times

Abstract

During the early seventeenth century, the witch hysteria engulfing Europe reached its height in the Basque territory of Spain. There, between 1609-1611, members of the Spanish Inquisition tried and executed a number of the local residents as witches. Though the historical trauma of this “witch burning” time took place over four hundred years ago, I believe that it is still impacting me today as an aspect of the personal unconscious that holds past life memories. This research suggests that these past life memories have the ability to influence us through our personal unconscious and when re-activated, can be experienced through cognitive, emotional, and somatic symptomology. Further this may be disorienting for the individual as they may not know how to process trauma that feels very personal in nature but has no frame of reference in this time and space. Exploring how past life trauma may still be held in the body and manifest as physical symptoms is important as it brings awareness to another aspect of the human psyche that has yet to be tended to but that is extremely important and vital in both the personal and collective individuation process. Through using somatic alchemy and visionary art, a series of visual memoirs that capture my individual experience of past life trauma from the Basque witch burning times were created as a way to attempt to reduce and eliminate symptomology, cultivate healing and bring a sense of closure to the past.