witch craft – Ena's worlds

Until it happens to you

No, this blog post is not about Lady Gaga’s timeless song, “Til it happens to you”, although I would encourage any soul to check it out.

I feel that we, as humans, are motivated by our survival instincts to engage in victim blaming. Aligning or identifying with the victim feels like admitting our own vulnerability, because if the victim was “victimized”, and we are like the victim, then we are also vulnerable to being victimized.

To cope with this fear, one points out the victim’s flaws, whether it be regarding the victim’s character or behavior, trying to make the victim as unappealing of a human being as possible, one who we can’t possibly be similar to. In short, we dehumanize the victim so that we can feel safe.

I have certainly been guilty of this myself. I did not come from money or anything special, really, and my academic achievements used to be the only thing that made me stand out from the herd and gave me a sense of belonging and identity. Because of this, I had absolute faith in my ability to tolerate whatever hardship my research or academic career otherwise would throw at me. Unconsciously, I was TERRIFIED of ever admitting that I could face a situation that I couldn’t tolerate in academia. Therefore, when I heard about other trainees leave their abusive supervisors, I used to immediately go into victim blaming mode for my own survival, thinking that the abused student/ trainee was “weak”, “useless”, and probably deserved the bad treatment anyway.

If you read my previous blogs, you will know that the goddess eventually decided to teach me a lesson and gave me an obstacle that I could not overcome. I, for once, could not tolerate the abuse that was thrown at me and had to leave that position, the learning opportunities that came with it, and the possibility of a good evaluation in that rotation. When I shared this story with my colleagues, some were sympathetic and offered me words of support and advice. Others however, looked at me with judgmental eyes veiled by fear, almost wanting to scream at me “You deserved what happened to you, that would NEVER happen to a normal resident”. They interrogated me to find out what I had done wrong to deserve this outcome, so that they could be reassured that it was my fault, and that it would never happen to them. It did not escape me that I had also felt the same urge to judge when other colleagues would confide their struggles to me – I was being taught an important lesson that would stay with me forever.

My work in providing compassionate care to my patients as a physician DEPENDS on my ability to identify with them. If a patient with an extensive substance use history walks in the door with yet another overdose – I cannot hope to provide empathy and support that the patient needs in that moment unless I feel a kinship with them. The patient was likely living in highly marginalized conditions with multiple social stressors – the substance use was a way of coping when they had no other resources. I have also been at the end of my rope at the mercy of strangers for my next meal or a roof over my head. This person could be my brother, sister, mother, father, or even me.

What do I do though, when that survival instinct to feel safe is so deeply engrained into my biology? This is when I dig into my identity as a witch and ask for the help of my goddesses and spirit guides – to allow me to transcend beyond my human nature to recognize that we are all children of mother Gaia. Spiritual leaders in witchcraft and other paths often come from dark pasts – I deeply believe that this is no mistake. I believe that these individuals are angels sent to earth to learn a lesson, so that they can alchemize their suffering into healing light.

At the end, brothers and sisters, we are ALL human. We are ALL vulnerable to the same misfortunes and follies, to the same depths of sorrow and loss. This was one of the many lessons the goddess had planned for me when I came to this earth, and I hope to share it with you today.

Have a blessed new moon, child of Gaia. I embrace you.

Embracing the Other

Working in a hospital as a doctor is an interesting experience because while you are working on a team, you are often the only doctor on the floor, especially if it is overnight and you are on call.

The responsibility of being the only doctor feels HUGE the first few nights any resident does call by themselves, and it never really goes away as staff physicians often tell me. Once in awhile, a physician from a different specialty will work on the floor with you as a part of a “buddy system” to be an extra pair of hands on the floor, which is always greatly appreciated. The downside of being that “off specialty” doc is that they are often othered by the team, seen as less competent, and treated as such as well.

I was having yet another overnight shift at the ED where my staff happened to be this off specialty doc. However, he had been working as a ED physician for many years and considered himself (perhaps accurately) a specialist in the area. Unfortunately, the night went very poorly for him. Several resuscitation cases came in that he could not manage on his own – he had to call the help of another ED doc but alas, it was not enough to save the patients. I was not involved in those cases so I did not know of the details of what happened in that resuscitation room.

The rest of the night marched on with a heavy mood. I could hear whispers from all corners of the hospital talking about how these cases did not go as they should have, that another physician would have been able to save them. It was hard to control myself from not thinking what they were thinking. Would the outcomes have been different had it been a different doctor? Someone who was trained in ED from residency?

When it came time to review some of the patients with this physician, I could see the worn and defeated look on his face. As soon as I started presenting, he abruptly cut me off and without giving me a chance to finish, he started to ask basic questions, insinuating that I basically did not know what I was doing. When I showed him my documentation proving that the information was all there, he LOUDLY told me that residents are not to be trusted and that because of this, I must follow a way of presenting as per his preferred style to demonstrate that I “am not making stuff up”. I was dumbfounded by this experience. Immediately my mind went to what I was going to put on this supervisor’s evaluation for treating his residents this way. Then, the goddess whispered in my ear, “no, Embrace the Other”.

He was alone in this entire ED, managing a highly acute floor by himself in a truly difficult night. He was further othered by the staff here due to the failed resuscitation cases. I imagined what I would have felt in his shoes, and my heart immediately broke for him. The thing is many resuscitation cases are not “salvageable” when they come into the hospital. Patients often have the wrong idea of what a resuscitation is like from TV shows – miraculous recovery is extremely rare. Even if a person’s heart is to start beating again, the chance of them regaining much of their baseline level of functioning is even smaller. With his years of experience working at the ED, I am sure he knew this too, and so did the rest of the ED team who were judging him. However, amidst all this background information, his identity as the “other” is what shifted their view into judgement and criticism instead of understanding and empathy. His harsh criticism of my work, increasing his voice so that everyone else could hear, was probably an unconscious effort on his part to re-exert his power and sense of control on this floor. Yes, it came at my expense, but what I had to endure was far less than his suffering.

Gritting my teeth and controlling my breath, I told him “Thank you so much for teaching me this, it is very helpful.” He nodded and sent me on my way to see more patients. At the end of the night, when he was doing my evaluation, he said “I was so glad you were here, it would have been a rotten night without you”. It was in this moment when the teaching of the goddess became apparent. Had I not shown understanding and patience in that moment, I would have pushed him further into the darkness. In choosing to set my ego aside to embrace the Other when nobody would, I accompanied another physician, another human being, in his journey from darkness back to the world of light.

Manifesting and Crafting

I love crafting.

My love of crafting is one of my regular reminders that there is something magical inside of me.

Not just crafting, I love anything where I am engaged in creating something that has not existed before. I love building things out of clay, painting, western and Chinese calligraphy art, making music, and creating digital art. This translates into research as well – my favorite part about doing a research project is at the very beginning, where I am coming up with a research question and designing a particular technique or optimizing a protocol.

Most of the time, if not all, I do not have any clue as to what the final product is going to look like. I am just captivated by the joy of creation. I put my hand on the equipment, smile, and let my intuition guide my work. I know that as long as I am having fun, the outcome will ultimately be a reflection of that joy.

This is a little statue of the goddess I made. It is of course not perfect – far from it, in fact, if you want to consider the technical aspect of it. However, when I look at it, it brings a smile on my face, and I feel the joy that I felt while creating my little goddess. It is amazing how energy translates as well – when I showed my little figurine to my husband, he immediately smiled and gave her a loving pat on the head.

As witches, we co-create our destiny and the world that we live in. The Universe becomes a product of the beautiful harmony between our intentions and the spirit. Lately, I started to wonder why then, do I not approach co-creation with the joyful wonder and curiosity that I have when I am crafting. Instead, often, I find myself approaching new situations with apprehension, and at times, even outright assumption that the outcome would be horrific.

Thinking outside of magic, self-fulfilling prophecy is a well-known and studied concept in psychology. It applies to situations as well as people. If one believes that the outcome of a situation will be horrible, and therefore there is no point in trying, the lack of effort and negative behaviors that this person exhibits as a result of these beliefs will ultimately result in a bad outcome – thereby confirming this person’s “prophecy”. Another well-studied concept in psychology is Confirmation Bias. Confirmation bias is one’s tendency to look for evidence that is confirmatory to the person’s ideas/ beliefs/ opinions, adding additional evidence that the belief was correct. For example, if I approach a new rotation with the preconceived idea that it would be a bad rotation, my mind would unconsciously look for signs that it is a bad rotation, focusing on negative incidences and remembering them instead of positive experiences that also occurred with the same or even greater frequency. Overtime, these negative experiences will be much more salient and accessible in my memory than the positive ones, making me CONFIRM my BIAS that the rotation was in fact, bad.

As a witch, I believe that the Universe returns the energy that I put out. This is a Universal notion that is echoed in many different cultures – I strongly believe that ideas that resonate and persist in multiple cultures speak to the Universal truth. Therefore, if I approach a new situation with negative energies, the future that I co-create with the Universe will reflect this negative energy, ultimately leading to a negative outcome.

Crafting and co-creation are both acts of creation. I can tell myself that I approach crafting with much more joy than I do towards entering novel situations in REAL LIFE because I have complete control over what I craft while I have very little control over my reality. However, believing this is a CHOICE that I made. In crafting, I do not have control over the weather conditions that my air dry clay is exposed to while on the balcony. I have no control over the hairs falling out of my dollar store brushes, and I certainly have very little, if not ZERO control over my tempéramental computer and its constant struggle to run my lengthy codes. What is different is that in crafting and even in research, I have unconsciously made a decision that whatever is produced at the end of it is worthy of love. This allows me the freedom to approach crafting with wonderous curiosity and without fear of the outcome.

I am very well aware that many situations in real life are not enjoyable and even painful. I will not lie to myself and say that all parts of life are joyful, even if I make significant efforts to believe that they are. However, I can make the choice that no matter what, at the beginning, end, and in every step of that journey, I will love myself and trust that I am worthy of love of the Universe. Co-creation is working with the Universe to shape my reality. The product of co-creation, therefore, is my future self.

This blog therefore is a declaration to myself and you, my brothers and sisters, that I make a commitment to believe that no matter how circumstances outside of my control tear me apart, I am, even if I am in pieces, worthy of the love of the Universe. I trust that no matter what, I work with the Universe to co-create my reality where the outcome will always be of love.