THE STORY OF LA STREGA
I was born as a first-generation Italian American. My parents came from the same small village in Northern Italy. I was surrounded by the language, culture, stories and the overlayer of religious beliefs. The number of religious icons per room-yes, even the bathroom- seemed to increase over the years.
That being said, my parents developed their own version of the English language that mixed both Italian and English into a basketry of words. Done over time, it was a seamless stitching of languages -part of the stream of communication in the household.
Now, one important factor I should mention was that when I misbehaved, smart mouthed or rebelled (which was often, apparently) I was called “an Americana” in a tone that no one would mistake for “a good thing”. You get the picture.
So, what’s this got to do with the name La Strega? I was called that by my mother was when I was not wanting to wash dishes, do household “women’s work” or when my hair which was quite curly and all over the place -had apparently violated the definitions of what “a good girl did and looked like”.
It was only much later that I found out that Strega meant “a witch”.
Fast forward a few decades later-I got involved in past life regression exploration and had a friend who was practicing some regression work and I gladly volunteered. I asked some questions about what I wanted to find out -about my family.
I had experienced such challenging and difficult relationship clashes with my mother, father and one of my brothers that I wanted to see whether I could gain some understanding. We all cycled themes that involved power dynamics, being “right” and a lot of religious domination material that I consistently questioned.
Little did I know that in regression work-you only get to see what is essential, nothing goes beyond that-so what happened for me in that hour session was a long “parade of images that flashed in front of me long enough that I could identify the person and the lifetime “highlights” I got bits of a story but it was all very fast as my guide moved me through the questions I had asked.
The first image I received was that of the face of a nun and it was my mother! Imagine that one—then, second, my brother shows up as a priest in that same lifetime. They were aligned in a Roman Catholic church.
On the other hand in that life was someone who worked with magic, charts -I saw lots of paper, books scattered on a wooden table. I knew I had to be doing this work in secret-it wasn’t safe to let anyone else know. My younger brother (in that same life) showed up as a metallurgist who was doing alchemy work also in hiding.
We were acquaintances in that lifetime but didn’t associate with each other in public. There was a lot of secrecy and living double life themes. I had the sense that I had been hiding for awhile and had been moving from one place to another-but again, it was a quick flash of a story.
That life did not end well for me. I was accused of being a witch -I was found out somehow and the next scene for me that came up was being condemned by this nun and the priest of the village.
Then, the residents chimed in and they set about making sure they would “purge’ such a being from the village. Yep, I was burned and it was not a fun death scene.
So, this past life confirmed so much for me about the current life dynamics-all these pieces came together-and the realization that what my mother would yell at me since I was a little girl was “Strega” which is Witch in Italian-came together in a HUGE way.
I had spent a lot of time reading about the witch burnings as an adolescent, curious about this time in history and then, I could not stop reading the details from the torture that was happening to women and some men in Salem, here in this country.
I kept digging to research more ancient times-how widespread this “purging” had been perpetrated. I was obsessed-never did I ever think to myself that I had been a witch or questioned why I was so deeply moved and driven to read more. (Note: many individuals who were traumatized and tortured in addition to being killed were not necessarily witches-often, these were women and men who were either seen as different because they lived alone, had property and probably free of a relationship that would have helped them “blend in” to the consensus thinking.
Finding out that there were “witches” burned in Northern Europe sites including the area where my current life parents were born.
I had begged my parents to leave me in Italy with my grandmother and not take me back to the USA-that was how much my eleven year old self felt connected to that region.
This only added more weight to my belief that past lives were open to us for use in this life and it was sacred knowledge released by the Soul for that purpose. I continued to study and more recently decided to get a tattoo for a major birthday decade. I had wanted one for over 30 years and it was time to go big or go home as they say!
So, I collaborated with a fellow artist/tattoo worker and I combined the image of a snake (the symbol for death and transformation) some olive branches (symbol of my Italian heritage) and then “Strega” added on a banner underneath. It took up most of my upper right arm. It was one of the best transformative experiences I have had and I immediately wanted to get more tattoos.
As for now, I then had the suggestion made to me to use the name as part of my business identity-especially since I was “branded” and had it on my body permanently. That was the birthing of “La Strega”!