Frequently Asked Questions

As author Paulo Coelho puts it in The Witch of Portobello, a witch is someone who trusts her intuition, communes with her environment, and isn’t afraid of facing challenges. For us, being a witch is attuning to the magic in our environment, in the seasons, in the cycles of life, in creation and creativity, as well as the magic in ourselves. A witch is someone who knows she is a force of – literally – nature.

"It’s kind of a funny story," says Shoshana, the founder and Executive Director of Community OutWitch. After her marriage ended (and "it was really fucking bad"), she thought she'd better sell the house because it was too expensive to carry as a single mom and didn’t want to be in the house that held so much pain. Shoshana called her friend Graham (our Web Wizard) to talk it through, and he asked her, "what is it you really want to do now”? And the answer was “I want to help other women. I don’t want any other woman to feel as alone as I did in my marriage”. Graham suggested she do just that, right in that house. Shoshana started to cry with the realization that this was exactly what she wanted to do. As she began to put it into practice, she reclaimed the house for herself and it felt like reclaiming her life, not only for herself, but also for all women. The house would be a meeting place, a hub where women would listen to each other and laugh and cry. A place where ritual and witchcrafting are used to bring women together. Shoshana says, "There’s a place of receptivity in the feminine that we have lost in the modern world and we find it together when we’re in circle, or creating together. It’s like a hum; it’s exciting and calm at the same time. The feeling of sharing and talking and peeling potatoes together, and figuring out the harmonies. We are meant to help each other. We’re not meant to live our lives alone. When I was alone, I felt like my version of community was being in nature, going to the forest or laying on the ground, and this felt like a connection to other women, through mother nature. My mom changed the lives of women through union negotiation, which is one of the things that made me realize that connecting and empowering women, using nature as template, can change everything."

Once that was decided, what to call it? Shoshana happened to be trying to get in touch with someone but kept getting their voice mail. The message stated that the person's role was "community outreach", but every time Shoshana listened to it she heard it as "community outwitch", and it dawned on her, "That’s what I’m doing! I’m doing community outreach, but as a witch!" And so Community OutWitch came to be.

Absolutely not. You don’t have to be a witch, or believe in witches, to be a part of Community OutWitch or attend our events.

Our events are open to all genders, except our monthly Full Moon Sound Bath, which is for women-identifying, non-binary and gender-fluid folks only. If you’re unsure whether a particular event is right for you, get in touch and we’ll be glad to talk it through.

Members receive 10–30% off events, and a membership supports our community programming and our ability to offer sliding-scale services. See membership options.

Please reach out. A sliding scale is available on all of our services, and we never want cost to be the reason someone is left out. Contact us and we’ll figure it out together.

Yes, please! Volunteers are at the heart of building a community like ours. See the ways you can help and fill out the volunteer form on our Support Us page.

Not at all. We centre women because women are often left to carry the load alone. Our work is about building belonging, and nobody is the enemy of that.