Ep 132 - How to reclaim your power in ‘dark times’: an Underworld descent
WITH nicole barton
Welcome magical ones! I’m delighted to welcome Sara back to the show today for a Part two of her feminine magic.
On the Secret Witch Show today, Nicole is entering the Underworld. Speaking to the Secret Witch who feels the weight of collective darkness in her body - the voicelessness, the numbness, the tight-chested freeze in response to misuse of power - she explores what it really means to reclaim power in dark times. Not through spiritually bypassing or pretending everything is love and light, but by descending. This is a conversation for the sensitive, powerful woman who feels horrified and activated, who fears her own intensity as much as she fears the world’s, and who senses that there is something in the darkness she must face rather than flee.
In this episode we explore the paradox of being both victim and powerful, the difference between ascent and descent, and the Aurum medicine of molten gold under pressure - the kind of leadership that is reclaimed by being honest rather than being perfect. Nicole shares her own Witch Wound around power, exploring why feeling horror does not mean we are powerless, and how feminine sovereignty is reclaimed in the body, not the mind. This is an invitation to stay with yourself in the underworld, to refuse self-abandonment, and to discover that the gold you seek is not found by escaping the dark, but by entering it consciously.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Reclaiming your power in dark times doesn’t mean bypassing pain - it means facing it consciously, without abandoning your body
Feeling horror, numbness or voicelessness in response to collective trauma does not mean you are powerless; it may be the very doorway into your embodied power
The feminine holds a paradox - we can honour real victimhood and still reclaim our power from the darkness
Honesty is the real medicine. What we resist persists - and the darkness we avoid is often where our lost power is waiting
True feminine power is not logic or dominance; it is the willingness to enter the underworld, stay with discomfort, and return with gold
If you are in the underworld right now, the first step is not escape - it is staying, getting honest, and reclaiming the fragmented parts of yourself that were left there.
Resources and Things that We Spoke About:
Our Links:
Journey in our Apothecary Sisterhood: www.nicolebarton.co.uk/membership - Manifesting and Medicine ceremony at New Moon
Social:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nicoleamandabarton
Facebook Group - Secret Witch Sisterhood: www.facebook.com/groups/secretwitch
Instagram - @iamnicolebarton
Instagram - @archetypalapothecary
You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/@secretwitchsociety
Tiktok - @archetypalapothecary
Sign up for our Moonlit Apothecary Love Letters: www.nicolebarton.co.uk/moonlitapothecary
Resources:
The Heroine’s Journey - Maureen Murdock - https://maureenmurdock.com/articles/articles-the-heroines-journey/
Thank you for listening, we’d love to know what comes alive for you in this week’s episode, so please let us know.
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Thank you,
Nicole and Team Secret Witch xox
