Labels in Witchcraft, Trauma, and Identity: Looking Beyond Assumptions

Labels can help us understand our identity, find community, and name our experiences, but they can also become cages when we mistake them for the whole truth.

In this episode of Salt & Sovereignty, Ashley reflects on labels, trauma, identity, witchcraft, ADHD, religion, and spiritual practice. Beginning with an expansive meditation experience, Ashley explores why language can point toward an experience without ever fully containing it, and why the same is true of human beings.

She shares how the ADHD label became tangled with shame and self-worth, how religious trauma shaped her nervous system’s response to Christianity, and how curiosity helped transform her mother’s understanding of witchcraft. This is not an argument against labels. It is a personal reflection on using them as guides without allowing them to become laws.

In this episode:

• How labels shape identity and self-perception
• Why trauma can turn categories into protective assumptions
• Ashley’s experience with ADHD, shame, and changing health symptoms
• Religious trauma, Christianity, and nervous system awareness
• Labels within witchcraft, including “baby witch” and black magic
• The difference between assumption and genuine discernment

Trauma may teach us to survive through labels, but healing can give us enough space to look beyond them. This episode is an invitation to remain curious about ourselves, other people, and the identities no single word could ever fully contain.