Debra Floyd

The Village Witch

Interview Conducted by: Anna Jackson and Caroline McKenna

Debra Floyd is The Village Witch of Crestone and has resided there for 19 years. She was raised in Boston, Massachusetts under the Roman Catholic tradition. Dissatisfied with the Catholic Church, Debra left Catholicism to pursue other spiritual traditions at age 14. By the time she was 18, she had studied with a coven and was initiated into the Craft. Apart from the Craft, Debra has explored many traditions and finds they all hold significant spiritual truths. The Divine Goddess, a key facet to the Craft, called Debra to Crestone to represent the feminine, which was lacking in the San Luis Valley. There she seeks to embody the light of the divine within herself and to extend that light to others. Living among a quirky array of dogs, birds, hamsters, rats, and cats, Debra is and considers all witches as caretakers of the earth and all earth’s creatures.

“I made a choice, the word witch means ‘the bender and shaper of reality’, and it also means ‘wise one.’ At first I was not using it when I came out here, because I was afraid to frighten people but then it was like: I want to reclaim it, it’s a very beautiful word. There’s also the whole enchantress thing that’s attached to it. And it’s a sense of personal power. I think, ‘yeah, we do need to reclaim it.’… We consider every animal sacred, every plant sacred, everything has a soul.”

Discussing the Energies and Culture of Crestone:

“This place calls people here… Crestone needed a village witch, and the goddess came to me and told me ‘I want you to go there, build me a store,’ because there’s not enough of the feminine represented here, and you follow orders when you get orders like that.”

“Great, fantastic, it’s the bomb. Hottest new spiritual place. I love it. I can’t help it, my being is supposed to be around that. I definitely go and hang out with the different traditions. I think it’s very important to dialogue there. Through that we’ve tried to be an example, a seed community for the planet, through sustainability, alternative building, all these different kinds of things... That’s what we’re doing, were creating a new paradigm around the planet by linking our thoughts in new ways.”

“For me, I made a commitment to this land. There is a tradition… where the old king was sacrificed to the land, his blood was spilled upon the land, and this tied his spirit to the land, and then the new king came in. I did a similar ceremony even though I am woman making that commitment to the land. And I think that’s why I can never seem to get out of here… I think for me, that it really was that total heart felt commitment to the place.”

“Everything is sacred, you can’t separate that out. There are just some places that are more powerful than others, and this place is. I have been to a lot of sacred places, and I find that I get clearer in my communication with the divine here than any other place. If you just look at it geographically: the altitude, the harsh conditions to live in, the weather, and financially, and all of this. It constantly tests your metal. It is not any easy place to live, not at all. If you are being mirrored, the place is just in your face all the time about whatever issues you have unresolved. It’s not exactly comfy cozy.”

“Geographically: high above the masses, closer to the sun, source of spiritual power. The air is very rarified like a higher atmosphere spiritually. It’s not a real comfy place, so you get the sense of traveling, journeying through life. That’s this place.”

“The Native Americans, they think we white people are crazy to have unpacked our bags here. This was all a mutual hunting ground; no wars were supposed to happen here. They would use it for vision quests, but live here, no. It’s too powerful. It’s too much all the time.”

Discussing the Effects of Exploratory Natural Gas Drilling:

“There are amazing people who come here… When outside people come in here and try to rape this land this community always goes into extreme upset, but this would be the worst yet, of all things we’ve fought here…It will destroy this place. If you started drilling here, you would completely disturb the energies at every single level, every single plane here. There are hidden levels to this place that should never ever be touched by outsiders. Drilling is a violation. I think it’s going to fall a part. That’s how serious I think it is. They would be very, very upset… It would rape the land. They’re always after the water in the aquifer, always, and they would probably poison the aquifer. The whole southwest depends on it…I would have to see what the land says to me, but I have a feeling I would have to leave, which would break my heart.”