TLDR: READ THIS FIRST
- You’re not broken, so you don’t need fixing. Real spiritual growth is cyclical, not a straight line up.
- The modern world sells growth as linear (better, better, better). Nature grows in cycles, and so do you.
- When a pattern comes up, the move isn’t to heal it once and for all. It’s to shed it, compost it, and let a new version of you emerge, again and again.
- You can leave the word healing at the doorstep. What you’re really doing is awakening, awareness, intention, and presence.
- Do this with people who are doing the same thing, and you won’t feel like you have to fix yourself forever.
I’m Sara Walka, and I founded The Sisters Enchanted back in 2016. For close to ten years now, my whole job has been helping women build their spiritual practices, come home to themselves, and live in whatever way actually feels good to them. And in all that time, this is one of the patterns I’ve watched play out the most.
A woman starts her witchery journey. She dives into shadow work, tarot, spells, rituals, her birth chart. And somewhere in there it quietly turns into a hunt for everything that’s wrong with her. She starts peeling back the layers, looking for the answer that finally explains why she’s so broken. I want to talk about that today, because I don’t think you’re broken, and I don’t think your path is supposed to be one long climb toward fixed.
DEFINITION: SPIRAL GROWTH
Spiral growth is a Sisters Enchanted way of understanding change: real spiritual and personal growth moves in cycles, not a straight line up. Instead of trying to fix what’s “broken” and climb endlessly toward a better you, you move through repeating cycles of blooming and shedding. You become aware of a pattern, you shed what no longer fits, and you let a new version of yourself emerge, over and over again.
What does it really mean to “grow” on a spiritual path?
It means coming home to a cyclical rhythm of change, not climbing a ladder toward a fixed version of yourself. When people start a witchery or spirituality journey, there’s often this idea of ascension, of leveling up and fixing all your problems. I want you to know it doesn’t have to be that way. You’re not broken, and the journey looks a lot more cyclical than it looks like a straight, must-get-better climb.
So yes, things grow and change, and they do change. But growth on this path is less about correcting yourself and more about bursting forth, blooming, then shedding and composting, and doing it again. That’s the whole rhythm. That’s the thing we’re actually here for.
“It’s about coming home to this cyclical rhythm of change of bursting forth of blooming and then of shedding composting and doing it over and over and over again.”
— Sara Walka, Founder of The Sisters Enchanted
Why doesn’t growth work like a straight line up?
Because nothing in nature grows in a straight line, and neither do you. The world we live in sells growth as this thing that goes up and up and up and up forever. But look at the actual natural world and it’s all cycles.
A tree grows over time. It drops limbs, it grows new leaves and flowers. Some years it blooms bigger and brighter and taller, and some years it’s less. The grass changes. The landscape changes. A seawall changes. Rocks change. None of that is a line marching upward. It’s an ongoing cycle of change, and that’s the model I want you working from, not the impossible hill of getting better one hundred percent of the time.
THE CYCLE, IN ORDER
Bursting forth: something new begins to move in you.
Blooming: you expand, you’re visible, you’re in it.
Shedding: you release what no longer fits.
Composting: what’s left breaks down and feeds what comes next.
Again: and the whole thing spirals outward, wider each time.
Are you actually broken, or is something else going on?
You’re not broken. What feels like brokenness is usually just a part of you that’s asking to be held, not fixed. Every scar, every part of your personality, every version of you lives inside you. A scar doesn’t disappear. Sometimes you see it more, sometimes less, but it’s always there.
Think of a tree that had a laundry line or a dog run wrapped around it. You take the line away and you can still see where it was, but the tree kept growing anyway. It grew right around it. Over time that mark gets less visible, but it never stops being part of the tree. That’s you. You don’t erase the parts of your story. You keep growing, and they come along, held with love.
“The tree kept growing anyway.”
— Sara Walka, Founder of The Sisters Enchanted
What should you do instead of trying to “heal” and “fix” yourself?
Leave the healing at the doorstep and drop into awareness instead. I hear the word healing all the time. Healing the witch wound, healing my traumas, healing my problems. And I’d invite you to set that framing down, because it keeps you pushing a rock up a hill that has no top.
What this really is, is awakening. It’s awareness. It’s intention. It’s presence. It’s holding the parts of yourself that need holding with love and tender care, and treating them as part of the sacred vessel and the sacred story that made you who you are right now. When you hold everything a little more loosely and pay attention to how your energy actually moves, with certain people, in certain rooms, that’s the spiral. That’s you growing outward instead of grinding upward.
And no, this doesn’t mean you stop wanting to get better at things. I want to get better at sewing. I want to get better at writing. But I want those things because they feel good, because they make my sacral chakra light up with delight and possibility. That’s different from constantly hunting for what’s wrong with you. That hunt doesn’t feel good, and honestly, that’s not witchery. That’s just low-level nonsense nobody has time for.
“Grow the circle of you, not the linear let me find what’s wrong with me and fix things way.”
— Sara Walka, Founder of The Sisters Enchanted
How do you work with a pattern when it comes back up?
You notice it, you name it, and you shed it again, on purpose. Say you realize you’ve got a real shadow trigger around some particular thing. Instead of asking what’s wrong with me, you ask what do I shift in this next cycle, what do I shed, and when I shed it, what’s left to compost and feed the next version of me.
So a piece of armor comes back to the surface today. Good. You see it, you recognize it, and you’re ready to drop that shell and let a new version of you emerge. And when it shows up again later, and it will, you see it for what it is and you drop it again. That’s not failure. That’s the spiral doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
Why does doing this with other people matter?
Because a spiral is a lot easier to trust when you’re not walking it alone. It really helps to have people in your corner who are doing the same work, being vulnerable, being authentic, being themselves. Not people getting dragged down into low energies, trauma dumping, or endless validation seeking, but people who can watch a pattern come up and go, yep, I see that one, time to let it go.
So find those people. Share honestly. Be yourself. You’ll feel good about it, and you’ll stop feeling like you have to fix yourself over and over and over again. That’s the whole point. Grow in a spiral, grow the circle of you, and let the getting-better-forever story go. That’s not the vibe, and it’s not what I want for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have to heal the witch wound?
You don’t have to heal it in the fix-it-once-and-be-done sense. In this episode, Sara Walka of The Sisters Enchanted invites you to leave that healing framing at the doorstep entirely. The witch wound, like any deep pattern, isn’t a defect you eliminate. It’s something you become aware of, hold with care, and shed a little more with each cycle. Every time it surfaces, you get to see it, recognize it, and let a newer version of yourself emerge. So rather than chasing a finish line where the wound is finally gone, you grow around it in a spiral, the way a tree keeps growing around an old mark. That’s a gentler and far more sustainable relationship with it than the endless climb toward fixed.
What is shadow work if it’s not about fixing yourself?
Shadow work is awareness, not repair. Sara’s take is that real shadow work is noticing a trigger or a piece of armor when it comes up, and asking what you want to shift, shed, and compost in this next cycle, rather than asking what’s wrong with you. It’s not about diagnosing your brokenness. It’s about presence and paying attention to how your energy actually moves around different people and in different rooms. When you treat those parts of yourself as sacred pieces of your story rather than problems to solve, the work stops feeling like punishment. That distinction matters, because a lot of what gets called shadow work is really just self-criticism in a prettier outfit.
Does spiral growth mean I should stop setting goals or learning new skills?
No. Spiral growth is not an excuse to stop developing. Sara is clear that she still wants to get better at things like sewing and writing. The difference is why. You pursue a skill because it feels good, because it lights you up and expands your sense of possibility, not because you’re trying to correct something defective about yourself. Goals born from delight and creative desire fit beautifully inside a spiral. Goals born from the belief that you’re broken and need fixing are the exhausting uphill climb she’s asking you to put down. Same action, completely different energy, and your body knows the difference.
What’s the difference between shadow work and trauma dumping?
Shadow work is conscious and cyclical. Trauma dumping is neither. In the episode, Sara distinguishes people doing real inner work from people who get dragged into low energies, offloading onto others or chasing validation. Shadow work looks like noticing a pattern surface, seeing it clearly, and choosing to release it so something new can emerge. Trauma dumping tends to be unprocessed venting aimed at other people without that awareness or intention behind it. The healthiest version of this work happens alongside others who are also being vulnerable and authentic, not performing their wounds for a reaction. If you’re growing, you’re holding your stuff with care. If you’re dumping, you’re handing it to someone else to hold.
How do I know if I’m stuck in a “fixing myself” loop instead of actually growing?
Check how it feels and which direction it moves. A fixing-yourself loop feels like pushing a rock up a hill that never ends: more layers to peel, more proof that something’s wrong, and a finish line that keeps moving. Real growth, in Sara’s framing, spirals outward. It feels like awareness, presence, and letting versions of yourself come and go, rather than grinding toward a perfected self. A quick gut check: are you learning and shedding because it expands you, or because you believe you’re broken until you get it right? If it’s the second one, that’s the loop, and you’re allowed to step off it.
If this resonated, check the episode description to see what we’ve got going on at The Sisters Enchanted and how we can support you. Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and until next time, stay magic.