It’s time we gather around our proverbial hearth and have a candid conversation about something that has long troubled our community: the Burning Times. For years, we’ve held onto a narrative, a story passed down through our circles, that frames this tragic period as a concerted effort by the Catholic Church to stamp out our spiritual ancestors—wise women, healers, and practitioners of the old ways. We’ve mourned the supposed millions of lives lost, predominantly women, who were allegedly persecuted for preserving a pre-Christian, pagan religion. But what if I told you that much of what we believe about the Burning Times doesn’t hold up under scrutiny?