By The Pricking Of My Thumbs: The Whisper Before The Storm
There’s a certain electricity in the air before something shifts—a storm rolling in, the first frost creeping across windows, or the sudden hush that falls before fate reveals its next move. It’s in this charged stillness that Shakespeare’s famous line from Macbeth lingers:
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.”
Spoken by the Second Witch, these words have echoed through centuries, capturing that ancient human instinct—the ability to feel change before it arrives. It’s the tingling on your skin when intuition hums, the way your heart tightens before news breaks, or how a candle flickers for no reason at all.
The Witches’ Warning
In Macbeth, the line heralds the entrance of the doomed king himself—a man corrupted by ambition, stepping willingly toward his downfall. But beyond the play, the phrase has become a timeless omen, reminding us that energy shifts long before we see the evidence.
The “pricking of the thumbs” is the witch’s body knowing before the mind does—a physical response to unseen forces. Folklore tells us witches were attuned to the natural and supernatural alike, reading signs in wind, flame, and bone. Their power lay not just in spells, but in awareness.
Intuition, Folklore, And The Sixth Sense
How often do we dismiss our intuition as coincidence? The ancients didn’t. They trusted the sensations that rose from within—the heaviness in the chest, the shiver without cold, the crow calling thrice at dusk. These were messages from the unseen, hints of something approaching.
In modern witchcraft and spiritual practice, this quote invites us to honor that instinct again. The pricking of one’s thumbs becomes a metaphor for the body’s deep knowing—our built-in compass for both shadow and light.
The Wicked And The Wonder
“Something wicked this way comes” doesn’t always have to mean danger. Sometimes it's a transformation disguised as chaos. The “wicked” may be a necessary storm—a truth, a reckoning, or a long-overdue ending. When the winds shift, we’re given the chance to see what’s real and what’s illusion.
In this sense, the phrase becomes not a curse, but a spell of awareness. To feel the pricking is to awaken; to recognize the wicked is to reclaim power.
A Spell For Awareness
If you wish to work with this energy, light a candle on a foggy evening and whisper the words aloud. Feel the pulse in your hands and the quiet between your breaths. Ask yourself:
- What am I sensing but not yet seeing?
- What change is whispering before it speaks?
- What lesson is arriving cloaked in mystery?
Trust that what comes may unsettle you, but it may also free you.
Closing Reflection
Sometimes, the universe gives us a warning—not to fear, but to prepare. The “pricking of our thumbs” is a reminder that we are part of the great web of sensing, feeling, and knowing. We are both the watcher and the witch, the one who hears the thunder before the rain.
When your spirit stirs and your skin tingles with knowing, listen closely. Something is on its way—and it just might be the magic you’ve been waiting for.
By Candlelight,
HN Staples
“The witch does not fear what stirs in the shadows—she listens. For even the wicked are messengers of change, and every tremor in the air whispers of becoming.” -HN Staples
