Salem is a suburban witch who dreams of living in a swampy cottage, foraging mushrooms, spotting frogs, and picking wildflowers. She loves taking pleasure in life’s simplest gifts, starting with nature. She collects trinkets such as bones and crystals and uses them frequently in her magickal practice. They consider themselves an atheist eclectic witch, meaning that they do not worship any deities with their practice and engage in a variety of types of magick. She is a solo practitioner and enjoys casting spells, smoke cleansing, color magick, kitchen witching, reading tarot cards and runes, meditating, and reading about the metaphysical world. They believe that magick comes from within and is primarily a psychological placebo effect, but they take comfort in the ritual and familiarity of their magick and the way that it makes them feel more connected to the natural world.

Salem is kind and unimposing. If there’s a way to accomplish something without ever having to inconvenience anyone else, she will do it that way. She fears being an inconvenience to others and will go out of her way to avoid imposing. She is always very apologetic when she does need to ask for someone’s help. To the contrary, however, they are always the first to offer to help others and will allow themselves to be inconvenienced if it means making someone else’s life easier. She is altruistic and loves to give – gifts for her loved ones, paying for orders behind her in the drive through, and giving spare cash to strangers who’ve fallen on hard times. She is somewhat giving and trusting to a fault, and she can be easily manipulated and taken advantage of. This is not due to their being particularly naïve; they are aware of the possibility of bad outcomes in most situations, but they tend to give others the benefit of the doubt, even to their detriment.

For all of her efforts to be a kind and giving person, Salem sometimes struggles to be reliable. She can be very avoidant at times, particularly when she is going through a depressive episode. She can find it difficult to find the energy to respond to text messages or follow through with plans when she isn’t feeling her best. They live with borderline personality disorder, bipolar II, PTSD, anxiety, and panic disorder. They have experienced a significant amount of trauma but work hard to overcome their mental health struggles and to advocate for mental health treatment. She is an open book about her struggles and is never afraid to share exactly how she is feeling or what she is going through, but this level of openness and authenticity sometimes scares others away.

When Salem is feeling particularly bold (and hypomanic), she is a risk taker. She will put herself into uncomfortable or unpleasant situations at times just for the sake of doing so. She is not often fearful of the worst-case scenario. She can be incredibly impulsive, sometimes making rash decisions that she later regrets. However, in general, they rarely regret anything. They are of the mindset that there is no reason to regret anything, when all decisions merely lead to more information. Even if she makes a “poor” decision, she views it as a learning opportunity. In addition to being impulsive in her decision making, she can be reckless in her spending habits. She very much adopts a “treat yourself” mentality. However, her impulsiveness makes her fun to be around as well; she is adventurous and willing to try most things at least once. She is open-minded and open to new experiences, and for this reason she often has exciting stories to share about her wild escapades with her friends.

From necessity and experience, Salem has become incredibly adaptable, both in circumstance and personality. She has endured many hardships which have allowed her to learn to cope with change, even when it is not ideal. She also tries to blend in with whomever she is interacting, which sometimes leads others to believe that she is inauthentic, but even the “separate” personalities that she displays when she interacts with others are, in fact, bits and pieces of who they are as a whole. In fact, they are incredibly authentic, sometimes to the point of oversharing. She is resilient as well, and she has confidence that she can make it through even the most difficult situations.

When relating to others, Salem is sociable and outgoing and enjoys having a few close friends and many friendly acquaintances. She describes herself as an “ambivert,” because she sometimes prefers quiet time alone, but she is often lively and engaging whenever she is around others. She passes well for an extrovert, but she doesn’t feel as though the label describes her well. She hates small talk and will push the boundaries of any conversation, even with strangers. When Salem falls in love with someone, she falls fast and loves hard. She fears abandonment and will do anything to avoid it. They can be obsessive, led by their emotions, and have a hard time letting go of things, especially people who they wish to hold onto in their life. They tend to ruminate on and get overly excited about both things and people, and she sometimes loses her identity while getting so caught up in someone or something else. Some of her obsessions include frogs, furbies, various music artists, and whomever she is currently crushing on.

Salem is not without her own insecurities. She is a people pleaser and tries to make herself as useful as possible to others, even to the point of allowing herself to be taken advantage of, because she fears being abandoned by others when she becomes obsolete to them. She is her own worst critic and often bounces back and forth between being hypercritical of herself and hyperconfident. She can be self-conscious about the way that she comes across to others, as well as her body and self-image. However, at times she is incredibly confident in these things. Salem has what one would call “imposter syndrome”; even when she is doing the things that she loves or things she is passionate about, she sometimes feels as though she doesn’t belong, as though she’s merely imitating others, and as though she does not have any true passions of her own. This, however, is not true. Though Salem may feel like a shell of a person at times, they are quite an imaginative, unique, excitable, and passionate person.

Salem can be quite messy and scatterbrained. They live life “fast,” doing everything at ten times speed. She eats quickly, walks quickly, and talks quickly. She writes quickly, reads quickly, and types quickly. She believes that everything is a task to be accomplished and approaches it as such. She is often told to “slow down,” but she rarely listens to this advice; she simply has to keep moving. Her workspace and bedroom are a bit messy, but they prefer the term “organized chaos” to describe their living quarters. She rarely misplaces anything; she simply doesn’t keep things as tidy as others might prefer.

Salem is not afraid of being vulnerable with others, nor is she afraid of showing weakness. She was raised in a very strict environment which taught her that showing weakness was to be frowned upon, and for years she bottled up her weaknesses rather than discussing them openly and improving upon them. As an adult, she is comfortable enough with herself to be open about her weaknesses and to work on them. Despite her willingness to show signs of weakness, she rarely cries. However, occasionally she needs a good cry to reset herself. She is a 100% authentic being; what you see is what you get with her, and she doesn’t hide much about herself.

Salem can be a bit absentminded at times and struggles to make decisions. When asked to pick between two things, they will often ask, “Why not both?” Their inability to make decisions likely stems from their eagerness to please people; they never want to be responsible for making a disappointing decision.

Salem is an empath, meaning that she takes on others’ emotions and often feels them as strongly as though they were her own. She can always read a room, uncomfortable silences, and when someone is upset. She can tell when others do not like her, and she reads into every little detail of an interaction to decipher if a person’s feelings match their actions. She is a compassionate person and a great friend, stopping short of nothing to be there when her loved ones need her. She is mature and often called an “old soul,” because of her interests and her way of conducting conversations. They value both justice and mercy, at times struggling to reconcile the two, but tend to lean towards mercy, as they believe that almost everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt.