Wicaqa

Witchcraft:

Commonly-Asked Questions;
Regulate Answers.

Because is a Witch? Because is Witchcraft?
Witch comes from the Anglo-Saxon wicce (meaning witch), which in turn derives from an Indo-European root word meaning to bend or shot or do magic/religion (making it related to staff, shake, and even nun). It is possibly likewise related to the Old Norse vitki (meaning wizard), inferior from root words meaning sensible one or seer. Warlock (seldom cast-off, for male Witches) is from the Old Norse var6lokkur, spirit describe (not oath-breaker). Associated words are Pagan, meaning a authority neighborhood, and Heathen, a neighborhood on the heath, both of which peoples were the European correspond of the State-owned Americans and other restricted, nature-worshipping kind. In our time, a Witch is a human being or man who practices a life-affirming, Earth- and nature-oriented religion, adulation Spirit in female as well as (or more exactly of) male aspects, and practicing Allure (which some Witches spell magick, to reveal it from stage
illusions). Near are everyday new traditions of Witches, in circles everyday beliefs in specially to these. A variety of traditions are practiced by women virtuously, and recognize virtuously the Divine Feminine, the Divinity. Others overlap men and recognize a male god in specially to the Divinity. A variety of traditions may quad back to upfront the Spanish Query, others munch been in natural life for virtuously a few existence. The oblige of the Witches religion (likewise called the Ability or Wicca) lies in its diversity; it is a living, cumulative moral tradition.
Witchcraft today may be seen as the sum utterly of all a Witchs practices, by means of but not unthinking to: spellcasting, divination (load recounting),
meditation, herbalism, ritual and ritual games, words and dancing to swell energy, healing, clairvoyance and other psychism, creative mythology, and above.
As a religion, the Ability is a resurgence and/or reconstruction of the pre- Christian religions of Europe, exceptionally Northern Europe (donation us Celtic or Norse traditions), sometimes unconscious (donation us Greco-Roman, Egyptian, or Levantine traditions). Many of us munch turned for notion to the still-living restricted traditions of other lands, such as Australia, Asia, India, and the Americas. A variety of of us, recognizing that we are American Witches, work with deities and land-spirits of odd Amerindian tribes, though we do not well to be members of any Amerindian tradition. As Margot Adler, a Witchcraft rank, has in print, The real tradition of the Ability is creativity.

Do you pray? Who do you pray to?
A variety of Witches pray (in the gap dint of the word), some dont. A variety of Witches constantly mull over on the deities of their choice; some virtuously do magic tricks deities to empower a ritual or work of Allure.
As to who or what our deities are, you request get re as everyday answers as existing are Witches. Consensus standpoint seems to be that existing is a awe-inspiring Divine, the sum of all that is and above, and that everything that is partakes of that Spirit. So far, that Spirit is above than the human analyze can comprise or wonder. So the view of Spirit is sporadic down in the sphere of few or everyday mind-sized pieces. One cannot skim through at the sun but prepared a filter; one can virtuously wonder a lump of the Divine. These pieces are conceived of in everyday forms. One of the elementary forms Spirit takes for us is the Divinity, the Divine Feminine. She can munch everyday names and everyday aspects; some Witches idolize virtuously the unidentified lonely Divinity, and others idolize Her under all the names by which she has been convinced to the ancients: Ishtar, Diana, Ceridwen, Athena, Amaterasu, Brigantia, Venus, Hecate, Isis, Demeter, and above. In specially, the Divinity can be seen in three aspects: the Maiden (formative years, self-rule, methodically love), the Mother (development, comprehension), and the Crone/Wise Person (wisdom, mystery, initiation, and death/rebirth). The Moon, the Sea, and the Sphere can all be made flesh as Goddesses.
A variety of Witches terminate existing. Last Witches overlap the Divine Gentleman, the God.
Our God is not unthinking to the Fire up aspect, though existing are Divine Fathers. The Sun is methodically made flesh as a God, as is bush life; the dying and reborn Grain God is well-known to re all rural myths. A variety of name Him in the past few minutes the Horned One; others assemble him by the names he had of old: Apollo, Osiris, Dionysos, Odin Pan Freyr, Adonis, Tammuz, and everyday others.
Gone we do magic tricks deities and/or patent them in ourselves, somewhere do they come from? Are they somewhere out existing and do they come in? Or are they inwards us, in our psyches, and do they come out? Do we put on a deity, or do we remove our casing of civilization to let the divinity audacity through? Zero has the utter, nor do we take steps to. Deities may be archetypes, they may be character spirits, they may be armed forces sovereign our ken. Who or anything they are, they are. Our deities are both awe-inspiring (out existing) and immanent (modest here).

Are you Satanists?
No. To be a Satanist, one necessity interpret in Satan. Witches do not interpret in Satan, as such. The gap image of the goat-hooved, pointy-horned devil is a careful pollution by the hurried proponent church of the European Pagan Horned God, who has been depicted in Greece as Pan, and in ancient Gaul as Cernunnos (who is pictured having a stag's antlers). Universe restricted gods in the sphere of evil beings was the hurried church's utmost constant command of brief converts. A variety of proponent Christian groups suffer the practice to this day, in areas that munch retained their old religions.
Our Horned God is neither evil nor a satisfactorily of evil; He is the energy of character, of bush and animal life, which energy manifests for kind in music and jump, intoxication and joy, and all ecstatic activities,
by means of lovemaking.

Because about evil? Because are your ethics/morals?
We interpret that life is first and foremost good, and handiwork and vandalism are part of natural cycles. Kindly, though, existing is evil in the world. We interpret its satisfactorily is not any copy of devil or demiurge, but human action (note: not human character). Loathsomeness is likewise subjective: what is good for one may be evil for pristine and vice versa. For relationship, a tiger kills an antelope: the antelope's death is bad to the antelope, but good to the tiger, who does, at the back of all, munch to eat. The deities of the Ability, if they munch any inclination at all, record towards the positive; utmost are neither good nor evil, they reasonably are, in the dreadfully way any elemental drive, require fire or the weather, is. Our deities allow us power; how we dearth to use that power is up to us.
That use is directed, highest and main, by the Witches Rede: If it harm none, do what you request. It is likewise directed in part by the Law of Threefold Return: what you allow out take-home pay to you threefold. If you work ill, threefold ill comes back to you. If you work good, threefold good comes back to you.
Witches (and members of other restricted religions) munch convinced all out of order what science is virtuously beginning to acknowledge: that all systems on the foxhole are interconnected, all life is one. Gone disproportion is caused in one tackle, the whole way is thrown out of rate. Acts of evil end in
disproportion. The works of Witchcraft are en route for rate and concurrence. We are healers, protectors; we request act hastily and vociferously in funding vs.
aggression, but we do not ourselves hail.

Do you do animal/human sacrifices?
No. Our own interior ghoul is sound to anything charge we may
require; we munch no desire of pilfering the ghoul of pristine. As
donations to our deities, Witches may burn incense or candles, clear out libations, place sacred herbs or goods in some external grab, monsoon talismans or money. A variety of female Witches use their own menstrual blood in spells;
other Witches may thrust themselves (in these advanced days, as a matter of course with uncultivable lancets) and dispense a drop or two of their own blood. But the virtuously blood a Witch has a modest to dispense is her/his own. The price tag of another's is vs. the Rede.

Do you munch gurus, leaders, priests, masters?
Every one of Witch is her or his own priest/ess. That's part of the catch sight of of the Ability. We desire no disinterested party together with us and Divinity; each of us can munch our own relatives forewarning. Remarkably, the Ability is too separate and uncontrollable to pursuit any one lead. We all partake of Spirit, and no one eccentric has party knowledge of the Divine or lone power to become hard the commands of our lives. We munch no certain lead, no Plush Thin
Above what is usual Poobah, no standard. Zero can munch all the answers. So everyday of us munch our own ideas about what the Ability must be and how it works, that we can seldom come to on points of religion Q the view of all of us assenting to pursuit one eccentric is blatantly outrageous.
Any Mob or Coven may munch a Thin Priestess or Thin Priest, or it may be open-minded and set in motion by consensus. Near request continuously be kind with imperative tendencies; these are kind who stack to do outreach work, networking together with Wiccan groups or sovereign the Ability, or even teaching.

Do you interpret in fantasy and hell?
As it has been understood, Witches don't interpret in life at the back of death, we interpret in life at the back of initiate. The stress of the Ability is on working to make this life good for as everyday kind as probable, oneself included.
We do not interpret in a hell, sin, or redemption. As mentioned chief, evil is disproportion. But we munch no formation of exceptional sin for which we necessity be redeemed Q very, that formation has been the satisfactorily of domination and even slaughter of women for centuries, since medieval Christian philosophy had it that human being was the satisfactorily of all sin and evil. Witches are reclaiming Eve as the one who gave us self-knowledge prepared her perseverance and odd thing.
Nor, for that object, do we interpret in a wonderful payment for good appearance.
Angelic temptation is not the way of the Witch; the consequences of good or evil acts are felt in this years. No space encouragement or infernal hunting lodge.
On the other hand, Witches munch heaps a few opinions about what does utilize at the back of death. Record interpret in reincarnation of some natural history or other. A variety of munch it that together with death and play the rank undergoes some natural history of conversion (for which existing are a stature of similes) to clean it for play. Others interpret that the dead close down the Sacred Relatives, who keep enhanced, protect and reveal itself their dynasty. Torpid others munch it that the souls of make somewhere your home who chose burden or evil the same as they were effervescent may be jammed at the back of death in a sustain of fault like that is all they can understand. Record Witches are erect ample to say, We dont really know, and existing isn't any way to know.

Because is your magic? Does it work? How?
Near are a stature of sayings about Allure. It is the act of unpredictable consciousness by Soul. It is the science of luck. As the root word
of Witch indicates, we are shapers and changers; what we technique and shot is our own life drive, our own consciousness, our health and that of the foxhole. We interpret that we can shot our lives be spiritual as well as physical aspect. Very well lean is preordained, hinder that we request die, some day. In the meantime, everyday Witches do divination to find out the probable commands their lives can appeal to, and also act on the information as a result. It works. We can't turn kind in the sphere of frogs or come up tables by mind-power; we can work healing, shot our lives for the supervisor, and procure the apparatus and rate of the whole way. Our Wills are our
tools. Creed without works is unfilled, and we work in the world, too; we are full of life in our communities and for the place, but we back up our tricks with magical purpose. It is a decisive combination.

Do you do Black Magic?
No. A variety of of us do not even recognize black or white Magic; Allure is Allure, and what its character is depends on how we use it. Come and get somebody that we try to interest all our Allure by the Rede.

Do you cast spells?
Yes. That's part of human being a Witch. Near are make somewhere your home who wish in the past few minutes to idolize the Divinity (and God), accompany the minor road of the seasons with ritual, and hold the Sphere. These are what may be called Neo-Pagans (to reveal them from restricted, local pagans). In the order of all Witches are Neo-Pagans (interpret it or not, a few Witches are Christian or Jewish);
not all Neo-Pagans are Witches.
For us, spells and rituals are a object of arranging elements to advocate a park of analyze conducive to working Allure. This may have available blazing candles and/or incense, making talismans of stone or walk heavily or paper, chanting rhymed questionnaire, using herbs or essential oils, minor road down the lights and playing some atmospheric music, or anything the image of the Witch can invent.
The Threefold Get works forcefully here: if someone needs to curse
someone very, the curser necessity highest build up the curse within her/himself Q conclusion who gets to disc it first! Acts of healing, on the other hand, are acts of puzzling love, and the healer methodically finds her/himself well again at the back of healing someone very. It is continuously easier to cast a spell on oneself than on pristine. Chastely in very unthinking formal, if at all, must a spell be cast on pristine without that group knowledge and praise.

How do you worship? Because are your holidays? Because do you do then?
Near are as everyday ways of idolize as existing are traditions of the Ability.
Record rituals have available dedication of the ritual space in some way, spell of a Star or Deities, and a for all banquet. Rituals can overlap music and/or dancing, style, masquing and games (methodically in enactments of myth), and even props and special possessions. Once again, creativity is the watchword here. Near are eight holidays.
1 Nov., Samhain: Popularly convinced as Halloween.
The Buffet of the Relatives and Witches New Go out with. Trick-or-
Treating evolved from Pagan Souling, the same as children
representing ancestors calm goods and blessed the
houses they visited.
22 Dec., Yule/Midwinter: The Bitter Solstice.
Uninterrupted night of the year, Buffet of the Restoration of the
Sun, at the back of which the days begin to come into being longer again.
Many Christmas habits munch a Pagan origin: the Yule
Log, Christmas Tree, Evergreen Flags, Wassailing.
1Feb., Imbolc/Brigid: Buffet of Permanent Cool. Moreover called Candlemas.
In hold of the Irish Brigid, Divinity of holy wells,
fire, healing, smithcraft, and style. Brigid's Warning light
warms the Sphere at the back of Bitter.
22 Mar., Eostre: Named at the back of the Anglo-Saxon Divinity of the Dawn; origin
of the word Easter. The Vernal Equinox, Buffet of
Planting and Restoration.
1 May, Beltaine: Moreover called May Day.
The highest day of Summer, the beginning of the light part
of the year. A spread of wealth and growing life.
22 June, Litha/Midsummer: The Summer Solstice
The verification day of the year. Buffet of the Sun on Thin or
the Cosmological Hero; activities are ordinarily make somewhere your home to do with
civilization/culture.
1Aug., Lughnasadh/Lammas: Buffet of Lugh, or Loaf-mass.
Buffet of the Hero-God Lugh, who undergoes a shamanic
death-rebirth initiation, and/or the Barley God, who
dies and is altered in the sphere of alcoholic drink. Carnival of the Lid
Fruits, the highest crop.
22 Sept., Draw together Home: Get down of the Draw together.
Has its analog in the American Prayer, which was
very paramount a crop f?te.

How everyday of you are there? Do you swell your children in this?
Hidebound reckonings quotation 200,000 Witches and/or Neo-Pagans in the US stumped. Near could be everyday above, who are merely above individual about their religion, for the very real apprehension of irritation. Witches are even if working tough for our Lid Alter citizenship.
Record Wiccan parents allow their children to become keen in the Ability or learn about Paganism if the child wishes; few, if any, yearn for of their children study to any obvious path. Near are very Pagan/Wiccan
children and grassy adults. They're reasonably require other kids. They go prepared juvenile treason and life crises reasonably require other kids; they may even be moderately above well-adjusted than non-Pagan kids, if virtuously like the Ability provides rituals and/or recognitions of Twinkle Passages.

How do you become a Witch?
The Ability does not excitedly seek converts. we do not proselytize. We are game birds to inform the same as asked, and training is ready in untrustworthy degrees of coldness. A variety of Witches interpret that one necessity be untrained with the skill to become a Witch. Others interpret that all kind munch the organization, and that becoming a Witch is merely a object of training. A variety of kind know from an hurried age that they are Witches; others come to the Ability as adults.
Record of us grew up in a tradition other than the Ability. And existing are everyday out existing who do what we would assemble Witchcraft who munch no view what to assemble it, or even that existing are others require them in the authority or the world. Like a Witch, require work Allure itself, is Ra object of symbolism and purpose.

Wherever can I find out more?
Near are a stature of good books ready on the Ability. Indoors are a few of them:
Adler, Margot. Drawing Forlorn the Moon.
Farrar, Janet and Stewart. Because Witches Do.
Starhawk. The Launch yourself Move about.
Matthews, Caitlan and John. The Western Way, Vol. I: The State-owned Leaning.
Valiente, Doreen. Witchcraft for Tomorrow.
Weinstein, Marion. Complimentary Allure.

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