Do you have to be Wiccan to be a witch?
I know witches who are Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, Atheist, Hindu, Agnostic and whatever that religion where you wear half a ton of Quartz around your neck is. While some religions incorporate Witchcraft into Traditional practice of the religion, the CRAFT of Witchcraft can be used with almsot any philosophy of life. Personally, I find it does make one more focussed and adept to *have* at least a general outline of a stable philosophy, but even that is not exactly “required”.
The practices that most witches might recognize as a part of their craft have been around since paleolithic times. Early man didn’t paint pictures of a successful hunt on their cave walls for decoration; that is contagious magic. I’ve done work like that myself: Filled my wallet full of monopoly money, only to see my profits grow; drawn images of a sick friend dancing and playing, etc.
Generally speaking, when most people speak of Witchcraft, they are referring to “low” magic, which is practical, straightforward, and uses direct energy manipulation rather than channeling through an intermediary ( spirit guides, Gods, angels, familiars or other disincarnate entities ), although all of the above may be petitioned for assistance in directing the energy. That’s not to say that it is *easy*.
I have a number of resources on my website to whet an appetite. What I don’t have is a one stop guide to the 12 steps to becoming a witch (oops! now I do!), in part because the person who needs that is never going to be much of a witch anyway. One must be inquisitive, self-motivated, determined and responsible to excel in the practice.
Can ordinary people learn magic?
Ordinary people don’t have devotion to training. Ordinary people don’t care about proper ethics and learning the details of the mechanics of metaphysical manipulation. Ordinary people want a fast track to results now and lack patience. Ordinary people want to be spoon-fed answers. Ordinary people are not interested in introspection and development of patience and acute observational skills. Ordinary people want easy, fast, cheap solutions that cost them nothing.
I have helped several extraordinary people to learn magic and the Craft and excel in their lives. These people were willing to work hard, to grow and change, to learn, to observe, to accept failures and take their time. These people sought out answers through experience, learned to differ in opinion with respect and gratitude, and constantly challenged themselves. These people practiced alone and together to learn to manipulate the subtle strings that allow shifts in perception and in reality. These people were far from ordinary.
But they weren’t more than human.
Weather Magic
There are three things people regularly ask Witches about: Love spells, curses, and weather magic. Possibly, the public fascination is because these are somewhat taboo, rarely discussed outside of the Craft, or simply because they require great adepts to perform. I’m not sure. I’ve written before on love spells and curses (although I certainly haven’t exhausted the subjects), so I thought I’d take a look at weather magic.
Weather magic is largely a taboo subject because it is so, well, big. First of all, weather is Earth energy, so it’s not “little stuff” that you are changing. Secondly, the energy never “goes away”. Anything that is suppressed will re-erupt, sometimes even more violently, so “stop giant snowstorm” isn’t a good longterm plan. And thirdly, weather happens for a reason. Sure, you might not be happy about it raining on your wedding day, but is it worth it to spin up a draught that will devastate crops for an entire season?
So how to deal with these issues? Is there a “right time” and a “right way” to do a little weather magic? As with most things in the Craft, my answer is “sort of”. It’s just not a black and white discipline.
Let’s say you have advance knowledge of a “Natural Disaster”. Storm Tacker radar or some such. I wouldn’t recommend trying to stop it wholesale, but rather do a combination of subtle adjustments to work toward lessening suffering and swift recovery.
Neither of these items are specifically weather magic, although work can be done to create subtle adjustments to slightly alter the course of a storm or similar. This should be VERY subtle, and if a small movement isn’t going to be of much help, then it isn’t prudent to move it at all. The other work is healing work: protecting human life and sending energy to help with recovery.
As for the rainy day getting you down, I prefer to think of all the life that the rain is bringing. But on those rare occasions when I just need half an hour of clear skies (or half an hour of rain!) I don’t feel too bad about working for a brief visit from the sun. I am sure to reverse my work and allow nature to take her course. And accept that it may mean one HECK of a thunderstorm afterwards!
Because this work needs to be very subtle, it’s not for beginners and rare for adepts. If one learns to do it properly, it will be in a supervised situation. We aren’t talking about the kind of thing that can be experimented with without affecting others, so a little common sense caution is necessary.
Most “weather magic” works the other way around, with the Witch harnessing the energy of the weather situation to aid her in her work. Thunderstorms, snowstorms, and even those oppressively hot sunny days can do wonders for all kinds of work.
Is the Wiccan 3-fold rule actually true?
How important is it to cast a magic circle before spellwork or ritual? Does it make a big difference if you don’t cast one?
It really depends on what kind of work is being performed and how it needs to get “pushed out”.
A circle performs a number of functions. It does effectively keep undesirable energy out, but it also keeps things in, which can work for or against you. It can be used to magnify and accelerate the Work, so that opening the circle releases the Work in a very expansive way. If working with others, it can help to develop the group mind.
Yes, it makes a difference. Wether or not it’s important, well, that kind of comes with practice.
For example, if I am doing work to release a belief that is no longer serving me (“I need cigarettes!”) I would probably NOT use a circle, as it would hold that belief in with me while I do the work. However, once the work is done and I am prepared to do healing work (“I will strengthen my lungs!”) I would. Make sense?
For Wiccan Ritual, OTOH, I almost always “cast circle” but it’s slightly different. This is part of the creation of the temple and is necessary for performing the ritual properly. In this case, it’s more about having a bouncer for the party.
How can I tell if my circle is “working”?
I have heard people saying that they use a particular song when casting their circle or consecrating their altar and it worked perfectly. How do they know that? They feel it? They notice the effect? I’m from the southern hemisphere and casting a circle is different. Some told me to to do what feels right for me and that I should place my elements in the direction that feels right for me and see if it works. That’s what i don’t understand. what do you guys mean when you say “See if it works”??
Here are some simple “clues” to those new to casting circles. Assuming you have not become sensitive enough to see or feel the energy specifically (you probably are, you just don’t know what it looks/feels like), here are some ways to tell if your circle is “closed”:
- The air inside feels “heavier”. The practitioner may feel “lighter”.
- Static electricity inside may increase.
- Candle flames usually get about 20% bigger when the circles “closes”. It’s subtle, but if you are spotting for it, you’ll notice.
- It is more difficult to visually focus on areas outside the circle. (This actually goes away as you become more accustomed to circles.)
- Your companion animals pause before crossing the threshold of the circle or seem to “see” something where it is.
- When you open the circle, the air temperature seems to drop.
Partially open circles sometimes have:
- “Drafts” or “cold spots”. (same can be found when working with ancestral spirits, but I’m assuming a beginner is not doing that kind of work yet.)
- A sense of “suction” from above (failure to close the sunroof).
- A sense of greater gravity (failure to close the “below”.)
As for the directionality of the circle, I notice a subtle resistance if I attempt to cast a circle widdershins. When casting deosil, I do not notice this. I have not visited the Southern Hemisphere, so I cannot speak to which is beter for that part of the world, but as you become more aware of what the energy movement “feels like” (see above tips) you may beging to notice more resistance in one direction or the other.
How does witchcraft work?
I’m not into witchcraft, but i was curious about something. If it does work, does the person that your cursing or putting a spell on have to be close to you? say if there in another state far away, will it still work?
I could (have) write a book on this. (No, it’s not published, it’s for my students.)
If you took high school physics (and remember any of it) you have the basic principles; simply apply to mental and emotional energy.
To “cast a spell” The person does need to be close, but not physically. (Well, it depends on the spell. I find healing spells work beter in a close proximity simply because more emotional energy is generated on seeing someone suffer.) There needs to be a connection between the caster and the subject. It does not need to be a particularly *strong* connection, and indeed work can be done to strengthen the connection for other work. If there is no mental, emotional or spiritual connection, a physical connection can sometimes be forged through sympathetic magic, or a “cast” can be done to create a connection. The former requires a good stand in for the subject (Hair, discarded clothing, etc. DNS is preferable, a photo or name can work sometimes.), the later requires the active participation of the subject.
This is, of course, a gross oversimplification, but that’s the basic gist of how it works
A simple working for communication
This was in response to a question on Yahoo! Answers. I don’t usually post “spells” here, this is more a bit of folksy magic.
If it is someone who I have been unable to contact, I will take a token of them and a token of me and place them together in a yellow bag or tie them with a yellow string. If you don’t already have some tie to this person (like if you are trying to get Justin Beiber to call you) it won’t work.
What’s this all about:
Ok, what we are doing here is a bit of sympathetic magic. The idea is to get the two people into the same sphere of interest.
Now, both people must be in the practitioners sphere of influence for it to work, which means that someone who has never had any tie to the practitioner won’t respond to the working. The work needs a conduit to travel. Think of the energy like electricity: as long as there are wires, it’ll keep going, even if the wire is a tiny strand. But no wire, no juice.
The reason I use yellow is because it is a color associated with Hermes & therefore communication. If another color says communication to you more than yellow, by all means, use that. The idea here is to have your subconscious sending the right codes with that energy down the wire. Yellow tells my subconscious that this is a connection via a communication medium. If I wanted the two people to cross paths, I might use green or black to represent physical meeting. (Actually, I would do something entirely different, but I want to illustrate how these things can be adjusted.)
Do you believe in Witchcraft/Magic/Witches/etc?
This is really a frequently asked question on Yahoo Answers. I’ve probably answered it two dozen different ways over time. Here are a few answers I’ve given.
Answer 1
I have practiced Witchcraft for half my life and my experiences have been largely positive. Many of my personal and community goals have been reached, quite possibly due to the practice.
To say “I believe in Witchcraft” is a bit of a stretch (other than to say that it exists as a practice), as I am a skeptic by nature, but feel that a true skeptic will at least try to prove as much as disprove any possible conclusion.
Now, why would someone practice something they don’t really believe in? It seems to help. That is why. It may be as simple as doing a little magic makes me confident that I will succeed, and therefore I persist in mundane ways where I might otherwise give up. As Granny Weatherwax* would say, “Witchcraft is mostly Headology.”
Source(s):
Answer 2
I don’t know what you mean by “believe”…I mean, I can look in the mirror at any time.
Witchcraft is a craft of witchery. Some people say the word “Witch” means to bend, or wise or some other such thing. I don’t know for sure, but I know that I have experienced changes which I attribute to the Craft. It might just be that the rituals we do alter the chemical makeup of our bodies with all the jumping and singing and incense, but it seems to have an affect. Scientific or metaphysical, my experiences say it does *something*.
As for Wicca, well, that’s a priestly caste of Paganism in my tradition. We require an initiation (again, in my tradition) and the initiation confers on one the role of priest/ess and Witch (Wicca). It’s roughly equivalent to the ordination of Catholic priests or investiture of Deacons. I don’t think there’s anything here to disbelieve, unless it’s the idea that Wicca is not valid as a religion…it’s certainly an extant practice.
What happened at Salem had pretty much nothing to do with modern Witchcraft or Paganism. The only person who was likely practicing any kind of Craft was Tibitua, and she was more likely practicing something from the African Diaspora.
Love Potion No. 9
Being a public witch means getting any number of strange requests, usually having something to do with lotto numbers, intoxication, or love spells. A friend of my sister’s once wanted to know if I can make love potions. “I can”, I told her, “but it’s generally not something I would do.” I explained to her that I have made love ‘enhancing’ things and aphrodisiac type oils and powders, but I feel that a true love potion is binding the will of another and not ethical.
There was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where a young crew member discovers that she is a Q. In one scene, she uses her powers to force Cmdr. Riker to love her. She effectively bends his will, only to discover: “I thought it would be romantic…but it’s empty.” Similarly, making someone love you through magic is not truly love– it is an empty shell of what love can be.
Another problem with love spells, is that almost always, the spell casters motives are jumbled. Honest love does not require reciprocation, and most people who think they want person A to love them really just want to be loved, or don’t love themselves and are looking for a self-esteem crutch.
How many movies and stories have been made about the love spells that backfire? The character casts a love spell on the person he desires, only to find that he didn’t really desire that person, and now she won’t go away! Some love spells like this can be broken, but I think it is best to not bind them in the first place.
So do I think all love spells are bad? Of course not! I am an Aphrodisian after all. For the most part, it is the motives that need to be examined and questioned. There is nothing wrong with using magic to draw a loving aura to oneself, to reveal a person who loves you, or to learn to love oneself. The best love spells are those designed to increase the caster’s own sense of self-worth and improve self-image, for a little self-confidence can go a long long way to making a person attractive!
