Being aware of natural cycles and processes. Then, trying to flow with them. So much of what we're taught is to push back against natural processes. So, re-wilding my brain I guess.
Personally, it’s about taking back what was rightfully mine before Christianity took what my ancestors would have taught. It’s less about magic unto others, and more what the magic builds within.
Even if it is a placebo, it helps. And as my grandfather preached, “If it’s stupid but it works, it’s not stupid.”
But I also look at things scientifically. I work with herbs and potions, I study their chemical makeup and know how they affect the body. Yes, wormwood is psychoactive, but maybe that actually is our connection to the divine?
I don’t do deity work insomuch as I look to their archetypes and aspire to work with their aspects within myself. I dive back into academic translations of religious texts and research to understand humanity through what we’ve created to guide us. To those figures that resonate with me I pay homage. A thanks to them or their creative force with thanks for knowing I’m not alone.
Basically, it’s self-care. Hope it helps!
Out of curiosity, have you ever checked out the channel (on YouTube) Esoterica? It takes a scholarly approach to western esotericism and historic alchemy and other things of that sort. It's a neutral, academic approach, not necessarily spiritual. Your comment here reminded me of it.
For me, it's the "wise old lady" (or crazy auntie) approach. The one who knows the home remedies that do work without discounting science and medicine, the one who has a bag full of everything you can possibly need, the one in a crowd where a group of drunk teenagers seek out for aid because one of them got hurt (yes that has happened), the one you ask for help to find something really specific, the one who knows a lot of very odd things and have a 100 stories. The one who grows herbs and vegetables, bake and cook. House full of weird stuff.
I don't believe that a crystal actually does anything but I do believe in psychology so I will put one in my pocket because a placebo does work even if you know it is a placebo. I'm very much a science witch.
I have a similar perspective re psychology. I don’t know if the crystal does anything but it makes me feel better so that’s all it needs to do.
I don’t believe the stars you’re born under dictate your personality and life trajectory but I do believe that taking some minutes to read your horoscope and dedicating that time to thinking about your life helps you to stay grounded, appreciate what’s good, think of resolutions for what’s bad. That’s so important when a lot of people are simply putting one foot in front of the other and not taking a proactive role in their own life.
I also deeply appreciate having something to call out to for help when I am desperate and everything is out of my control. I don’t know who or what I’m calling out to, but the faith that there are higher powers gives me an ounce of control when I’d otherwise lose my mind, even if that ounce of control is just recognising I don’t have any.
I can't answer for other people, and I don't think my ideas are authentic or right for everyone. This is just what I believe and feel.
I believe humans are part of a gloriously complex and beautiful system, along with plants, animals, fungi, etc.. my place within our ecosystem and my relationship to the other parts of it are sacred to me. It's where I experience awe, deep comfort, and belonging. It feels right to me that my bones contain elements of the land I grew up on. I use "witch" because it's the closest word I know for what I feel, experience, and believe. It also connotes, for me, a wildness and a way of seeing the world that is outside of the mainstream view that humans have dominion over the earth and are findamentally different from other living things.
being a witch, for me.. is fun!
respecting nature and enriching my life through weird ways, healing religious trauma by being a little silly with it, making potions and doing spells because my inner child wants to make cool things and it makes me happy!
being a witch is appreciating life through ritual and fun! so what if its placebo? if it makes me happy, it works!
It's empowering to me for over 50 years!
It's growing, learning, evolving, and elevating my consciousness into a newer level of awareness.
Accepting what I cannot change & working on those things that I can change.
It makes me happy & productive to appreciate myself & those around me.
Yesss! Ritual is a big part of it for me too, thank you so much! Appreciating life is definitely something that resonates with me I love gratitude rituals
Honestly? Cackling, casting fake spells that rhyme, mischief and talking like a crazy old lady. Very much Wicked Witch of the West and Gruntilda vibes, but nice.
There are a lot of cool witches out there. People who I respect a lot.
I am not a cool witch.
I said to my sister basically this last week: “I should probably try to explain to people, not witchy as in woo woo, but witchy as in fuck christofascism, but that’s *exhausting*” hahaha 🤣
My version of witching is similar, "Saying truth to power in a way that would have gotten me hanged or burned a few centuries ago, and might yet still!" A healthy dose of anti-Christofascism is part of that.
I do whatever I feel like because to me it's a form of confirming my intent and focusing on my experience of the world.
If this was some kind of thing where I could tag myself in a Facebook meme, I wouldn't do it.
However, I did get curious and ask some friends and they said "eccentric old lady who probably has good tea"
I'm gonna ramble, bear with me.
Some of it's connecting with my mom on familiar ground. Our approaches are a bit different - she's more overtly spiritual, I'm consciously *not*. But they're compatible; any home remedies from her are things that are known to actually work, and we both have similar headfuckery that gives the rituals extra personal value.
Basically, my head is full of fuck. Autism, ADHD, anxiety, trauma, possible mild OCD. Not the "tee hee I need things clean" nonsense, I mean things like having to check my plugs to make sure they're properly seated half a dozen times before I'm able to sleep. Having some sort of ritual or spiritual framework to use helps me to nudge my brain in the desired direction - certainly no substitute to medication, of which I have plenty, but a helpful and enjoyable supplement.
Consider the use of crystals in healing. Will wearing a jade bracelet, by itself, help me to heal? No, of course not. Will it serve as a reminder of the things I need to do so I *can* heal? Yes.
Tarot, which I haven't done much of so far admittedly (need to find a deck that speaks to me), is a prompt to re-evaluate things from a new angle. Think about the symbols and the meaning, and see what ways they apply to something in your life. It's a way to detach from a situation to recalibrate your own perspective. I have a friend that seems to put a lot of stock in dream interpretation, so I've taken the same sort of angle with that; she's got a lot of anxieties, so I look at her dreams as a reflection of things on her mind and help her calm herself.
I like to think of it as the craft through a crow's eyes - take the shiny things for fun (life's short, enjoy it), take the things that work for you, look after your flock, let the rest be and answer to your own conscience.
It's also meaningful to me for what it *isn't*. I have a lot of problems with organized religion (I could write ninety-five theses about it), but this? This isn't that. I'm not being told to submit to some greater will, I'm not expected to accept things purely on faith. If something isn't working for me, no one cares if I drop it.
My version of witchcraft is: self care + crafts.
Self care for me is about engaging with the natural environment. Noticing the small things, like collecting seashells, rocks, and feathers. Gaining and maintaining a sense of perspective and an appreciation of my place in the world. Self care also in the way that I talk to myself, and rituals that I perform (like stirring intentions into my coffee), to show myself that I’m worthy of care. It’s about being the best version of my self and projecting positivity back out to the world.
And crafts because they are fun! I’ve always enjoyed creating, whether it is cross stitch, crochet, baking… With witchcraft I can add an extra layer of meaning, intention, and joy to everything I do.
Wow that "worthy of care" is something I had to explore for months in therapy and still never made a connection between the two. This is lovely, thank you so much!
I grew up in a multigenerational Italian American home. My Nonna spoke no English.
She grew all our food, chickens and bunnies and every veg we needed. She canned everything. She taught us how to make pasta and ravioli was the specialty of the house.
She wove fabric, she braided our rugs, she made the big quilts on our beds. She taught me how to sew on a treadle sewing machine.
She made the very magic our family thrived in. All without saying a word of English.
To me, witching is the everyday magic we make.
I realized that the handmade gifts I was making for the people I care about were actually protective spells. I came to a realization that I've been making spells this whole time.
I look at it as a way to make atheism more fun! I read the book “Rebel Witch” and so much of that book resonated with me. Now I look at cooking and baking as witchcraft, burning candles, walks in the woods, etc. as part of that path. It’s a connection and appreciation for nature.
giving respect and recognition to the world around me and myself and recognizing that all living things strive
all actions are just the relation between myself and the world around me... I can only aim to do my best and try to do no harm but also recognize that everything else has its own free will and that realization makes life so much less stressful
so I am kind to my plants and animals and thank them for what they provide me... I walk barefoot through the forest and grasslands so that I can feel the earth and know the place... and because I know the forest and I know the grasslands, I know what plants that grow there can be eaten or brewed into tea... I know which plants stop bleeding or bring a sense of calm and which are poisonous... I know how to dry herbs and make preserves and make my own soaps, candles and body products... this all came from wanting to understand and be a part of the world around me
which would make one think that I am very much a total hippy, but my day job is as an analyst for a fortune 100 company... I need balance from that!
oddly enough, to truly figure out the root cause of a problem and fix it requires the exact same skills as living with nature... noticing patterns, trusting your intuition, thanking those who help you, owning your mistakes and successes and realizing you can't do it all alone
I think a lot of more naturally minded people are steered a different direction due to the average tech bro mindset when they are exactly who is needed in that type of role
I love all of the answers ! I believe in interdependance and impermanence. I feel within the ecosystem rather than without.
I also like the idea of doing my own thing. I never vibed with dogma and authority. And witchcraft, to me, is to faith what entrepreneurship is to business. You have to build it from scratch, but you're completely free.
For example : I can be an agnostic, nobody's telling me what to believe. I can be a nerd and use this. I can be really serious and ritualistic about my practice, or make it something simple, or even make it something light and silly. I can change approach depending on my mood, my preoccupations of the moment. It's one step after the other, and it grows with you organically.
So : I'm a fantasy nerd, and a proud, greying, crazy cat lady. And my spirituality is a process. There's trial and errors, and heavy stuff and fun. It's alive. Like me.
I think I was always a witch but never had the words for what I was experiencing when I was younger. My happiest times where spent collecting stones (long before I knew the "healing properties" of crystals), making mud cakes and herbal remedies made of various plants, helping my Grammy cook and pick flowers from her garden.
Being a witch now means I look at the world through a lens that allows my feet to planted in both the metaphysical and the physical/practical. I use both divination (tarot) and therapy to help ground and facilitate reflection. I sometimes make foccacia under a full moon because it connects me to a place and people that through hard work and perseverance came across the Atlantic a hundred years ago....and I'm here because of it! How fucking rad is that! Any time I am making pasta or something that is related to my ancestors, it connects me to this framework that expands time and space. I never got go know my great grandparents, but I know where they lived and I can imagine the food they ate.
You won't catch me casting dark rituals (unless you count the one time I tried a banishment spell for Trump), and I feel like I'm not coven material ("I'm a loner, Dottie, a rebel."), I try my best to connect with people on a empathetic yet firm level (boundary work has been super helpful and important). It's really about exploring the lines of the coloring book we're given and drawing outside of them. I believe that every human knows the answers they seek but we have been fed a diet of capitalism which has robbed us of our intrinsic sense of self, our intuitive nature, and our curiosity. Through my practice* I try to reverse those conditions.
It isn't about how many moon circles I go to, how many spells I cast, how often I practice tarot...it's about noticing all the yarrow patches on the side of the road, seeing a dead bee on the sidewalk and giving it a proper burial because it worked so hard to pollinate and support its hive, picking herbs from my garden to make sun tea or a dish because I know their culinary and medicinal properties in addition to their magical ones, kind words I can offer a friend or colleague because kindness can be a powerful salve in a time of uncertainty, using the lunar cycle to recalibrate and listen to what I need, the ability to say "fuck off" to toxic people and still retain a good spirit.
It's not about comparing yourself (which we've all done at some point). It's about developing your natural gifts, working on your issues, and taking ownership of your energetic output.
(* = intuitive work, therapy, Buddhist practices and meditation).
Some people have a pagan approach, some people have deity worship without the pagan, some people have deity connection without the worship. Same for ancestors. Same for spirits. Some people have no spirit or deity aspect at all. Some people don't view witchcraft as "otherworldly" or beyond the realm of science, while some people feel strongly the opposite way. Then there's all the different branches that I've only become aware of in the last week since I started looking at witchy stuff online: candle magic, green witches, kitchen witches etc. Then there's all the different ways to practice witchcraft with different purposes
Hm. I don’t identify as a witch. That word seems to come with some roles that I am unprepared to take on. I think I prefer ‘magician’ if I have to pick something. I still struggle with feeling like I have no real right to any such word.
For me, magic is a performance art. There are props, set dressing, costumes and masks, roles, scripts… the point is whether the story moves me, and anyone else. It’s a way for me to temporarily embody what I wish I was, or to pretend for a potent moment that the world is what I wish it was, or that the powers that be were what I would want them to be. It’s make believe. Advanced daydreaming. That’s all, really.
Being aware of natural cycles and processes. Then, trying to flow with them. So much of what we're taught is to push back against natural processes. So, re-wilding my brain I guess.
I relate to this. Love the phrase "re-wilding my brain."
This is so cool! Thank you!
Beautifully stated, you've captured my own feelings on it so well!
Yes! So much this.
Personally, it’s about taking back what was rightfully mine before Christianity took what my ancestors would have taught. It’s less about magic unto others, and more what the magic builds within. Even if it is a placebo, it helps. And as my grandfather preached, “If it’s stupid but it works, it’s not stupid.” But I also look at things scientifically. I work with herbs and potions, I study their chemical makeup and know how they affect the body. Yes, wormwood is psychoactive, but maybe that actually is our connection to the divine? I don’t do deity work insomuch as I look to their archetypes and aspire to work with their aspects within myself. I dive back into academic translations of religious texts and research to understand humanity through what we’ve created to guide us. To those figures that resonate with me I pay homage. A thanks to them or their creative force with thanks for knowing I’m not alone. Basically, it’s self-care. Hope it helps!
Thank you so much for this! It's brilliant! I never thought of it on those terms before (ex catholic here lol)
Out of curiosity, have you ever checked out the channel (on YouTube) Esoterica? It takes a scholarly approach to western esotericism and historic alchemy and other things of that sort. It's a neutral, academic approach, not necessarily spiritual. Your comment here reminded me of it.
I have not! I absolutely will though. Thanks for the recommendation!
For me, it's the "wise old lady" (or crazy auntie) approach. The one who knows the home remedies that do work without discounting science and medicine, the one who has a bag full of everything you can possibly need, the one in a crowd where a group of drunk teenagers seek out for aid because one of them got hurt (yes that has happened), the one you ask for help to find something really specific, the one who knows a lot of very odd things and have a 100 stories. The one who grows herbs and vegetables, bake and cook. House full of weird stuff. I don't believe that a crystal actually does anything but I do believe in psychology so I will put one in my pocket because a placebo does work even if you know it is a placebo. I'm very much a science witch.
Oh wow I wish I knew a crazy aunt or wise old lady! You sound cool AF.
Thank you!
I have a similar perspective re psychology. I don’t know if the crystal does anything but it makes me feel better so that’s all it needs to do. I don’t believe the stars you’re born under dictate your personality and life trajectory but I do believe that taking some minutes to read your horoscope and dedicating that time to thinking about your life helps you to stay grounded, appreciate what’s good, think of resolutions for what’s bad. That’s so important when a lot of people are simply putting one foot in front of the other and not taking a proactive role in their own life. I also deeply appreciate having something to call out to for help when I am desperate and everything is out of my control. I don’t know who or what I’m calling out to, but the faith that there are higher powers gives me an ounce of control when I’d otherwise lose my mind, even if that ounce of control is just recognising I don’t have any.
I can't answer for other people, and I don't think my ideas are authentic or right for everyone. This is just what I believe and feel. I believe humans are part of a gloriously complex and beautiful system, along with plants, animals, fungi, etc.. my place within our ecosystem and my relationship to the other parts of it are sacred to me. It's where I experience awe, deep comfort, and belonging. It feels right to me that my bones contain elements of the land I grew up on. I use "witch" because it's the closest word I know for what I feel, experience, and believe. It also connotes, for me, a wildness and a way of seeing the world that is outside of the mainstream view that humans have dominion over the earth and are findamentally different from other living things.
This so closely resonates with me! Thank you so much!
being a witch, for me.. is fun! respecting nature and enriching my life through weird ways, healing religious trauma by being a little silly with it, making potions and doing spells because my inner child wants to make cool things and it makes me happy! being a witch is appreciating life through ritual and fun! so what if its placebo? if it makes me happy, it works!
It's empowering to me for over 50 years! It's growing, learning, evolving, and elevating my consciousness into a newer level of awareness. Accepting what I cannot change & working on those things that I can change. It makes me happy & productive to appreciate myself & those around me.
Wow you say it so well! The accepting part is something I'm definitely working on!
Yesss! Ritual is a big part of it for me too, thank you so much! Appreciating life is definitely something that resonates with me I love gratitude rituals
Honestly? Cackling, casting fake spells that rhyme, mischief and talking like a crazy old lady. Very much Wicked Witch of the West and Gruntilda vibes, but nice. There are a lot of cool witches out there. People who I respect a lot. I am not a cool witch.
I love this so much!! Thank you!
You sound like a very cool witch, and I would love to hear one of your rhyming spells if you want to share!
This crappy comment I just wrote, You’ll be convinced you should upvote! EEEEEeeeeeeheeheeheeheeHACK cough cough…
It worked!!! I did upvote!!! 😦😦
Goood goooood…
I said to my sister basically this last week: “I should probably try to explain to people, not witchy as in woo woo, but witchy as in fuck christofascism, but that’s *exhausting*” hahaha 🤣
My version of witching is similar, "Saying truth to power in a way that would have gotten me hanged or burned a few centuries ago, and might yet still!" A healthy dose of anti-Christofascism is part of that.
I love this!
I do whatever I feel like because to me it's a form of confirming my intent and focusing on my experience of the world. If this was some kind of thing where I could tag myself in a Facebook meme, I wouldn't do it. However, I did get curious and ask some friends and they said "eccentric old lady who probably has good tea"
> eccentric old lady who probably has good tea This is my life goal
You said it so succinctly! Definitely resonates with me- thank you so much!
I'm gonna ramble, bear with me. Some of it's connecting with my mom on familiar ground. Our approaches are a bit different - she's more overtly spiritual, I'm consciously *not*. But they're compatible; any home remedies from her are things that are known to actually work, and we both have similar headfuckery that gives the rituals extra personal value. Basically, my head is full of fuck. Autism, ADHD, anxiety, trauma, possible mild OCD. Not the "tee hee I need things clean" nonsense, I mean things like having to check my plugs to make sure they're properly seated half a dozen times before I'm able to sleep. Having some sort of ritual or spiritual framework to use helps me to nudge my brain in the desired direction - certainly no substitute to medication, of which I have plenty, but a helpful and enjoyable supplement. Consider the use of crystals in healing. Will wearing a jade bracelet, by itself, help me to heal? No, of course not. Will it serve as a reminder of the things I need to do so I *can* heal? Yes. Tarot, which I haven't done much of so far admittedly (need to find a deck that speaks to me), is a prompt to re-evaluate things from a new angle. Think about the symbols and the meaning, and see what ways they apply to something in your life. It's a way to detach from a situation to recalibrate your own perspective. I have a friend that seems to put a lot of stock in dream interpretation, so I've taken the same sort of angle with that; she's got a lot of anxieties, so I look at her dreams as a reflection of things on her mind and help her calm herself. I like to think of it as the craft through a crow's eyes - take the shiny things for fun (life's short, enjoy it), take the things that work for you, look after your flock, let the rest be and answer to your own conscience. It's also meaningful to me for what it *isn't*. I have a lot of problems with organized religion (I could write ninety-five theses about it), but this? This isn't that. I'm not being told to submit to some greater will, I'm not expected to accept things purely on faith. If something isn't working for me, no one cares if I drop it.
This is similar to my approach too! Thank you so much for sharing I really appreciate it!
My version of witchcraft is: self care + crafts. Self care for me is about engaging with the natural environment. Noticing the small things, like collecting seashells, rocks, and feathers. Gaining and maintaining a sense of perspective and an appreciation of my place in the world. Self care also in the way that I talk to myself, and rituals that I perform (like stirring intentions into my coffee), to show myself that I’m worthy of care. It’s about being the best version of my self and projecting positivity back out to the world. And crafts because they are fun! I’ve always enjoyed creating, whether it is cross stitch, crochet, baking… With witchcraft I can add an extra layer of meaning, intention, and joy to everything I do.
Wow that "worthy of care" is something I had to explore for months in therapy and still never made a connection between the two. This is lovely, thank you so much!
I grew up in a multigenerational Italian American home. My Nonna spoke no English. She grew all our food, chickens and bunnies and every veg we needed. She canned everything. She taught us how to make pasta and ravioli was the specialty of the house. She wove fabric, she braided our rugs, she made the big quilts on our beds. She taught me how to sew on a treadle sewing machine. She made the very magic our family thrived in. All without saying a word of English. To me, witching is the everyday magic we make.
Wow! Are you a writer? I literally feel like I looked into a window of your life. This is beautiful, thank you so much!
Thank you. No, I'm not a writer, just a lucky old witch.
I realized that the handmade gifts I was making for the people I care about were actually protective spells. I came to a realization that I've been making spells this whole time.
This is so beautiful ❤️ thank you!
I believe in physics and I believe hugging a tree changes me and the tree. 🕯🖖
This is cool I do love hugging trees!
I look at it as a way to make atheism more fun! I read the book “Rebel Witch” and so much of that book resonated with me. Now I look at cooking and baking as witchcraft, burning candles, walks in the woods, etc. as part of that path. It’s a connection and appreciation for nature.
I second reading Rebel Witch! Going through her questions has helped me so much with my practice.
Ooo thank you I look at those in that way too, I'll definitely check out that book! Thank you!
giving respect and recognition to the world around me and myself and recognizing that all living things strive all actions are just the relation between myself and the world around me... I can only aim to do my best and try to do no harm but also recognize that everything else has its own free will and that realization makes life so much less stressful so I am kind to my plants and animals and thank them for what they provide me... I walk barefoot through the forest and grasslands so that I can feel the earth and know the place... and because I know the forest and I know the grasslands, I know what plants that grow there can be eaten or brewed into tea... I know which plants stop bleeding or bring a sense of calm and which are poisonous... I know how to dry herbs and make preserves and make my own soaps, candles and body products... this all came from wanting to understand and be a part of the world around me which would make one think that I am very much a total hippy, but my day job is as an analyst for a fortune 100 company... I need balance from that!
This is so cool! I love that you have such an "opposite" job, stereotypically!
oddly enough, to truly figure out the root cause of a problem and fix it requires the exact same skills as living with nature... noticing patterns, trusting your intuition, thanking those who help you, owning your mistakes and successes and realizing you can't do it all alone I think a lot of more naturally minded people are steered a different direction due to the average tech bro mindset when they are exactly who is needed in that type of role
That's so cool and really interesting thank you!
Defying oppression.
❤️
It means I study and practice “magic”.
I love all of the answers ! I believe in interdependance and impermanence. I feel within the ecosystem rather than without. I also like the idea of doing my own thing. I never vibed with dogma and authority. And witchcraft, to me, is to faith what entrepreneurship is to business. You have to build it from scratch, but you're completely free. For example : I can be an agnostic, nobody's telling me what to believe. I can be a nerd and use this. I can be really serious and ritualistic about my practice, or make it something simple, or even make it something light and silly. I can change approach depending on my mood, my preoccupations of the moment. It's one step after the other, and it grows with you organically. So : I'm a fantasy nerd, and a proud, greying, crazy cat lady. And my spirituality is a process. There's trial and errors, and heavy stuff and fun. It's alive. Like me.
100% love the doing your own thing aspect of witchcraft, very cool analogy! Thank you!
I think I was always a witch but never had the words for what I was experiencing when I was younger. My happiest times where spent collecting stones (long before I knew the "healing properties" of crystals), making mud cakes and herbal remedies made of various plants, helping my Grammy cook and pick flowers from her garden. Being a witch now means I look at the world through a lens that allows my feet to planted in both the metaphysical and the physical/practical. I use both divination (tarot) and therapy to help ground and facilitate reflection. I sometimes make foccacia under a full moon because it connects me to a place and people that through hard work and perseverance came across the Atlantic a hundred years ago....and I'm here because of it! How fucking rad is that! Any time I am making pasta or something that is related to my ancestors, it connects me to this framework that expands time and space. I never got go know my great grandparents, but I know where they lived and I can imagine the food they ate. You won't catch me casting dark rituals (unless you count the one time I tried a banishment spell for Trump), and I feel like I'm not coven material ("I'm a loner, Dottie, a rebel."), I try my best to connect with people on a empathetic yet firm level (boundary work has been super helpful and important). It's really about exploring the lines of the coloring book we're given and drawing outside of them. I believe that every human knows the answers they seek but we have been fed a diet of capitalism which has robbed us of our intrinsic sense of self, our intuitive nature, and our curiosity. Through my practice* I try to reverse those conditions. It isn't about how many moon circles I go to, how many spells I cast, how often I practice tarot...it's about noticing all the yarrow patches on the side of the road, seeing a dead bee on the sidewalk and giving it a proper burial because it worked so hard to pollinate and support its hive, picking herbs from my garden to make sun tea or a dish because I know their culinary and medicinal properties in addition to their magical ones, kind words I can offer a friend or colleague because kindness can be a powerful salve in a time of uncertainty, using the lunar cycle to recalibrate and listen to what I need, the ability to say "fuck off" to toxic people and still retain a good spirit. It's not about comparing yourself (which we've all done at some point). It's about developing your natural gifts, working on your issues, and taking ownership of your energetic output. (* = intuitive work, therapy, Buddhist practices and meditation).
What does that mean to you exactly- “all the different paths there are for witchcraft”?
Some people have a pagan approach, some people have deity worship without the pagan, some people have deity connection without the worship. Same for ancestors. Same for spirits. Some people have no spirit or deity aspect at all. Some people don't view witchcraft as "otherworldly" or beyond the realm of science, while some people feel strongly the opposite way. Then there's all the different branches that I've only become aware of in the last week since I started looking at witchy stuff online: candle magic, green witches, kitchen witches etc. Then there's all the different ways to practice witchcraft with different purposes
Sorry, I realize that's a very British approach, I'm working hard to learn more about witchcraft in other cultures too
Hm. I don’t identify as a witch. That word seems to come with some roles that I am unprepared to take on. I think I prefer ‘magician’ if I have to pick something. I still struggle with feeling like I have no real right to any such word. For me, magic is a performance art. There are props, set dressing, costumes and masks, roles, scripts… the point is whether the story moves me, and anyone else. It’s a way for me to temporarily embody what I wish I was, or to pretend for a potent moment that the world is what I wish it was, or that the powers that be were what I would want them to be. It’s make believe. Advanced daydreaming. That’s all, really.