What is a witch?

There are many interpretations of what a witch is, just as there are many interpretations of what a Christian is. However, you should not go to a Christian to ask what a witch is any more than you should depend on a witch to tell you what a Christian is.

As a witch, this is how I see it:

I see the divine as feminine (Shekinah, Ruach HaKodesh, Ariadne etc). I also see the divine in nature.

Rituals are physical ways of connecting with the non-physical. Nearly every Christian practises Baptism and Holy Communion. Witches too may bathe as a symbolic gesture of inner purification. They may also eat cake and wine as part of a ritual.

Spells are prayers. Catholics and Anglicans light candles. Each candle is a prayer. Witches do the same. Spells do not require physical tools, but sometimes they help to focus intent. Everyone agrees, however, that the most powerful spells are the ones you make up yourself. Witches often have a personal record book, called a 'Book of Shadows.' It's a prayer diary.

A Book of Mirrors is simply a journal, not neccesarily a record of spells and rituals.

Magic is life. Quantam physicists tell us that everything is energy. Everything vibrates. Magic is everything and in everything.

There are many reasons witches are and have been persecuted. The main reason I can see is because the majority are women, worshiping the divine in their own personal way. There are no taboos and no methods of control. I am not Wiccan because Wicca is a new religion founded in the 1950s by a man who took elements from various pagan religions. The kind of witchcraft I subscribe to doesn't really need any books or rules. I've already been doing it all my life. It's just now I know it has a name and I've found other women doing it too.

The Way of the Green Witch

"Using the word 'witch' invariably brings us to the word 'magic.' This is a word that can cause confusion. Magic is not illusion, nor is it the artificial manipulation of unnatural forces. In fact, magic is perfectly natural: it is the use of natural energy with conscious intent and awareness to help attain a better understanding of the world around you and to harmonize yourself witht the world's energies.
Most green witches find the use of the word 'magic' to be irrelevant. Magic implies something out of the ordinary. But to a green witch the mundane is magical. When she senses, responds to , and gently nudges the flows of natural energy around her. She's performing natural magic. Nature itself is magical. The everyday is sacred to the green witch.

Arin Murphy-Hiscock, The Way of the Green Witch

A Lesson in Understanding

In the church I belonged to as a child, I often heard stories of Christians being 'spritually attacked' by witches.

In response, our church would gather at the top of the 'high places' in the city, singing hymns and praying against the witches who thought these places sacred.

This is the equivalent to witches surrounding a church and chanting or praying against it.

It was basically tit for tat.

At no point did I ever hear of anyone befriending a witch (without the goal of converting them.) I was led to believe that witches were purely agents of evil, not to be approached except for when in the safety of a group, and then only while invoking the protection of the Most High.

I carried this fear and suspicion with me for the next twenty years of my life.

I knew nothing of what witches believed apart from what Christians told me.

You wouldn't go to a witch to discover what Christians believe, would you?

From now on, I resolve to go straight to the source to discover the truth.

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

- St Francis of Assisi

Let me be a Peacemaker. So mote it be!

Witches vs. Christians

When Christianity first began, followers of 'The Way' were the misunderstood minority. They were persecuted and killed, many being burned alive by followers of the established Pagan religions.

Then when Christianity was embraced by western civillization, gaining power and control, they started burning the Pagans. (the Inquisition, etc.)

Neither of these atrocities were carried out by true witches or Christians. For both believe in The Golden Rule.

Many witches who are also Wiccans stick to the Wiccan Rede: 'An it harm none, do as ye will.' Meaning only do what will not cause harm. This has also been translated as 'love God, and do what you will.'

Witches may also quote the 'threefold rule' which means that whatever you give out, comes back to you threefold. This is a very strong deterrent against practising curses or so called 'love spells' with the intent of manipulating someone else's free will.

It is unfortunate that so many people do not believe in respecting a person's free will. It is one thing to share your truth, it is another to attack someone else for their beliefs. Or worse yet, what you think they believe.

Most witches have a very strong belief in karma, that what you do to others you do to yourself. Therefore even wishing harm on another person is harming yourself. It is a belief of many ancient religions, that we are all connected and part of the same whole.

So perhaps there are bad or wicked witches, but I have known plenty of wicked Christians too. Maybe I have been one myself? I think closer to the truth is that people are people. Not divine nor diabolical, but somewhere in between.

Green Witch

Green adjective 1. not fully developed in growth or perfection.
2. characterized by the presence of greenness, esp. of fresh, flourishing vegetation.

Witch noun 1. a woman who professes to practice magic.

After discovering that witches do not even believe in Satan (who belongs to Christianity) let alone follow him, I decided I liked it so much, that's what I would call myself.

My understanding is that 'witches' were midwives, healers, wise women or mystics. The patriarchal church just about stamped them out but they are coming back. Midwifery has been practiced in British Columbia for the past two years. It's OK now; we don't have the church telling us that because of Eve women are supposed to suffer in childbirth. Women are allowed to help other women again.

I have always practiced magic- in my garden, in the wild, wherever the sky was my roof and the earth my floor. I have prayed, sang, made affirmations and performed rituals. But it always came from my heart, not a book. I did not call it magic.

I acknowledge that I am an amateur. Therefore, 'Green' will suit me both now, and in the future. It is possible I could become a professional magic practitioner, but I will always belong to the Earth.