quotations about witches & witchcraft
Just because you can't turn your ex into a toad doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the Craft; the problem is having unrealistic expectations of what the Craft is about.
MACKENZIE SAGE WRIGHT
"5 Common Mistakes Made by Beginning Witches", Exemplore, August 10, 2017
Is it still witchcraft if we're not the ones actually doing the circle casting, the purifying, the invoking? If we're only occupying the space while the leading high priestess and priest do their thing? What if our only experience of witchcraft is that coven meeting and we never do anything on our own time? What if we do attempt to call the gods and speak to spirits and perform acts of magic ... and it just doesn't work? What if the gods don't hear us (or simply don't answer)? What if we fail to fulfill our obligations as priests or priestesses in a coven?
THORN MOONEY
"All Wiccans are witches, but some of us are bad at it", Patheos, January 21, 2016
In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
THOMAS SZASZ
introduction, The Manufacture of Madness
As a teacher, I also find that people learn best when they're relaxed. It may offend the Serious, but there's a reason why I believe in cookies in witchcraft, and why you should evoke the Sky Bunny and Wall Kittens in movement. (Sorry no link, you're just going to have to come to one of my workshops!). It's why I delight in getting a room full of occultists to all say "yaaassssss." And why I hand out ribbons at conventions with "Manifest Birches" printed on them. It gets people to pay attention, to let go of themselves and allow for change and new ideas.
LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF
"The Dork Witch: The Art of Humor in the Craft", Patheos, March 31, 2017
Anything that you do not understand, you deem witchcraft!
ANDREA ZUVICH
The Stuart Vampire
When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 117
The light in her Gypsy eyes
Fenced with saffron tongues
As they burnt off her skin.
And she wailed before she died,
Before the hush of holy sacrifice.
And her sinful thighs
Created for the danse macabre
Withered into ashes.
PETER HARGITAI
"Witch's Island"
The important thing is that as this is a modern religion, born in a modern Western country, it has the values of modern Westerners. The values of modern Westerners are individualism, freedom to practice as you choose, no authority above you, no official doctrine that forces you to stick to a certain way and very, very few moral mandates. The only moral mandate is harm nobody. Do what you want, but harm nobody.
KAINE FINI
"Wicca thrives in Orange County", Coast Report Online, April 4, 2017
Practicing witchcraft is something that is very personal; everybody does something different that kind of fits their lifestyle and what they need. I tend to focus on my personal energy. I do a lot of tarot readings, which give me insights to my life, giving me a window where I can view my life from an outside standpoint. I use herbs and essential oils to cleanse myself or, if I get stressed, to help me relax. I practice meditations and I do rituals on the Sabbaths, both greater and minor, as well as the full moons.
HANNAH THOMAS
"Student practices witchcraft, found communities within Des Moines, Drake, internet", The Times-Delphic, March 22, 2017
Ideally, of course, there are no bystanders in a Wiccan circle. It's a coven, not a congregation. And certainly one doesn't make it very far in a training setting without engaging in acts of witchcraft, but is there a minimum? How much witchcraft is enough witchcraft to make you a witch? I mean, even I managed to play soccer once or twice, but it didn't undo all of the destructive not-soccer I was usually up to. I was a cautionary tale, not an athlete.
THORN MOONEY
"All Wiccans are witches, but some of us are bad at it", Patheos, January 21, 2016
I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
Salem has become this ... Mecca for Wiccans, but no witches died here. Aside from Tituba, no one practiced anything like witchcraft near here in colonial times. It was a bunch of bored Puritans who thought killing their neighbors at the behest of teenage girls was a fine, Christian form of entertainment and land acquisition.
THOMM QUACKENBUSH
Pagan Standard Times: Essays on the Craft
There is a reason why so many people say, "I tried Witchcraft, it doesn't work!" This is because dabbling gets you nowhere. It's a little like someone who has never played a musical instrument before coming into your house, banging on your piano for 30 minutes and proclaiming pianos don't work because it didn't play a song. The problem is not the instrument; the problem is you have to learn how to play it.
MACKENZIE SAGE WRIGHT
"5 Common Mistakes Made by Beginning Witches", Exemplore, August 10, 2017
Another theme unique to traditional witchcraft is the lore of the Witch Mark. This mysterious concept may have come from coerced testimony. However, a closer look reveals a deeper mythology with connections back to antiquity coming to be known as the Mark of Cain. The idea of an initiatory experience transforming one into something different, something other, is not new to human consciousness. In witch mythology the mark is transmitted from Cain, the first sorcerer, who was marked as other by God. It is seen as a spiritual fire that connects those of the Witchblood across time and space. The Mark is something that crosses the boundaries of all traditions, uniting those who seek a deeper truth. Individual spiritual growth is paramount to the witch, forging their own spiritual relationships while discovering for themselves the secrets of the Universe.
COBY MICHAEL SMITH
"A Traditional Witch's Love Affair With History", Patheos, March 22, 2017
Modern witchcraft, a movement that is being propelled out of the forest and into the mainstream. The hook-nosed, broom-riding, pointy-hat-wearing, cackling witches of yore have transfigured into hip, feminist, millennial women with slick websites and soothing advice on manifesting your dreams. Instead of a bubbling cauldron filled with eye of the newt, they're slinging essential oils seeped with wild herbs.
ALDEN WICKER
"Witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials", Quartz, October 27, 2016
Magic, and witchcraft in particular, is a way to exercise and recognize your agency in the world. The reason I'm doing this work is so people can feel that agency. So they don't feel they are at the mercy of the world and the choices that other people are making for them.
AMANDA YATES GARCIA
"Witches Explain How To Take On Political Power With Occult Magic", Huffington Post, April 4, 2017
Unlike the Abrahamic traditions, Witchcraft is not based upon a strict division of what is good and what is evil. Witches use nature to fuel their concept of the divine and in the world of nature there is no battle between good and evil. A lion is not "evil" because it kills the gazelle, and a deer is not "good" because it eats only plants. Nature is both cruel and beautiful at the same time.
SCARLET RAVENSWOOD
"Do Witches Believe in the Devil?", Arcane Alchemy, May 25, 2018
My witchcraft speaks to connections between beings.
My witchcraft curls within the wild of my own heart.
LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF
"My Witchcraft Is..."
Witchcraft, like any science or philosophical system, must be approached from a liberal point of view. When looked at objectively, we see that Witchcraft is just another theoretical body of knowledge. It is a process, not a person. Therefore it is neutral, incapable of being either good or evil. Like all belief systems, Witchcraft is only as good or evil as the people using it.
LADY SABRINA
Secrets of Modern Witchcraft Revealed
Early this year, the witch camp in Bonyase was disbanded in an attempt by the government to erase what it considers as a stain on its human rights records.... The pervasive belief in Ghana that people can harm others through witchcraft is the elephant in the room that has to be called out, not the safe places which alleged witches flee to. The government of Ghana needs to retrace its steps and focus its energy and resources on addressing the phenomenon of witchcraft allegation. Witch camps are the consequences, not the cause of the problem. They are symptoms not the disease. The government of Ghana is correct in saying that witchcraft accusation leads to various human rights abuses. Now how is shutting down the witch camp the solution to these abuses? Most people living in these shelters did not just take up residency there without any reason. People in these camps are accused persons who were convicted at shrines or banished by families and would have been killed if they had stayed back in their communities, if they had not taken refuge at these shelters.
LEO IGWE
"Ghana: Witchcraft Accusation -- Is Disbanding 'Witches Camps' the Solution?", The Chronicle, November 17, 2015