About Witchcraft

For the first time in hundreds of years witchcraft is in the mainstream and in a positive light, offering a completely viable, and increasingly respected spiritual practice. Still, a person seeking the spiritual path that offers them their best connection to the Divine and a like-minded spiritual family may easily become overwhelmed by the vastness and complexity of, often contradictory, information available. This might seem especially so regarding Wicca, whose primary, mainstream presence lives online and in bookstores.

This article offers some general information, positive comparisons, and ideas that anyone might consider in their search for the path that's right for them. The first consideration, which dictates the spirit of this article, is that the stark contrasts one may find between the objective and subjective realities make it difficult to define any spiritual path or religion. Definitions can either facilitate or impede understanding. A helpful definition is one that is not overly simplistic, and one that mentions important distinctions as well as similarities between familiar and unfamiliar terms where they exist.

For example, witchcraft is generally thought to be polytheistic, but there are witches who are monotheists. The wonderful thing about that fact is that it creates very little division in witches' fellowship, and it's in that vein that this article is offered; that your analysis of witchcraft might be based on a fair assessment of the phenomenon as a whole.

With regard to comparisons made here, this article offers treatment to the most prevalent experiences that a seeker might encounter in the United States; specifically it addresses our similarities and differences with Christianity, and the uninformed association of witchcraft with Satanism.

Witches are people who revere, usually, both the God and the Goddess. They seek a more friendly relationship with their natural environment, endeavoring to recognize the sacredness of all of nature. Witches, further, seek to utilize cosmic or psychic forces to do create positive change. To this end, the practice of witchcraft involves knowledge and skill in appropriating the rituals that are believed to harness and focus these energies. Seeing themselves in stark contrast to other occult religions such as Satanism, witches seek to work these forces in order to enhance their own experience of life and to promote healing and community.

Do these rituals work? Is this even the important question to ask? What could possibly be wrong with such a seemingly benevolent religion? Witchcraft has something to say about who we are as humans, about what our relationship to our fellow humans and to the rest of the universe ought to be, and about how we should relate to the divine. You may be surprised to learn of the comparisons and contrasts that can be drawn from witchcraft and your experience with other religions.

When one begins to investigate the phenomenon of modern witchcraft, it does not take long to notice a range of terms associated with the practice: The Craft, Wicca, paganism, Neo-Paganism, and so on. This summary of certain distinctions between the terms Wicca, witchcraft, and Neo-Paganism may be helpful.

Neo-Paganism is the broadest category, encompassing a wide range of groups "that try to reconstruct ancient religious systems—such as the Norse, Celtic, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian religions—as well as…various obscure, forgotten, and neglected occult teachings from around the world." The prefix "Neo" in Neo-Paganism usually indicates an emphasis on one's practice in its contemporary manifestation while still hinting that it is perhaps a revival of, or connected to, something ancient.

Further, witchcraft is distinguished from Wicca (with Wicca being the narrowest category) along the lines of how closely one follows the specific teachings and practices of the English Wiccan Gerald Gardner, who more or less gave the term Wica (with one c) to his practice.

There may be subtle distinctions that some prefer to maintain when opting for one term over another, but for the most part these terms are used interchangeably. The term witchcraft is certainly the most familiar within and without the practice, but it is also the term that carries with it the most unwanted baggage. It often has sinister or evil connotations, and for those reasons many within the craft prefer the term Wicca (for the practice) and Wiccan (for the practitioner).

As Americans, this is an important point to remember. We cherish our heritage of religious freedom, but in their enthusiasm to refute the beliefs of witchcraft, some have overstated the case. Historically, it may rightly be claimed that the United States was founded on the ethical concept of natural law (where morality is grounded in the nature of the creator God), but they wrongly conclude that witches do not have constitutional rights, since witches reject the traditional Christian notion of the creator God. Without getting into the tricky issue of how and whether religion should interact with government or public life, we should recognize that, within the limits of law, all Americans have the right to exercise their own religion in accordance with the dictates of their conscience.

A worldview is the sum total of one's view of the nature of reality. Everyone has a worldview even if only a few reflect on their own. One's worldview encompasses one's views of how reality is composed, how it works, and how we as humans fit in or relate to our universe. It can entail one's views about the purpose of life and the origin and destiny of us all.

Naturalism. Starting at the broadest level and working down, it is fair to say that the worldview of witchcraft is naturalism. Naturalism is the view that there is no transcendent reality such as God that can intervene in the natural world. Naturalism maintains that all of reality is interrelated and operates according to "laws." Other expressions of naturalism would include materialism, which sees all of reality as being made up of matter that operates according to material laws.

Witchcraft, though an expression of naturalism, is not materialism. Witches recognize that reality extends beyond the realm of the material. This is sometimes confusing. A worldview can be naturalistic even if it accepts the reality of an immaterial realm; indeed, even acknowledging the existence of gods and goddesses does not preclude a worldview from being naturalistic. What stands in stark contrast to naturalism is a worldview that says that the natural realm (whether material, immaterial, or both) is the creation of a transcendent God. This is supernaturalism.

Occultism. Sharpening the focus, not only can we say that witchcraft is a worldview of naturalism, it is also a worldview of occultism. The term occult is from the Latin occultus meaning "hidden," or "secret." The category covers a wide range of beliefs and practices that are characterized by two main points that are often thought to be "hidden" from the average person. First, the occult maintains that there is force or energy into which one can tap or with which one can negotiate to do one's own bidding. The familiar term spell is applied to the technique of harnessing and focusing this power. The late witchcraft practitioner Scott Cunningham explains, "The spell is…simply a ritual in which various tools are purposefully used, the goal is fully stated (in words, pictures or within the mind), and energy is moved to bring about the needed result." Exactly what is the nature of this force or energy, according to the occultist, and what is the best way to work with it is what makes some of the main differences between the major occult groups such as shamanism, witchcraft, Satanism, New Age, and others.

Second, the occult maintains that human beings are divine. The practice of the occult arts is thus an endeavor to actualize one's own divinity. As witchcraft practitioner Margot Adler claims, "A spiritual path that is not stagnant ultimately leads one to the understanding of one's own divine nature. Thou art Goddess. Thou are God. Divinity is imminent in all Nature. It is as much within you as without."

Humanism. Witchcraft sees itself as a >celebration of all life. This celebration involves the denial that there is anything wrong with the human race. The practicing witch Starhawk rejoices that "we can open new eyes and see that there is nothing to be saved from, no struggle of life against the universe, no God outside the world to be feared and obeyed". Pagan Elder Donald Frew of the Covenant of the Goddess explains, "How can we achieve salvation, then? We're not even trying to. We don't understand what there is to be saved from. The idea of salvation presupposes a fall of some kind, a fundamental flaw in Creation as it exists today. Witches look at the world [around] us and see wonder, we see mystery."

Notice that the term practice</em> is often used with the term witchcraft. What this tells us is that, for many, witchcraft is as much what someone does as it is what someone believes. While it is certainly true that what one does is invariably a product of what one believes, for witchcraft the emphasis is on what the practice can do to enhance one's own well-being as well as the well-being of others. Witches do not simply adhere to a list of dogmas; indeed, in many ways witches like to think that they eschew dogmas. As Adler describes it, "If you go far enough back, all our ancestors practiced religions that had neither creeds nor dogmas, neither prophets nor holy books. These religions were based on the celebrations of the seasonal cycles of nature. They were based on what people did, as opposed to what people believed. It is these polytheistic religions of imminence that are being revived and re-created by Neo-Pagans today."

A look through witchcraft material at the local bookstore will reveal that much of it deals with various rituals and activities that can be perfected in order to manipulate and utilize this cosmic or psychic force to do one's bidding. One will find chapters on the various items of clothing to wear (robes; jewelry; horned helmet, when one is not working naked, or "skyclad"); the tools to use (candles, herbs, tarot cards, talismans, fetishes); and rituals to perform (spells, incantations, chanting, music, dancing)—all of which enables the practitioner to become open to these forces (where they exist outside) or to conjure up these forces (where they originate from within). One will learn how to interpret dreams, meditate, have out-of-body experiences, speak with the dead, heal, and read auras. One can seek to develop one's own powers within the context of other witches (in a coven) or alone (in solitary practice). There are no obligations to follow any previously prescribed method. If what others have done before works, that is fine. If one sees the need to change the ritual or tools to get better results, then that is fine as well. All of these activities are designed to do two things: to enhance the well-being of one's self or those around him or her and to actualize one's own divinity.

Witchcraft Is Not Satanism

It might be surprising to some to know that witchcraft is not Satanism. The primary difference is that Satan and/or any concept of "the devil" simply do not exist in our theology, thus there could hardly exist a relationship. Further, we consider the Satan/devil concepts to be Judeo-Christian inventions having nothing whatsoever to do with witchcraft.

Not only do witchcraft and Satanism have different histories, they also have, at a certain level, different views of the world and one's place in it. I add the qualification "at a certain level" because there is a shared occult perspective between witchcraft and Satanism. Satanism and witchcraft are both occult religions; because of this, they both see reality as entirely natural. There is no transcendent God in the truest sense of the term. Further, they both see all of reality, material and immaterial, as interconnected and working according to "laws" that can be mastered in such a way as to make not only material but also immaterial reality work according to one's own bidding. There is a sense in which both Satanism and witchcraft deny that mankind is in any need of salvation.

These similarities are not trivial, but neither are the differences. Statistically, criminal activity that can be associated with occultism is usually associated with some form of Satanism (usually some form of self-styled Satanism). As a matter of principle and practice, witchcraft lives by the creed, "An' it harm none, do what you will."

Satanism is more often associated with an attitude of self-aggrandizement rather than the sense of community that characterizes most witchcraft. Further, Satanism and witchcraft differ somewhat in their respective views of nature and humanity. As researchers Shelley Rabinovitch and James Lewis observe, "To the neo-Pagan practitioner, nature is viewed as somewhere on a scale from benign to overtly positive, if not outright friendly toward humanity. The ideal in most neo-Pagan practice is to become as one with the natural world—to live in harmony with nature.…In contrast, neo-Satanists view the natural world as somewhere between benign and openly hostile to humans."

Some witches suggest that the practice of witchcraft can be compatible with Christianity, but virtually everyone realizes that witchcraft is not Christianity. The reason for pointing out that witchcraft is not Christianity is to try to summarize exactly where witchcraft and Christianity compare and contrast in their respective worldviews. Before I outline those areas of contrast, let me acknowledge those areas where witches and Christians might share common concerns.

Witchcraft and Christianity: Common Concerns.

First, because of our view of the nature of the world, witches often have a sense of environmental concern. Now, the motivations of witches and Christians are widely disparate—witches are environmentally conscientious because of their view that the Earth is sacred, whereas Christians are compelled to be environmentally conscientious as a matter of stewardship of the creation before the Creator—but witches can agree with Christians that there is a duty to be environmentally responsible. How that environmental responsibility translates into public policy and individual actions may vary along the political and personal spectrum; nevertheless, we can all agree that there is an environmental responsibility that each of us shares.

Second, witches tend to have a conscientious sense of global concerns. Again, exactly how these concerns translate into public policy and individual actions may vary along the political and personal spectrum, but our common interests stem from the fact that we are all human beings living on the same planet.

Third, witches tend to be benevolently disposed toward their fellow human beings. The stereotype of witches being people with sinister intent wielding spells of black magic needs to be abandoned. We share with Christians in their concern for the well being of others though we will obviously disagree as to what exactly constitutes that well being.

Witchcraft and Christianity: Where We Differ.

Christianity is monotheistic. Christianity claims that there is a God and no one of us is He. Witchcraft claims the opposite: "We are of the nature of the Gods, and a fully realized man or woman is a channel for that divinity, a manifestation of the God or the Goddess." Adler favorably quotes historian James Breasted who said, "Monotheism is but imperialism in religion." In place of the strict monotheism of Christianity, witchcraft not only deifies the self, but it ostensibly reveres the pagan God and Goddess.

Christianity is exclusivistic.  Christians adhere to Jesus' words in The Bible, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Contrast that with what Adler states: "The belief that there is one word, one truth, one path to the light, makes it easy to destroy ideas, institutions, and human beings…your own spiritual path is not necessarily mine."

Christianity is theologically authoritarian. Usually this term authoritarian has negative associations, but if authoritarian means "recognizing authority" then Christianity certainly does that. Christians recognize that not only has their God revealed Himself through the things He has made, but He has also revealed Himself finally and fully through Jesus Christ and the Bible. In contrast, Frew says, "To grant a traditional text such authority would be to say that this is it, the truth for all time. But we are a nature religion, and a fundamental truth of nature is that everything changes."

Christianity recognizes everyone's need for salvation. Christianity centers on the belief that the most important message they have to give to the world is the gospel of Jesus Christ; that without the sacrifice of Christ to wash away humanity's sins and reconcile creation to creator, there is no hope in the world to come. In witchcraft there is absolutely no concept of any human fall from divine grace necessitating reconciliation, much less salvation. Witchcraft teaches that our destiny is to return again to this world through reincarnation. Cunningham comments, "While reincarnation isn't an exclusive Wiccan concept, it is happily embraced by most Wiccans because it answers many questions about daily life and offers explanations for more mystical phenomena such as death, birth and karma." Frew expounds, "While many of us believe in reincarnation, we do not seek to escape the wheel of rebirth. We can't imagine anything more wonderful than to come back to this bounteous and beautiful Earth."

Conclusions are yours alone to draw; and that effort is exactly what witchcraft and this witch encourages you to examine. Socrates is quoted as saying, "The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being." A life worth living, both physically and spiritually, full of love and light, is our deepest wish for all beings of all paths.

Citations

A great deal of information and text from the article Modern Witchcraft by Richard G. Howe has been gratefully used in creating this article. Mr. Howe's original article is available at http://www.equip.org/articles/modern-witchcraft/ and is highly recommended as a fair comparison of witchcraft and Christianity.