What, Really, Do Witches Do? What Makes A Person A Witch?

Hi Darth :)

Firstly, there are Witches, who are often Pagans {but not always}, and then there are Wiccans, which is a witchcraft based religion. Wicca was founded around 1939 by Gerald Gardner {his followers are Gardnerian Wiccans}, and this was developed by Alex Sanders {which gives us Alexandrian Wicca}. There are also 'traditional' Witches, who are decended from a family line {usually through the female side}, going back hundreds of years.

Some witches join covens, but many more are solitary practitioners.

Basically, all Wiccans are Witches, but not all Witches are Wiccans!

Second : There are no real 'rules' for Witches, other than the Wiccan Rede for Wiccans {"An it harm none, do what thou will"}, and the Threefold Law for the rest of us {if you believe that whatever you send out will come back times three} and, as such, many people just make it up as they go along.

Not always a good thing...!

Going skyclad {naked} is a personal choice, and here in Britain I certainly wouldn't recommend it for most of the year!

Third : Anyone can call themselves a witch.

Lots of people read tarot cards, including a few Christians I know. Fortune telling and Witchcraft are two seperate things, but many Witches do use various methods to try to devine the future.

I have never heard of the Necronimicon...!

Wicca, being all about magic, means that most Wiccans cast a lot of spells. Pagan and traditional Witches use magic more sparingly ~ save it for the important stuff!

There are generally accepted to be 3 sorts of magic : White {good}, Black {bad / evil}, and Grey {that fuzzy area where you are trying to help, but your intentions aren't quite clear}. Some Witches only practice white or black, some both, some all three, and many will find themselves in the grey area once or twice.

Many of the Gardnerian and Alexandrian witches of the 60's and 70's were very focused on spells and rituals, nudity, and, in many cases but not all, sex.

There are various forms of magic, ranging from the simple, such as Candle Magic, to the big, coven-based rituals.

Ok ~ Stevie Nicks, despite what people say, is *not* a Witch. She has some vary varied beliefs, including a belief in the spiritual and magic, but she is actually Christian. She called her label 'Welsh Witch Music', after the legend of Rhiannon, who was actually a Queen, but is often called a witch.

Christine McVie, on the other hand ~ her mother was a spiritual medium, and healer.

Dress code : Some look a bit like Goths {ie: "Rumours" era Stevie}, others like hippies, and many look like any standard person you might see every day. But we do like to be individual to some extent! Many Witches have ceremonial robes or clothes especially for rituals, and as such are usually only seen by others in their ordinary clothes.

What we do :

Well, this really does vary greatly from individual to individual, but to give you some basic idea :~

Most Witches worship a variety of deities ~ often at least one Goddess and God, some worship several.

Spells are used for important things, such as protection, healing, job applications! Casting spells really just requires sacred space, which can be anything from an entire room, to a small altar in a quiet corner.

Most of us try our best never to do anything that will cause harm to others. If we are unsure what the outcome of our magic may be {grey area}, then it is best to do nothing, until we can find a way around those potential issues.

From the sound of things, your ex was *really* making up her own belief system, taking a mix of things that appealed to her, and using them as her ritual basis. But it definately sounds like she was working more in the 'dark-grey' area of magic there... and if she's dabling in Satanism as well, then she sure as hell isn't a Witch!

{Witches don't believe in Satan ~ we view it as a man-made concept}

I consider myself a witch. I am Pagan and worship a god and goddess. I believe in being respectful of nature and all humans as much as possible. There is a Wiccan Rede (I am not Wiccan personally but I do believe some of the same things.) that says to "harm none" and remember that everything I do returns to me "threefold". I would never cast a spell that would harm anyone and spells are mostly done for protection or to cause some positive change or spiritual growth in the individual casting the spell. Being naked or "sky clad" to cast a spell or perform some ritual is not normally required unless you belong to a coven that does that or it is your own personal choice.

A witch is just a person with a different set of spiritual beliefs. There are as many differing spiritual beliefs about witchcraft or more as there are differing types of Christian groups and belief systems.

The reason you may not have known any witches before is because we do not go around promoting our beliefs. Then again if we find each other we tend to stick together especially when it comes to performing spiritual rituals together or celebrating Pagan holidays. Which is why, now that you know she is a witch, you are aware of her friends being witches.

I hope this helps.

Most witches do not cast spells without someone else's permission and do not do harm. So I don't know why she would do a spell to get a promotion to making someone's car stop working unless she is selfish or doesn't know everything about the practice. Then again, there is good and bad to everything.

She is insane if she or other people are being harmed by her behavior, her actions are deviant, if she does not like her actions/thoughts, and/or her body or brain is biologically abnormal, etc. Normalcy in behavior is usually hard to define though.

NO, witches do not worship Stevie Nicks! She is not a god/dess or super(natural)power. They don't even have to like her music. I've heard she was a Pagan...

Witches do not necessarily dress like goths. Some do, some don't. Just like anyone else.

Real witches cast spells, do divination like Tarot cards or runes or seeing visions in fire or water...

Real witches do not believe in Satan. That is a Christian concept. They do not worship an evil being. If they are a Pagan, they may believe in many gods, or if they are a Wiccan, they may believe in a god and a goddess, but it varies. Witchcraft doesn't have to come with a religion. Does she seriously worship Satan!?

Modern witches are simply people who practice magic, specifically a type of magic known as witchcraft (as opposed to ceremonial magic and other magical types).

Many witches do read tarot cards. However, there are also many tarot readers who do not consider themselves witches.

Witches generally do not cast spells from the Necronomicon, because the Necronomicon is a hoax based on a Lovecraftian invention

Many witches work within circles which may or may not be marked with candles. Some work naked. Many do not. I've never known anyone to work within a pentagram. THat's mostly a Hollywood invention.

I wouldn't say she's insane. But it does sound like she's more interested in looking like a wtich than actually being one, considering that she goes for hollywood circles and works out of hoax books.

Some Satanists are also witches. However, many Satanists do not actually worship Satan, and those that do generally do not worship Satan as Christianity depicts him. If she's worshipping the Christian view of Satan, that just strengthens the suggestion that this person is starved for attention.

Some witches dress like goths, just like lots of non-witches do. There's no specific reason for a witch to dress like one. Witches do not worship people. Stevie Nicks holds no particular status among witches.

I think it could be a type of wishful thinking, at least with the more common definition of the word 'witch'. If you were a witch, you would be able to get all kinds of things to happen that you wish would happen to you, and get things to go your own way. Some people have convinced themselves that they can actually do this, and others are just trying to impress other people with their supposed abilities, whether for monetary gain or not. There is, however, another definition for the word 'witch'. People who are followers of the Wiccan religion often call themselves witches. For most Wiccans, Wicca is a duotheistic religion worshipping both a God and a Goddess, who are seen as complementary polarities (akin to the Taoist philosophy of yin and yang), and "embodiments of a life-force manifest in nature."

Some of what she does normal witches do as well. I read tarot cards, rune stones and half a dozen (or more) other methods of divination,The Necronominicon is not a very good source for spell, real witches prefer to write their own.

Some of us go "skyclad" (naked) when we do rituals, others don't.

I can't stand Stevie Nicks and with the way I dress you would not even have a clue that I am a witch (and have been for 41 years in this life)

We don't cast spells for selfish personal gain or that would cause harm or discomfort to others.

It is my opinion that your ex is what is commonly referred to as a "Fluffy Bunny", and her friends are probably FB's as well

Also real witches don't believe in Satan or demons.

BB

)O(

Addendum: A Fluffy Bunny is a poser, a wanna be but not really serous about it. The call themselves witches and behave as they perceive witches to be for rebellion, the shock value or the attention. Most grow out of it within 2 or 3 years.

There are a number of different types of "witches". A witch is simply a person who uses magick and casts spells, sometimes in a fashion similar to what you describe, (at least externally). A witch is simply a person who effects change in the world, according to their will. If she claims to be a witch, and if she is at least at times successful at causing what she wishes to happen to do so, then she is likely a witch.

The word "witch" is devoid of any religious or moral implications. One can be an atheistic witch, believing in no gods, but accepting of and using natural powers. One can be a Satanic witch. Some actually claim to be Christian witches.

Witches don't typically worship Stevie Nicks, though many like her. Not all witches are Goth ... the movie "The Craft" seems to have popularized this a bit.

Hope that helps.

My Ex supposedly (According to Her) is a Witch. Some of the things She would do include...

Reading Tarot Cards to "Foretell" the future.

-- As someone who has been a professional Tarot card reader, I can safely say that the cards do not tell a singular future but rather indicate the most likely probability based on current actions and conditions.

Read and cast spells from the Necronimicon.

-- This book is complete fiction and no Witch of my acquaintance (and I know many Witches) would take this seriously OR use the "spells" in it

Get in the middle of this candle/pentagram lash up in the floor sans clothes (For those who don't know that means naked) and cast "spells" to do everything from get a promotion to making someone's car stop working.

-- Many Witches will do ritual working in the nude, so THAT part is possibly accurate, but the type of "spells" she does are less likely to be used by Witches as most have ethical reasons for not using them.

So I have always wondered (And since I never knew any other witches except for a few of Her equally strange Friends) is this normal?? Or is She (as I strongly suspect) in-sane?

-- Her behavior is not normal and is based on a HollyWIERD perception of what Witches are and what Witches do.

Is this anything at all like what real Witches do?

-- This bears only a surface resemblance to what real Witches do....

Do real Witches worship Stevie Nicks? (She does)

-- Real Witches do NOT worship Stevie Nicks and GENERALLY do not worship Satan (except for "Satanic Witches who use Satan in a form that Christians do not)

Do real Witches dress like Goths? (She does)

-- SOME real Witches dress like Goths. But there are also Witches who regularly dress in three-piece suits. Goth is a fashion trend and many people who dress in that way are doing it for reasons that have nothing to do with being Witches.

If they don't..what do Real Witches do exactly?

-- For more information try the following websites:

http://www.witchvox.com/

http://wicca.timerift.net/

http://www.bewitchingways.com/main.htm

Some Witches do worship Satan. They are called Satanists. Not the Geraldo Rivera satanist anything, I know quite a few and you wouldn't know them from me , if you met them on the street. Its a religion, just like any other. so to say Witches don't worship Satan is inaccurate. Some do. The ones I know are very nice people.

Darth, I am a witch. I don't dress Goth, I don't even like Stevie Nicks! We are normal people. We are as individual as anyone else. Hell, I imagine I look more like a soccer mom than anything else.

A fluffy bunny is a willfully ignorant person ( kind of like a poser ) who doesn't know the first thing about witchcraft. They sually got all they need to know about witchcraft from Charmed and The Craft.

The meaning of witch has changed some compared to the old days. In them days they would burn, hang you if you talk to the dead. Now they are a bit more open and understanding that there's many types of people, some that are sensitive to the spiritual world. Even if you are consider a witch now a days they won't burn or hang you, unless they have prove that you are hurting someone.

Witches do spells, read cards, tell you of the future...they are more harmless than thought in the past. I knew of a few witches....they love to use blood stones, and burn some concoctions that they made up. My exgirlfriend's friend came to me in a dream, she said she would...and she did.

I am not one, although some of my relatives in the past were accuse and burned at the steak, or hung for communicating with the dead.