Unfortunately, the church my parents took me to taught that witchcraft was evil. I rebelled, but I expressed my rebellion through science. I assumed witchcraft was a pleasant fantasy and nothing more.<\/p>\n
But I still wanted to be a witch.<\/p>\n
Heron Michelle has a very good piece on her blog on prerequisites for training in witchcraft<\/a>. In it, she says:<\/p>\n Is there is a parent or spouse with the power and inclination to physically harm you if you don\u2019t conform to their life-choices? The witchcraft set before you FIRST is to remove yourself from their sway.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n My childhood home was loving and supportive, but it was constricting. I wanted out. I needed<\/em> out. I could not start becoming who and what I needed to be until I did. All I knew about witchcraft at the time was what the forest taught me, but that was enough to manifest not one but four scholarships. That got me away from home and helped me get the education that has supported me for my entire adult life. This remains the greatest magical working I\u2019ve ever done, although I would not have called it that at the time.<\/p>\n When I discovered Wicca, I was thrilled. Here was my chance to finally become a witch. It didn\u2019t work, in part because Wicca just didn\u2019t inspire me, but largely because I was trying to practice secular magic without addressing the deep religious wounds<\/a> from my childhood.<\/p>\n Jason Miller of Strategic Sorcery has a blog post titled \u201cThe main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.<\/a>\u201d In it, he points out that too many people who want to practice magic get hung up with religious and esoteric groups that work very little actual magic. If you really want to learn magic, then work on magic, not religion. Keep your main thing the main thing.<\/p>\n My main thing was \u2013 and is \u2013 religion. My calling is not to be a magician, but to be a Druid and a priest. That\u2019s my main thing, and when I made it the main thing my Pagan practice took off. It hasn\u2019t slowed down in 17 years\u2026 and I\u2019ve learned some magic along the way.<\/p>\n But while my priestly work remains my main thing, right now the call to witchcraft is stronger than it\u2019s been in years.<\/p>\n I have a three-fold understanding of magic<\/a> \u2013 three different ways that magic works. There is the intercession of Gods and spirits, the manipulation of unseen forces, and psychological programming. Some magical workings use one way, some use two, and some use all three.<\/p>\n In all societies \u2013 including our own supposedly rational supposedly Christian society \u2013 some forms of magic are permissible, while others are forbidden. Prayer is OK, summoning demons is not (which category prayer to unfamiliar Gods falls into depends on who you ask). Some people are considered safe to work magic and others are considered dangerous. Medical doctors can prescribe the use of certain plants, while ordinary people cannot.<\/p>\n But there have been witches in all societies, including societies that aggressively hunted and killed them. In case anyone is unclear on the history of witchcraft, virtually none of the thousands of people judicially murdered during the European witch trials were actual witches. That doesn\u2019t mean there weren\u2019t witches and people doing witchcraft at the same time.<\/p>\n There are good reasons why people practice witchcraft even at great risk to their lives.<\/p>\n Here in the United States we like think we live in a society with \u201cliberty and justice for all.\u201d The truth isn\u2019t so pretty.<\/p>\n Some people have the resources and connections to exercise near-total control over their lives. Others are under the control of bosses or bankers or the police (note to my libertarian friends: they all differ in degree, not in kind). The young are under the control of parents and teachers. The poorer and more violent your neighborhood or your country, the less freedom you have to live your life the way you want to live it.<\/p>\n Some of this is necessary and even desirable \u2013 I don\u2019t want eight year olds running around unsupervised, and I want someone to track down and restrain murderers and thieves. Most of us are not completely powerless \u2013 we have at least some autonomy in our lives.<\/p>\n But unless you don\u2019t mind spending your entire life keeping your head down and following other people\u2019s rules \u2013 and maybe not even then \u2013 sooner or later you\u2019re going to run into someone who\u2019s more powerful and who uses their power in a way that harms you. Someone who humiliates you. Someone who puts you in a situation you find intolerable.<\/p>\n Maybe you just want to remove yourself from the situation. Maybe you want to build your skills so you improve your situation. Maybe you want to change the system so this can\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n Or maybe you want revenge.<\/p>\n So you go see your local witch\u2026 and you bring an offering, because witches don\u2019t work for free, and you do not want to be in their debt.<\/p>\n Or perhaps you decide to cut out the middleman and become a witch yourself.<\/p>\n Most of my writing on this blog is about Pagan religion<\/em>. Religion is that which binds us together around shared values and common worship. It connects us to the wisdom of our Gods and ancestors. It builds community. Humans are not solitary creatures \u2013 community is a good and necessary thing.<\/p>\n But community is not a perfect thing. It can become coercive and exploitative. It can become exclusive and extract severe penalties on those who fail to conform to its expectations. Even if the community as a whole is virtuous, oftentimes it has members who are not \u2013 members whose power protects them from being held accountable.<\/p>\n Sometimes Paganism is transgressive<\/a> and sometimes it is not. Witchcraft is always transgressive or it isn\u2019t witchcraft \u2013 it\u2019s officially sanctioned magic (not that there\u2019s anything wrong with officially sanctioned magic).<\/p>\n Witchcraft requires more than coloring outside the lines or eating your banana before lunch. It requires that you get your hands dirty. It requires blood\u2026 and other bodily fluids. It requires transgressing the Wiccan Rede as much as the Christian Bible. It requires taking risks and interacting with monsters.<\/p>\n Sometimes it requires becoming a monster, at least for a while.<\/p>\n There is one and only one valid reason for doing all these transgressive things: because it\u2019s necessary. If the only options are submission or witchcraft\u2026 well, that\u2019s a pretty clear choice, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/08\/McKinney-trees-11.07.15-05.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWitchcraft is unauthorized magic<\/h1>\n
![\"cauldron](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/08\/witches-cauldron-02.jpg\" "\\"cauldron")
<\/a><\/p>\nWitchcraft gives power to the powerless<\/h1>\n
Witchcraft is transgressive<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/08\/13-211-Cliffs-of-Moher.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s a Druid doing writing about witchcraft?<\/h1>\n