How does it feel to be a witch or warlock? No different from what it feels to be a Christian or a Buddhist, a Doctor or a Lawyer. Does that surprise you? Why? Witchcraft is not a religion. 2000 years of misrepresentation has caused confusion and even fear of witchcraft. Witchcraft is the practical application of psychic sciences and occult arts for the betterment of mankind. The witch is an independent practitioner of magic and the “poor man’s psychologist”. She or he is expected to have in the store remedies for problems with love, luck, money, and psychic insights into the lives of people and to rid the people of the troubles that surround them.
A witch or warlock is fearless. He is not afraid of taking control of his life. Gods and religions do not intimidate him, as he believes that he can shape life by healing, evolution, community reunification and universal awareness. Self-responsibility and individual vision is fundamental to the belief. The witch bends and changes energy positively and thereby determines the present and the future of the world he inhabits. He is like a healer or sage linking the mundane world with the mystic world and creating a synergy that makes whole the disrupted.
The system of witchcraft requires practice of meditation, prayer, spells, psychic methods and use of tools such as athame, cup, brazier and wand. While these tools are not essential to the practice they provide focus and direction --like the rituals and adjuncts of any other religious practice!
Witchcraft draws the required energies from the witch and the environment and hence witchcraft has to be practiced with care and complete understanding. The practice can involve elaborate rituals that call upon the forces of nature and the deities of nature or the spells can be simple ones that they write out in the privacy of their own homes.
Witches can practice alone or join a group. Groups have hierarchical structures and like sub-sects of any religious group their own beliefs, rituals and tools. However, no one path is considered the ultimate one and each witch or warlock has the freedom to join the group he wants or to practice alone.
Witches and warlocks usually join groups that give them the best foci. Celtic groups are very popular. The Italian Stregha is also gaining popularity. Egyptian and Japanese practitioners are drawing people from across the world. However, the witches and warlocks of Europe tend to gravitate towards European practitioners of the science.
Shamanism, druidism and other ceremonial magical rites are often confused with Witchcraft. Not every witch or warlock is a shaman or a druid. Witchcraft has its own flavors just as shamanism and druidism have their own. However, all kinds of magic seem to share some common features. A witch or warlock can borrow the concepts from other magic systems to help him or her with his or her witchcraft.
Learning to be a witch is not easy. It requires several years of study and plenty of hard work. Any one can be a witch or a warlock if they are willing to go through the mill of studying under covens and acquiring the required degrees.
Witchcraft is neither black nor white. It can be helpful or harmful in accordance to the use to which it is put. However, witches and warlocks fundamentally believe that what you do will be returned to you threefold. Hence if you do good, you will reap good. If you do evil, you will reap evil. This is known as the Law of threefold. The second belief of the witches and warlocks is the ‘Rede’. The Rede is a belief that if you harm none, no harm shall come to you. This belief is no different from the biblical assertion that one must “do unto others what one will have done unto one”.