todayswitches

Who are they? These people who call themselves Witches, who walk the ancient ways, who work the traditional magic�s, who speak once more to long-silent Goddesses and Gods? They are men and women of all nations and races. They are young, old, rich, poor. They are those who have woken up to the fact that material creation is not the be all end all; that science does not have all the answers; nor do the so-called World Religions They have remembered something which many of us have forgotten. Partly it is ancient wisdom; partly it is common sense.

People come to Wicca for many reasons. Some seek occult power and knowledge. Some are drawn to Wicca by Feminism and the role of the Goddess; others by ecological awareness and reverence for Nature; still others seek spiritual transformation.
Magic is an attraction for some. Gerald Gardner, one of the �Founding Fathers� or revivers of modern Wicca once wrote:

Witchcraft was, and is, not a cult for everybody. Unless you have an attraction to the occult, a sense of wonder, a feeling that you can slip for a few minutes out of the world into the world of faery, it is of no use to you.

Many people come to Wicca because they already see themselves as Witches. We may have had a sense of an inner power that had no name; a sense that just beyond the realm of sight and sound and touch there dwelt another kingdom-the Land of Faery*
Perhaps we went there in our dreams.
Faery=Fairy
Some of us were aware that some of this Faery power dwelt within us. Perhaps we had precognitive dreams. Sometimes we knew the future. We may have tried to develop this by working with tarot cards and telling the fortunes of out friends. Perhaps we were scared when our predictions came true and stopped looking into the misty glass of the future. Perhaps we found that we had the power of small magic�s. We could wish for something very hard and it would come true. Perhaps we found books of spellcraft on the shelves of our library or bookstore and tried them. Maybe when we talked to our relatives we found that some of our family had the sight. Perhaps our grandmother told fortunes using tealeaves; our grandfather dreamt the family deaths the day before they occurred. Perhaps we had an aunt who was a medium, a grandfather who was a spiritualist healer, a great grandmother who was a herbalist and cured the community in the days when they could not afford a doctor unless they were at deaths door.
This heritage of power and sight may have been manifest in us from childhood, but we may have had no outlet for it; or perhaps it was discouraged. Perhaps it manifested in our teenage years, when often teenagers have what is called psychokinetic energy. Lights flicker when we walk by, photocopiers grind to a halt; vases mysteriously leap off shelves and smash themselves at our feet. Often our families have no explanations elsewhere. Perhaps we come upon books of magic, tarot, astrology, divination, healing. We may find that the religious framework we were taught as children has no place for these arts, but there is a religious framework that does. This is the religious framework of Wicca.
For women, Wicca is a spiritual path in which we can worship the Divine in its female form � As a Goddess. Many women come to Wicca from feminism. They have Re-evaluated the word Witch and realized that it involves the use of the innate powers of the Wise �Woman. The Wise Woman was the traditional village midwife. For those of you familiar with the Tarot the Wise Woman has affinity with the Queen of Pentacles- A very Earthly lady! Other women might consider the role of the Wiccan Priestess attractive; allowing them to fulfil a spiritual role usually denied them in Western society today.
Its not only women who seek the Goddess. Men too are attracted by Wicca�s vision of deity as both Goddess and God. In the popular mind, Witches are female and this can be a barrier to men interested in Wicca.. However, both men and women are Witches. A male Witch is not a Wizard or a Warlock just a Witch. The only time a male is a Warlock is when he is a Druid. The traditional male Witch is a countryman. He is one who is in touch with the elements, who has worked the land, healed the birds broken wing or the illness of a child; one who loves the Goddess and knows both Goddess and God, whatever any church might tell.