An Introduction
To start off, lets define the Witchcraft I will be teaching. I am not teaching Wicca, as that is an organized religion which requires teaching and initiation from a qualified tradition if you want to become one usually. Witchcraft is not a religion, it is a way of life, and a spiritual and magical practice. Some consider themselves witches and do not involve any kind of religious overtones, and see their Witchcraft practices as just a magickal act. Others, however, consider Witchcraft to be their spiritual path or religion. The majority of Witchcraft that I will be teaching in this course is purely magical, without any religious content, apart from one of the last lessons. Anyone can practice Witchcraft if they want to, and will continue to do so if it is the right path for them.
Witchcraft is, literally, the 'craft of the Witch', which is the skill of being able to work magick; especially magick utilizing personal power in conjunction with the energies within stones, herbs, colours, and other natural objects.
The main aim of Witchcraft is to live in harmony with nature, and to understand the processes which go on in nature through observing the seasons, lunar phases, changing tides, etc.
There are many ways of becoming a Witch that are known, and each depends on the person. some say that you must learn from another person, other say that all you really need are books and a good head, while others say it is merely a matter of full on experience. There are a few, however, who say that you must be �born a Witch� in order to be one properly. These are known as �natural Witches�.
The correct name for Witches these days is much debated. Some shrug off the name Witch, as it has a negative childlike perception of women with hooked noses in pointy hats! To start of with the hat is representative of the cone of power, and it is perfectly okay to call oneself a Witch. More modern Witches who focus on worship than rather than magic often prefer to be called Pagan or Neo-Pagan Witches. Call yourself what you will. it's what you are to yourself that matters, not what other think you are.
Male Witches are called just that, Witches. Wizard is a fairy tale name, which is associated with conjuring. They also do not call themselves warlock, which comes from Scottish word meaning "oathbreaker", and is more of an insult so it is not often used. However, I have known and heard of a rare few who do chose to call themselves these for their own reasons, I respect their views.
I know of a man on the Witches Voice who wrote an article about why he calls himself a warlock though, and I think it's perfectly fine. As I said, its what you are to yourself that counts.
Contrary to popular belief, Witches don't cast spells all the time. I know that most of us only ever use magick when needed, and even then we still need to take physical action to achieve something we desire. It is not the instant answer to everything, we need to work as much as anyone to get what we want, we just approach it differently sometimes. In some cases, the magick we work is not to cause change outside ourselves to solve a problem which we do not wish to face, it is done to cause a change within in order to gain strength and face that problem to do something about it. So don't be lazy and assume you can do a quick spell and everything will go away, because it wont. We are the magick, and only we can make things happen. What I mean by that is, we must put effort in on a physical level, not just magical.
Here's a not-so-nice assumption about us Witches. Let me start off by saying: yes we do make sacrifices. Sometimes we sacrifice our time for work or friends, sometimes we sacrifice our possessions for a good cause, and sometimes we sacrifice the respect from our friends for our practices. There are many things we sacrifice for the simple reason that we are different to others, or even just for being good people. However, we do NOT sacrifice anything such as animals or people. We believe that all life is sacred and to take that life away from another living being would be a terrible thing to do. If the particular Witch is a Wiccan then they believe in the Wiccan Rede which states that "if you harm none, do what you will". This means that we can go about our daily lives doing whatever we please as long as we do not purposefully cause harm to anyone. Most non-Wiccan Witches also tend to live by this rule.
