by Rick C.
Member since:
June 25, 2007

Witchcraft for fun?

October 23, 2007 05:15 PM EDT
views: 58 | rating: 8.9/10 (9 votes) | comments: 15

The Witch in everyone has an interesting sound to it.  But, Witchcraft is a religion, and for many reasons people outside the religion are not aware or for some reason don't care.  Witchcraft in movies is usally evil or if they are good the movies a comedy.  Movies have added many misconceptions to come into being.  The biggest being a WARLOCK - since the play Bell, Book, and Candle the term has been used in fiction as a male Witch.  A Warlock within the Craft is an oath breaker, and no Witch, male or female would want to be called an oath breaker!

Many people like the idea of being able to do a spell and have something happen.  Regardless of all the spell books you will see in the new age section of a books store.  All good Witches create their own spell and would never think of doing one written by someone they didn't know.  Likewise they wouldn't write a spell for someone they didn't know.  Some of you may see where this is going.  Posting spells to the internet is a BAD idea.  Doing spells posted to the interenet is even a worse idea. (Yes, I know, almost any website you find when you search "WITCH" has spells on it).  Spell work, they are not fiction.  Because of the way some are written it's hard to see what they are doing.  One of my favorite internet spell's that I've read was a spell to protect you from bad magick.  The person doing the spell would  bind themselfs from ever doing Magick again!  I wonder how many people did the spell, not know what they were doing.  If they had any spellcasting abiltiy they ended it right there.

Several years ago a Charmed fanfic group on Yahoo contacted me to join their group as a real Witch and to let them know what would and wouldn't be realistic from episodes of Charmed.  The group was to study episodes so they could on a second group write there fanfic stories.  They couldn't understand when I got upset when the show used Hecate as an evil demon.  Hecate is one of the Witches Goddesses and seeing her treated as evil on  a show that showed Witches as good people just didn't go over.  This would be much like making Jesus into an evil villan on a show.  But it was one of the hardest things for them to understand.

Now some Witches get upset with the use of the "Old Hag" Witch at Halloween.  I look at her as a creature of fairy tales.  Very seldom is this witch ever doing anything witch like.  And it's part of Halloween.... and Halloween is a time of trick or Treat and having fun dressing up.  Samhain is the religious hoilday that we remember those who have passed.  And a Witch can celebrate both.  In the early part of the night the kids go trick or treating. Many of us dress up and go with them (not trick or treating - just as chaperons). When this part of the night is over - we hold a dinner with a place set for those who have passed on.  When that is over we all have a ritual around a fire.

I looking forward to being part of this group.  But don't get upset at some of my comments.  As I will be making them as a Witch.

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Comments: 15

Midnite Writer -- Kim Oct 23, 2007, 5:22pm EDT
not into this, but good info.
penni d. Oct 23, 2007, 5:36pm EDT
me either, but wiccan WAS simply knowing and using earth's natural resources to heal, to keep healthy,etc. now???? i do not know.....
penni d. Oct 23, 2007, 5:40pm EDT
and, unfortunately, i have noticed that most articles with the word witch in it, gets a coward or two to give a "1" rating, with no feedback.....i respect the right of anyone to have any religion, whether i agree with it or not.....the christians would not like the same done to THEIR articles......and now you see why the simple faith of wiccans had to go undergroud.........
Rick C. Oct 23, 2007, 6:00pm EDT
Spells and Magick are nothing like there fiction counterparts. Much is a knowledge of of the Earth and it's resources and how to use them. This article was written for a group that is for the Witch in Everyone, and it ask for spells, and I'm saying its a bad idea to ask for spells.
Heather W. Oct 23, 2007, 6:03pm EDT
Shame on the downrater. The Anti-Witch squad must have been by. I have to agree with what you have said Rick. I used to have a friend that was a charmed and buffy fanatic. They couldn't understand why the character of Willow on Buffy made me want to scream. I just don't like how people see that it is fine to use Witches / Wiccans as entertainment, but if a character was made into a stereotypical Christian mold, the same people would throw a fit.
Heather W. Oct 23, 2007, 6:05pm EDT
I don't think it is bad to provide spells as a guideline to teach spell craft. But you need to explain why it was structured how it is. I don't agree with just giving someone a spell, a basic outline and saying "here go play!" essentially.
penni d. Oct 23, 2007, 6:18pm EDT
AMEN,HEATHER......AND I DO THINK RICK IS RIGHT ....THE INTERNET IS NO PLACE TO PLAY WITH THE TRUE THING.
Rick C. Oct 23, 2007, 6:24pm EDT
I agree with using spells as a teaching guideline. I have a few spell books in my library just for this reason. In fact reading over spells at times supply the needed kick to get yourself going.(In writing your own spell)
Rita j. Oct 24, 2007, 8:38pm EDT
not into witchcraft
sylverose m. Oct 26, 2007, 9:31am EDT
Umm..Heather there is a christian version of the whole tv buffy and charmed thing...it is/was called Touched by an Angel. Although it is liked by alot of the public there are some that have thrown a fit over it. I guess producers feel if it has the faintest bit of truth to it then its plausible enough and can be put on tv...who knows...personally I think charmed and buffy were both stupid. All they did was make a bunch of kids think gee it would be cool to be a witch! How are we supposed to teach the young the craft if entertainers and tv fill their heads with stuff like this I'll never know?!!!!
Rick C. Oct 26, 2007, 1:05pm EDT
Charmed has both a plus and minus for Witchcraft. The plus is the fact that Witches are the good guys. The minus was the tons of misinformation and the resulting poser witches that came with it. Its so much fun teaching a Wicca 101 class when the students (We do not teach to children - these are all adults 18 or older) starts asking questions and you realize they want to be a charmed witch or a D&D witch. (This only happened a few times, before we started giving a pretest - it was more fun than surprises)
Never got into the TV Buffy - the Movies was a great Comedy - the TV show was way to serious and way to soap opera for me, so once they added witches I didn't watch it.

As to teaching the young the craft. If they are your children, its your responsibility or the responsibility of your Coven if you are in one. A wonderful book for that is Family Wicca by Ashleen O'Gaia (who is on gather). Our Coven has two growing up in the craft and they get just as upset or more so than we do on some of the stuff on TV.
As to others there is not much we can do, but hope that if they get the interest that they will at least read some good books and talk to the right person.
I tried To warn you Oct 29, 2007, 5:17am EDT
I am sorry this article has gotten ratings much lower than it deserves. Of course I gave you a 10. On to rea dthe rest. You have done a great job explaining a terribly misunderstood way of life, and way of worship. Hod is not confined to a small building, not is he/she there only on sundays. you can find the Lord and Lady everywhere, all the time.
sylverose m. Oct 30, 2007, 9:33am EDT
I think I was misunderstood earlier...as in "the young" I meant our own children as well, but what I meant was more along the line of the younger adults..18-20 that do come to the coven's teachers for advice on how to begin in the craft. I find it very sad and sometimes to the point of comical that a young one came to me once saying "I wanna learn to be a witch because I wanna do spells and stuff like they do on tv."
This is the misinformation I'm talking about! Hopefully we can turn them around as I did that one...but then of course you always get one that thinks if they can't get to be a tv witch they don't want to be a witch at all because it's not as cool as tv. It's just sometimes frustrating to me that's all I meant.
Sorry if I confused anyone on what I meant earlier, sometimes my brain isnt fully engaged when I'm typing and thinking at the same time.
Rick C. Oct 31, 2007, 1:32am EDT
Oh how I know what you mean about that. I think its' frustrating to all of us.
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