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Witches are practitioners of
Witchcraft, the meaning of which varies from culture to culture.
Generally, witches are skilled in sorcery and the magickal arts.
Through rituals, charms, spells and the conjuring and invoking of
spirits, they manipulate forces for either good or evil purposes.
The word witch comes
from the Old English wicce, pronounced "wiche," and
wicca, which are in turn derived from the root wikk-, which
applies to magick and sorcery. Man Witches say witch means "wise"
or "wisdom," so a Witch is a wise person, and Witchcraft is the Craft of
the Wise.
Wicce, however, comes from the
Germanic root wic, which means "to bend" or "to turn"... which does
apply to witchcraft, in the sense that witches bend or control forces in
order to effect changes. The masculine of wicce is wicca.
Witches define themselves as
healers, and servants of the Goddess and the
God, whom they worship in their religion. They believe in
respecting the sanctity of all life and being in harmony with all living
things and with the forces of the universe. Ideally, they strive
to attune themselves to nature and the elements, forces they control in
the working of magick. They develop their psychic abilities and
seek to raise their spiritual consciousness through study, worship, the
practice of their Craft and observance of a moral and ethical
life-style, in accordance with Craft laws and tenets. "Witches, on
the whole, enjoy ritual... and they are naturally joyous people."
Most Witches believe quite strongly in using magick only for good, never
for harm. They do NOT worship the Devil or even
believe in a Devil, sacrifice animals or babies, shed blood in any
way, any other religion or dedicate themselves
to destroying others.
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The word "Witch" carries so
many negative connotations that many people wonder why we use the word
at all. Yet to reclaim the word "Witch is to reclaim our right, as
women to be powerful, as men, to know the feminine within as Divine.
To be a Witch is to identify with victims of bigotry and hatred and to
take responsibility for shaping a world in which prejudice claims no
more victims. A Witch is a "shaper," a creator who bends the
unseen into form, and so becomes one of the Wise, one whose life is
infused with magick.
Starhawk - The
Spiral Dance (1979)
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The Encyclopedia of Witches and
Witchcraft |
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Copyright
©1989
Rosemary Ellen Guiley |
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