quotations about witches & witchcraft
Witchcraft is practiced by a growing number of lapsed Christians seeking easy gratification for life's most pressing needs: sex, hot clothes, relief from rotten marriages. The Christian Post reported in 2013 that multiple conservative scholars have concluded that there were more than 200,000 people who have declared themselves witches in the United States, and as many as 8 million undeclared practitioners of "the craft." This makes sorcery the second-fastest-growing religion in the US, after Islam.
SELAH ALLY TOWER
"I was spiritually deceived by witchcraft", New York Post, October 11, 2015
What happens when people start falling sick without any apparent cause for sickness? You kill a woman. Yes, you read that right. A sixty-three year-old woman, Purni Orang, living in Sonitpur district in Assam was stripped naked and beheaded by villagers because she was practicing witchcraft, which was spreading sickness. A local police officer, Samad Hussain, told a leading intentional news network channel that people in the district, 'blamed Purni Orang for their condition.' Seven people have been arrested over the death of Purni Orang, a mother of five children, who was accused of casting spells.... Belief in witchcraft remains widespread in tribal-dominated areas of India, where it is considered normal to kill the accused. The practice continues despite certain government efforts to enforce laws against killing people accused of witchcraft. This incident adds to the list of crimes against women, prevalent in the rural areas of the country, throwing light on the pressing need of equality for women and education for all.
AINEE NIZAMI
"A Woman Was Beheaded Yesterday For 'Witchcraft'. Is This Still the 21st Century?", iDIVA, July 22, 2015
Witchcraft is the action by which you maximize what happens for your good and minimize what happens for your ill. The role of a witch is to always do the best they can in anything they do and emphasize the energy around them.
NICK KATSIKIS
"Contemporary witchcraft", The Temple News, October 27, 2015
Witchcraft is all about living to the heights and depths of life as a way of worship.
LY DE ANGELES
Witchcraft: Theory and Practice
Witchcraft was hung, in History,
But History and I
Find all the Witchcraft that we need
Around us, every Day
EMILY DICKINSON
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
Some witches practice wicca, which is a narrow subset of witchcraft with more specific gods, goddesses, symbols, and holidays. But many more practice a broader, indefinable brand of witchcraft based on intuition. The edges of this group also bleed into other more mainstream arenas such as yoga and meditation, mindfulness, new-age spirituality, and even sex positivity.
ALDEN WICKER
"Witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials", Quartz, October 27, 2016
The major misconception about Witchcraft today is that Witches worship Satan, which is just not so. We do not believe in Satan. That is a Christian creation. We don't worship evil. Indeed, to give evil a name is not a real intelligent thing to do, because then you give it power.
SILVER RAVENWOLF
interview, The Edge, November 1, 1997
The folk beliefs that feed into our ideas about witchcraft are beliefs that have existed alongside of mainstream religious beliefs all along.
LINDA LEE
"Contemporary witchcraft", The Temple News, October 27, 2015
The SA Law Reform Commission says these pastors tell congregants they have animals in their bellies, especially snakes, because of witches they do not identify. According to the commission, these charismatic churches promise to protect congregants from all forms of evil, including witchcraft. The commission has recommended that the government introduces a new law -- the Prohibition of Harmful Practices Associated with Witchcraft Beliefs Bill -- to stop people from being accused of being witches, prevent violence relating to witchcraft claims and criminalise witchcraft. In terms of the proposed new law, approaching a sangoma to declare someone else a witch will be punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.
LOYISO SIDIMBA
"A government commission has accused controversial churchmen -- pastors Paseka 'Mboro' Motsoeneng, Lesego Daniel and Chris Oyakhilome -- of reinforcing belief in witchcraft", Sowetan Live, January 30, 2016
Witchcraft is a way to spiritually support those around you ... and that includes women of color, poor women, sex workers, disabled women, and anyone else who needs help. Although being a witch may be "in style" right now, witches have historically always been persecuted and continue to carry that legacy. We must use our privilege of being able to practice freely to empower each other and ourselves. Here's to making magick together.
GABRIELA HERSTIK
"Ask A Witch: How Do Politics Inform Your Practice?", Nylon, March 24, 2017
There is a reason why so many people say, "I tried Witchcraft, it doesn't work!" This is because dabbling gets you nowhere. It's a little like someone who has never played a musical instrument before coming into your house, banging on your piano for 30 minutes and proclaiming pianos don't work because it didn't play a song. The problem is not the instrument; the problem is you have to learn how to play it.
MACKENZIE SAGE WRIGHT
"5 Common Mistakes Made by Beginning Witches", Exemplore, August 10, 2017
Salem has become this ... Mecca for Wiccans, but no witches died here. Aside from Tituba, no one practiced anything like witchcraft near here in colonial times. It was a bunch of bored Puritans who thought killing their neighbors at the behest of teenage girls was a fine, Christian form of entertainment and land acquisition.
THOMM QUACKENBUSH
Pagan Standard Times: Essays on the Craft
Practicing witchcraft is something that is very personal; everybody does something different that kind of fits their lifestyle and what they need. I tend to focus on my personal energy. I do a lot of tarot readings, which give me insights to my life, giving me a window where I can view my life from an outside standpoint. I use herbs and essential oils to cleanse myself or, if I get stressed, to help me relax. I practice meditations and I do rituals on the Sabbaths, both greater and minor, as well as the full moons.
HANNAH THOMAS
"Student practices witchcraft, found communities within Des Moines, Drake, internet", The Times-Delphic, March 22, 2017
As a teacher, I also find that people learn best when they're relaxed. It may offend the Serious, but there's a reason why I believe in cookies in witchcraft, and why you should evoke the Sky Bunny and Wall Kittens in movement. (Sorry no link, you're just going to have to come to one of my workshops!). It's why I delight in getting a room full of occultists to all say "yaaassssss." And why I hand out ribbons at conventions with "Manifest Birches" printed on them. It gets people to pay attention, to let go of themselves and allow for change and new ideas.
LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF
"The Dork Witch: The Art of Humor in the Craft", Patheos, March 31, 2017
I think witchcraft is making this unique resurgence in this sort of doomsday world we're currently living in.
PETER MERCURY
"A Night Among the Witches Fighting the Trump Administration", Slate, March 22, 2017
Ideally, of course, there are no bystanders in a Wiccan circle. It's a coven, not a congregation. And certainly one doesn't make it very far in a training setting without engaging in acts of witchcraft, but is there a minimum? How much witchcraft is enough witchcraft to make you a witch? I mean, even I managed to play soccer once or twice, but it didn't undo all of the destructive not-soccer I was usually up to. I was a cautionary tale, not an athlete.
THORN MOONEY
"All Wiccans are witches, but some of us are bad at it", Patheos, January 21, 2016
Maybe witchcraft, as so many of my traditional witch fellows insist, is in the blood, and the initiatory and training process only forces its development. Maybe we just have to trust that time will weed out those who really should have just remained outsiders. Maybe those of us in established witch traditions need to have tighter standards and higher expectations, particularly if we understand our tradition to be a priesthood and a calling rather than just one more feel-good, self-indulgent road on the map to personal self-discovery.
THORN MOONEY
"All Wiccans are witches, but some of us are bad at it", Patheos, January 21, 2016
Modern witchcraft, a movement that is being propelled out of the forest and into the mainstream. The hook-nosed, broom-riding, pointy-hat-wearing, cackling witches of yore have transfigured into hip, feminist, millennial women with slick websites and soothing advice on manifesting your dreams. Instead of a bubbling cauldron filled with eye of the newt, they're slinging essential oils seeped with wild herbs.
ALDEN WICKER
"Witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials", Quartz, October 27, 2016
The religion of Wicca took hold of me. It opened a portal into a new world. Casting spells, I saw results. Usually, it was like -- maybe I needed money or I needed a car. I needed love in my life. It was very selfish. It was all about what I wanted.
SELAH ALLY TOWER
"I was spiritually deceived by witchcraft", New York Post, October 11, 2015
When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 117