quotations about witches & witchcraft
In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
THOMAS SZASZ
introduction, The Manufacture of Madness
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
There is a sort of Witchcrafts in those things, whereto the Temptations of the Devil would inveigle us. To worship the Devil is Witchcraft, and under that notion was our Lord urged unto sin. We are told in 1 Samuel 15:23, "Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft." When the Devil would have us to sin, he would have us to do the things which the forlorn Witches use to do. Perhaps there are few persons, ever allured by the Devil unto an Explicit Covenant with himself. If any among ourselves be so, my counsel is, that you hunt the Devil from you, with such words as the Psalmist had, "Be gone, Depart from me, ye evil doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God."
COTTON MATHER
On Witchcraft
It's hard out here for a witch. Well, at least it was 400-odd years ago when women were regularly hanged, drowned and burned to death after being accused of sorcery, Satanism and doing suspicious things with herbs. This fear of "witchcraft" was, in essence, a fear of women's power, sexuality and general awesomeness.
LEONIE COOPER
"Witchcraft is the new feminism", NME, March 2, 2017
The important thing is that as this is a modern religion, born in a modern Western country, it has the values of modern Westerners. The values of modern Westerners are individualism, freedom to practice as you choose, no authority above you, no official doctrine that forces you to stick to a certain way and very, very few moral mandates. The only moral mandate is harm nobody. Do what you want, but harm nobody.
KAINE FINI
"Wicca thrives in Orange County", Coast Report Online, April 4, 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
Witchcraft, like any science or philosophical system, must be approached from a liberal point of view. When looked at objectively, we see that Witchcraft is just another theoretical body of knowledge. It is a process, not a person. Therefore it is neutral, incapable of being either good or evil. Like all belief systems, Witchcraft is only as good or evil as the people using it.
LADY SABRINA
Secrets of Modern Witchcraft Revealed
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
Just because you can't turn your ex into a toad doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the Craft; the problem is having unrealistic expectations of what the Craft is about.
MACKENZIE SAGE WRIGHT
"5 Common Mistakes Made by Beginning Witches", Exemplore, August 10, 2017
Witches are moon-birds, Witches are the women of the false, beautiful moon.
AMY LOWELL
"Witch-Woman"
In recent weeks alone, we've seen the devil pressing hard to bring witchcraft deeper into our schools, our homes and our entertainment venues. We reported on how a new witchcraft-inspired challenge is luring kids into summoning demons. It's called Charlie Charlie and it's sweeping the nation and the world under the guise of a carefree fortune-telling game. Faith leaders are sounding the alarm.
JENNIFER LECLAIRE
"A Revival of the Devil's Witchcraft Is Rising", Charisma News, June 15, 2015
The light in her Gypsy eyes
Fenced with saffron tongues
As they burnt off her skin.
And she wailed before she died,
Before the hush of holy sacrifice.
And her sinful thighs
Created for the danse macabre
Withered into ashes.
PETER HARGITAI
"Witch's Island"
It is an accurate statement that the followers of Witchcraft do not usually proselytize, which means you aren't going to find us standing on your local street corner thumping our Books of Shadows. Nor do you have to worry about jumping out of the shower to answer our serene and smiling faces at the door with your clothes stuck to various uncomfortable places on your wet body. But just because we (hopefully) aren't the forcible type doesn't mean we don't exist.
SILVER RAVENWOLF
To Ride a Silver Broomstick: New Generation Witchcraft
I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
Magic, and witchcraft in particular, is a way to exercise and recognize your agency in the world. The reason I'm doing this work is so people can feel that agency. So they don't feel they are at the mercy of the world and the choices that other people are making for them.
AMANDA YATES GARCIA
"Witches Explain How To Take On Political Power With Occult Magic", Huffington Post, April 4, 2017
Witchcraft is seeing a resurgence among queer-identified young people seeking a powerful identity that celebrates the freedom to choose who you are.
MOIRA DONOVAN
"How Witchcraft Is Empowering Queer and Trans Young People", Vice, August 14, 2015
Unlike the Abrahamic traditions, Witchcraft is not based upon a strict division of what is good and what is evil. Witches use nature to fuel their concept of the divine and in the world of nature there is no battle between good and evil. A lion is not "evil" because it kills the gazelle, and a deer is not "good" because it eats only plants. Nature is both cruel and beautiful at the same time.
SCARLET RAVENSWOOD
"Do Witches Believe in the Devil?", Arcane Alchemy, May 25, 2018
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The Portable Nietzsche
Early this year, the witch camp in Bonyase was disbanded in an attempt by the government to erase what it considers as a stain on its human rights records.... The pervasive belief in Ghana that people can harm others through witchcraft is the elephant in the room that has to be called out, not the safe places which alleged witches flee to. The government of Ghana needs to retrace its steps and focus its energy and resources on addressing the phenomenon of witchcraft allegation. Witch camps are the consequences, not the cause of the problem. They are symptoms not the disease. The government of Ghana is correct in saying that witchcraft accusation leads to various human rights abuses. Now how is shutting down the witch camp the solution to these abuses? Most people living in these shelters did not just take up residency there without any reason. People in these camps are accused persons who were convicted at shrines or banished by families and would have been killed if they had stayed back in their communities, if they had not taken refuge at these shelters.
LEO IGWE
"Ghana: Witchcraft Accusation -- Is Disbanding 'Witches Camps' the Solution?", The Chronicle, November 17, 2015
The accusation of witchcraft had rid many men of an ugly wife and yet more women of an attractive rival.
JOSS ALEXANDER
Tainted Innocence