What is Wicca and Witchcraft and who Practices It


It's hard to believe, but over a million people in the U.S. would identify as Wiccan. The Wiccan belief includes witches. But the one million Wicca does not include an untold number of self identified practitioners of witchcraft.

Like the Christian faith divides and then divides again based on what individuals or subgroups want to believe the same has been happening in Wicca and witchcraft for centuries. While what is called the original or "orthodox" Wicca demanded community-wide standards, this changed when various groups branched off and today many individuals call themselves witches but may not refer to themselves as Wiccans.

The young women in the link is a example. Probably she would call herself a Christian if asked. But she found her faith missing something. That something she found in tarot cards. The practice of drawing a tarot card and discussing with others what it might mean was a visit to something like a spiritual world not present in her church. She gives seminars are ceremonies as an individual witch not affiliated with any other circle of like-minded people. Apparently there are many thousands of free-standing witches doing this and exchanging ideas with one another.

I can't help but compare this to preachers who start their own churches with their own set of ideas about what "it means to be a good Christian." Nor can I help but compare it to the millions of people in pews each Sunday morning listening to preachers and priests but thinking to themselves, "He/she has this all wrong. I know what is right."

The young woman in the link has a more intellect than many of us, however. She says the demand of some who want verification of the super natural miss the point. The point is our individual minds are receptive to some super natural messages but not to others. Figuring out our own minds to discover what predetermined the one of many messages we glopped onto is the interesting thing about witchcraft.

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