Comment on for witches by HaniSantosa

HaniSantosa's avatar
for people who call themselves witches: why do you call yourselves so? I mean, can you perform magic and so on? sorry for my ignorance
Cait-Cait93's avatar
Read, it won't hurt your brain :3 I don't classify myself as a pagan or a wiccan. I'm neither, as I do not pray to any deity. I have however studied with my family, so I'm not ignorant of the religion. Basically, wicca is a nature based religion, where you use positive thought and energy to achieve the outcome you desire. There are basic guidelines to the religion, such as that if you do anything, it comes back to you in three's and that if it harm none, do as thou will. The group that I studied with highly valued the elders and women who were in their coven, no matter the woman's age (because woman bring life). You can use elements of the earth (wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit) to help you cast spells (words and chants to raise positive energy to achieve an outcome). You can use candles, colors, herbs, stones, string even to help with your spells. You can practice alone, or with others. The cycle of the moon is a common factor in spells as well, as one spell might be stronger during say a cresent moon over a full moon. There are rituals and praise to the God/dess, and it said that the God controls one half of the year (for hunting and such), while the Goddess controls the other half (for birth and life). There are major celebrations- Winter and Summer Solstice as well as Spring and Autumn Equinox (the changing of the seasons). There are other celebrations as well ([link]). There are many, many different studies of wicca, each with their own set of guidelines and rules. Such thins vary from person to person, as well as coven to coven beyond just the overall guide of what "branch" (for lack of better word), you choose to practice under.

There are traits people possess that can be deemed as a magical ability- healing, empathy, precognitive, etc; I know people who possess these abilities, who really help. For instance- I had a nasty cut on my hand, and the bandaid wasn't helping keep the wound covered as I'd hoped. I was crying from pain. One of the priestess' took me into the restroom, and had me imagine the pain leaving me like a thread being pulled through my hand. It may seem that it wasn't technically healing, however the pain did go away and I was able to enjoy the rest of the day. That is a way of healing, even if it's not voodoo or smoke and mirrors.

[link]
[link]

If that answers your question, good. If not, too bad. Keep looking. I recommend reading some books by Raymond Buckland or Silver Ravenwolf, both respected authors on the craft.
Dragonflae's avatar
Wicca does not equal witchcraft, love. And Silver Ravenwolf is about as highly respected as the Westboro Baptist Church. I wouldn't suggest her books to my worst enemy.
Cait-Cait93's avatar
LOL Wow. Panties in a bunch already. It's a suggested person for many newcomers, I don't care if you don't like her. That's not my problem. Nor did I state it automatically means witchcraft. Walk away now :)
Dragonflae's avatar
I love how you thought I was being mean :lol: Trust me, if I'd wanted to, you'd have run away crying. That was relatively polite, by my standards.

And the only reason I'd ever suggest Silverwolf to a newcomer is if I wanted to show them how not to go about witchcraft, Wicca or Paganism in general. For gods' sakes, her pen name sounds like the Mary Sue heroine of a weeaboo Magical Girl fanfiction.
neo-mahakala-108's avatar
I realize Mind's potiential. Somehow.

Some people are not sure how, it's slightly magical. Somehow.
Glori305's avatar
Well, first you need to define magic.

Wave a wand in the air and have teacups turn into turtles? Definately not.

Magic, on a religious witch level, is extremely focused prayer. It's concentrating your energey and putting it behind your desires. And that is a horibly simplified explanation, because if it was that simple, every pagan/wiccan/witch out there would have won the lottery.

It is also a nature based religion, generally polytheistic (more than 1 God/dess) And it is more about that, than it is about magic.
Saeter's avatar
I'm a planeswalker.
WhiskyOmega's avatar
I only call myself a 'witch' to identify myself as a practitioner of the Craft, sort of like a medical practitioner calling themselves a 'Doctor'; it's just a means of identification.

I guess what I can do can be called 'magic', but it's nothing like people see magicians do (which is 'slight-of-hand', not real magic) and the actual process can take days if not weeks and months to produce results; nothing's "Abra-kadabra-POOF!" and it's done. Alot of study has to go into the practice of real-life magic, sort of a Doctor needs to study hard before they become full-fledged Doctors.
It's alot of work but I like the results I see in every-day-life in my chosen path.
HaniSantosa's avatar
what kind of magic can you do? I don't want to start a war here, just curious :D

and of course, you don't mean magic as "tricks". I know that
WhiskyOmega's avatar
I can do just about anything from change the weather (sounds far-fetched but i've surprized myself on more then a few occasions by making it happen!!!) to healing and much more.

I know it's a big-leap for most people to believe a single person can do these kinds of things and that it just sounds like I'm full of myself, but I'm actually a very modest person and if I hadn't seen with my own eyes on numerous occasions that I HAVE done these things I wouldn't believe it either.
:shrug:
Fernoll's avatar
I've known a person or 2 who claimed to use magic. Heard that the casting itself isn't enough, that you also need to act in order to get results.

Which leads me to another thing- My art teacher says that in order to get stuff done, you also need to act, and as you do, the universe sort of "bends" itself to help you get your way.

Interesting to see how things in our existence work, and still how little we know of our surroundings.
WhiskyOmega's avatar
That's exactly how real magic works.
It's kind of like the 'law of attraction', you have to continually work towards a goal, put your drive right into it, and in doing so it somehow draws the goal to you.
Not always, though, and sometimes what you eventually receive might not be exactly what u wanted but it's what the universe saw right for you instead, sort of thing.

Personally I wouldn't believe any of it possible if I hadn't seen it work for myself on numerous occasions under all types of circumstances.
It's really amazing if u know how and the awesome part is that anyone can do it with the knowledge and willingness to learn how. :)
Fernoll's avatar
Funny thing is i have never dabbled in it myself, but the universe does seem to cooperate with me from time to time on a small scale.
One example, about a year ago, I told a friend that he works too much and needs a break. I humorly suggested to break his leg so he can get some time off. A few days he actually broke his finger at work. The way the wheel turns..

Think it's possible that some people may have... "It", more than others? should i consider dealing with such things?
WhiskyOmega's avatar
think that some people are more naturally 'in tune' with their 6th sense and have a stronger ‘pull’ on the laws of attraction, so their goals are achieved much faster. However, every person is capable of doing it and with practice their ‘pull’ can become just as strong; it just takes more work and a bit longer to get there, that’s all.

From what I’ve witnessed with my own eyes, watching regular every-day people around me, is that it’s very possible to ‘pull’ things to you unintentionally without even thinking about it.
Regular people do it every single day without realizing it; that’s why I don’t believe there’s such thing as ‘coincidence’. Intentional or not, something had to be put into play to make things happen, I don’t believe they just happen on their own.
So your friends broken finger could very well have been the result of a seed one of you or both of you planted in the universal scheme of things when u mentioned it in passing.

I personally believe that a lot of people don’t realize it, but that the power of our thoughts has a huge pull on the universe around us and through thought alone things can happen, especially if those thoughts are very strong.
Why else can people sometimes physically ‘feel’ when someone’s in a bad mood without even talking to them? It’s because their thoughts produce a very real energy that’s actually been recorded by science and people can, in turn, pick up on this energy using their own 6th sense.
It’s actually really amazing and tons of research is currently being done on this and the ‘pull’ people have on the world around them. :)

This is all just my own personal perspective, however. I could be wrong in some cases; all I can really claim to is what I've seen with my own eyes and that's proof enough for me that magic exists, or whatever you want to call it. Some people might need more proof then that, but I believe only what I've seen with my own eyes and I can say I really have seen it working and worked with it myself.
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Mercury-Crowe's avatar
Um, yeah. Witches do magic. Pretty straightforward there.

Not to be confused with Wiccans, who may or may not actually do any sort of magic.
HaniSantosa's avatar
what kind of magic can you do? I don't want to start a war here, just curious :D
Mercury-Crowe's avatar
Meh, at this point I generally just make little things go the way I want. Sell and get small things, nudge it so we can find the place we want to live, I don't do ritual magic anymore.
Dragonflae's avatar
:| I can clear this up far better in a note, if you'd like.

Totally-dead's avatar
I stick kids in ovens... does that count?
MagicMoonBird's avatar
:lmao: best answer of the day! :XD:
HaniSantosa's avatar
uumm, anyone could do that. not necessarily witch :D
EldingaGunman's avatar
Though I'm not going around calling myself a witch, what makes you think that witches perform actual magic? 'Witches' are real, historical people that were around, in some for, in almost every culture or religion for the past several thousand years, performing tasks that were very much real. The 'deal with the devil' thing only came with the christians.
HaniSantosa's avatar
what kind of tasks, for example? I am not looking a debate here, just curious :D