Witchcraft

You cannot “become” a witch. Witches are not Harry Potter or most any fiction work. 

Witchcraft is a religion, a practice. You have to worship the gods or the elements for you to practice magick. You need to respect the Earth and you need intent and belief. 

If you’re successful (according to traditional belief) you’ll feel more powerful after your first Samhain (Sow-in)  after starting your craft. (I’m really not sure about this, but I’ve felt it and some of my other pagan friends have too. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)

However, if you’re interested, I do have a tag for witchlings, the next witchy holiday, Yule, and some resources for more beginner-friendly spells:

You can try bath-based magick, crystals, books, or herbs (necessary if boring to some,)

also here’s something I think you might find helpful:

Master post for beginner witches

I’m a noob at this but as someone who is agnostic, I’m starting my path of the practice out with secularism. But that’s just me. Religion absolutely can be included - and any religion can be included (poly, mono, earth, ancestors, etc).

First off, witches don’t need to preform “moon rituals,” I feel this sort of thing is more centered around Wicca. Paganism I feel is also being a “witch,” as long as you follow up with some version of the craft. Another sort-of requirement is that you must worship gods or the elements (the moon is not included.) I myself just pray to the moon sometimes (she gives excellent advice) and cleanse crystals under the full moon. These practices can be replaced by praying to literally anyone else (or talking to Earth spirits,) and cleansing with sage or all the elements. 

If you don’t feel connected to the moon, especially if it’s inhibiting your path, then you of course do not need to involve the moon. However, a healthy respect of the moon is probably a good idea. (Sidenote: I don’t focus on any phases other than full (and sometimes new moon, for rebirth.) 

Witchcraft is a super diverse and loosely defined practice with no particular requirements, aside from the one and only most important one. You must, in some way, practice witchcraft to be a witch. That can be anything from exclusively preforming specific types of magick or spells, like divination, making sigils, working with a god or spirit, or it can be super varied and involve as many types of magic as you see fit and are comfortable with. Witchcraft is a practice with no necessary ties to any religion. Being a Pagan, you can work it into your existing religion any way you see fit and think your deities would appreciate, OR you could leave it completely separate from your religion and preform nothing but secular magick, if you so choose.

I’ve been a witch for about 15 years now, and my practice has nothing to do with the moon or it’s phases, or any god or goddess (most of the time). I’m what I like to call a non-worshiping polytheist, meaning I don’t worship any gods, but I acknowledge that they may exist, I acknowledge that people worship them and work with them, but I don’t feel that I need to worship any of them myself. I respect a good handful of them, and acknowledge many of them as potentially powerful and divine beings in their own right. On occasion I’ll work with some of them, offer them a libation, commune and have a conversation, maybe strike a mutually beneficial deal, but I don’t offer myself or my worship to any of them. I’m not a devout servant of any, at best I’m an outside observer who might be willing to offer my occasional services or business in exchange for theirs, in the most respectful and professional fashion possible. My path (and you’ll hear a lot of witches use the term “path”. It’s just what it sounds like. Your journey as you learn and grow as a witch) has wandered all over the place and I’ve settled in an eclectic and greatly varied place. I’m a sponge for magick knowledge, and I love learning about different religions and traditions, even separately from being a witch, I’m just fascinated by the social aspects of it all. So being eclectic kind of just came naturally to me.

The types of magick I practice varies dramatically based on the goal I want to reach, the service I’m providing for someone else, the resources I have available to me, what I feel is best at the time, or even how I’m feeling in that particular moment.

I do a lot of chaos magick, which largely involves forcing changes in your own mental state to apply your will on your surroundings.

I also do a lot of nature magick, appealing to the spirits of the environment (trees, stones, animal, even down to bugs and mites) to encourage the change or effects I’d like to see in my spells.

A lot of my magick depends on my own power. I don’t follow the concept that my soul is in some way limited, and that I can overuse my energy or tire myself out. I believe am an infinite well of power, if I’m willing to put forth my own energy into my practice and allow myself to be that well of power. I almost always put a little of myself in every spell I cast.

One thing I do the most is enchantment, when I make a charm or a trinket, you can see some of them on my blog here, and I’ll use the symbolism of what it’s made out of along with spell I place on the item, to perpetually cast that spell on the person who possessed that item.

I also dabble in technomancy, which is stuff like writing spells in the html code of a website, or creating sigils out of QR codes, and stuff like that.

I never cleanse my work space, I don’t ground myself before or after working, I don’t cast circles before working. These are all legitimately powerful practices for many people, but they don’t fit into the way I work and have worked for the past decade or so of my path, yet some people will tell you they are 100% necessary to every spell and everything you’ll ever do.

And super unpopular opinion, I don’t really believe in astrology. Especially modern mainstream astrology.

So basically what I’m trying to say is that there are countless ways to be a witch and you don’t have to limit yourself to one “type of witch” and you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules aside from the one. To be a witch, you must do witchcraft in some form. And you don’t even have to be consistent with it. Some of the most “powerful” witches I know are people who cast a spell a couple times a year, but do so with amazing resolve and intent, and that’s it.

One website will say the Horned God and the Triple Goddess are actual, individual deities, another one will say they they are just representations of other gods and goddesses.

Here’s some of my favorite thing I’ve looked into that are often spread around rampantly without reason or citation in the witch community. Some rumors, some modern concepts that aren’t faithful to the original traditions, some just falsehoods with various motivations. It’s below the cut, because it’s long.

Includes: buying a tarot deck, buying/selling spells, the veil, runes, and white sage.

First off, witches don’t need to preform “moon rituals,” I feel this sort of thing is more centered around Wicca. Paganism I feel is also being a “witch,” as long as you follow up with some version of the craft. Another sort-of requirement is that you must worship gods or the elements (the moon is not included.) I myself just pray to the moon sometimes (she gives excellent advice) and cleanse crystals under the full moon. These practices can be replaced by praying to literally anyone else (or talking to Earth spirits,) and cleansing with sage or all the elements. 

If you don’t feel connected to the moon, especially if it’s inhibiting your path, then you of course do not need to involve the moon. However, a healthy respect of the moon is probably a good idea. (Sidenote: I don’t focus on any phases other than full (and sometimes new moon, for rebirth.) 

Witchcraft is a super diverse and loosely defined practice with no particular requirements, aside from the one and only most important one. You must, in some way, practice witchcraft to be a witch. That can be anything from exclusively preforming specific types of magick or spells, like divination, making sigils, working with a god or spirit, or it can be super varied and involve as many types of magic as you see fit and are comfortable with. Witchcraft is a practice with no necessary ties to any religion. Being a Pagan, you can work it into your existing religion any way you see fit and think your deities would appreciate, OR you could leave it completely separate from your religion and preform nothing but secular magick, if you so choose.

I’ve been a witch for about 15 years now, and my practice has nothing to do with the moon or it’s phases, or any god or goddess (most of the time). I’m what I like to call a non-worshiping polytheist, meaning I don’t worship any gods, but I acknowledge that they may exist, I acknowledge that people worship them and work with them, but I don’t feel that I need to worship any of them myself. I respect a good handful of them, and acknowledge many of them as potentially powerful and divine beings in their own right. On occasion I’ll work with some of them, offer them a libation, commune and have a conversation, maybe strike a mutually beneficial deal, but I don’t offer myself or my worship to any of them. I’m not a devout servant of any, at best I’m an outside observer who might be willing to offer my occasional services or business in exchange for theirs, in the most respectful and professional fashion possible. My path (and you’ll hear a lot of witches use the term “path”. It’s just what it sounds like. Your journey as you learn and grow as a witch) has wandered all over the place and I’ve settled in an eclectic and greatly varied place. I’m a sponge for magick knowledge, and I love learning about different religions and traditions, even separately from being a witch, I’m just fascinated by the social aspects of it all. So being eclectic kind of just came naturally to me.

The types of magick I practice varies dramatically based on the goal I want to reach, the service I’m providing for someone else, the resources I have available to me, what I feel is best at the time, or even how I’m feeling in that particular moment.

I do a lot of chaos magick, which largely involves forcing changes in your own mental state to apply your will on your surroundings.

I also do a lot of nature magick, appealing to the spirits of the environment (trees, stones, animal, even down to bugs and mites) to encourage the change or effects I’d like to see in my spells.

A lot of my magick depends on my own power. I don’t follow the concept that my soul is in some way limited, and that I can overuse my energy or tire myself out. I believe am an infinite well of power, if I’m willing to put forth my own energy into my practice and allow myself to be that well of power. I almost always put a little of myself in every spell I cast.

One thing I do the most is enchantment, when I make a charm or a trinket, you can see some of them on my blog here, and I’ll use the symbolism of what it’s made out of along with spell I place on the item, to perpetually cast that spell on the person who possessed that item.

I also dabble in technomancy, which is stuff like writing spells in the html code of a website, or creating sigils out of QR codes, and stuff like that.

I never cleanse my work space, I don’t ground myself before or after working, I don’t cast circles before working. These are all legitimately powerful practices for many people, but they don’t fit into the way I work and have worked for the past decade or so of my path, yet some people will tell you they are 100% necessary to every spell and everything you’ll ever do.

And super unpopular opinion, I don’t really believe in astrology. Especially modern mainstream astrology.

So basically what I’m trying to say is that there are countless ways to be a witch and you don’t have to limit yourself to one “type of witch” and you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules aside from the one. To be a witch, you must do witchcraft in some form. And you don’t even have to be consistent with it. Some of the most “powerful” witches I know are people who cast a spell a couple times a year, but do so with amazing resolve and intent, and that’s it.

@ticcitobiofficial gave some advice

Source

BI PRIDE and VISIBILITY not ERASURE!!!