As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t been posting a lot lately in the blog.  I’ve been feeling a bit “blah” these days, really looking to just move and get out of California and dealing with all the crap going on with the apartment and such.  I’ve also been working on the tarot book and trying to get that wrapped up as much as I can so I can make my (revised) deadline.  And with all of this I’ve been feeling like there’s nothing for me to write about.  Maybe it’s that blasted Mercury Retrograde but I’m feeling like I’ve hit a bit of blog writer’s block.

So with that I’m cheating a little tonight.  I wanted to write something because I feel like if I can at least get going on trying post every day again, even if it’s nothing terribly exciting, it might help.  I’m sort of stealing a topic that came up on a new website that I was invited to join, GetFanged.com, in order to help host their Witchcraft related forums and groups.  It’s something I think I’ve probably mentioned here before and I brought it up on the Facebook page today just to see if anyone else might have some other thoughts on it.  What’s the subject, you ask?

Can you be a Witch if you don’t practice Witchcraft but consider yourself Wiccan or Pagan?

In my opinion, quite simply, no.  A Witch practices Witchcraft. They work magick.  Wiccans follow the spiritual and religious path of Wicca.  They aren’t one in the same but our somewhat watered down and overly eclectic occult community use the words interchangeably so often that they start to feel like they mean the same thing.  But they are two different things.

It makes me nuts when someone asks me a question that leads to me telling them I’m a Witch and they respond with “Oh, so you’re a Wiccan!”  I understand that people outside of the community might not get the difference, and I’ll explain it, they may understand, and we all go about our lives a little wiser.  But it really makes me nuts when people within the community, those who should know and understand there is a difference don’t know it.

So if we break it down like this:
A Witch is someone that practices Witchcraft and works magick.
A Wiccan is someone who follows the spiritual path of Wicca and adheres to the various laws and beliefs of this religion including the Three Fold Law and the Wiccan Rede.

So by this logic we can say:
Someone that practices Witchcraft and follows the path of Wicca is a Wiccan and a Witch, or a Wiccan Witch.
Someone who follows the path of Wicca but who doesn’t work magick or practice Witchcraft, for whatever reason, would be a Wiccan but not a Witch (as they don’t practice Witchcraft).

Someone who practices Witchcraft but doesn’t follow the path of Wicca, or who follows another religion or spiritual path, would be a Witch (they may be a Jew Witch or Christo Witch) but they would not be a Wiccan.

We’ve all heard the phrase all Wiccans are Witches but not all Witches are Wiccan.  And I used to agree with that, but then as I met more and more Wiccans that make the decision not to engage in magick and instead honor the Sabbats and Esbats and follow the spiritual aspect of Wicca, I started to see that this isn’t the case for everyone.  It’s very true that you’ll find that most Wiccans do practice Witchcraft but not all.

And I’m sick of people always assuming I’m Wiccan and then giving me attitude because of my personal preferences for the kind of Witchcraft I do and the types of spells I work with.  I think that was part of why I had gotten to where I did in the conversation that was happening on the other site.  I get annoyed with generalizations.  They’re helpful but you can’t count on them to always fit.

So that’s my take on that and my attempt to kick out some of the cobwebs around here.  🙂
Today’s Mood: Blank