One of the questions I get asked the most through Ask A Witch is “Am I Witch?” My answer is often the same: “I don’t know, are you?”
It’s kind of a bitchy answer, I’ll admit. I think that comes from years and years of being asked that question when someone finds out I’m a Witch. You’d think it could be an easy question to answer but it isn’t always.
First, let me put out a thought that might seem a bit controversial and maybe even a little bullshit to some people. Witchcraft is passed down through the family line.
Yes, I said it. Witchcraft is hereditary. But that doesn’t me you have to know that there was actually a practicing Witch in your family in order to be a Witch yourself. The simple fact that you are drawn to the Craft and feel the stirring that you could be a Witch means you almost certainly have a relative somewhere in your family line that practiced.
At the end of the day, personally, I feel being a Witch is a choice. Even with a known hereditary connection you can choose not to follow the path of the Witch. And, on the flip side, even without knowing if you have a witchy relative you can choose to study and practice the arts.
Before I share the signs that I often look for with my clients and students when they ask this question I want to share my perspective on one of the most often suggested signs; simply being interested in magick.
Magick is interesting. Witchcraft is mystical. Pop culture makes Witches just seem cool and badass. Who wouldn’t be interested in that?! While an interest in something is always a sign that there’s an inherent connection somewhere, that doesn’t mean that’s who you are or what you should do. I have an interest in lock picking and actually have locks I practice on, but that doesn’t mean I should be a cat burglar. So I’m not big on the theory that if you’re into the idea of Witchcraft and magick that you’re secretly a Witch.
But there are some things that I do think indicate there’s Witch blood flowing in those veins of yours. These are based on my personal experience and my experience with other people I’ve known over the years in the Witchcraft community. You might relate to some of these.
1. Walking down the street you sometimes feel like Dr. Dolittle.
It’s one thing for you to like animals but it’s a whole other thing when they’re really into to you. You might find yourself walking down the street alone and then look over your shoulder before turning a corner and notice you’ve got a line of stay animals following you. You might also just notice things like the neighborhood dog that seems to hate everyone else is a big baby around you. And you probably have your own small zoo of pets at any given time. Animals don’t like all people and when they really like you it’s because your energy communicates a vibe that they get and makes them feel safe.
2. You had very real imaginary friends as a child and they’re still around.
When you’re little you think Mr. Buttons who comes to visit you at the end of your bed every night to “tuck you in” is just your imaginary friend until one day when you’re older you find a picture of Mr. Buttons in a pile of family photos and find out he’s something like your four times great-grandfather. Today you might hear your name called and sense someone is with you or you feel a reassuring hand on your shoulder when you’re stressed out or scared. Those imaginary friends are the spirits on the other side that know you can hear and feel them so they connect with you.
3. You stopped giving a fuck about what people think of you ages ago.
One important aspect of being a Witch is that you go your own way, do your own thing, and follow your own path and you honestly don’t care if anyone else likes or wants to be involved in it with you. You’re happy to just do your thing on your own. And when someone says something negative about it you have a total “Girl, BYE” moment and it doesn’t even phase you. As a Witch you know your truth and nobody is going to sway you from that and you just don’t give a fuck.
4. Your dreams are more than “just dreams.”
For some people their dreams are just bizarre nightly brain dumps that don’t add up to much. But for a Witch dreams are just an extension of living, you’re just doing it in another realm. At dreamtime when our Ego goes to sleep with our body our soul is free to roam and our Higher Self is allowed to communicate with us freely. You might find you wake from a solid 8 hours of sleep feeling even more tired than when you went to bed. Chances are you had a very active night on the astral plane. With a little practice recalling that activity and all the lessons learned can be a big part of growing spiritually and even growing your Craft.
5. People are constantly drawn to you for help.
Whether it’s a close friend, family member or someone from your work that you barely know, you are constantly being asked for advice. Sometimes about obvious things but often about things you have no clue why anyone would think you could help with. But the even more odd thing is that when they ask you still feel compelled to help and almost without realizing it your mouth opens, you start talking, and everything you say sounds perfect. Most of them you have no clue where those words and wisdom came from. It comes from your Higher Self and it happens when your Divine Self is tapped into the wisdom of the collective consciousness and is able to dispense the right wisdom in the right way at the right time. It’s truly a form of channeling!
6. You have an overwhelming amount of deja vu happen.
Sometimes it’s just that sense that you’ve had a conversation before or you know exactly how someone’s going to react to something because it’s like you’ve seen this all play out before. Other times it happens when you go somewhere for the first time but you feel you know the place intimately; you may even have visions in your mind of the same location year or even centuries before looking the same, but different. Deja vu, in my opinion, is a glitch in the Matrix. It’s as if time skips and we get caught up in the skip. When we think about the movie “The Matrix” {honestly one of the most magickal movies ever} and you think about how there are people who choose to be awakened and learn about these things and then people who choose to stay asleep, it’s the people that are awake that notice things like deja vu. You’re just awake and are noticing the glitches.
7. People often comment on your eyes.
When people are always telling you your eyes are beautiful you might start to think “I don’t see it, what is their deal with my eyes?” It’s because it’s not really your eyes per se, it’s your gaze. A Witch has really powerful eyes that directs their energy into the world around them like laser beams. When someone is commenting on your eyes, while your actual peepers may be lovely, it’s really that they’re feeling your energy and your actual gaze is captivating them. They feel your power and they see it in your eyes!
8. Crowds just make you feel like shit.
This is a sign of anyone who’s an empath but since most Witches have some measure of emphatic ability within them, its a strong indicator of that magickal being within. You don’t like crowds because no matter what the location is, be it a crowed mall or a music festival you just feel crushed under the energetic weight of all the people around you. If you’re particularly sensitive you might feel as though you can hear their thoughts and feel their emotions. If you have a high clairvoyant sense you might even see alllll the other people that are there that nobody can see, aka the spirits and guides hanging around with the people in the room. At the end of the day regardless of your actual level of activity you come home feeling like you’re going to collapse and as if you could sleep for days because you’re just sapped. You might even have a few days of feeling “sick” afterward because of all the energy you picked up and took home with you.
9. You feel a little like Wonder Woman after a case of Red Bull during the full moon.
For some people it’s the new moon that does this but for most it’s the full moon that gets them. You don’t sleep well if you sleep at all. You feel extra sensitive energetically and emotionally. You notice things in a more heightened way and you just feel more “on your game.” All that cosmic energy acts like a big charge to your energy body like charging a battery. Usually you feel this for about a week around the full moon and you find that’s when your dreams are most heightened, your intuition is on fire, and you’re full of inspiration. And you likely feel a bit of a comedown effect as the waning moon moves in. If you really feel this it’s super interesting to track how you feel during each full moon and then see what sign the moon was in. You’ll definitely find that you feel different during different moons. Knowing which one make you feel best is great for magick and healing work.
10. You can become a human lie detector.
Witches are known for lots of things in that stereotypical “witch” sense, but in real life Witches are known for a few big things too, one of which is being able to smell bullshit from miles away. If you want to try and get over on a Witch you really have to be a master con artist because most Witches have a keen sense of knowing when someone is absolutely full of shit. The true witchy test though is this; do you say something or do something about it? Some would say it’s better to let things run their course and trust that this person will get their due in time, but many Witches who feel strongly about preventing someone from harming others will do something about it. That doesn’t have to mean doing something magickally. It could simply be trusting their gut and intuition and calling this person out publicly so nobody else gets hurt and this liar is seen for who they truly are.
11. You sometimes manifest things you’ve been thinking or talking about without meaning to, and it isn’t always good.
In the “normal” word the true power of thoughts and words is often overlooked. In the magickal world they are the keys to manifesting desires and making magick happen. You might often find that something you keep obsessively thinking about ends up happening, and often it’s something you didn’t want to happen. But that’s the power of your thoughts, energy, and intention. What you focus on and put your energy into, like worry and fear, can often result in manifesting that worry or fear. When you realize what you’re doing you can turn it around and use your power for good, as they say.
12. It takes people a while to warm up to you no matter how nice you are.
Often Witches end up being the black sheep or the odd one out when it comes to group actives and dealing with other people. Even if you don’t look “witchy” or you don’t do anything to make yourself stand out and seem different from your peers or co-workers, it seems like it takes people a while to get comfortable around you. Again, it’s just that they feel that strong, confident, magickal energy that you carry or it can be your stronger-than-you-realilze shield or boundary that you keep up to protect you. Either way, your energy is strong and sends an unconscious signal to people that you’ve got power and it can make people a little hesitant to get too close but they usually come around.
13. You unintentionally “hex” people when they piss you off.
So you’ve just had an argument with a stranger in the middle of a store. It wasn’t all that heated but it upset you. As they walk away you feel yourself boiling with anger watching them walk away. And then all of a sudden they fall down with a huge thud as if they just walked into a brick wall. They get up, embarrassed and confused, while you try to stifle a witchy cackle. This almost exact thing has happened to me a few times. One time it happened when someone else gave a friend of mine shit and as the woman walked away I glared at her back and said, “Man she’s utter bitch, isn’t she,’ and the heal on one of her shoes suddenly broke and she was down for the count. It wasn’t on purpose, but I knew what had happened and I held my giggle in but my friend couldn’t help but bust out in loud laughter.
Maybe you resonate with a few of these or you might resonate with all of them. At the end of the day just ask yourself this; “Am I a Witch?” If you feel that stir inside that just feels excited and at home with the concept of being a Witch, then congratulations, you’re a Witch! Now it’s time to discover how to harness all these skills and gifts and learn to control them. That’s when the real work beings.
what if i dont get many of these but i still feel like i should be a witch?
Yeah, that’s a little tricky. Feeling like you “should” be something isn’t the same as feeling you “are” something. At the end of the day being a Witch is always a choice. If you don’t have really obvious natural abilities those can be developed. You might just find it takes you longer or it takes more work to bring your skills out. The good thing is that we all have intuitive and magickal abilities just for some people they are more natural. The only things you MUST have are a true attraction to magick and the Witch life, a true desire to learn, and a willingness to take your time. You’re not going to become a Witch overnight.