In my last post I sort of dismissed Witchcraft for me. Not because I think it is bad or evil or anything like that. There are some fruitcakes out there but every belief system has them.
No, for me the turn off is because it seems to gadget driven as it were.
Here’s an example. One tip from a Witch that I listened to was on how to create a protective circle around you in any situation. You imagine the screen slowly moving around you until it covers all 360 degrees, then you watch it go over the top of you and under the bottom.
This protective circle keeps your positive energy in and the negative energy out. There’s nothing wrong with this idea but it sounds similar to practical advice that a psychologist would give when you are feeling overwhelmed. Its a useful trick rather than self enlightenment.
The whole thing with having an alter which needs four elements, a wand, cauldron (not MacBeth size, something for mixing and burning herbs!), crystals and on. Well its an awful lot of stuff and distraction.
Don’t get me wrong I can absolutely understand how this works very well for some people. If you cast a spell to make you feel more positive you are pretty likely to feel more positive, almost like someone who has an invisible shield against the hassles of life.
But that’s no different to someone who goes to church or the mosque feeling down and leaves invigorated by the word of whoever it is they worship.
I like the concept of vibration. Light has a high vibration, stone a low one. Negative people have low vibrations, positive people high ones – they are after all called vibrant people!
The concept is to work your way towards having a higher vibration. Sometimes you may only be able to achieve this for a short while, sometimes you might feel like you have really moved up a notch. Higher vibrations are positive people so the overall path is to produce someone who feels good about themselves and projects that onto others and that’s great.
I’ll actually be stealing the vibration bit. It is a good mental image when trying to asses a mood or emotion so glad I looked into Witchcraft a little deeper.
I like the self-control element – whatever you do in your magick will come back at you three times as strong. A sort of self policing against evil spell making although the fact that it “just so happens to be there” seems a bit ‘handy’ in the cynical sense.
I like the idea that the focus of Witchcraft is on an inward and individual journey of self improvement rather than say, going to church or clutching a book which tells you what to do.
The overwhelming principle is to harm no one. Sound good but this is very tricky. Lets say, for arguments sake, that spells work. Now lets say you have been trying to get a job but it hasn’t been working out. You cast a spell and within the week your gainfully employed.
Well you got the job which means someone else didn’t. Isn’t that harm? I’m nit picking here – I think the overall message is to do things with good intent but it does seem an odd hole in the logic.
On that note again I see these things as Psychosomatic – if you believe you are going to get the job this comes across at an interview in your confidence. You got the confidence from the spell. You get the job because of your confidence that was because of your spell … but it is still all in your mind.
I like the idea that it is nature based and there is more sexual equality (gods and goddesses) than many religions and I like the idea that, Wicca excepted, it is not actually viewed by many of its practitioners as an actual religion so you can do it in parallel with other belief systems.
Unfortunately many of those other belief systems are less than flexible in return but that’s for another time.
Now – you want to understand the true depth and breadth of Witchcraft you’ll have to watch this excellent 25 minute video where a witch simply lists the things you’ll probably need to get your head around.
Its this exact list that makes me back off. It seems like an awful lot of distractions. I can see how it works. Someone is feeling, for example, depressed. They are looking for answers and here is something that needs study and activity but something that, unlike most religions, has a community that does not demand conformity.
It distracts them from their depression immediately with activities (such as obtaining all the ‘things’ you need) and can be effective longer term through self awareness.
This makes Witchcraft a very practical ‘right now’ solution but it also runs the risk of letting the ‘things’ become the center of attention and so become more of a long term distraction rather than a proper journey into the self but I suppose every gateway has its pitfalls.
I am however, far more attracted to something like Mindfulness where “You don’t need a meditation cushion or bench, or any sort of special equipment”
At the moment I see Witchcraft as a very useful framework for some, but not for me. I can see how it very easily crosses over into the bounds of fantasy but if that gets someone through the day without hurting anyone else then why not?
God/Allah/etc. are also in the bounds of fantasy to me but if they help people get through the day without harming others then the same goes … why not?
So my conclusions on Witchcraft is … I’m glad its out there, I’m glad its helping people, I’m annoyed that some Christians are so afraid of it that they attack it, but overall it is not for me on my self awareness journey.