You Say That I’m a Witch Like It’s a Bad Thing

Some people freak when they hear me identify as a witch and I’m pretty sure it’s just because they don’t understand what I mean by that.  Also, they’ve received extensive religious programming on the topic and so really can’t help themselves.  So maybe I should help them understand?  I think we’d all get along better if only we could better understand one another.

When I say that I’m a witch, I mean that I have a certain mindset, similar to that of a religious person, except a lot more flexible.  I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do have a particular way of looking at things.  Here are the basics:

1.  All things, from Creation on, begin with magic and are magical through and through: every being, every miracle, every hope, every blessing, every curse, every motivation, every action, every aspect of science, of life, and even religion.  Do you know we never ever really touch tangible objects but merely transfer energy from one thing to another and that translates as actually “feeling” it?
2. While science is purportedly objective and religion subjective, to me they are really just two sides of the same coin that will eventually merge into one another.
3. All things are connected in a field of conscious energy.  I call that field “The Source of All That Is.”  A religious person might call some aspect of it “God.”  A scientist (religious ones excepted), might call it “Cause and Effect,” refusing to personalize it beyond that.  But it clearly has intelligence and we are all aspects of it.  Call us It’s “Creative Expressions” who are also able to create in our own right, albeit on a smaller scale at present.
4. The above three facts/concepts (whichever you choose to call it) means that we can and do regularly affect one another and can do so as much on purpose as by accident.  The former is why spells work, as do collective prayers, and concerted efforts.  The latter is why we are important to one another in ways both tiny and humongous and also how we manage to accrue karma, whether we want it or not.
5. We are eternal souls.  Our only prisons, our physical circumstances and the beliefs that encompass them, is only temporary.  We can change our minds, change our circumstances, or leave our bodies.  Leaving doesn’t mean we have to physically die.  Some of us can come and go as we please.  Many do.  Dreams are the pathway even for those who can’t do so consciously.  Physical “death” is the pathway for everyone.  Once on the other side of the barrier, beliefs can only limit  us for a little while.  They can be our Heaven or Hell, should we be inclined to believe those things.  We get what we honestly feel we deserve.  We are our only judges.  But eventually we all realize that we have the freedom not only to choose, but to create our reality.  Our Source knows no limitation and our varied proximity to that reflects It.
6. “Good” is kind, helpful, .loving, creative, progressive, positive, uplifting, educational, unifying, free….
7. “Bad” is cruel, negligent, hateful, destructive, digressive, negative, oppressive, willful or imposed ignorance, divisive, repressive…
9. These distinctions are less distinct on the Other Side since negative things and, despite appearances, have a positive result in the greater scheme of things.

I purposely don’t include the terms “tolerant” or “intolerant” in my descriptions of good and bad since both depend on circumstance to be good or bad and are really neither in and of themselves.  For instance, being tolerant of someone’s religion, does not mean you should tolerate being abused on account of their religion.  That’s just common sense.  You know?

In case you’re wondering, I have both tried religion and studied it.  I was at one time a Pentecostal Christian and later a Shi-ite Muslim and have joined many  a friend, just in moral support, in their forms of religion before I tired of religion too entirely to really associate with it anymore.  This doesn’t mean I hate religious people.  Far from it.  I just no longer wish to show support for things I find either limiting or in any way unbelievable or crude.

Examples:

1. The concept of a vengeful or jealous god.  This is so petty a view of the Source I find it embarrassing to even pay lip service to.  I can see a savage primitive acting this way, but not an infinitely advanced being.
2. The concept of gender, race, or ethnicity being somehow second to another via nature alone.  We all may have our preferences, but kindly leave off the artificial stratification.  The Source is in all of us as we are in the Source.  We make of ourselves what we will.  Actions speaking louder that words is as far as I will go on this concept.  That alone is worthy of stratification as far as I’m concerned.
3. Some thoughts are encouraged and others forbidden.  Thank you, NO.  I will think what I damn well please and you do NOT own my bridle.  If I happen to believe in reincarnation (which I wholehearted DO) you do not get to tell me I’m not allowed to as my once-upon-a-time Sunday School teacher used to do.
4. That someone else dies to save me from my sins.  No.  Sweet concept, but I don’t believe it works that way.  You can if you want.  I can understand the comfort you find in that.  But I feel I’m responsible for own rights and wrongs and I wouldn’t put that on someone else’s shoulders even if I could.  We learn from our mistakes and we have lots of chances to get it right.
5. The concept of having to believe or perform rituals the “right” way or we will go to Hell.  I call bullshit on that one and don’t want anyone thinking I agree with it in any manner, shape, or form.

Oh, and I shouldn’t have to mention this, but…

1. NO, witches do NOT believe in the Christian concept of Satan or the Devil.  At most, we believe some souls, still trapped in their physical beliefs after death, might linger a while as evil/disturbed spirits but we don’t ever worship them.  That would be pretty silly.  A witch will only exorcise or keep at bay such if they deal with them at all.  Most efforts to speak with passed on spirits involve a ritualistic effort to keep out the bad or at least their effects.
2. We do NOT do blood sacrifices.  Well most don’t.  The rebels might.  Just as there is a religious faction called “Satanism” that is really only a rebellion/parody against fundamentalist Christianity, most particularly Catholicism, there are factions of rebel witches called “The Golden Bough” or “The Blood Drinkers” that are a rebellion/parody against standard witch mindset.  I am not of either category.  I believe what I believe because it makes sense to me, not because anyone crammed it down my throat.  Having religious-type concepts crammed down your throat but being too comfortable in ritual or suffering cognitive dissonance when feelings fight imposed “beliefs” results in oppositional rebellion in free-thinkers.  Not my issue.  Just so you know.

Second thought, I can really only apply these last two points to Wiccans and other white witches.  It probably doesn’t apply in more primitive versions of tribal witchcraft but this is something I know only a little about since I, and all of the modern witches I know, pretty much avoid associating with that.

So anyway, that’s the mindset that makes me a witch.  Please don’t say it like it’s a bad thing.  It’s not for me.  It’s just who I am.  I’m just being honest with myself and others.  I hope you are okay with that.