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Be either seeking books about it, seeing videos of people talking about it, or just the "general consensus", it seems that no matter where I seek, witchcraft as a path is always about dealing with spirits and/or (mother)nature.
why most systems always make you have to interact with other beings in order to do magic?
Or they mix witchcraft with Wicca and everything becomes one thing only.
The point still stands that it makes it quite hard for others(like myself) to really understand what exactly is witchcraft.
I have even seen people speaking of new age beliefs and calling it witchcraft, making it all be about crystals, "high vibes" and essential oils.
So, in the end what is witchcraft?Or is it something that the person themselves define?
Witchcraft is the art of magic through nature. It is not uncommon to find mixed beliefs, bu usually a father sun and mother moon. It is a poetic way of doing magic spells.
Be either seeking books about it, seeing videos of people talking about it, or just the "general consensus", it seems that no matter where I seek, witchcraft as a path is always about dealing with spirits and/or (mother)nature.
why most systems always make you have to interact with other beings in order to do magic?
Or they mix witchcraft with Wicca and everything becomes one thing only.
The point still stands that it makes it quite hard for others(like myself) to really understand what exactly is witchcraft.
I have even seen people speaking of new age beliefs and calling it witchcraft, making it all be about crystals, "high vibes" and essential oils.
So, in the end what is witchcraft?Or is it something that the person themselves define?
Originally, Wicca and Witch meant the same thing, they come from the same root. Wicca was the word for male magician/sorcerer/witch, and Wiccae was the feminine word for it. The word "witch" was derived from the word "wicca" and the etymological root of the word "wicca" is unclear.
In the old times, a witch, a wicca, a sorcerer, a magician, a necromancer, a seer... these titles were all interchangable, as the nature of magick is by definition occult and esoteric, it's no surprise there was no rigid definition, or distinct classification between practices. However, like Diluco says, all ancient magick derives from either some form of divination (the oldest type of magick) or some form of herbalism/nature magick. These far predate any kind of diety worship and/or religious, structured, or ceremonial magick.
In modern times, "Wicca" as a distinguished practice/branch of magick was only manufactured by Gerald Garnder in what... the 50s? I think? After that, it came to be that "Wicca" was a specific branch of magick/witchcraft, and "witchcraft" itself seated itself as a much more general, high-level description of magickal practice.
It is hard to understand "what exactly is witchcraft" because of two main reasons: 1. magick and witchcraft are occult/esoteric subjects, which have very poor historical rigid definitions, and for the most part (probably due to the nature of it) lacks scientific rigour. 2. according to most people, witchcraft is a very general description of magickal practice as a whole.
If I came to you and asked you the question "what exactly is do humans believe?" you'd find that preposterously ambiguous. Instead if I changed that to "what exactly do humans believe about the occult?" it's only slightly less absurd of a question, but is rapidly approaching the question "what exactly is witchcraft".
But loosely, this is how I see it... What is witchcraft? Witchcraft is the practice that makes one a witch/wizard. What makes one a witch/wizard? Doing magick. Although, in practice... there are many defined subsets of magick... such as ceremonial/goetic/hermetic and then we have planetary/astrology, and then of course things like chaos magick. Witchcraft is kind of a mix of what's left, and umbrella over "miscelaneous". Obviously wicca falls under that umbrella, but so do other natural, historic and folk kinds of magick... not to mention witchcraft may borrow from other branches of magick as well, such as the moon from astrology.
Be either seeking books about it, seeing videos of people talking about it, or just the "general consensus", it seems that no matter where I seek, witchcraft as a path is always about dealing with spirits and/or (mother)nature.
why most systems always make you have to interact with other beings in order to do magic?
Or they mix witchcraft with Wicca and everything becomes one thing only.
The point still stands that it makes it quite hard for others(like myself) to really understand what exactly is witchcraft.
I have even seen people speaking of new age beliefs and calling it witchcraft, making it all be about crystals, "high vibes" and essential oils.
So, in the end what is witchcraft?Or is it something that the person themselves define?
I think in the Western world originally Witchcraft was the Magick that was distinct from ceremonial Magick (when magicians believed in God). Witches believed in the older / other gods and goddesses. Then over time everything got combined into what we have now, where all these names are just labels (in my opinion)
A very cool book by the way is Rossel Hope Robins' the Encyclopedia of Demonology and Witchcraft
