quotations about witches & witchcraft
I am no more a witch than you are a wizard. If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink.
SARAH GOOD
Edward W. Knappman's Great American Trials
Salem has become this ... Mecca for Wiccans, but no witches died here. Aside from Tituba, no one practiced anything like witchcraft near here in colonial times. It was a bunch of bored Puritans who thought killing their neighbors at the behest of teenage girls was a fine, Christian form of entertainment and land acquisition.
THOMM QUACKENBUSH
Pagan Standard Times: Essays on the Craft
Witchcraft is practiced by a growing number of lapsed Christians seeking easy gratification for life's most pressing needs: sex, hot clothes, relief from rotten marriages. The Christian Post reported in 2013 that multiple conservative scholars have concluded that there were more than 200,000 people who have declared themselves witches in the United States, and as many as 8 million undeclared practitioners of "the craft." This makes sorcery the second-fastest-growing religion in the US, after Islam.
SELAH ALLY TOWER
"I was spiritually deceived by witchcraft", New York Post, October 11, 2015
The SA Law Reform Commission says these pastors tell congregants they have animals in their bellies, especially snakes, because of witches they do not identify. According to the commission, these charismatic churches promise to protect congregants from all forms of evil, including witchcraft. The commission has recommended that the government introduces a new law -- the Prohibition of Harmful Practices Associated with Witchcraft Beliefs Bill -- to stop people from being accused of being witches, prevent violence relating to witchcraft claims and criminalise witchcraft. In terms of the proposed new law, approaching a sangoma to declare someone else a witch will be punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.
LOYISO SIDIMBA
"A government commission has accused controversial churchmen -- pastors Paseka 'Mboro' Motsoeneng, Lesego Daniel and Chris Oyakhilome -- of reinforcing belief in witchcraft", Sowetan Live, January 30, 2016
Witchcraft is the action by which you maximize what happens for your good and minimize what happens for your ill. The role of a witch is to always do the best they can in anything they do and emphasize the energy around them.
NICK KATSIKIS
"Contemporary witchcraft", The Temple News, October 27, 2015
All magic, all witchcraft, depends on the Devil, and is fundamentally evil.
MONTAGUE SUMMERS
Witchcraft and Black Magic
Ideally, of course, there are no bystanders in a Wiccan circle. It's a coven, not a congregation. And certainly one doesn't make it very far in a training setting without engaging in acts of witchcraft, but is there a minimum? How much witchcraft is enough witchcraft to make you a witch? I mean, even I managed to play soccer once or twice, but it didn't undo all of the destructive not-soccer I was usually up to. I was a cautionary tale, not an athlete.
THORN MOONEY
"All Wiccans are witches, but some of us are bad at it", Patheos, January 21, 2016
Witchcraft is all about living to the heights and depths of life as a way of worship.
LY DE ANGELES
Witchcraft: Theory and Practice
Witchcraft is seeing a resurgence among queer-identified young people seeking a powerful identity that celebrates the freedom to choose who you are.
MOIRA DONOVAN
"How Witchcraft Is Empowering Queer and Trans Young People", Vice, August 14, 2015
When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 117
In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
THOMAS SZASZ
introduction, The Manufacture of Madness
Witches are moon-birds, Witches are the women of the false, beautiful moon.
AMY LOWELL
"Witch-Woman"
Another theme unique to traditional witchcraft is the lore of the Witch Mark. This mysterious concept may have come from coerced testimony. However, a closer look reveals a deeper mythology with connections back to antiquity coming to be known as the Mark of Cain. The idea of an initiatory experience transforming one into something different, something other, is not new to human consciousness. In witch mythology the mark is transmitted from Cain, the first sorcerer, who was marked as other by God. It is seen as a spiritual fire that connects those of the Witchblood across time and space. The Mark is something that crosses the boundaries of all traditions, uniting those who seek a deeper truth. Individual spiritual growth is paramount to the witch, forging their own spiritual relationships while discovering for themselves the secrets of the Universe.
COBY MICHAEL SMITH
"A Traditional Witch's Love Affair With History", Patheos, March 22, 2017
Some witches practice wicca, which is a narrow subset of witchcraft with more specific gods, goddesses, symbols, and holidays. But many more practice a broader, indefinable brand of witchcraft based on intuition. The edges of this group also bleed into other more mainstream arenas such as yoga and meditation, mindfulness, new-age spirituality, and even sex positivity.
ALDEN WICKER
"Witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials", Quartz, October 27, 2016
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The Portable Nietzsche
Witchcraft is a way to spiritually support those around you ... and that includes women of color, poor women, sex workers, disabled women, and anyone else who needs help. Although being a witch may be "in style" right now, witches have historically always been persecuted and continue to carry that legacy. We must use our privilege of being able to practice freely to empower each other and ourselves. Here's to making magick together.
GABRIELA HERSTIK
"Ask A Witch: How Do Politics Inform Your Practice?", Nylon, March 24, 2017
Unlike the Abrahamic traditions, Witchcraft is not based upon a strict division of what is good and what is evil. Witches use nature to fuel their concept of the divine and in the world of nature there is no battle between good and evil. A lion is not "evil" because it kills the gazelle, and a deer is not "good" because it eats only plants. Nature is both cruel and beautiful at the same time.
SCARLET RAVENSWOOD
"Do Witches Believe in the Devil?", Arcane Alchemy, May 25, 2018
The major misconception about Witchcraft today is that Witches worship Satan, which is just not so. We do not believe in Satan. That is a Christian creation. We don't worship evil. Indeed, to give evil a name is not a real intelligent thing to do, because then you give it power.
SILVER RAVENWOLF
interview, The Edge, November 1, 1997
Witchcraft was hung, in History,
But History and I
Find all the Witchcraft that we need
Around us, every Day
EMILY DICKINSON
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
In recent weeks alone, we've seen the devil pressing hard to bring witchcraft deeper into our schools, our homes and our entertainment venues. We reported on how a new witchcraft-inspired challenge is luring kids into summoning demons. It's called Charlie Charlie and it's sweeping the nation and the world under the guise of a carefree fortune-telling game. Faith leaders are sounding the alarm.
JENNIFER LECLAIRE
"A Revival of the Devil's Witchcraft Is Rising", Charisma News, June 15, 2015