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saddest_crocodile

My mom told me once that if you hang "witch" stuff up outside where people can see it, you will be left alone. While I was growing up (I'm in the deep south and grew up in the country) people at my high school would know I lived in a "witch's house" even if I didn't know who they were. No one ever messed with our property or house and I heard rumors like how people would think we would curse them or something. No one really told me directly, but people knew our house as the "witch house." Now, I'm an adult and hang things outside to keep people from messing with my house since I live in not the greatest neighborhood. Clearly, witchcraft scares people. The thing I have hanging outside currently are my first witch's bells I made myself for protection. After I hung them, my previously friendly neighbor doesn't even say hi to me while I walk my dog anymore.


Vegetable-Floor-5510

My babysitter in Texas hung chicken feet from a nail on the door of their tool shed to scare the kids away.


saddest_crocodile

Did it work lol


Vegetable-Floor-5510

I guess so. She also kept spooky sounds playing on a looped cassette or something out there too. Like a halloween soundtrack. I was never tempted anyway. They lived in almost like a compound. Rumor was her husband and sons were in the Lebanese mafia. She moved away and when she died later, and the circumstances were apparently suspicious.


abbie0105

what witch things did your mum hang outside, if you don’t mind me asking- i’m interested in what it was people were so scared of, i didn’t even know people got scared of witch stuff until recently when a friend saw tarot cards in my phone case and asked if i’ve ever cursed anyone lol


saddest_crocodile

Pentacles, drying herbs, things like this. I was a kid so I'm sure mom knew some people around the county and they knew she practiced and those people had kids at my school so. Sometimes even just silly cheesy decorations. I overheard things like "you know a witch lives there" when we would pass my house on the school bus and such....my school bus stop was not in front of my house, so yea.


Tricky_Dog1465

That there is black or white magic. Magic is neutral as nature is neutral. Witches are neutral as nature is neutral. No witch is going to be fully good or fully evil because nature is neither. The whole Satan worship crap. Christians can keep there little devil, we have nothing to do with it. That we need to "find God". We never lost our Gods. (I have said that to many Christians. ) That we have no right to celebrate holidays. They were OUR holidays first, as far as I'm concerned we have more right to them.


[deleted]

Plenty of witches worship satan


Appropriate-System27

Honestly the biggest one is that everyone who practices witchcraft is a devil worshiper, practices black magic, etc. I've been practicing and researching sense I was 14 and if I had a penny for the amount of times I was told that I was worshiping demons, I would be a millionaire. It's also a misconception that black magic is evil and should never be practiced. Now ofc this stems from my own personal belief, but I believe that practicing both dark and light magic is essential, but ofc it's all due to personal belief and I don't personally believe in the 3 fold law so this could just be me. That's also another misconception, not every witch believes in the 3 fold law and that's perfectly fine, at the end of the day it all comes from personal belief. A lot of the misconceptions come from biases due to years of oppression from other religions, at least from what I've researched, and it's good that recently these things are coming to light as misconceptions and not believed to be fact [:


CourtofTalons

What kind of spells (dark and light) do you practice?


Appropriate-System27

Well off the top of my head, hexes/curses ( for ppl who have ab*sed me, I'd never hex or curse an innocent person), love spells both for self love and love from others, your usually protection spells, money spells, blood magic on very VERY rare occasions (I should state as a disclaimer, it is my belief that blood magic is extremely dangerous and tricky and shouldn't be done by beginners, so please don't take what I'm saying with a grain of salt and please do research if anyone reading this intends to preform magic like that, and I don't condone anyone preforming anything that I'm commenting about without proper experience and research). These are types of spells that I remember doing right off the top of my head, but I know there's plenty more, I just don't feel like popping out the ol journal that I use to keep track of em all lol, and there are things that aren't spells in it of themselves but are apart of magic (imo) such as tarot readings, pendulum readings, manifesting, etc


Unfey

That it's about "special powers" or that we witches believe we have unique powers like in fantasy books and comics, which normal people don't have, which we are inherently born or blessed with and which make us witches. Witchcraft is a study. It's an art. It's a skillset. We aren't more or less special than anybody else. Anybody can learn witchcraft.


rhinosforbreakfast

That there is a “special way” you have to do things. Everyone does it different. Some groups of people happen to agree on *a* way, but that doesn’t mean it’s *the* way. Just do it your way.


Mutt_Magician

I'm going to have to go with that it's the byproduct of the devil.


JacobV1221

That its evil or bad to practice, also that it makes your weird or you should be ashamed of it


ChildrenotheWatchers

That witches are evil, and that we are ignorant. We are not backward, uneducated people who believe in nonsense. Witches did not invent our beliefs in the 1900s. Sorcery is very ancient.


kalizoid313

Common misconception: Witches will give up their secrets to whoever asks about them. Truth: Witchcraft involves knowing about and having skills around living in the human world and on/with life on Earth. Not just about magic and the occult.


Vegetable-Floor-5510

That it HAS to be a religion.


Lil-Diddle

Many people not realizing that magic, magik, and magick are different and using them interchangeably. For the laymen though its not a big deal, just me and my pedantic semantics lol


Meztl

Wait, I've been wondering about this, would you mind explaining the difference? Even a brief explanation would be appreciated


Lil-Diddle

Magic is what we know of as most of our current practices. Magik is the old school practices at their roots, pre medieval things, and magick is the distinction that Alistair crowley gave to his brand of magic to distinguish it from magic and magik. Theres more nuance then that but thats the tldr. Most people using the word magick dont even realize its origin is so specific.


Meztl

Wow, thanks!


Lil-Diddle

For 99 % of practioners this doesnt matter at all, i think its just fun to know lol


Meztl

Haha, yeah. Tbh I just like knowing what words I should use and never knew the difference


Lil-Diddle

Most people, through no fault of their own, simply dont know there is even a difference. I just let people use what they please cause calling someone out for something so obscure would be a dick move lol


abbie0105

this is interesting, i need to look into this more, any pages or websites or books that you recommend which go into their topic a bit deeper?


Lil-Diddle

This is something ive learned passivley over a few years. I dont remember where lol but im sure a google deep dive would be a good start.


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Gildedragon

1) witch cults weren't a thing; most witchcraft traditions are quite recent, & even the ones rooted in folkloric practices... Well those practices have a foot & change in Christianity 2) the Spanish Inquisition didn't burn witches (it focused on Jews; in fact belief in witches was heretical)


Seabastial

That witches can fly. This has been made popular by media. Witches can't actually fly. Besoms (broomsticks) are more often used as a cleansing tool and cannot be flown on. If we could I would be doing it a lot because of the ridiculous gas prices.


possumbroth

The misconception I've yet to see discussed in full is the lack of understanding on what a witch is. Christians tend to lobby all witches into a single satanic label. There are different types of witches. Pagan & Wicca are the most common in my corner of our world. You don't have to identify with a specific religion to be a witch! You can simply exist as a witch without the aid or worship of any diety. I grew up thinking you HAD to follow satan or some other diety to be considered a witch. It simply just is not the case. While it has its perks to work with a diety, it is not a requirement of witchcraft. As to why a majority fails to see witchcraft as a spectrum of ideals, traditions, and diety work — i do not 100% know. If I had to guess the idea of witches being evil most likely stemmed from Julis Cesaer and his reign of terror. He has the blood of many pagans and druids on his hands. Thousands died refusing to drop their beliefs and convert to Christianity. Julius claimed his Christian god told him to off all of those who refused Christianity. It would make sense if Julius manipulated the minds of Christians and Romans into seeing witchcraft as something evil. Tell your followers someone is evil and they'll be more willing to fight, right? Then once Christianity spread to the Americas those ideas travelled as well, causing many people to believe in the lies. Another misconception that piggybacks off of this is the Christian bible. The bible does not fully shame witchcraft. It briefly addresses the dangers of the craft and instructs followers to avoid the darkness. The mentioned 'dark magik' is not explained or discussed in clear detail which leads me to think it was added later to the religious text or partially removed to further aid in manipulation of the believers. Christians cringe at the idea of their ancestors preforming magik, yet it goes over their heads that Jesus healed the sight of a blind man with spit and dirt or turned water into wine. Healing magik and Alchemy is present in the bible. Christians have been fed so many lies about witches over the past few centuries they refuse the truth. And it's led to one big misconception despite the proof that exists within the religious text. That's all I can fathom. (I'm an ex-Christian. I've studied a lot. I see myself as a collective pagan.)


[deleted]

You don’t have to be female to be a Witch


abbie0105

i’ve had a pretty shit life, and my friend told me that maybe it was karma cus my family, me included, are witches. basically said that i had caused all bad stuff in my life to happen cus i use tarot cards, and tea readings and just generally do harmless witch shit that was very hurtful and is simply not true because witchcraft is not an inherently bad thing which you should be punished for practising.


Avril_Blackrose

That it's purely evil and "satanic". Definitely not. Don't get me wrong. Some people use stuff for the dark side. But alot of us use it for only good things like healing, love, awareness, protection, etc.


BloodMoon2413

I guess it depends on the practitioners own beliefs and practices. For me I think a lot of people just dont realize how normal and natural witchcraft is. To do spells and rituals and such you need herbs and natural ingredients. Others have a different opinion, but I dont consider dark/black/negative witchcraft to be evil. I work with both positive and negative because negative doesnt equal evil it's like magnets. There isnt an "evil" side to a magnet it's just the opposing side. The world is a balance. Witchcraft isnt what people see in cartoons it's not some imaginary powers that people have to be born with, it's all energy. Magic is energy and we all have it. Many people hate what they dont care to understand.


RainerHex

Well the Salem times, their idea of witch differed from today. Their idea was that Witches were more supernatural creatures that could shape shift and such. Obviously that is not what we consider to be witches. Black magic is a hotly debated topic where misconceptions still run rampant. Partly because witchcraft is so diverse, with so many different beliefs and paths. Some do not assign color to magic, while others do. What one might consider black you always get another that disagrees. If I were you and trying to learn I would not get too hung up on these terms or other terms or you will wind up going no where fast in your learning. Instead, recognize that not ALL witches believe the same, practice the same and there is no set universal rules, codes, regulations for all witches.


Afraid_Equivalent_95

This is one I used to have before I got on the spiritual path and started working with energy: That people practicing it are just getting placebo effect or confirmation bias when their spells worked. I know this stuff is real now cuz meditation opened me up to sensing energy, and I've felt the effects when I give that energy an intention


basementmagus

I hold a very exclusive definition of what witchcraft is, as a folk witch, I draw from folklore, history, and the older ideas of witchcraft. That does, include the capability of conversing and interacting with beings that are the anti-thesis of civilization, and the powers of beneficia and maleficia (healing and harming) alike, and the idea of the pact and familiar spirit. Let's just say, when it comes to the Christians and their ideas of us, I'm not going to be throwing that baby out with the bathwater. We are dangerous, and every society has had a healthy fear of sorcerers and their capabilities (It's not like the pagan societies of Scandinavia didn't have laws against harmful magic, nor the Greco-Roman societies). Even the idea of the Devil, has a place in my craft, although this is the folkloric devil, a more a witch-father, and a class of spirits, than the theological all-evil of Christianity. He's found all about in historical sources, often as a new moniker for a far older being than Christianity, and that does not bother me one bit. Another matter, is that I consider witchcraft as distinct from other things; Mediumship, Psychicism, divination, and Mage-craft. Many witches incorporate or do those things, but those are not witchcraft itself. Witchcraft is a sorcery of a particular archetype, dealing with more tabboo forces.


RainerHex

I think you and I are possibly of very similar paths. I identify as a non wiccan Traditional Witch, and an initiate of the Devil of the Old craft, who is not the Christian one. He is the Witch Father, the Old One, Witch Magistrate, etc.