Don’t Be That Witch!

You know the one! You finally cast a spell all on your own and they can’t wait to tell you how it should have been done. Or they look down on you because you bought your own oracle deck when theirs was gifted or passed down ‘like it should be’. Insert emphatic eye-roll here.

There are two big things the team at High Priestess can agree on:

1. The most powerful magic you will cast comes from a place of ‘what feels right to you’ and not from meticulously following instructions from a book, and;
2. Shitty witch-traits are an unnecessary distraction from performing real magick.

Because there really are no rules to witchcraft and magic is accessible to anyone who wants to learn about it. But when you’re in a sea of internet trend-witches and misinformation it can be hard to find your feet. 

The thing is, anyone can be a witch. Personally, I stayed in the broom closet for far too long because I thought there had to be some elaborate initiation ceremony for me to claim my power. Internet witches had me believing that if it wasn’t in my bloodline, and if I wasn’t invited into a specific coven, then I wasn’t a witch. 

Below are some of the biggest witch myths that circulate in the magick community – you really don’t have to be that witch.

• Not everything you read on the internet is gospel. Hell, not everything you read is gospel. Just because Starhawk uses the words Wicca and Witchcraft interchangeably does not discount how powerful her work is. It was a different time. Calm down.
• Using certain ingredients in your craft does not make you ignorant of cultural appropriation – performing closed ceremonies outside of your culture does. 
• You don’t need to use items passed down from generations for them to be magical. You can just as easily buy yourself a goblet from the dollar store and consecrate it. Or walk into any Kmart or bookstore and find a killer deck to bond with.
• You don’t need to pay a psychic or have an experienced witch tell you who your guides are. Listen to the messages the universe is sending you and do some research – your guides will communicate with you in a language that YOU understand.
• You can create your own coven. It can even be a coven of one. 
• Any religion, any race, and any belief system can practice witchcraft. It’s not about honouring a specific deity, it’s about how you craft your life. 
• If you have clair-abilities, it’s not your job to tell the person down the street that his mother’s sister’s best friend needs to be wary of snakes for the next few days. It’s just not. 

I’m not saying ‘don’t listen to anyone’, I’m saying don’t listen to everyone. You can practice in any way that calls to you, so don’t let THAT witch tell you you can’t.