Michelle Arnold - 20 Answers - Witchcraft & The Occult

Witchcraft is a methodology that includes, among other things, casting spells, divining hidden events, and invoking and worshiping gods and goddesses.

Casting spells is the common means by which a person practices sorcery. Generally speaking, someone who engages in sorcery will seek to create a change in his personal circumstances, in others, or in the world around him through his own power.

Deborah Blake, a Wiccan high priestess who leads a coven and teaches witchcraft to others, explains the act of magic in her attempt to help readers understand that they dont need expensive tools to practice it:

Witches believe in magick: the power to change the world around us through the focused application of will and energy. Without this belief, our words would have no power, and that wand would simply be a piece of wood.

With belief, however, comes... ability to tap in to the energy of the universe and manipulate realitynot necessarily in drastic and dramatic ways (although that can happen, too), but mostly by giving the world a nudge in the right direction.

Unlike sacramentals (such as holy water or rosary beads), which Catholics use with the Faith and hope that God may freely choose to act through the objects to give us certain graces, sorcery involves a witch using various tools to channel energy and will to affect the desired change. It is, essentially, an attempt to harness spiritual power for ones own purposes.

Divining hidden events involves seeking knowledge of past, present, or future events, either through ones own power or by invoking pagan gods or goddesses. Witchcraft author Diane Smith states,

Divination is an attempt to receive unknown information about the past, present, or future. The process requires two steps. A person:

1. uses a tool or method (tarot cards, for example) to produce symbols and

2. interprets the symbols in a way that is meaningful to his life.

Tarot cards, Smiths example, are one means witches use for divination. Other divination tools include runes, mirrors or glass balls, reflective water, astrology charts, tea leaves, and the palm of the hand. The common principle behind all of these methods is to find patterns and then to interpret from those patterns the information the practitioner seeks.

Invoking and worshiping gods and goddesses involves identifying pagan deities to whom one feels attracted and then venerating them and seeking their aid. It is common for a witch to have a personal pantheon of deities he invokes and worships, many of the pantheons being based on ancient European mythologies (e.g., Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse). Depending on a witchs ethnic background or personal preferences, he might also invoke deities from Africa, Asia, or the indigenous tribes of the Americas.

The interactions practitioners have with these deities are not merely fantasy or imaginary play. Some report vivid dreams or trances in which they are brought into contact with the spirits they have been invoking or worshiping. For example, high priestess Phyllis Curott tells the story of someone she knew (witches are extremely circumspect about sharing the identities of fellow practitioners, and so Curott is not specific as to the identity of this person) who once dreamed of being prey of a monstrous creature. Ultimately, in the dream, this person was captured by the creature. Currott reports that her friend awoke deeply transformed by the dream because he believed that the creature felt tremendous love for him.