Anna

So there was a long conversation last night and I figured that as some of you know pieces of this I might as well explain the whole damn thing.

I'm a witch.

I know, that leaves a lot of questions. I'll attempt to answer them.

Wait, so you're Wiccan?

Nope. I'm Jewish. Wicca is a religion. Witchcraft is a practice that can be separate from religion. There are Jewish and Christian witches out there and even agnostic and atheist witches. Keep in mind that the midwives and wise women that were burned or hanged in the 17th century would have considered themselves devout Christians, but by modern definition, they would be magic practitioners. Jews, too, have their own traditions of folk magic, healing, spellwork, and the like. The people who practiced those things never considered themselves "pagans"; they considered themselves religious Jews.

Wicca is an entirely different religion, with entirely different thought processes (I try to avoid the word theology as it is very much a product of Christian hegemony), rituals, deities, and traditions. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's just not my religion.

So what do you do as a witch?

Many things.

1. Spells. Spells, to me, are similar to prayers, in that they convey intentions to HaShem, but there are differences. Prayers aren't necessarily petitions (they can be, but not all are), where by definition spells are (you want something to happen, or not happen). Spells - in my practice, but not everyone's - also heavily involve sympathetic magic - that is, objects that are symbols and reminders of the intentions. Thus there might be candles in colors specific to intention. There will be a Star of David. There will be a knife for protection. There will be incense burning to help me relax and to aid concentration.

Also, I write my own spells. They may or may not contain quotations from other works, but the whole of it is original to me.

2. Tarot cards. I don't use these for divination (see below for more on that). I tend to use these to get a fresh perspective on a problem I'm having. The images and meanings jog my brain, so to speak.

3. Astrology. I find it useful and fun. It has about as much scientific basis as the MBTI and other personality inventories (which is to say, none) but it's just more interesting.

4. Herbs. Caveat: I don't dispense them. I might tell someone to try some peppermint tea for an upset tummy. I personally drink a blend of lavender, chamomile, and lemongrass to sleep and peppermint, rose, and licorice for a sore throat. (Check out Shalva Tea if you are interested in really great therapeutic herbal teas.) I don't compound them. I just like them.

5. Meditation. Not always easy. I think mindfulness has been touted as a cure all when it isn't - it doesn't work for everyone, and certainly not me - so I've had to really go through some trial and error here.

Now, there are, of course, things I don't do.

1. Divination or augury. Obviously I'm not gonna kill an animal and muck around in its guts, but folks, I am not going to tell the future. That's against Jewish law.

2. Necromancy. Anything involving people who have passed on is a hard no from me. Again, it's against Jewish law, and there's good reason for that.

3. Anything to another person without their consent. Even healing. Ask first. Emergencies throw this out the window, but as a rule, I ask. I don't do love spells and I don't curse or hex. I don't believe in the exact Threefold Law (a Wiccan thing, by the way), but Judaism has the principle of measure for measure, meaning you'll get back to you what you did. So. None of that.

4. I don't make promises. And I will encourage people to exhaust every mundane possibility (which, by the by, includes seeing their physicians) before turning to magic. HaShem gave us brains for a reason.

I will gladly accept any other questions.