What Is Witchcraft?

Well, let me start off by saying.....WE ARE NOT SATANISTS! But, I'll get into that more in a little while in this section. Witchcraft or the "Craft" is a religion of love, joy and harmony with nature. It's not full of the doom and dispare of Christianity, with beliefs of "original sin" and salvation only in the afterlife, nor do we follow dogmas. We believe in both a Goddess and a God together as one, not just a single male God. To a witch the Goddess and God are just "there", as are the hills, trees, flowers, animals and rivers are "there". The Earth is the body of the Goddess and the God is the life force that impregnates her. There is no belief of one God in heaven judging us, nor that the pleasures of sexual desires are dirty or sinful. Above all, to witches, life and the elements of nature are sacred and are to be respected, celebrated and during the right times used in Magickal workings.

"If It Harms None, Do What Ye Will"

Witches believe in freedom, personal choices, and responsibility. You and you alone must decide what "harms none". There is no rule book saying what you must or must not do. Harming none, also includes oneself but doesn't mean that you need to put yourself last behind all others and be trampled on throughout your life. The witches code my sound simple in some ways but in others it is very difficult. You must really think about what is right for yourself. And always remember for each action there is an opposite re-action.

Are Witches Satanists?

NO, NO, NO and DEFINATELY NO! Clear enough? OK, perhaps not so here goes....The concept of Satan or the devil is from Christianity. One who acts against God, tempting and manipulating people into sin and eternal damnation - a force of evil. Witches do not believe in this force so how can we be Satanists? You would need to believe in the Christian ways to worship the devil. Some however, will still see witches as Satanists because if it doesn't fit their view of religion, then it must be evil. We see darkness and light, the yin and the yang, creation and destruction as all part of the Goddess and God.

The Goddess

The Goddess is the substance of the Universe. She is from which we all, and all life has come from. The Goddess is all around us as Mother Earth, the Moon and stars. She is the air we breathe, she is us, and we are part of her. She brings destruction as well as life. Any act of building requires some kind of demolition. To make a garden, one must kill weeds and so forth for example. The Goddess is both life and death. To many witches the Goddess comes first, not that She is more important then the God, for both are equal, but it does mean She is given proper respect as we do our human mothers. The Goddess is also the Moon, ruler of the tides and flow of the life force. The Moon is cyclical, like women who have a menstrual cycle. The three stages of the Moon correspond to the three stages in a woman's life - Maiden, Mother, and Crone. This is where the idea of the Triple Goddess comes from, expressing each phase of femininity.

The waxing Moon is the time of the Maiden - young, fresh and adventurous.

The Full Moon is the time of the Mother - fulfillment, bounty, balance and knowledge.

The waning Moon is the time of the Crone - wisdom, guardian and sometimes death.

Most spells done by witches are done during the waxing or Full Moon when She is the strongest.

The God

The God is the life force, the impregnator. He initiates change and action. He empowers and protects the creations of the Goddess. Usually depicted as the Horned God, which is believed to be where the Christian version of Satan comes from. Many mythologies describe the Mother as giving birth to Her son, who becomes Her lover, impregnates Her and dies, to be born again as Her son, continuing the cycle of life. The God is both the creator and the created. He is seen as the Sun which dies each year in winter and is reborn again in spring. Another way of looking at it is with man, when he makes love, he's spent (dies in sorts) giving up his vitality with his seed. He soon recovers (reborn) to mate again. However, for women love making is more diffuse and if she wishes she may simply continue (never dying). The Sun impregnates the land, is spent, only to rise again to impregnate once more the next spring. The land, as Goddess, remains constantly with us, although changing her aspect.

We need both the Goddess and the God. They are the divine partnership of creation itself.