To Be Called a Witch, or to Not Be Called a Witch
I love fall; it’s cooler outside, still generally sunny, the leaves start turning colors, pumpkins come into season – I love it! I’ve been baking more than usual, enjoying hot drinks, and, I’m awaiting costumes for my dog Maverick, and for me (I’ll post pictures when we get them). I’ll admit, I’m not planning on handing out candy or anything, but I like dressing up. Scratch that – I LOVE dressing up. Seriously, I was Jack Skellington in 2019:
This year, I’m dressing up as a witch. Now, the subject of calling oneself a witch (at least on Tik Tok) seems to be a rather hot topic. One creator I saw asserted that real witches don’t call themselves witches and that the deities real witches work with, or worship, will go after those who do call themselves witches.
I have some strong feelings about this, so I figured, why not write about it?
Number one: Witchcraft is a very individual practice.
For one person, keeping things very private might feel right, while for another, being very open is the way to be. To some degree, the latter is how I feel because I truly enjoy talking about a lot of what I do. I don’t post everything (like my individual sources of protection, for example) but I post a lot of general stuff. Maybe for one person, dressing as a witch doesn’t feel right, for another, it might be great.
Number two: For Me, Calling Myself a Witch is Incredibly Validating
I was raised in a household that feared witchcraft. Like, to an insane degree. Mini-family story for you – I was eight or nine and sitting with my family at the dinner table. Keep in mind my younger sister would have been six or seven. By this time, I had no doubt already shown interest in the paranormal. Things like Unsolved Mysteries and In Search Of (the old episodes with the late, great, Leonard Nimoy) fueled my interest in ghosts, disappearances, Atlantis, the Bermuda triangle, and various cryptids from around the world. Also, keep in mind that I watched these shows with my mother – it wasn’t a secret. Despite this, my mother proceeded to tell me a story from her childhood:
“I knew a woman who had been a witch.” My mother began. I remember pausing my dinner to pay sharp attention as my mother continued, “She had practiced witchcraft and didn’t know that her power came from the devil. She became a Christian, but the devil didn’t want to let her go. Night after night, he would attack her and she would have to pray, over and over again for Jesus to deliver her from him. Until finally, the devil let her go.”
I gently remind you: I was eight or nine. Add to that the fact that the devil had scared the absolute crud out of me ever since I’d watched a Christian movie about Adam and Eve and I’d seen the snake as the iteration of the devil. Seriously – I was terrified of the devil anyway, and then my mother told me this story. So, I was scared of witches too! Into my adulthood, I carried the weight of the visceral fear which comes with being raised in a white Christian household – fear of the world (which is of the devil, according to the doctrine I was raised with), fear of non-believers (which I gave up first since I fell in love with an atheist), fear of everything. Becoming and calling myself a witch has been empowering for me – it’s like an official way for me to say, “I’m no longer afraid. I no longer bind myself to what I was raised with. I release those fears put onto me by others who are perpetually afraid.” And that is insanely validating.
Going along with this, I don’t think I need to specify that I was NOT allowed to be a witch for Halloween. We got costumes as children largely because my paternal grandmother was a gifted sewer and made us some really cute costumes – regardless of how my mother felt about it. Fun aside: She was also the one who had my sister and I watch The Wizard of Oz when I mentioned we had never seen it in front of her and my mother. My Mother was unhappy, but I got to see a movie I love to this day so…no regrets. Anyway, now I am looking forward to dressing up as a witch this year because I can! I am a grown woman with grown-up money which I used to buy a really cute costume and I’m looking forward to posting pictures 😊
Number Three: Do Not Assume that All Witches Worship or Work with Your Deities or Any Deities
For me, being raised in a Christian household, I no longer have any interest in working with deities – personally. That being said, I completely understand other people working with their deities. The tone of this creator was very much, “My god’s gonna get you.” And to me, that sounds suspiciously like a particular god I stopped believing in when I was twenty-five.
Anyway, all of this is my way of saying, if you want to call yourself a witch, do so. If you don’t, don’t. Do you and be happy (and ethical, of course).
-NL
