It’s a little bit complicated, I guess, but I’ll try to lay it all out as simply as possible.

Let’s start over 10 years ago. No, I am not one of those people who has considered themselves a witch since highschool, but it was either highschool or late middle school that I started drawing pentagrams on everything. First because they meant satanism to me, which of course, is not the only use of the symbol, and usually satanism utilizes the inverted pentacle. But then I found out that the pentagram (or pentacle, it doesn’t matter, you catch my drift) is actually a symbol of protection and witchcraft. Well, that’s just fucking cool, plus I always loved stars and drawing stars anyways, so that just cemented the deal. I drew them on everything, including myself, my chucks, and one pair of jeans. When I had money and found them in stores, I bought pentagram necklaces. Pendants. A lovely silver ring that I lost fairly quickly…

A couple years ago, though, I started to get the feeling that I should really better understand the symbol that I had adopted and emblazoned all over my whole life. So I started with what seemed the most obvious choice: Wicca. Of course, I had looked up wicca before, but my little cynical, atheist, highschooler self thought it was just as bullshit as everything else and quickly moved on. But on my second attempt at researching this path, I took a more scientific approach; I had loved learning about different religions in my humanities courses at university, so I basically started studying wiccan books in the same way. But this time, some of the stuff the books said made a lot of sense to me on a personal level.

As is to be expected, a lot of my ideas about the world have mellowed and become far more nuanced since I was a teenager, and it’s long been my motto or philosophy that as long as you aren’t hurting anyone, you should be able to do whatever the fuck you want. And I think that’s what first drew me to wicca; the “wiccan rede” says “An’ ye harm none, do what ye will” or some variation of that sentiment. However, it wasn’t long before I realised that there was no melding my atheism and Wicca, which is, after all, a religion with deities, who I simply cannot believe exist.

It was at this time, though, as I was trying to keep the bits of wicca that I liked while getting around the religious stuff, that the internet introduced me to secular witchcraft. Or just “witchcraft.” Basically its all the magick things you want to believe and practise and nothing you don’t. Since it isn’t a faith or a formal anything, there are no rules or laws or tennants. You make your own choices, along with the help of whatever books and websites and tumblr blogs you want to take advise from! This is, of course, right up my ally as a lazy-ass atheist who desperately wants magic to be real.

You might notice I use both “magic” and “magick,” and as often as possible, I try to use “magic,” the normal spelling to mean fantasy, sparks and lights and sounds and amazing magic like in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The flashy cool stuff literally any person who isn’t lying to themselves wishes they could do. Whereas I try to use “magick” to describe the type of spells and charms and such that one can actually use in the real world. No, it isn’t showy or cool to look at, but I believe it is real, at least for those of us who believe in it. Which is convenient… but do you really need EVERYTHING in life to have a real explanation?

To me, magick is a lot about personal intention and how you attempt to manifest those intentions in the real world. This might be through meditation, charmed cooking, or a little impromptu wish/spell said over your morning cup of coffee. Of course, it could also be a big, ritualistic ceremony, if you’re into that type of spellwork, but like I said, I’m lazy, so that is so not my style.

I mainly consider myself a kitchen witch or hearth witch (house witch), because a lot of my magick has to do with cooking, baking, and around the house stuff. I also practise divination, especially tarot/cartomancy, but also astrology and numerology. I’d love to get into runes, I even have a lovely pink moonstone set, but I just don’t get it, tbh. I also like crystals (of course, because who doesn’t like crystals), incense, aromatherapy, plants, nature-y things, the moon… Y’know. Witch things.

Honestly, this is a huge block of text now, and I’d be super shocked if anyone read all that, so I’ll leave this there for now. Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s anything I mentioned that you would like me to go into more depth about in the future. No, this isn’t going to be a blog only about witchcraft, and it may never come up again if I don’t feel comfortable sharing, or if no one seems interested, but it is a thing about me and my life that I like a lot and that I thought I might share a little about. So yeah. Comments please! About anything! Are you a witch? Do you love harry potter? Tell me something about this post or yourself =P

Have an awesome day!