Witches have been bewitching us since time immemorial. Who are they? What are they? What do they do? These are the questions that most of us have always wanted answers to. And as much as we know about witches; it would be more or less some evil and gory magicians casting black magic on people. People have passed on their own versions and theories to us down the ages, and we have simply believed what ever was handed down to us. Now it is time we get our facts straight.

Witches, most generally, is the term given to those who follow the religion of Wicca. Just like practitioners of Christian religion are called Christians, practitioners of Hinduism are called Hindus and so on. Witches are anything but evil; in fact they are strong nature lovers who worship Mother Earth and all its divine beings. Wicca is a neo pagan religion which worships Nature and sees all of its creations as sacred and divine and works towards protecting and nurturing it. They believe in their own God and Goddess and have their own sanctimonious rituals and ceremonies, just like any other religion. Wiccan’s rituals comprise of several spells, which are nothing but rituals and prayers, unlike otherwise believed, and “casting a spell” is merely a phrase that refers to evoking the divine power to ask for its help.

Yes, witches do perform magic, but they are strictly bound by the Wiccan rules, which are better known as the Wiccan Rede. This code of witchcraft conduct bars the witches from casting spells to control, manipulate or dominate any individual. They strongly believe in the concept of retribution i.e. they believe that if they do anything bad, they would soon experience its repercussions, threefold the impact, and the same goes for the good actions too.

We must know, that Wicca is a very positive religion and the wiccans or the witches perform only beneficial magic. Contrary to popular beliefs, black magic is not a part of the Wiccan tradition, which thus, proves that witches do not practice black magic. The evil image of a witch has been believed to have been built by those who followed the church customs and were against the Wiccan’s nature-oriented beliefs. Since then, witches have been severely persecuted, tormented and negatively charged with false but dangerous allegations. And witch hunting, a gruesome practice, eventually came into being. And this misconstrued image of the witches has been passed down through the ages and is believed in even today. We see their distorted image in various films, cartoons and fairytales, and that has been drilled into our heads ever since.

There are witches existing even today, but, they don’t look, feel or dress any different from you and me, but due to the negative beliefs, most witches practice in secrecy. Anybody can become a witch, unless of course you hold and believe in their beliefs of nature and its spiritual powers. You have to love nature and treat all of its creations with utmost respect and care. Witches believe and understand a simple fact that nature is the ultimate divine power, and that we are nothing but a mere fragment of its many wonderful and divine creations. Man cannot control nature since we are just a small part of it, and we are not the center of the universe as wrongly believed. It is this understanding and acceptance that differentiates witches from us. If you also share the same understanding and strongly believe in the Wiccan beliefs, then you too can tread on the path to becoming a witch.