What witches are there

A hedge witch is very similar to a green witch but is not as solely focused on nature. Hedge witches develop their own kind of magic, focusing primarily on creating healing remedies and often working with the elements, nature, crafts, and herbalism. Everything is kept simple and basic, and all rituals are non-fussy and minimalist. If you are drawn to solitude and wish to craft your own brand of witchcraft, unique to you, then you might be a hedge witch! They will use curses and hexes when the situation calls for it, when many witches will not go there—witchcraft typically follows an ethic of working for the highest good.

They will often call on the unseen spirit presences to help them. A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Eclectic witches tend to cherry-pick whatever practices, rituals, beliefs, or ideas feel natural and good to them in the moment. After all, witchcraft is a very personal and unique pursuit. Many baby witches begin as eclectic witches, but many stay that way too! Baby witches—a term you might have seen frequently used on WitchTok—are simply beginner witches. For Myrddin is the head of a witches' coven in Lancashire.

He said: "We don't do anything sinister like Devil worship and we don't make human or animal sacrifices. We celebrate the seasons. It's not all blood and gore. In spring, we celebrate life and rebirth then in the winter, decay and death to make way for new life. His coven in Chorley is little more than 30 miles from Pendle, where in , 10 people were seized amid claims of being involved in witchcraft.

But, years later, prejudice against witches stills exists, according to Myrddin. He said: "It comes from ignorance and fear of the unknown and it is the reason why rituals and celebrations are held in secret.

In his spare time, he wears a cloak "or something warm for the great outdoors" and heads up a magical working group practising traditional witchcraft which includes druidry, shamanism and wicca. He said there is no conflict between his day job and his spiritualism. Since he was a young child, Myrddin has had an affinity with the countryside. He said: "I could feel the magic of nature.

I was brought up a staunch Christian but it wasn't enough and I realised there was label for what I felt - paganism.

Each informs the other and always has. The witch is a notorious shape-shifter, and she comes in many guises:. The witch has a green face and a fleet of flying monkeys.

She wears scarves and leather and lace. She lives in Africa; on the island of Aeaea; in a tower; in a chicken-leg hut; in Peoria, Illinois. She lurks in the forests of fairy tales, in the gilded frames of paintings, in the plotlines of sitcoms and YA novels, and between the bars of ghostly blues songs.

Our witches say as much about us as they do about anything else — for better and for worse. More than anything, though, the witch is a shining and shadowy symbol of female power and a force for subverting the status quo. No matter what form she takes, she remains an electric source of magical agitation that we can all plug into whenever we need a high-voltage charge.

She is also a vessel that contains our conflicting feelings about female power: our fear of it, our desire for it and our hope that it can — and will — grow stronger, despite the flames that are thrown at it.

Whether the witch is depicted as villainous or valorous, she is always a figure of freedom — both its loss and its gain. She is perhaps the only female archetype who is an independent operator. Virgins, whores, daughters, mothers, wives — each of these is defined by whom she is sleeping with or not, the care that she is giving or that is given to her, or some sort of symbiotic debt that she must eventually pay.

Witches have power on their own terms. They have agency. They create. They praise. They commune with the spiritual realm, freely and free of any mediator. They metamorphose, and they make things happen. They are change agents whose primary purpose is to transform the world as it is into the world they would like it to be.

This is also why being called a witch and calling oneself a witch are usually two vastly different experiences. The second is an act of reclamation, an expression of autonomy and pride. Both of these aspects of the archetype are important to keep in mind.

Most witches believe that the universe is filled with energy. Casting a spell is just harnessing that energy. The upside to witchcraft's recent popularity is that it's becoming more accessible and more people understand that witchcraft isn't synonymous with evil.

It's also allowed powerful witches to make money from their craft, which demonstrates the power of magick on its own. Some online shops are worthy of your money if you have some extra to spend. Witch Baby Soap , for example, sells lovely, vegan, cruelty-free beauty products infused with spells. However, it seems like everyone is cashing in on the witchcraft trend these days. Sure, tools such as crystals, tarot cards, and incense can be handy in rituals and help sharpen your practice. But all you really need is yourself.

You are the witch, you practice the magick, and you are more powerful than any crystal money can buy. Before you blow your paycheck on overpriced accessories, simply begin sharpening your practice by adding daily meditation and knowledge to your life. The more you immerse yourself in witchcraft, the more you'll notice that witchy tools are all around you: in your spice rack , your closet hello, broomstick , and growing outside.

Witches of all economic backgrounds have been practicing for centuries using the tools they have at hand. Whether you are male, nonbinary, trans, gender-nonconforming, or anything else, you can be a witch. It's true that there is a beautiful history of women and witchcraft, in part because women have been historically silenced and have used witchcraft to tap into their power and subvert the system.

Think of the term "kitchen witch," which means a witch who flourishes in the kitchen : When women were told their place was in the kitchen some simply focused their magickal energy there. Ultimately, though, magick is genderless. Like many other communities, the occult world has problematic members who insist that to be a witch, you have to come from a magickal bloodline. Remember how messed up beliefs about "Purebloods" are in the Harry Potter series?

It's not OK to shame or exclude based on lineage in our world, either. Some people do have witches in their families, and when you're looking for spirits to work with, magickal ancestors are a powerful choice — but so are any ancestors.