themanicnami:

What is a Path in Witchcraft?

A path is the journey that someone takes as they practice witchcraft. Some use it to describe their past, present and future on their magickal journey. Others use it to represent what they would consider a “label” to themselves and their craft. In general a path in witchcraft is a word to describe that specific witch’s journey, views, experiences, focuses and future goals that surround their own personal magickal practice.

Everyone, absolutely everyone, has a different path because each person is an unique individual with unique interests, hobbies, views, practices and choices. This is why your path may vary so greatly from others around you, your friends and even your mentors/teachers. There is nothing wrong with this because it is your path, not their path.

How do I know what my Witch Type/Path is? Is there a test I can take?

No, there isn’t a test you take to determine what your path is or what type of witch you are. There is only one thing that determines that: you. You are the one who chooses your path and what you wish you focus on.

You don’t have to be any specific type of witch at all. You don’t have to be a storm witch or a green witch. You can be whatever you want. If you want a label and to focus your path onto one thing, then do it. If you want to be labeled as more than one thing, go for it. Do you just want to do whatever you want and have no labels? That’s perfectly fine too!

You decide what kind of witchcraft interests you by:

• Researching: research every single thing you can find! Save your sources, read through articles, take notes and compare them to other articles, posts, blogs and writings on the same topic. Look at the differences but also examine who is writing: a person who is an atheist witch will have different views on the spirituality and morals of something compared to a Wiccan witch or a Christian witch. Examine who is writing the post, and take their views with a grain of salt and not as solid fact because everyone differs. If you agree with their views that’s great! If not, take it as something to consider. Research the scientific and medical relations of things as well, what I mean by this is each herb is a medicine and like medicine and drugs it has side effects, research it before ingesting it or using it. Research your crystals and stones to ensure you don’t ruin them or harm yourself with them. Science and witchcraft come hand in hand, remember that. It’s not fun sending yourself to the hospital because you overdosed on a herb you didn’t research well enough.

• Cater to Yourself: By this I mean look at what you as a person enjoy doing: your hobbies, your likes, your dislikes, your talents, your interests, etc. Use these in your craft, take these and put them into your craft. Are you interested in art? Use art supplies, drawing, painting and sigils in your craft. Interested in singing? Sing your spells and incantations, use song lyrics for spells, sing to cleanse a space or attract things. Enjoy collecting stickers? Use stickers to seal spell jars and sachets, use them like sigils and stick them to things, buy stickers that relate to correspondences via color, shape, or imagery. You can use anything you want in your path. If you are passionate about gardening, then your path can bring in gardening and plants into it. If you are passionate about cooking definitely bring kitchen magick into your path. If you just love reading, bring literature, writing and spell books into your path. Bring in your interests, make your path full of things you love. Don’t force yourself to be the “dark mysterious witch” if that is not what interests you. Why bring in tea magick into your craft if you hate tea? Your path is meant for you to enjoy it, it is to cater to you. If you like pink, glitter, candy and soda then use that! Use those things, because they are important to you. That means they hold magick in them, because they are special to you. You will find more success in doing things you love and working with tools you associate with.

• Follow Your Own Beliefs: This is a big one, some people in our community will try to push that you have to worship a certain religion or deity. You do not have to worship anything or anyone to practice witchcraft. You do not have to be part of any religion, all who tell you otherwise are gatekeeping. If you wish to be Wiccan then be Wiccan, if you wish to be Pagan then be Pagan, if you wish to be Christian then be Christian, if you don’t want to bring religion into your craft at all that’s fine too. It is your choice what your beliefs are, and don’t let others tell you that you are wrong but give that same courtesy to others. Others will likely have different views and beliefs than you and so you should also give them the same respect for their beliefs as you expect them to give you. If you do wish to work with a deity or religion, research it and look into what it is like to be apart of it. Ask others who worship this deity how they do and their bond with them, this can help you figure out your own way to worship.

Why can’t others just tell me how to find my Path? I don’t want to research.

Well, that isn’t how it works I am afraid. Other people don’t know what is important to you in your core, they don’t know what holds your interest or what holds your passion. They can’t just tell you everything about your path. They can give you advice based off of their own experiences however, but this is not the same as them being able to instruct you as to what to do.

Research is apart of witchcraft, that’s just a simple fact. Yes you can ask around to people what things may be or for help but think of it like this: People don’t like feeling like google. Asking someone what the correspondence of a crystal is can get quite annoying if you or just several others keep doing it when you can easily search the phrase: “Correspondence of ____ in witchcraft” and find exactly what you need or to simply search that user’s blog for that specific crystal. Research for yourself, it is your responsibility to do if you wish to use witchcraft. You walk your own path and that means you are responsible for your own lessons. People have out there tons of amazing resources that you can use.

Common Falsehoods, Lies, Red Flags and “Dishonest Truths” about Witchcraft/Paths:

• You have to be Wiccan/Pagan: As spoken about up above, this not true. You can follow whatever religious practice or belief you desire or none at all.
• Cursing is Bad!/Three Fold Rule: This is another popular thing people will throw out at new witches to try to scare and shame them away from cursing, hexing and other acts of baneful magick. As a whole, this is a personal opinion. If you choose to curse that is your choice and others have no right to tell you that you’re a bad person for it. But, if you chose not to curse yourself, then that is your choice. Don’t drag others down or insult them for their choice.
• You can only be one type/kind of Witch: No, you do not even have to label yourself as we talked about above. If you wish to label yourself as a “Sea Witch” or “Cosmic Witch” or “Green Witch” then do so. If you wish not to just focus on one thing then that’s perfectly fine! A lot of witches don’t label themselves as a ‘specific type’ of witch.
• You have to use crystals/herbs/tea/etc: Nope, you are not required to use any specific ingredients, you don’t even have to use any ingredients at all if you don’t wish to. Use what you have hand and what you like. If you have a lot of candy, make candy spells; if you have a lot of crayons, make drawn and colored spells; if you have a surplus of toilet paper rolls, use those as poppets or for spell containers.
• You have to have companions/familiars: Nope, you do not have to work with spirits or animals or anything like that if you don’t want to. Before you do get yourself a companion I recommend heavy research into spirit companions and make sure you have a way to communicate with them.
• “Only women can be witches!”: Nope! Any gender, sexual orientation, race, etc can be a witch. If you practice magick and you want to be called a witch, guess what you’re a witch. If anyone tells you otherwise they are not worth your time.
• You have to be trained/in a coven to be a witch: Nope! You can be self taught and you can work alone. Beware of toxic covens too, there are some out there who try to gender-shame and can be quite toxic in general. If you wish to be apart of a coven ensure that the rules of the group are ones you are okay with and that you aren’t pressured into behaving a certain way.
• You have to have “witch blood” if you want to be a strong witch: huge lie right here; your bloodline and family history does not weaken or strengthen your magick. You don’t need to be from a long line of witches to be a witch, you don’t have to be “born a witch”.
• Tech Magick/Emoji Magick/Pop Culture Magick/Modern Magick is terrible and is ruining true magick!: You will see this a lot on tumblr I am afraid. Lots of people trying to tell other witches that their paths/craft is not “true witchcraft” since it is not based on traditional witchcraft or religions. Don’t listen to them. If you want to practice modern magick and pop culture magick that is your choice and you are valid in every way!
• If you’re mentally ill/disabled/sick you can’t be a witch: Spoonie witches exist and there are plenty of them! Just because you have found that you may not be as energized as other witches means absolutely nothing. You are valid, even if you use simple and basic magick due to low energy levels you are valid! You are still a witch.
• You can only be friends with/date other witches: big red flag here! If anyone is telling you this, whether it is a mentor, teacher, friend or coven member/leader you need to find someone else fast. This is majorly toxic behavior used by some witches in this community to make you cut ties with others. It is an abusive manipulative tactic that you have to be aware of and avoid. You can be friends and date whoever you want (obviously within legal terms), whether they are a witch or not.
• True witches practice magick everyday: Nope! You can take breaks! Especially when you have other things going on, you are tired or you just aren’t mentally/emotionally able to do witchcraft. That is perfectly fine. Take breaks, rest up, focus on other things – its okay. Take care of yourself. You aren’t being a ‘bad witch’ for taking breaks.
• Everything is related to the supernatural!: No, the mundane is a thing. Not everything you see will be a mystical sign or message. Not everything that happens to you is because of spirits, curses, spells, etc. Rule out the mundane first such as medical problems or common sense/reasoning before you go leaping onto it being some great supernatural occurrence. Once the mundane is ruled out then you can consider other things.
• Magick is better for you than medicine/doctors!: NO NO NO NO. Magick can aid in medical things if properly researched but never EVER substitute medical procedures, doctors or medicines for magick! Go and take care of yourself!