Written by: Kristin Barton
Sometimes Stereotypical Images are Fun!
It doesn’t feel like I’ve been a studying, practicing witch for well over 20 years. Well, in some ways it doesn’t. In other ways, it feels like my whole lifetime. This is likely because many witches will tell you that, looking back, they’ve “always been a witch.” This is a nice sentiment, but I’d like to break it down for a minute as a lead in to the discussion of best practices in witchcraft.
Witchcraft in terms of “being a witch” in educated circles means that one studies some form of the Craft and develops a set of skills and abilities, which deepen with experience. Of course, many witches have had talents that LEND THEMSELVES TO WITCHCRAFT from birth or from an early age. However, many of those people actively work against those talents, and are, therefore, NOT WITCHES. Plenty of people who I know who are psychic, for example, are Christians who believe that witchcraft is an affront to their God. I’ve met people who are talented as mediums who actively work to keep out the voices of the dead for whatever personal reason. Also, there are people who cultivate their inborn abilities who do NOT identify with being a witch and actively take offense to the idea of being called a witch. These people deserve respect and while some things that they do would be things that *I* would call witchcraft, if they don’t identify as witches, it’s not my job to beat them over the head with my wand until they “realize the error of their ways.”
My bio child, now an adult, was born with mad mediumship and oracle skills. Poor kid was scared to death when their eyes clamped shut at 8 years old in school and they saw a flaming skeleton brandishing a sword on a pale horse, and the next day, the Iraq War started. They talk all the time to the dead. They were raised in a covenstead by a Wiccan High Priest and High Priestess, and they are NOT A WITCH. They are a Tendai Buddhist, thank you very much. And they are a good one, too. Their daughter, our little ten year old, sees spirits and I teach her, in age-appropriate fashion, to stay safe spiritually, because her abilities scare her. She is not allowed by her mother to attend even the simplest of Wiccan circles and we respect her mother’s wishes. Even the Kids’ Yule, held every year by one of the High Priestesses who trained me, is off limits for her. This is her parent’s choice. Of course, we Wiccans don’t train children, but some of our kids are raised Pagan, and therefore, they get a visit from Mother Holle and Father Yule at Midwinter.
For witches who are actually studying, practicing witches, looking back and saying, “I’ve always been a witch,” or “I’ve always been a Pagan” makes sense. But no, you cannot be “born a witch,” and you CERTAINLY cannot be born Wiccan. The hereditary Romanian witches (who I wouldn’t cross with a gun to my head, by the way) train their daughters from toddlerhood. Those witches are TRAINED witches. They also carry a hereditary line that lends itself to talents that give one a leg up if one wants to be a witch. You CAN be born with talents that are advantageous in the study of the Craft. That’s for sure. Psychism can certainly run in families. Mediumship tendencies can run in families. But you still have to study and practice. And having someone to train you is ALWAYS better, provided the person is honorable and qualified.
It’s been a while since I’ve taught an abject newbie in the Craft. Coming up in mid-December (It’s late November, 2023 right now), I’m starting newbie classes with a new seeker who, I believe, is not destined for Wicca as a religion, but she wants a base of education in what sorts of witchcraft exist and what her choices are for education, training, and practice. She needs somewhere to start and has had a real zinger of a year (son died unexpectedly and boyfriend and father of another of her children decided to call it quits…really awful stuff), so studying something useful and spiritually empowering is a great idea for her to steady herself and ground and center. I’m overjoyed to offer her a vehicle by which to do that, so newbie witchcraft classes, here we come!
Realizing one is interested in witchcraft and that the interest overrides any negative judgments of the society around you is a glorious time. Whether one seeks a witchcraft Tradition in which to study or one gets one’s education here and there, when a witch is truly born in their own life, it’s a glorious occasion. I have had much joy in talking with those who are coming to the realization that they are, indeed, a newly inspired witch. The world needs witches. It doesn’t matter what kind you are.
There are some witches who are happy doing Tarot and studying energy and manifesting their Light in the world. There are others, like myself, drawn to specific Traditions and religions that incorporate witchcraft within them. I’ve met Lightworker Witches, Wiccan Witches, Neo-Pagan Eclectic Witches, Asatru Witches, Hellenic Witches, Queer Witches (think Minoan Trad and a few others), Luciferian Witches, and many more. They are ALL spectacular in their own ways. But regardless of the type of witch one is, there are things that are important to get under one’s cords and into one’s witchy head. Here are those that this witch thinks important:
1. Spiritual and Magical Safety
The very first thing a witch must learn after grounding and centering is spiritual safety. You don’t use a tool you don’t understand COMPLETELY. You don’t summon that which you cannot banish or dismiss, you don’t open that which you cannot close, and you don’t throw a rock into the water without expecting rings of energy to emanate out from where it hits. You don’t do spells with wishy washy incantation. You don’t fail to put safeguards around your work. You don’t do work without cleaning up your magical detritus. You don’t go where you don’t belong, you don’t disrespect other Traditions’ Gods or protocols, and you don’t leave operations open ended unless you have specifically planned parameters for the containment and ending of that operation. Nothing is more dangerous than a half-trained, half-assed witch. Don’t be that guy. And for the love of all that’s holy, learn to recognize when another’s operations are in effect and how to leave them alone or shut them down if it’s on your turf (if you buy a house where magic has been done by the poorly trained, you need to shut down those portals and operations and render the space inert before reconsecrating it for your use, for instance). Cleanliness is not merely smudging.
2. Ethics
You cannot “harm none.” You kill billions of microorganisms every time you draw a breath. You step on ants. If you make an elixir to help your sister conquer the flu, you have chosen one life form over another, and whether what you did was baneful depends on whether you’re a person or a virus. To heal is to kill, quite often. You CANNOT HARM NONE SO STOP SAYING THAT KINDERGARTEN SHIT. You can and do cause harm, every second of every day you live. Minimizing the harm you cause and taking responsibility is what the Rede is about. Learn that. Learn that before you pick up any witchcraft tool. Learn that first. I have a whole other article on that and will endeavor to add it to Medium here for people to read.
If you are a real witch, what you do will have consequences. Even the most “harmless” spell for love and light changes the universe and you are responsible for all of those changes, whether you are aware of them or not. You will answer for that whether you think you will or not. If that scares you, good. It should. And if you cannot learn about how to navigate the responsibility of being a witch, you don’t practice witchcraft. Witchcraft is, by definition, not for most people. There is no shame in backing away at any point. Go where you know you have earned authority to tread. Do not tread elsewhere unless you understand the wild card playing field of magical workings. The rules are different than in the mundane world and they will fuck your shit up. Learn well and practice prudently or learn the hard way.
The Three-Fold Return is specific to the Second Degree Traditional Wiccan elevation and is not, nor has it ever been, a universal law that applies to all magic or all witches. Period. If people say otherwise they are ignorant or lying, the enderito. If you have not taken the specifically Wiccan Second Degree, or you have not formally in ritual made such a contract with the Divine, the Three-Fold Return is not something that applies to you. It is from Gerald Gardner and was ritually created for WICCANS who were undergoing the elevation that allows High Priesthood, and that elevation contains a specifically designed magical contract that renders the rule of three to apply to the person in question, to amplify their magical workings and amplify the return of the same, for better or for worse. Now you know.
3. Mental Health for the Witch
Grounding and Centering is a beginning. It’s the very beginning of the skill set that a witch MUST employ to stay sane as a practicing witch. This is not a paranoid sort of discussion. Walking in the ethereal realms, doing healings, doing readings or healings or ecstatic ritual brings the witch’s energy system into vibrations that are not typically navigated by human beings. This requires protocols and education around preparing to do work and returning to the mundane in order to go to work or get groceries or drive into town, etc. After practicing for a while, a witch can recognize another witch who doesn’t properly prepare and return because they look like they still have one foot in another reality. Their emotional and mental balance becomes precarious and they can and do lapse into less than healthy ways of grounding and/or dealing with wild energy fluctuations that come with this sort of work. Every witch says that they are too aware for that to happen to them, but you don’t know you’re doing it except in hindsight, regardless of your personal awareness. Misusing food, altered states, alcohol, sex, or other drugs or pastimes can and does happen to even the most talented witches. As a matter of fact, the greater the talent, the greater the risk. No, you are not immune to it, and no, I’m not just confused about it. I’ve taught many, many witches and talked with hundreds of them. If you think you’re immune, you’re in great, great danger, so don’t be stupid about these risks. Address them head on and create from the beginning ways for you to safely prepare for operations and return to the mundane world, and expect that these things WILL need to be changed as you go along the progression of your Craft. Seeing a therapist is not just for broken people. As a matter of fact, my students don’t get second degree without a mental health plan in place, complete with at least one licensed, professional support person in the wings. You may not be my student, but you’ve been warned anyway.
A note about mental health diagnoses and witchcraft: Some of the most talented witches I know have mental health diagnoses. Having clinical depression, anxiety, being neuro-atypical or on the Autism Spectrum, having ADD/ADHD, and other diagnoses doesn’t necessarily mean that a person shouldn’t practice witchcraft. However, it may mean that it’s a bit more dangerous for the individual to do certain witchcraft practices, and discussing this with other experienced witches and with Pagan-friendly mental health professionals might be a good idea. Too, there are SOME mental health diagnoses that, in my opinion, may preclude certain witchcraft practices, including some forms of psychosis, particularly Paranoid Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder. In particular, certain forms of psychosis that are not well-managed can be exacerbated by doing certain witchcraft activities, including Drawing Down/Aspecting, doing heavy Shadow Work, and/or doing some psychic activities, such as psychic readings in a professional capacity. Only you and your mental health professionals plus the witches whose opinions you respect for advice can really speak to the safety of certain activities for you, personally. And personally, I will not initiate someone with unmanaged or very symptomatic psychosis. In some cases, I have initiated witches who have well-managed psychosis with the admonition that no Drawing Down will be done, and no oracle or channeling work will be done by that witch. Those are my boundaries as a teacher, and each teacher has their own set of parameters with regard to mental health diagnoses and teaching the Craft. In general, it is my opinion that no person with unmanaged/uncontrolled mental illness should be doing work that can exacerbate breaks with reality. In the case of Drawing Down/Aspecting, a person with unmanaged psychosis can experience a very marked increase in troublesome psychotic symptoms if they engage in such Craft endeavors. However, it’s interesting that often, people with mental health diagnoses tend to have verifiably accurate psychic impressions and often can very verifiably talk with the Dead, getting real and verifiable facts from them which they simply could not know otherwise. The problem is that the person doing the work often pays a heavy price and experiences increased troublesome symptoms that interrupt their ability to live a balanced and successful life. It is the policy of my coven that we do not encourage any Craft work that stresses a person’s mundane life, whether that’s professional, family, or other.
4. Developing Spiritual Muscles
One of the things that all solitary practitioners who come to my coven for instruction in the Three Degrees of Traditional Wicca say is that they are blown away by group spiritual work on the coven level. They are often very accomplished witches and I love it when an experienced witch joins the coven, because they have a wealth of experience and wisdom to share with us. However, there is no way for a solitary, even one who goes to lots of fests, will have developed group witchcraft skills, because they simply haven’t had that particular set of weights with which to practice. That’s not a fault, necessarily. A person can be an extraordinary witch and never develop group witchcraft skills. However, even if some will get upset when I say it, it’s true that a coven trained witch can do whatever a solitary can do, plus has coven skills, and the reverse is simply not true. Sure, every witch has a specific skill set and a coven trained witch may not have a particular solitary witch’s abilities in a narrow area due to not having practiced much as, say, an oracle, or whatever, but in general, solo skills do not translate to group skills, but group skills DO, sorry not sorry, translate to solo skills.
That doesn’t mean that every witch needs group training. Far from it. But having training in group activities will never harm a witch’s skill set. Now, spiritual muscles can be developed by any witch of any variety. It just depends on WHICH muscles serve you to develop and maintain. Being able to maintain sustained meditation is a great set of muscles to develop for any witch. Group and guided meditations along with solo meditation skills are taught in coven instruction, but a solo witch can read, watch videos, and take classes in the same thing. What are some spiritual muscles that are worth developing?
Here is my opinion on that subject:
1. Gathering, focusing, and releasing energy for intention is the basis of all spell craft. There are many, many ways to do this. It is my recommendation that several methods be studied and mastered by every witch.
2. Sustained concentration is a part of number one, and the more steadily one can maintain focused concentration, the better one’s other Craft skills will be.
3. Discerning energy in one’s environment is the basis of all Second Sight and sensitivity. Learning to do this is imperative in my opinion.
4. Clearing, disrupting, and dropping energy is absolutely necessary for a witch to be able to be safe in the magical playing field.
5. Divination skills in at least one technique is basic for all witches.
6. Understanding elements of ritual is important. How does one discern what sort of ritual is needed in a specific situation, and what constitutes a skillfully written and executed ritual? What do we do to determine an appropriate beginning, middle, and end of a ritual? What are reasons for rituals to be performed? How does one prepare for and recover from doing rituals? Learn these things for basic witchcraft competency.
7. Determining and recognizing spiritual sicknesses, attachments, oppression, and possession is important. May you never need to use these skills, but you still must have them in my experienced opinion.
8. Recovering health and balance after spiritual sickness, attachment, and more is also important to understand for your own health and for helping others.
9. Learning about common and uncommon witchcraft tools and which ones are useful for which purposes, including learning the pitfalls of using these tools is basic to mastering witchcraft.
10. Learning why it’s best to avert participating in overt cultural appropriation in practicing witchcraft is important to being a responsible witch in community, in my opinion.
So that’s this witch’s considered and experienced opinion on best practices in a nutshell. Of course, this subject can be endlessly discussed and, it could be argued, should be endlessly discussed in witchcraft community. You can always tell a wise witch by the fact that they never think they’re too advanced to return to basics and discuss them. There is always something more to learn, even with regard to the basic building blocks of Craft. And with that, we’ll end this first discussion of witchcraft best practices. I’d love to hear from other witches and get questions if you have any. Please respond and I’ll do my best to converse with you.
Article Source: https://medium.com/@kristinbarton/witchcraft-best-practices-from-an-experienced-practitioner-89c721fa5db8