Why do people believe in witches?
A witch is someone who practices witchcraft. True witchcraft is a collection of skills including herbology, divination, psychic abilities and spell-work. I think your question should actually be “Why do people believe in witchcraft?” To say witches don’t exist is much the same as saying Hindus or Budhists don’t exist. You may not share their beliefs, but the people who follow these beliefs do exist. Believing in witchcraft is no more far-fetched than believing in the power of prayer. In both cases someone calls upon unseen forces to help them accomplish something. With prayer one asks a deity to do something for them. With witchcraft one attempts to influence a multitude of forces which may include deities. I have friends who are witches, so I know they exist. I’ve done spells and “magic” myself that worked. I’ve witnessed other people’s “magic” work too. Sometimes what we call magic is a psychic ability, like projecting a thought or feeling into someone else’s mind. I’ve done this and
Halloween Witch As Victim Each year they parade her about, the traditional Halloween Witch. Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, a toothless mouth beneath her deformed nose. Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs. Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind or merely a Halloween caricature. I disagree, I believe this to be how Witches were really seen. Consider that most Witches: were women, were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness to be presented by light of day as a confessed Witch. Few if any saw a frightened normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture, to be questioned until she confessed to anything suggested to her and to give names or whatever would stop the questions. Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed Witch. As the Witch was paraded
Because they exist… Being a “witch” is not some stereotypical “Hollywood” version. A Modern Witch could be your librarian ,your child’s teacher ( or your teacher), the lady at the grocery store. There is a belief system called “Wicca” Here are some statements : From Witches that follow Wiccan way or are Neo- Pagans : “We are not evil. We don’t harm or seduce people. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary people like you. We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V. We are real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor. You don’t have to be afraid of us. We don’t want to convert you. And please don’t try to convert us. Just give us the same right we give you–to live in peace. We are much more similar to you than you think.” Margot Adler 4 “If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed
