What a Witch is

a Witch is the woman standing next to you in line at the supermarket, the man sitting next to you at the train station, and the girl waving hello to her friends at school. Modern Witches are just that-modern; not cackling old hags brewing foul-smelling concoctions in cauldrons.

Nor are they all rotund, rosy-cheeked medieval revivalists (though some are!). Witchcraft is not a fashion statement: it's a spirit statement. However, when in L.A., you could be forgiven for sometimes thinking differently. We are doused in sunshine at least 80 percent of the year and yet I see a lot of fabulously glamorous gothic types covered in heavy black lace and satin at hot, public, witchy gatherings! Local, famous Witches like the legendary Louise Huebner (check out her classic record "Seduction Through Witchcraft"), who was very visible through the '70s and '80s, was a mysterious seductress with her exotic, dark eyes and hair. Raven of Raven's Flight in North Hollywood is an archetypal Mother Goddess with her full figure and Arthurian garments. My good friend Lorna, owner of Silverlake's Cauldron, comes from a movie stylist background and is very gorgeous, and then there is my other good friend Jymie who owns the legendary Panpipes in Hollywood-she looks like she's come straight out of the mosh pit at a Metallica concert! We Witches are a very diverse bunch, but we respect and love each other's uniqueness and find strength in our diversity, and for all our differences, there are a few basic ideologies that we all share.
nature is Sacred

Modern Witches, though often living busy urban lives, find nature divinely empowered; we acknowledge and respect as sacred the spirit within all things, animate and inanimate. We consider it our duty to repair, heal, and conserve the environment and all life on this planet as constructively as we can.

I remember a particularly profound experience of the "(w)holiness" of nature over ten years ago when I was touring with my old band Def FX through the lush hinterland of northern New South Wales in Australia. After three weeks on the road, I was totally toxic-my lungs were caked with three weeks' worth of smoke from the gigs, and I felt buried in the metal cesspool on wheels that was our van speeding down the highway. My body was trapped but my gaze followed the gentle swells and jutting peaks of the surrounding mountain range, and suddenly I felt something in me shift. Instead of looking at the mountains, I became them. My muscles were heavy, damp earth; my blood was trickling streams; and my breath was the wind that spiraled in and out of the trees. I was a Lady of the Mountain and utterly present in this reality. I had a profound sense of patience and eternity and also an intense underlying sensation of growing-slowly but so powerfully that it was almost violent. I could feel each blade of grass jutting out of my skin; my bones became the gnarled roots of trees easing themselves in and out of the earth that was me. I was as close to knowing heaven as I'd ever been in my life at that point-a nirvanic sense of bliss, all the more for the sensation of my free, blissed-out spirit being juxtaposed with the grotty reality my physical body was in. I was overwhelmed at how utterly magnificent nature is.

I have experienced this feeling many times since when I commune with nature-the palpable sense of my physical self seeming to evaporate into bubbles of energy that then disperse into other life forms, yet still maintaining a sentient sense of self while within these forms. When I think of nature as sacred, I think from a Darwinist perspective-that as a species we evolved from this biosphere, and we are intimately connected to all life forms upon it: the stuff of oceans, mountains, stars, animals, and trees is all within us. When I consciously connect with this, I know I can align my spirit with the spirit of all living things, and after that first experience I can now make my physical sense of self "shift" to accommodate this alignment when I am doing ritual.

There is a Goddess and a God

One of the most appealing things to many people drawn to Witchcraft in modern times is our acknowledgement of the Goddess, the feminine principle of divinity. It's not just women who find this attractive-men do too, shut off as they have been from the sensual feminine in themselves due to patriarchal dominance. Most Witches like to experience the feminine in the form of the triple-faced Goddess of the Moon: Maiden, Mother, and Crone, her presence between the worlds reflected in the waxing, full, and waning phases of the moon. I also love the image of the great Earth Mother, Gaia. My personal altar features a green statue of her sitting with a benevolent smile and huge, pregnant belly on which our blue planet is painted. The statue is called "The Millennial Gaia" and is designed by my friend Oberon Zell of Mythic Images.

The God of Witchcraft is most often venerated as the Horned Lord of the Forests, representative of the active, growing principle of life on Earth. He has many names: Pan, Cernunnos, and the Green Man are a few, and he is popularly depicted as half man, half beast-generally with a buff torso atop a hairy, cloven-hoofed pair of legs.
Witches often find inspiration in the goddesses and gods of many different cultures. We may relate to them as existing in their own right, like wise friends upon which we can call for counsel and guidance, or we may access them from a Jungian perspective as projected thoughtforms and archetypes of human social and spiritual evolution. However we choose to relate to them individually is fine. The main thing to acknowledge (in a predominantly patriarchal society) is that in addition to the widely accepted masculine principle of divinity there is the omnipresent feminine divine when you are a Witch.
Importantly, Witches do not see the God/dess as being separate from ourselves-we see them as being within us, of us, and us of them. Thus, every Witch leads themselves and can eventually be Priestess and Priest of the Craft. These titles are more a statement of experience and commitment than of superiority.

at every end is another Beginning

Most Witches believe in reincarnation-that is, the soul's journey through various lives and physical forms, learning, growing, and knowing its divine purpose. My rational, scientific mind has a problem accepting this euphemistic notion of humans evolving from lesser creatures to perfect creatures.

What is "good" and "perfect" anyway? As I write this book, the war in Iraq rages on, and I think about the soldiers fighting for their country-on both sides. Most would agree that war and killing is wrong, but to the soldiers conditioned only to consider the battlefield of their current lives, the concept of war and killing is acceptable, because it will protect their countries' interests and their fellow soldiers. Who is to tell them they are wrong?

They are only doing what they feel deep within their hearts is right. Wars break out in nature all the time. In my parents' back yard, I once watched an introduced lantana bush smother an indigenous boronia bush; was it wrong? No, it was an inevitable battle of two plants, with one looking for supremacy. The marking of territory is the way of all species. The cycles of death, destruction, and decay are as inevitable as birth, growth, and renewal. I do not support war by any means-I think humans evolving as a species, with the ability to comprehend our own death, means we should respect and nurture life more. When has war solved anything? We should use our highly developed brains to come up with smart, peaceful solutions, but I think that point in our collective evolution is still a ways off, unfortunately. Rather than reincarnation being a spiritual ladder to perfection, I choose to relate to it as more a process of inherited cellular genetic memory. In my genes is the DNA of my ancestors, and their lives and experiences sometimes awaken in me when I meditate or dream deeply. Essentially, my consciousness unravels their existence from the double-spiral helix within me, and I can relive their experiences as a part of me. I wrote at length about this in my first book, Witch: A Magickal Journey. It still amazes me that I once had recurrent regressive dream therapy that revealed to me a previous life as a Jewish child living in Northern Europe during the Second World War and who was put to death in a gas chamber. What makes this extraordinary is that when I later searched for my biological parents in my late twenties, I found that my father was Jewish, born in Hungary, and I had relatives who had been in Hitler's prisoner-of-war camps (so yes, I am a Jewitch!).

What comes after life? I don't need to know to make this life worth living-although the energy that inhabits us has to go somewhere. I really like the idea of being buried under a tree so that I nurture it and perhaps become a part of its cycle of life. The Celts used to plant sacred trees like oak, ash, and elder on people's graves, so maybe I'll ask for that in my will. But I'm pretty sure I would prefer to be cremated and have my ashes scattered at sea or thrown to the winds off the side of a mountain. I have no idea what the energy that is me will transform into-but I am interested in finding out!

Some Witches believe in Summerland, a witchy heaven that functions the same way as the Christian concept of heaven, only it's not as hard to get in!

But I don't need a promise of heaven to make this life worth living. When we die, I think what happens is that our brains still operate for a few minutes after our heart has stopped and we can ponder our death as we fade out. It is actually at this moment I think we can perhaps have some influence as to what plane of astral existence we go to. Our consciousness could act like a slingshot and project us into our next reality-but this is all conjecture. I am not in a hurry to do it, but I am certainly going to relish the experience of dying. I'm sure it will be quite extraordinary.

The Laws of Witchcraft

Do what you will, as long as you harm none: The first law is self-explanatory and clear.
Do not willfully use your craft to hurt others in any way.

Do what you will, but do not interfere with another's will: The second law needs to be understood so that you do not use your magick on another person without their consent, even if it is for something as well-meaning as a healing spell. You should always wait to be asked or ask for the recipient's consent yourself if you desire to perform a spell that could affect them in any way. In some circumstances, however, it is impossible to ask for permission, and in these instances you must be prepared to accept the consequences-good or bad-if you go ahead and perform a spell.

As you send out so returns threefold: The third law is also worthy of some clarification. It does not mean "Oh, I'd better do nice things so three times' nice things come back to me" or "I'd better not do bad things in case three times' bad comes back to me." The law really means that we must be aware of and responsible for our actions. A wise Witch would never intentionally want to cause harm to another, no matter how heinous their behavior may be-she would sooner do a healing spell for the situation and perhaps in extreme cases a binding spell to prevent further harm. And a wise Witch, when doing good, always does so unconditionally, without expecting reward. As such, she is honoring the healing and nurturing aspects of her craft.

Magick is the art of Creating Change with Will

Witches have strong wills. I am often asked by people starting out, "How do I know I am really a Witch?" I tell them to ascertain the strength of their will. It is one skill that we must arm ourselves with totruly be credible. Developing and training our will is our greatest discipline. With a strong will, a Witch can accomplish anything. Add to that some carefully chosen crystals, herbs, incantations, and a full moon, and you have spellcasting-the magickal way to add an extra kick to the power of your will to ensure you get the results you want.

all acts of Love and Pleasure are Sacred to the Goddess

Sex is totally sacred. I like to have an orgasm at night, offering my bliss to the universe for positive healing and growth, or perhaps I channel it into manifesting a goal that I desire. It's much more fun than saying a prayer, and a lot more effective in encouraging change. By this, I mean I get more positive results using orgasmic energy in spellcasting than I ever did saying a prayer to God and asking for his good favors when I was young Catholic girl.

In Witchcraft we make love and offer orgasmic energy to honor the land, and our fertility rites and rituals are seen to bless and ensure continuing abundance of the earth and in our lives.

in Perfect Love and Perfect Trust

I love this saying. It is a part of my morning coven dedication: "In perfect love and perfect trust, I dedicate myself to the universal forces of magick." It is a beautiful statement of peace and harmony with all things.

With Harm to none and for the Good of all

This is said nearly always at the end of spellcasting and rituals to reaffirm the Witch's Law (also called the Wiccan Rede): "Do what you will, as long as you harm none." One of the implications of this saying is that your actions or work should always be "for the good of all." Even though "good" can be subjective, this statement serves to anchor the efforts of Witches in the positive.

During a workshop I gave at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore on Melrose-it is a Hollywood institution that has been stocking enlightened books and other products since the '70s-a young Witch, flushed and intoxicated with her newfound powers, said she wanted to help someone who needed it. "Is it okay to do a spell to help them if they don't ask me?" she asked. I replied that it wasn't. It is a bit of a conundrum, but not interfering with another's will applies to all areas of their life, even if you just want to do something that you think will be nice for them. In fact, the difficulty the person is experiencing could be an essential part of their personal evolution. I suggested to her it would be better to do a general spell of goodwill for all people and work on exuding a powerful healing presence herself. When the person is ready to be healed, they will most likely ask her then. I know she meant well, but she also asked how she should let people know she was a Witch because she wanted to share her empowerment with them. I told her we don't go around telling people unless they ask. One of the quickest ways to unplug yourself from the power socket of universal magick is to be self-aggrandizing. The serious weight of the Craft will bring you crashing back down in an instant.

it's all Good

As a rule, Witches celebrate all miraculous expressions of the human spirit; in other words, religions. All paths eventually want to arrive at the same place-a state of happiness, purpose, and meaning. Because Witches believe we are embodiments of the God/dess, we try to act like the best of them! We educate ourselves about different, serious mainstream, indigenous, and fringe religions of the world so that we can intelligently express respect and tolerance for them.

Coming out of the Broom Closet

How many times has this phrase been bandied about and wryly smiled at? Yet it is still relevant despite the enormous steps forward that the Craft has enjoyed in experiencing tolerance and acceptance in general society. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of fear, negativity, and misinformation out there. In the next section, "Witchcraft: Past, Present, and Future," I explain in some detail the origins of the ridiculous accusations about Witches: that we worship Satan and are malevolent, dangerous, and committed to harming small children and animals. Now most modern Witches are well-equipped with concise and enlightened statements to nip that kind of negativity in the bud, like:

· You have to be Christian to believe the devil exists-there is no Satan to me because I am not Christian. .
· The roots of my spiritual path are pre-Christian and have their source in ancient Pagan traditions of nature worshipping and animism.

One of the things I had to master when I first moved to Hollywood as an aspiring TV producer/ writer/presenter was learning to love Kinko's. Everyone who comes to make it here ends up at these twenty-four-hour photocopying centers at some point, copying and collating various items of media coverage on themselves. These become the ubiquitous press packs that will hopefully attract the attention of the people you want to do business with.

In Hollywood, everyone is always on the lookout for a celebrity or a potential celebrity. So as often happens when a stranger looks over my shoulder at a magazine or book cover I am photocopying and asks loudly, "Oh, is that you?" I wince but I have to quietly answer, "Yes."

Then they generally say (even more loudly) "Witchcraft! Are you an actress? Do you play fantasy roles? Have you been on Charmed?" And I have to say (even more quietly) "No, Witchcraft is my spiritual path." More often than not they will reply, "Wow, that's really cool," but once someone fished around in their bag and gave me a pamphlet on Scientology and said I needed help! Scientology is very popular in Hollywood and I have some good friends who are Scientologists, but given that it has a more eccentric reputation than Witchcraft I had to laugh when this happened.

In a nutshell, here's what you can say about what a Witch is if you're ever cornered in Kinko's or confronted by any curious, or perhaps hostile, person:
"Modern Witchcraft does not have anything to do with black magic or Satanism; nor is it anti-Christian. It is a positive spiritual path (or religion, if you prefer) honoring the Goddess and God and one of the fastest growing in the Western world. Witchcraft encourages personal empowerment by doing rituals and spells for good and by living a responsible life that is in harmony with the environment and all living things."

Witchcraft: Past, Present, and Future

I have written about the herstory of Witchcraft at length in my first book, Witch: A Magickal Journey but here is some material I haven't commented on specifically before, as well as some fresh projections on where Wicca/Witchcraft is headed in America.

Past

The origins of modern Wicca/Witchcraft are found in pre-Christian Pagan practices such as Celtic and Teutonic nature cults, the mystery traditions of ancient Greece and Rome, and later in the speculative religious science of the Gnostics and the Zoroastrians.

As Christianity gradually exerted its dominance throughout the early part of the last millennium, it declared all faiths and practices other than itself heretical and worthy of persecution. This culminated in the Inquisition in the mid- to late-1400s, and in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the Witchcraft bull (an official papal document) that stepped up the Roman Catholic Church's war against so-called Witches. The bull appeared two years later as a preface to a book commissioned by the pope called the Malleus Malificarum (Hammer of the Witches) that was published as a guide to Witch hunting-that is, capturing and punishing anyone the pope considered a threat to the auand power of the church. Historians disagree over the number of those tortured and killed as "Witches" over the next 400 years (the figure varies from a probable 40,000 to a very unlikely six million), but it was obviously far, far too many!

The church's concept of Witchcraft relied on encouraging superstition and hysterical fear in the hearts and minds of a gullible, oppressed public. The accusation of "Witch" became handy to those seeking to amass power and wealth, and rarely had anything to do with legitimate proof of any wrongdoing. But what kind of "legitimate proof " could there be when the charges were for holding Black Masses with the Devil himself in attendance or for turning into an animal and flying away? The charge against Witches was also a direct charge against women, because the Malleus Malificarum declared that the powers of the Witch came from "carnal lust"-and at that time this was directly attributed to female sexuality. This is ironic, considering the personal behavior of Pope Innocent VIII was quite carnal and lusty: for a start, he sired numerous children.

During this long period, Pagan ways went underground and were likely practiced in secret, but not necessarily in any cohesive, organized way. Some modern Witches believe that Wicca, the Craft of the Wise, was practiced intact over the past 400 years to enjoy a resurfacing in the mid-twentieth century, when new initiates such as Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente began to publicize the Craft. According to this theory, covens such as Gardner and Valiente's held the secrets of the Old Ways as they had been practiced for centuries. The more likely explanation, however, is that the post-Gardnerian version of the Craft is a reinvention, with elements of the ancient reinterpreted and restructured for new generations, much as old songs are constantly rearranged for new audiences. Either way, people like Gardner and Valiente set about reinstating the legitimacy and acceptance of the Craft by making information available about this resilient and versatile spiritual path. The Gardnerian tradition expounds ritual structure and traditions, Masonic ritual, Aleister Crowley's OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) practices, Gnostic and Rosicrucian beliefs, and indigenous tribal shamanic practices with which he was so familiar, being a keen amateur anthropologist.

In 1951 the anti-Witchcraft laws of England were repealed, and Gardner's and Valiente's books and presence increasingly captured the public's imagination, spearheading a "revival" of the Old Ways not only in their native UK but crossing the ocean to the U.S.A. too. In the 1960s and 70s, the flamboyant Alex Sanders and his wife, Maxine, who were inspired by Gardner, forged their own tradition that was essentially similar but incorporated more traditions from Qabalah and Ceremonial Magic. Public Witches like Sybil Leek wrote exposés and appeared on television and radio, Wicca continued to grow, and the public gradually began to learn that Witches were absolutely not in league with the Devil.

The New Age explosion of the 1980s gave Witchcraft more room to be heard. Influential and politically active writers and Witches like Starhawk and Z. Budapest and charismatic individuals like Ray Buckland and Scott Cunningham made more information available and palatable for a spiritually nd magickally hungry public. In some aspects of Western society, however, negative stereotypes lingered, with Witchcraft still being treated as Satanic and/or fantasy.

In the 1990s, the door to the world of Witchcraft was pushed open further again, with writers and public people like Phyllis Curott, Silver Ravenwolf, and Titania Hardie (and me) releasing books and being active in the media, thus making our presence felt at a mainstream level. At the same time the general public's interest in magick and Witchcraft exploded, stimulated by a rash of television shows like Buffy, Charmed, and Sabrina and movies like The Craft, Practical Magic, and the Harry Potter films.

I've already mentioned that Witchcraft is now one of the fastest-growing spiritual paths/religions in the Western world, with a strong presence in the everyday world and an even stronger one on the Internet. Recently I was watching the DVD of the 1973 classic horror movie, The Wicker Man (a story about a detective searching for a missing girl on a remote island who uncovers a strange cult that practices Pagan fertility rites). In the extras there was an interview with the producer, who said the movie was fraught with production and distribution difficulties that initially spelled disaster, but over time it had grown enormously in popularity and stature to become, now, a significant cult movie (so significant, in fact, that at the time of this writing, a blockbuster remake starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Neil LaBute has just been completed). The final statement the producer made was, "The thing about this movie is the more you cut it back, the more it grows." I think this can apply to Witchcraft too: the more resistance it comes up against, the more it cleverly adapts and evolves.

Present

Witchcraft and the Law: As I mentioned earlier, the anti-Witchcraft laws were repealed in England in 1951. Anti-Witchcraft laws that originated in Europe during the Burning Times were carried over into the New World of America as well. The infamous Salem Witch Trials took place in the 1690s. The "Witches" at Salem were not burned at a stake, as they had been in Europe, but were tortured to exact "confessions" and then, if the "Witches" survived, they were hanged. So extreme was the hysteria in Salem that even a dog was accused and killed for being a Witch. The anti-Witchcraft laws were mostly overturned across the country as Neopaganism and Witchcraft took root in the 1950s, flourished in the '60s and '70s, and ultimately received legal recognition as a religion (Wicca), earning legal tax exemption status for its churches. Anti-Witchcraft laws did remain in some areas of the country until 1985, when these local laws were overturned by the Supreme Court, which additionally declared discriminating against someone on the basis of their religion illegal. Even in these politically oppressive times, the U.S. military chaplain's handbook includes rites of passage for Wiccans.

One area of potential contention, however, revolves around the Witch's dagger or athame. Essena dual-bladed knife, an athame is never used for cutting anything solid, but it certainly can be considered a weapon by those who don't understand its ritual significance and use. As such, responsible discreet behavior is advised when transporting and using it in public at gatherings, should you own one. I have mentioned this before, but when traveling by plane it is always worth remembering to make sure you put your athame in the bags that go in the undercarriage of the plane-these days more than ever. When I was doing talks and workshops around the country for my first book, I kept forgetting to do this. There were many times I held everyone up at the metal detector as the previously bored but now hyperactively excited security guards fished the twelve-inch blade with the mermaid handle out of my carry-on bag.

The penalties for carrying potential weaponry are much more severe now in this age of fear of terrorism, so be smart and don't wave your athame around in public unless you are engaged in a legitimate religious ritual for which you have your local council's approval.

Techno-Pagans and Eco-Wicca: The current ideology and practices of Witchcraft can be seen, to a degree, as the reemergence of indigenous spiritual practices of Northern European Pagan tribes (like the Celts), but there is also a very modern twist: we Witches embrace technology and are largely computer savvy. We actively use the Internet to learn more about our craft, share information, and connect with other like-minded souls.

Unlike our Pagan ancestors, we don't just attempt to live in harmony with the earth; we also see it as our duty to actively work to heal the damage done by years of negligent and thoughtless human trampling, and we seek to minimize further harm as much as possible. We approach our earth-based magick with a scientific slant, embracing concepts such as quantum physics to explain psychic phenomena and to refine and enhance our sacred art of spellcasting. As widely available information exposes us to the whole of human spiritual experience, our path becomes more varied and eclectic, with aspects of other nature-worshipping and polytheistic paths crossing and entwining with ours.
Conjuring a Religion: Some people have issues with the possibility of Witchcraft being "fabricated" as a fantastical and euphemistic mishmash of wishful thinking and fairy tales.

But are not all religions/spiritual paths fabricated at some point anyway? Contemporary Witchcraft may not have an unbroken connection to the most ancient traditions of European magic, as some earlier Wiccan books claimed, but this doesn't negate it any more than the Genesis-debunking discovery of Darwinian evolution stopped Christianity in its tracks. It is natural and inevitable that religions and spiritual practices will emerge reflecting the cultural, social, and spiritual evolution of our species for as long as we continue to inhabit this planet.

The idea of my interest in Witchcraft being real and credible played very much on my mind in my early witchy years. I didn't want to think that I was jumping on to some exotic trend as I dove deeper into the Craft through my late teens and early twenties. When I think back now I find it interesting that I can analyze my childhood and see how many "practices" of Witchcraft I was intuitively incorporating into my life before I had read any book on Witchcraft (or even watched Bewitched on TV). As a very small child I had been exposed to the image of the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, but I certainly knew nothing about the Craft. However, I always experienced nature as magickal from as early on as I can remember.

I used to think I could control the wind-I would make wishes by floating leaves on the river and watching them being carried away to come true. I would leave offerings out on a flat rock on the edge of the cliff in front of our house for the flower spirits. I see these acts as being the same as the positive spells and nature-honoring rituals of my later years as an educated Witch. I did not perform these actions to harm, control, or mislead another (as the Wicked Witch of the West, or Samantha's mischievous mother Endora on Bewitched, did)-that never occurred to me. I did the rituals to emphasize and enjoy my feelings of connectedness with the miraculous natural world around me. I would play in the bush for hours, wandering along the tracks and trails that our neighbor's horses carved through the bush when he let them wander off (they always returned home). I would pick bush flowers like the tiny purple boronia and the starry white flannel flowers with their sage green centers like little pillows and always thank the plant and leave an offering of some sort-a feather, pretty pebble, or a kiss. I would stare at the flowers, enjoying their shape, texture, and color for so long that often a mist would form around them; perhaps it was their auras that my vision distinguished.

I would sneak out of the house and go and sit by the river, drunk with the beauty of the sunlight dancing on the water as it flushed over my toes, cold and pure. My fingers would touch the sparkles in the granite rock that I sat on, and I would feel shivers of electricity shimmer into my hands as I absorbed the energy of the ancient stone. In my later years, when I started to read books on Paganism and Witchcraft, my mind often went back to those pure, sacred moments of my childhood . . . and I realized I had been a Witch all along.

In this regard, I think there have been people practicing "Witchcraft" all along: experiencing a tangible connection and communication with the earth that can be interpreted in a spiritual context. At its heart, the Craft's modern-day practices beat most strongly with this fact: heaven is here on earth.

Future

Where is Witchcraft going? Wherever it is, it will bring together more voices, more diversity, and more celebration of its inclusiveness. As we become a global village and the borders between culture, society, and religion blur, the indigenous spiritual paths of our planet seem to be merging and our Craft practiced by anyone in the human genetic melting pot.

Witchcraft's unique insistence on the empowerment of the individual to be God/dess is our strength. The fact that Wicca will never be shaped or dominated by one book, one voice, or one vision is our guarantee of relevance and survival. I think Witchcraft is the smartest spiritual path on the planet in this respect. It truly is an egalitarian, positively evolved, and empowered expression of the human spirit.

Me, you...a coven?	p. 1
What a witch is	p. 9
Covencrafting	p. 25
Bring it on	p. 35
Let's get going	p. 47
Rite now!	p. 57
Dedicate your coven	p. 79
Making magick together	p. 95
Goddess gatherings	p. 111
Share the love	p. 123
How spells work	p. 137
Hey, this is fun!	p. 143
Room for improvement	p. 149
You sexy witch!	p. 159
Questions from the forum	p. 163
Homework	p. 171
Witchcraft 101	p. 185
Reaching out	p. 193
Appendices
The elements of me	p. 201
Living and loving it	p. 207
Serene serene	p. 213
Coven sutra	p. 219
Websites & contacts	p. 225
Recommended reading	p. 229
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

LA Witch

9780738710341

0738710342

Supplemental Materials

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Excerpts

Rewards Program