By Delena Rasbold

Hi.  My name is Delena and I am here to talk to you about a religion that is misunderstood by a lot of people.  It is Witchcraft.  My mother has been a Witch, which is also called a Wiccan, for 17 years and I was raised in the Craft.  I have been learning about it a little at a time since I was very small.  I am here to clear up some of the common misunderstandings that people have had about Witches for centuries.  People still often do not know the truth about Witchcraft and Witches.  Other religions and TV and movies have spread a lot of lies about who we are and what we do.  It’s funny how people who are not Witches think that they know more about being a Witch than the Witches do and that is what causes a lot of the lies to be spread and believed. 

The most common incorrect belief people often have is that Witches are ugly and evil.  Witches look like all kinds of people.  There are Witches who are doctors, nurses, moms, and every other kind of person.  They are ordinary people who work hard to learn how to use the energies of the Universe and their personal energy to work magick and make good things happen. 

The Wiccan law says, “As it harms none, do what you will.”  That means that Witches are prevented from harming other people in any way.  Not just harming their bodies, but hurting their feelings, stealing from them or doing anything else that might bring them misfortune.  We believe in threefold law, which says that whatever we do in our life comes back to us threefold.  So if we hurt someone in any way, we will be hurt three times as bad. This means that it would be very rare for a Witch to hurt anyone.  Witches work hard to protect the environment and the creatures of the Earth. 

Pagan is a word that means “People of the Earth” and is used to describe someone who believes in more than one God.  Witches are Pagans because they worship both a God and a Goddess.  We believe that God and Goddess represent Nature and since every part of nature has a male and female part, the energy that is thought of as God would also have a female Goddess. 

Witches do spells to work magick to help bring good things to their lives.  Magick is the focused use of the energy of the person’s mind and soul, combined with the energy of the Universe and the God and Goddess.  It’s like a prayer or a wish with more focus. 

Witches use certain tools when they work spells.  They use candles, incense, herbs, drums, rattles and wands.  Wands are used to direct energy from the person to the goal.  I have a wand here to show you so you can see what a real magick wand looks like.  The copper at the bottom and around the shaft carries the energy from the person down to the crystal at the end, which helps regulate the energy and sends it out where it’s going. 

Another tool that is used by Pagans and sometimes is worn as jewelry is the pentacle, which you see here.  The points of the pentacle represent the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit.  The circle around it means that all of the elements are joined together to form Nature. 

There are many traditions in our day to day life that began as Pagan rituals.  Things like maypoles, Easter eggs, Christmas trees, blowing out birthday candles while you make a wish and kissing under the mistletoe are all Pagan traditions that lots of people do. 

Every year on Autumn Equinox, which is the first of Autumn, we have Pagan Pride Day.  That is when thousands of Witches and Pagans come together to celebrate and sell their stuff.  It’s a lot of fun. 

In Europe long ago, over 9 million people were tortured and killed because people thought they were Witches.  Most of those people were not even Witches.  Even though Witches are no longer burned and hanged for being Witches, they are still persecuted emotionally even today.  On TV shows all the time, evil women are called “Witches” and that really hurts when we are proud to be Witches and are not evil.  This is religious discrimination, but it is still allowed for some reason.  Our beloved Crone, who for us is the wise, powerful, healing grandmother, was turned into the ugly Halloween witch.  Every year I walk around my neighborhood and see where people have painted her lovely face green with ugly warts and how they laugh at the figures of her crashing into a tree.  To us, that is very sad because she is to be deeply honored.  Most people don’t think about or care when they say hurtful things about Witches, but we still feel it. 

To summarize, it is important to me that people understand that Witches are not evil or ugly.  They are real people with real feelings who take their religion very seriously.  They are not green and they do feel hurt when they are made fun of and when lies are spread about them. 

Thank you for listening to me.