Witch Craft, sometimes known as Wicca, Paganism, and The Craft is a nature based belief or religion. (Personally I tend to avoid the word "religion" due to the fact that witchcraft is not organized, we have no Church persay or dedicated place of worship, since we view the earth and all it's creatures sacred.) Generally this means that we as pagans/wiccan have an overall respect for the Earth, the environment, and all living creatures. I myself am only going to mainly talk about witchcraft and briefly breaze over paganism and other areas.

Here are a few Misconceptions of Witchcraft:

1. Witchcraft is not Satanism, is not based on Satanic writings, does not follow Satanic beliefs, and never will. Anyone who says it is ignorant of the true meaning of Witchcraft and has not read our Witch's Rede. Satanism and Black Magic deal with the Negative forces of Nature and Destruction, where as Witchcraft is always about Positive energy.

2. Witch's do not perform sacrifices of animals,humans or anything. Bloodletting, or any other such negative activity. Any waste of life, no matter how small, is to take what does not belong to you, and therefore againest the beliefs and rede to the average Witch.

3. Witchcraft is not a cult. A cult requires a over egogistal leader in a master-slave relationship; usually in a closed environment and people are usually put through conditioning called Brainwashing (Remember Waco?). Witchcraft is a personal belief system; sometimes individuals will gather and form into groups, called covens. With a Coven a High Priestess and High Priest are usually elected by other members or have are the ones to have formed the coven. This is how a lot of new Witchcraft traditions are started. There are many traditions and paths to Witchcraft, and like other beliefs it's a purely personal experience. So like I said, Witchcraft is not a cult.

4. Practicing Witchcraft is not like the Hollywood version of Witchcraft. We can't turn people to frogs or toads. We don't ride persay around on brooms. We have no evil intent towards others. Witch's do work with the innate energies of the planet: the energies of plants, animals, and of all life. Generally, some sort of psychic training is followed, crystals are used for calming and healing purposes, and herbs are usually studied for their healing qualities. Most Witch's meditate frequently to improve focus and concentration. Other than these, the only power gained by practicing Witchcraft is the power to trust yourself and to better control your own life.

Witch's philosophy is highly varied due to the fact that it is a personal belief system, and not a centralized religion. However, some ideas can be seen often enough to generalize a bit. Please note that not all ideas hold true for all people.

Most Witch's hold celebrations on the Sabbats. These are 8 festivals that serve as milestones throughout the year. Some are harvest festivals, such as Mabon; which was celebrated in history as the last harvest before the long winter. Some, such as Yule, are reflected in more modern religions as Christmas. Some covens also hold rituals at certain phases of the moon; these are known as esbats, and which are usually held on a full moon or new moon.

Witch's typically believe in two codes of moral conduct. The first is known as the Witch's Rede (more popularly known as the Wiccan Rede), and is such a widespread belief as to be almost a basis on which everything else stands. It is worded as "And it harm none, do as ye will"; which means, 'do whatever you want, as long as you don't hurt anybody'. This means no physical, emotional, sexual, financial, reputational, etc. harm. The other code of moral conduct posits the idea that whatever you do will return to you threefold. Therefore, if you help or harm someone, it will come back to you three times over; obviously it is not worthwhile to consciously harm anyone. One way of looking at this in simple terms is, say someone is stalking, stressing you out or just being a general pain in the ass. Well instead of wish them harm or to drop dead, simply wish them well elsewhere. Like " I wish John a happy live in Timbuktu". Trust me, center your will strong enough and really sincerly wish them happiness and you just might seeing "John" move elsewhere, or at least stop focusing his attentions to you.

These are just a simple statements of what Witchcraft is and I sincerly hope that you gain some understanding from what I have wrote. Just remember what Witchcraft is and what it means to us, is different for everyone. For more information on beliefs and principles of Witchcraft please go to those pages.

Witch's are people just like everyone else. We are doctors, lawyers, technicians, Police Officers, Administrators, and the person who asks you if you'd like fries with that. We believe that life is joy, and should be enjoyed in every moment it gives us. We do not debase ourselves or others to bring communion with divinity. We do not believe that bringing converts in will aid us or our religion in any way. We simply want to be left alone to live in peace.