Witchcraft: What it Is, and What it Isn't

You've seen "The Craft" five times, you watch "Charmed" every week, you have a black cat that you have most recently renamed "Salem" or "Kittywitch" or something like that, and you dress all in black. You can cast any spell from your three spellbooks and a huge pentagram adorns your neck, your (very creepy looking) book of shadows, and numerous other items reside in your cache of school supplies. People look at you when you walk down the street, your friends think you are oh-so-cool and your craft name, Moonlight FairyWillow WolfWings, is posted at the top of your web forum in creepy red letters. You are a witch, right?

Wrong. Witchcraft is not a fashion statement. It is nothing like what you see in the movies. It is not a fad. Hollywood has created so many false ideas about witchcraft to draw people in. Teenagers are especially susceptible to these ideas. In an attempt to be rebellious, teens will don the look and the catch-phrases of the neo-goth community. They are drawn in by the glamour of Hollywood and the promise of great power.

Teenagers encompass a group in society called "midriffs." (Anyone who has studies sociology or journalism knows what I am talking about.) Midriffs are at a point in life when they feel the need to grow up and look to other around them to learn how to do it. They will copy what they see: fashions, hairstyles, makeup, slang words and behavior in an attempt to fit in with their age group. This rebellion can have negative effects because it makes young people blind. They will follow from one fad to the next. Style is fleeting. Often, young people will turn to witchcraft for its glamour and seduction. Nothing is more alluring to the inexperienced than absolute power.

The first thing that you should know about witchcraft is that it is, first and foremost, a religion. Magick is based entirely on religion and the belief in the unknown. I don't care who you are or what kind of powers you claim to have; unless you have faith in something, you cannot perform magick.