Exactly. A label doesn't help us to be anything more than we are, I feel. I mean, use it if you want to, but don't shrink oneself down to fit a pigeon hole.
I hadn't thought of that, but I feel you've got a really good point there. I don't like what it says about the pagan economy, but that doesn't make it wrong.
"'You don't need none of that, you need head-ology. You just use whatever you've got.'" -Granny Weatherwax, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett Don't get caught up in the nonsense, witchcraft is about reaching inward to your own power.
My focus seems to be astrology, fixed stars, Tarot readings and Egyptian iconography. I live alone in splendid solitude ‘home on the range’ in the high, plains desert. No one asks me anything. I do love coming here for the company and the contact with others of these different Paths.
@@GrumpyOldCrone thanks so much. It is beautiful and dark and no obstructions in the view. I am crippled now so I cannot visit my further trees and my old circle as much as I used to. Also the astrology occupies much of my time indoors. I also work a lot with fixed stars so observational astronomy is great out here. It really is ‘my’ place in so many ways. Altho I started , formally, with a large group of pagans when I lived in the city, my associations dwindled and I chose to walk my own somewhat eccentric path. I’ve been doing astrology most of my life, beginning when I was 12 and enormously disappointed to find out I was Libra, the only abstract in the Zodiac. I’ve progressed quite a bit since then 😸 I have a friend who says ‘ Some people have good luck, some people have bad luck but I have weird luck.’ He’s a New Moon person. For me, I finally made my own matching statement “ I have ominous luck.’ I’m a Full Moon person, I find Life Path has been a Cosmic scavenger hunt, and I do best when I follow the omens ( providing I recognize them!) Thank you for your kind reply. I rarely see or speak to others of the community, so to speak.
Who decided witches need to fit into a pidgeon hole? In any one day, im a green witch, im a kitchen witch, im an earth witch, a moon witch, a planetary witch and the list goes onnn. 100% agree with this we do not need labels, we just need to make our practice our own. If you try and fit in a box you are limiting your magic so very much, so lets not do this, a witch is a witch nuff said 🥰
Yes, stay out of pigeon holes. All it does is upset the poor pidgies who have enough problems already, what with people running them over and calling them rats with wings. Horrible people. I am a pigeon lady btw, which is the best kind of witch imho.
Yeah, I'm going to waffle more next time! Definitely missing the waffle. Currently trying to figure out how UA-cam Shorts work as I want to do a "Weed Witchcraft" series of super short little things.
This was fantastic. ❤ I'm a lonely witch who has tried to learn, understand and practice alone for more than a decade. Magic seems to just happen in my life, and guidance and all sorts of wonderful things, but if someone were to ask me what kind of Wich I was, I'd be baffled. All kinds? Maybe none, since I'm so disorganized and don't have all the bits and bobs that modern witches seem to have. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, because I can't seem to find a single book that sensibly guides me through what being a witch really is. I live the way I do because of my deep and earnest love of the earth, the spirit and the unknown wonder of life. How do you make sense of chaos? How do you label what doesn't require one? Anyway, blaH blah blah. Fucking glad I found your channel. One of the few that genuinely speaks to me and makes bloody sense. 😂 ❤
You are not doing anything wrong. In fact you sound like a more authentic witch than the perfectly curated dolls on tik tok with all the bits and bobs but no idea what to actually do with them. Our forebears didn't have all that nonsense and their power was real, as is yours
This is not about trying to put a label at all cost (quite the opposite, actually), but your words made me wonder if you ever heard of chaos magick ? It may resonate with you, as it has with me.
I think it’s very personal. Labeling-culture has taken away the flow of discovery, journey and exploration… I was a millions things but didn’t know, and there are no words about me on the internet about my years finding myself from 13 to 20. I thought when I was 18-19 I wanted to join a coven, but I actually didn’t. I heard my sister talked about the ritual to get into the coven and I was like damn. I dodged one there. I would never. If people want to, go ahead. But I am a lone wolf not willing to go to those lengths just to be accepted. For the sake of Wiccan privacy I won’t go into details. That advice !! Annie 💜💜💜💜 That is such a Wiccan response 💜
Some covens are... a whole thing. But some are truly lovely. I do yearn for the company of other witches, sometimes. But then I remember I'm so grumpy that maybe they'd hate me!
Every community needs grumpy old crones to point out when we're being daft and to save us from hard lessons with delightful makeup (and other) tips. I am currently in the Mother phase but I think I'm going to have a blast as a crone when the heady drug estrogen abandons me.
Just found your channel, and I love it! My cousin (nearly 50) and I (45) were discussing this recently. A younger friend of mine has just started practicing, and she's very concerned about what kind of witch she should call herself, what deity she should devote herself to, and all of that. I've had to tell her that we're just witches, and our energy goes where our interests go. Labels have their uses, but they're irrelevant to our practice. For all the advantages the internet has brought to our community, there have been just as many downfalls, and this whole labelling business is the most annoying one, in my opinion.
I land in the middle on labels. I agree all the silly labels people come up with are unnecessary. And, IMO, self-aggrandizing. If one wants a label for the practice they've cobbled together, just be honest: "Eclectic" or simply "Solitary" is enough. However, labels are necessary when it comes to actual witchcraft traditions. Most are unrelated to one another and differ widely. Stregheria has nothing to do with Brujeria and neither has anything to do with Obiya, and so on.
Yes, that's very, very true. The labelling I have an issue with is the whole "I am a Green Witch" bollocks. Fine, but why does someone need a label for something that is quiet and personal to the individual? But traditions, YES. That is important, and you need to know what you are doing in a lot of those traditions. Personally I'm eternally amused by the fighting between "traditional" and "folk". Whatever floats the metaphorical eggshell boat, I guess. Which is a long way of saying, thanks for the comment - I agree !00%!
I think we all have the right to call ourselves whatever we feel works best! I definitely love "witch" or "crone", but language is dense and wonderful and there are many words available!
Thank you so much! I never even thought about "what kind of witch" i am. Until... seeing it everywhere. I got worried I needed to "be" something. You're making me a better witch!
I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my tea! This was brilliant! 🤣 When I first got into paganism in the (very) early 2000s, I'm sure there weren't all these labels and subcategories. There were several traditions of course, like Gardnerian & Alexandrian Wicca, Asatru, Druidism, ... and Scott Cunningham's solitary Wicca was a big thing at the time, but other than that? Not really. As someone has already pointed out, it might well have to do with people wanting to sell stuff that this micro-labelling exists, the same is happening in fashion and lifestyle (just look at all those internet "aesthetics" that require you to dress a certain way, listen to certain music or read certain books, as well as decorate your home a certain way.) It's all consumerist bollocks. 🙄
Somebody else in the comments made a comment about it being about marketing, ultimately. I think you've got an excellent point! Consumerist bollocks is very much my point of view!
I just happened on this channel. I like it here a lot. I'm not a witch, but it's interesting to find out about what witches really do, instead of just reading about witches pulling off miracles in fantasy novels.
Firstly, I adore your channel. I’m an American witch and your well-meaning and informative rants have been a much appreciated distraction from what’s happening here. 🙏 As to the labeling issue- I wonder if much of this is a result of social media and the perceived need of so many to have a cohesive outward-facing personality (“brand”) on line. I worry about an identity that is crowd-sourced and focus-group publicly by likes and anonymous comments. This doesn’t seem a safe space for anyone to grow or develop a sense of self. A lot of Buddhist principles inform the way I approach my practice. Am a Zen witch? My first introduction to practice was my grandmother. She was a daughter of German immigrants and practiced PowWow - a folk magic that worked with her unshakable belief in a Christian god. Am I a Jesus witch? If I know anything for certain about my practice it is this - the truest bits of it will always be in part a mystery to myself, because the practice shapes me as I shape it. The witch I am today is not the witch that I was yesterday, nor the one that I will be tomorrow. The day I can so cleanly define my practice is the day it has gone dead. PS- Please keep the videos coming. I love you as a gatekeeper. For all their whining we all know the would-be disrupters would have nothing to disrupt without some of us harping on good form and respecting actual experience and expertise.)
And here I thought the question was going to be a philosophical one. Along the same lines as: What kind of person are you? What do you specifically bring into the world with your actions and intentions Not... What's your label
I'm really glad to see you here! Don't get distracted by the fluffy nonsense out there, and if you want a great witchcraft content creator, I REALLY rate @Hearthwitch - her stuff is well researched, well presented and always accurate.
I like “green witch” and “sea witch”- and I think we use these aesthetic terms because we’re all so “hard to please”. X) ‘Cause, when I say those things, plants get imagined. Sea shells. Possibly rivers and aquascapes? I’m also using “rustic witchy” for what I like this time of year, to distinguish it from Hobby Lobby-esque, log cabin, flannel, checkered and resin antlered “rustic”.
My question (with zero hostility and a proffered cup of tea) would be, why do you feel the need to label anything? Do you feel that without the label it is somehow less valuable to you? I'm genuinely very interested, and promise not to have an argument if you care to answer!
Hey, just recently discovered your channel and I really enjoy your videos. It gets lonely once you discover there's other beings you can worship besides the christian god. Watching you and finding some sentiments we share has me feeling a bit less lonely ❤ About the slugs: You might not be able to eat them, but you can always pick them up and chuck them in your neighbors garden :P
Don't be lonely! There's bloody millions of us out here! Funny - yet 100% true story - I used to live next door to a pub in Brighton and they had a tall 10ft wall between us and the beer garden. The wall was covered in Russian Vine "Mile a Minute" and snails used to cover the wall under the vine. Every night they would come down and decimate my garden. I ended up going out and picking them up and throwing them over the wall. Until the day I heard a wet "plop" and a very angry "OY!". I had, completely unwittingly thrown a snail into somebody's beer....
I have been working on this feeling that science is just the empirical description of magic itself. The more you know about science, the more magic you can actually do, and the easier the magic is to control. PhD robes look like wizard robes because attaining that level of education is like being a wizard - having a highly specialized and powerful knowledge that only very few others have, and thus having the ability to do things that very few others can. On the other side of the coin, while being a wizard is something with many societal barriers and requiring some amount of capital to obtain, anyone can be a witch. anyone can dedicate themselves to the lifelong study of and practice of the things that move them and develop a deeper understanding of their world and their magic through both independent and communal practice and learning. Thus, anyone can find their own unique path towards witchcraft, and the application of labels and rigid categorization of witchcraft is antithetical to what it is about.
I do think labels can be useful, but only if they're used in a descriptive sense not in a prescriptive one. It's not like choosing a university program. You don't need to pick a label and then fill the requirements for that label. You should research whatever interests you, try a bunch of stuff, and once you have really figured out what your personal practice looks like, you can use a label to describe your practice quickly to other practitioners. Using a label just helps to give other practitioners a quick, oversimplified idea of what your practice is, which can be useful sometimes. The question shouldn't be "what kind of witch are you?" it should be "what's your practice like?", that way people can use a label if they want, or they can just describe what they do. I call myself an eclectic witch because my practice draws on a variety of influences, and "beginner witch" or "baby witch" doesn't feel accurate to my practice anymore. The most prominent covens or groups in my city are pretty traditional, the one I can think of off the top of my head is Alexandrian, so when I'm meeting other practitioners I want them to understand that my practice differs from that. Calling myself an eclectic witch and pagan is much faster than explaining all the various influences and weird intricacies behind my practice.
I can understand the idea and power of not identifying as a witch. I mean for long periods of time and even currently there's a distinction in many cultures between a witch and a person who uses magic for the benefit of their community. Be they called healers, wise woman or any number of other titles. I love that in this community globally there's such variety in practice and titles. My family has been all over this country (USA) I know of French creole influences and believe family was known as healers, Appalachian influences and they were known as healers and practitioners of granny magic or the local wise woman, a little influence from the Ozarks where (idk what they were called during this period) and moved to Washington state where they used the knowledge being passed down plus integrated indigenous practices and herbalism and we're called healers then. I don't think during most of that time they were known as witch except for my grandfather's ability for water witching which I think was passed down from his grandfather but I can't pin that one down because he was on his own from a very young age. I remember him teaching me and hearing about his great reputation as a water Witcher. This wasn't meant to be a rebuttal or contradiction but more of a "yes and". Yes there can be power in calling yourself a witch and I would never take that away from you. Also I hold space for and honor those who came before and who currently don't identify with the title witch who are still practicing magic and making an impact for themselves, their families and communities. Thank you for this video. I enjoyed it
I really love other people's views when they differ :-). I rant on the videos, but in reality I love to talk about this stuff. I find Appalachian folk magic fascinating. I have zero right to it, but it is incredibly cool, and so rooted in the land. I've just started listening to Tracy Borman's "Witches" (a historical book about the Belvoir Witch Trials) and she makes exactly the same point as you do re: titles and practice.
I feel, really strongly, that we should be able to pick what works for us best. And if that's no label at all, then that's fine! I've got so many interests that calling myself just one thing feels really weird and wrong. I started on this path without a label, and am very happy to continue the same way!
When it comes to witch labels, I think of two quotes from the ancient wisdom: "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."
I carry a bag with me wherever I go that has some of my witchcraft tools in it. I never know when I may need to do some magick. Anyway I have to go through security for my work everyday, however this one day they search my bag, the security guy pulls out my dead toad, my turkey foot, and a rolled spell. He then asks me what this is for, to which I tell him, well sweetheart it is for witchcraft. He then immediately starts in that I should curse him, his life is a curse, he's been cursed and that he would just embrace my curse. As I gathered my things I looked him in the eye, " Instead of a curse how about I bless you with some brains, and manners. Or perhaps I should talk to your administrator, who happens to be a good friend of mine. That shut him up very quickly. and just to make certain, I smiled at him, "Your not even worth the energy, your as useful as the water that come out of a ketchup bottle." As always, your a treat to listen and watch. Your American friend, Justin.
I think that as we get older labels or whatever are very unimportant personally, I have never been concerned about labels however, I do know what it feels like she want to fit into some thing and if somebody wants to label to theirselves, then they need to do that I initially thought this was kind of a cute channel.. I think mostly because people find it funny to watch an old lady cussing like a sailor and just FYI I am an old lady as well.. you label yourself by saying you’re an old crone. In the witchcraft group for people who have been here for many years it’s just like everything else. Sometime it becomes popular. Sometime it’s not. Your videos well some of them are comical I really start to think wow harboring all of this animosity towards subscription boxes or ads on Facebook ….. kind of sad and harboring anything or going off on things that don’t matter is anger and I would never want that inside.
I hate this modern trend of labelling everyone. Relax, people, and just be.
Exactly. A label doesn't help us to be anything more than we are, I feel. I mean, use it if you want to, but don't shrink oneself down to fit a pigeon hole.
I feel like the labeling is also tied into the consumerism. Not for everyone but certainly companies use it to their advantage.
I hadn't thought of that, but I feel you've got a really good point there. I don't like what it says about the pagan economy, but that doesn't make it wrong.
"'You don't need none of that, you need head-ology. You just use whatever you've got.'" -Granny Weatherwax, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett
Don't get caught up in the nonsense, witchcraft is about reaching inward to your own power.
My focus seems to be astrology, fixed stars, Tarot readings and Egyptian iconography. I live alone in splendid solitude ‘home on the range’ in the high, plains desert. No one asks me anything. I do love coming here for the company and the contact with others of these different Paths.
OMG, that sounds amazing
@@GrumpyOldCrone thanks so much. It is beautiful and dark and no obstructions in the view. I am crippled now so I cannot visit my further trees and my old circle as much as I used to. Also the astrology occupies much of my time indoors. I also work a lot with fixed stars so observational astronomy is great out here. It really is ‘my’ place in so many ways. Altho I started , formally, with a large group of pagans when I lived in the city, my associations dwindled and I chose to walk my own somewhat eccentric path. I’ve been doing astrology most of my life, beginning when I was 12 and enormously disappointed to find out I was Libra, the only abstract in the Zodiac. I’ve progressed quite a bit since then 😸 I have a friend who says ‘ Some people have good luck, some people have bad luck but I have weird luck.’ He’s a New Moon person. For me, I finally made my own matching statement “ I have ominous luck.’ I’m a Full Moon person, I find Life Path has been a Cosmic scavenger hunt, and I do best when I follow the omens ( providing I recognize them!) Thank you for your kind reply. I rarely see or speak to others of the community, so to speak.
I think 'whatever bollocks witch' is my new title. 😂
I mean... I'm right there with you, if I'm being honest with myself....
Yip mine too 😂
Who decided witches need to fit into a pidgeon hole? In any one day, im a green witch, im a kitchen witch, im an earth witch, a moon witch, a planetary witch and the list goes onnn. 100% agree with this we do not need labels, we just need to make our practice our own. If you try and fit in a box you are limiting your magic so very much, so lets not do this, a witch is a witch nuff said 🥰
PREACH! (or actually, maybe not, because those street corner guys are kind of yucky...). I AGREE!
Yes, stay out of pigeon holes. All it does is upset the poor pidgies who have enough problems already, what with people running them over and calling them rats with wings. Horrible people.
I am a pigeon lady btw, which is the best kind of witch imho.
Best witchy makeup tip ever. Especially in an episode that doesn't have a witchy makeup tip in it.
Thankyou. I will die on the hill of "Tim Curry was insanely hot". He has now entered the land of "National Treasure" I feel.
I enjoy you longer videos! Feel free to waffle on!
Yeah, I'm going to waffle more next time! Definitely missing the waffle. Currently trying to figure out how UA-cam Shorts work as I want to do a "Weed Witchcraft" series of super short little things.
This was fantastic. ❤
I'm a lonely witch who has tried to learn, understand and practice alone for more than a decade. Magic seems to just happen in my life, and guidance and all sorts of wonderful things, but if someone were to ask me what kind of Wich I was, I'd be baffled. All kinds? Maybe none, since I'm so disorganized and don't have all the bits and bobs that modern witches seem to have. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, because I can't seem to find a single book that sensibly guides me through what being a witch really is.
I live the way I do because of my deep and earnest love of the earth, the spirit and the unknown wonder of life.
How do you make sense of chaos? How do you label what doesn't require one?
Anyway, blaH blah blah. Fucking glad I found your channel. One of the few that genuinely speaks to me and makes bloody sense. 😂
❤
You are not doing anything wrong. In fact you sound like a more authentic witch than the perfectly curated dolls on tik tok with all the bits and bobs but no idea what to actually do with them. Our forebears didn't have all that nonsense and their power was real, as is yours
@NephylimAuthor thank you. That struck my heart like a beautiful note.
Bloody bits and bobs, am I right? 😂
This is not about trying to put a label at all cost (quite the opposite, actually), but your words made me wonder if you ever heard of chaos magick ? It may resonate with you, as it has with me.
I've never looked into chaos magik...but I think I will have a look ✨ Thank you 😊
a sand witch
I am hungry now!
Oh I’m absolutely using that
I am so tired of labels. But I am going to label myself, I am an Earthing.
Paving slab😂😂 nearly chocked on my toothbrush
Also, i love your longer videos, don’t sell yourself short! *badumtsh!*
I think the next one will be back to normal length. Plus.... I have to get the usage out of my "Here Comes the Positive Bit" jingle...
I think it’s very personal. Labeling-culture has taken away the flow of discovery, journey and exploration… I was a millions things but didn’t know, and there are no words about me on the internet about my years finding myself from 13 to 20.
I thought when I was 18-19 I wanted to join a coven, but I actually didn’t. I heard my sister talked about the ritual to get into the coven and I was like damn. I dodged one there. I would never. If people want to, go ahead. But I am a lone wolf not willing to go to those lengths just to be accepted.
For the sake of Wiccan privacy I won’t go into details.
That advice !! Annie 💜💜💜💜 That is such a Wiccan response 💜
Some covens are... a whole thing. But some are truly lovely. I do yearn for the company of other witches, sometimes. But then I remember I'm so grumpy that maybe they'd hate me!
@@GrumpyOldCrone me too. And then a think. Well . If I where first member and the oldest I would not be so grumpy 🍄🖤😂
Every community needs grumpy old crones to point out when we're being daft and to save us from hard lessons with delightful makeup (and other) tips. I am currently in the Mother phase but I think I'm going to have a blast as a crone when the heady drug estrogen abandons me.
Best rude question response ever. And it will come with the added benefit that they won't be eager to bother you all night.
Just found your channel, and I love it! My cousin (nearly 50) and I (45) were discussing this recently. A younger friend of mine has just started practicing, and she's very concerned about what kind of witch she should call herself, what deity she should devote herself to, and all of that. I've had to tell her that we're just witches, and our energy goes where our interests go. Labels have their uses, but they're irrelevant to our practice. For all the advantages the internet has brought to our community, there have been just as many downfalls, and this whole labelling business is the most annoying one, in my opinion.
I land in the middle on labels. I agree all the silly labels people come up with are unnecessary. And, IMO, self-aggrandizing. If one wants a label for the practice they've cobbled together, just be honest: "Eclectic" or simply "Solitary" is enough.
However, labels are necessary when it comes to actual witchcraft traditions. Most are unrelated to one another and differ widely. Stregheria has nothing to do with Brujeria and neither has anything to do with Obiya, and so on.
Yes, that's very, very true. The labelling I have an issue with is the whole "I am a Green Witch" bollocks. Fine, but why does someone need a label for something that is quiet and personal to the individual? But traditions, YES. That is important, and you need to know what you are doing in a lot of those traditions. Personally I'm eternally amused by the fighting between "traditional" and "folk". Whatever floats the metaphorical eggshell boat, I guess.
Which is a long way of saying, thanks for the comment - I agree !00%!
I don't call myself a witch, I call myself a seer or caster. Others call me healer or bush dr
I think we all have the right to call ourselves whatever we feel works best! I definitely love "witch" or "crone", but language is dense and wonderful and there are many words available!
Thank you so much! I never even thought about "what kind of witch" i am. Until... seeing it everywhere. I got worried I needed to "be" something. You're making me a better witch!
But... you are something.... you are a witch.... isn't that enough?
I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my tea! This was brilliant! 🤣 When I first got into paganism in the (very) early 2000s, I'm sure there weren't all these labels and subcategories. There were several traditions of course, like Gardnerian & Alexandrian Wicca, Asatru, Druidism, ... and Scott Cunningham's solitary Wicca was a big thing at the time, but other than that? Not really. As someone has already pointed out, it might well have to do with people wanting to sell stuff that this micro-labelling exists, the same is happening in fashion and lifestyle (just look at all those internet "aesthetics" that require you to dress a certain way, listen to certain music or read certain books, as well as decorate your home a certain way.) It's all consumerist bollocks. 🙄
Somebody else in the comments made a comment about it being about marketing, ultimately. I think you've got an excellent point! Consumerist bollocks is very much my point of view!
@@GrumpyOldCrone *shakes fist at capitalism* Down with the consumerist bollocks! Down with it, I say.
Right behind you, waving a flag!
OOO I want to be a Paving Slab witch! It sounds utterly ridiculous! I'm in! :D
I just happened on this channel. I like it here a lot. I'm not a witch, but it's interesting to find out about what witches really do, instead of just reading about witches pulling off miracles in fantasy novels.
Firstly, I adore your channel.
I’m an American witch and your well-meaning and informative rants have been a much appreciated distraction from what’s happening here. 🙏
As to the labeling issue-
I wonder if much of this is a result of social media and the perceived need of so many to have a cohesive outward-facing personality (“brand”) on line. I worry about an identity that is crowd-sourced and focus-group publicly by likes and anonymous comments.
This doesn’t seem a safe space for anyone to grow or develop a sense of self.
A lot of Buddhist principles inform the way I approach my practice.
Am a Zen witch?
My first introduction to practice was my grandmother. She was a daughter of German immigrants and practiced PowWow - a folk magic that worked with her unshakable belief in a Christian god.
Am I a Jesus witch?
If I know anything for certain about my practice it is this - the truest bits of it will always be in part a mystery to myself, because the practice shapes me as I shape it.
The witch I am today is not the witch that I was yesterday, nor the one that I will be tomorrow.
The day I can so cleanly define my practice is the day it has gone dead.
PS- Please keep the videos coming. I love you as a gatekeeper. For all their whining we all know the would-be disrupters would have nothing to disrupt without some of us harping on good form and respecting actual experience and expertise.)
Ha! Listening to your naming tirade I think I want to be a Fish and Chips witch! Thanks.
Hmm...my prescience must be off this evening... I was fully expecting the final response to be "A *real* one..."
Think I like yours better :)
And here I thought the question was going to be a philosophical one. Along the same lines as: What kind of person are you? What do you specifically bring into the world with your actions and intentions
Not... What's your label
I’m a new witch and I’m so glad I found you!!
I'm really glad to see you here! Don't get distracted by the fluffy nonsense out there, and if you want a great witchcraft content creator, I REALLY rate @Hearthwitch - her stuff is well researched, well presented and always accurate.
@@GrumpyOldCrone thanks!!
I like “green witch” and “sea witch”- and I think we use these aesthetic terms because we’re all so “hard to please”. X)
‘Cause, when I say those things, plants get imagined. Sea shells. Possibly rivers and aquascapes?
I’m also using “rustic witchy” for what I like this time of year, to distinguish it from Hobby Lobby-esque, log cabin, flannel, checkered and resin antlered “rustic”.
My question (with zero hostility and a proffered cup of tea) would be, why do you feel the need to label anything? Do you feel that without the label it is somehow less valuable to you? I'm genuinely very interested, and promise not to have an argument if you care to answer!
Hey, just recently discovered your channel and I really enjoy your videos. It gets lonely once you discover there's other beings you can worship besides the christian god. Watching you and finding some sentiments we share has me feeling a bit less lonely ❤
About the slugs: You might not be able to eat them, but you can always pick them up and chuck them in your neighbors garden :P
Don't be lonely! There's bloody millions of us out here!
Funny - yet 100% true story - I used to live next door to a pub in Brighton and they had a tall 10ft wall between us and the beer garden. The wall was covered in Russian Vine "Mile a Minute" and snails used to cover the wall under the vine. Every night they would come down and decimate my garden. I ended up going out and picking them up and throwing them over the wall. Until the day I heard a wet "plop" and a very angry "OY!". I had, completely unwittingly thrown a snail into somebody's beer....
I have been working on this feeling that science is just the empirical description of magic itself. The more you know about science, the more magic you can actually do, and the easier the magic is to control. PhD robes look like wizard robes because attaining that level of education is like being a wizard - having a highly specialized and powerful knowledge that only very few others have, and thus having the ability to do things that very few others can. On the other side of the coin, while being a wizard is something with many societal barriers and requiring some amount of capital to obtain, anyone can be a witch. anyone can dedicate themselves to the lifelong study of and practice of the things that move them and develop a deeper understanding of their world and their magic through both independent and communal practice and learning. Thus, anyone can find their own unique path towards witchcraft, and the application of labels and rigid categorization of witchcraft is antithetical to what it is about.
I do think labels can be useful, but only if they're used in a descriptive sense not in a prescriptive one. It's not like choosing a university program. You don't need to pick a label and then fill the requirements for that label. You should research whatever interests you, try a bunch of stuff, and once you have really figured out what your personal practice looks like, you can use a label to describe your practice quickly to other practitioners. Using a label just helps to give other practitioners a quick, oversimplified idea of what your practice is, which can be useful sometimes. The question shouldn't be "what kind of witch are you?" it should be "what's your practice like?", that way people can use a label if they want, or they can just describe what they do.
I call myself an eclectic witch because my practice draws on a variety of influences, and "beginner witch" or "baby witch" doesn't feel accurate to my practice anymore. The most prominent covens or groups in my city are pretty traditional, the one I can think of off the top of my head is Alexandrian, so when I'm meeting other practitioners I want them to understand that my practice differs from that. Calling myself an eclectic witch and pagan is much faster than explaining all the various influences and weird intricacies behind my practice.
Brilliant! I love the way you bring us back to earth and to what's important. Love it! :)
l love your longer videos ,you are excellent company.
Thankyou so much! That's really kind :-)
The only labels I use are specific to my cultures and their practices. I don't fit nicely into one type of practice due to my mixed background.
As the world shrinks, our heritages expand! I think your attitude is the best one.
I can understand the idea and power of not identifying as a witch. I mean for long periods of time and even currently there's a distinction in many cultures between a witch and a person who uses magic for the benefit of their community. Be they called healers, wise woman or any number of other titles. I love that in this community globally there's such variety in practice and titles.
My family has been all over this country (USA) I know of French creole influences and believe family was known as healers, Appalachian influences and they were known as healers and practitioners of granny magic or the local wise woman, a little influence from the Ozarks where (idk what they were called during this period) and moved to Washington state where they used the knowledge being passed down plus integrated indigenous practices and herbalism and we're called healers then.
I don't think during most of that time they were known as witch except for my grandfather's ability for water witching which I think was passed down from his grandfather but I can't pin that one down because he was on his own from a very young age. I remember him teaching me and hearing about his great reputation as a water Witcher.
This wasn't meant to be a rebuttal or contradiction but more of a "yes and".
Yes there can be power in calling yourself a witch and I would never take that away from you. Also I hold space for and honor those who came before and who currently don't identify with the title witch who are still practicing magic and making an impact for themselves, their families and communities.
Thank you for this video. I enjoyed it
I really love other people's views when they differ :-). I rant on the videos, but in reality I love to talk about this stuff. I find Appalachian folk magic fascinating. I have zero right to it, but it is incredibly cool, and so rooted in the land. I've just started listening to Tracy Borman's "Witches" (a historical book about the Belvoir Witch Trials) and she makes exactly the same point as you do re: titles and practice.
I love this!
Witch is good enough for me! Those witches of the past died for us ...no label covers that one !!
Thanks, I hate being labelled a witch or anything else. Thanks for the tip on how to answer
I feel, really strongly, that we should be able to pick what works for us best. And if that's no label at all, then that's fine! I've got so many interests that calling myself just one thing feels really weird and wrong. I started on this path without a label, and am very happy to continue the same way!
I just subscribed.. you made this old crone giggle and giggle lol.. maybe even a cackle or 2
Welcome fellow crone!
Bless You! that's what is for dinner tonight. Fish Cakes. Thank you was asking the universe xxx
I'm hungry now....
ahhhhhh love your attitude....if I get asked What kind of witch I am from now on Im saying a Bollocks Witch..lol
I think I need a T-shirt with that on....
Absolutely on point!! 👏👏👏
Thank you!
Haha that intro was magnificent Annie🖤
Thankyou!
When it comes to witch labels, I think of two quotes from the ancient wisdom:
"Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
"When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."
Lady u have me laughing out loud 😂😂😂
Thankyou!
I really hate the word 'spiritual'. I mean, wth does it represent?😂 Tina.
Exactly. It's wanting to hedge your bets, I think. I'm personally all for nailing my colours to the tree. Only not with a nail, because I'm a Gaian.
Oooh well, i’m an insomniac, bollocks witch for sure!
I feel there may be a mini-coven in the making here...
I carry a bag with me wherever I go that has some of my witchcraft tools in it. I never know when I may need to do some magick. Anyway I have to go through security for my work everyday, however this one day they search my bag, the security guy pulls out my dead toad, my turkey foot, and a rolled spell. He then asks me what this is for, to which I tell him, well sweetheart it is for witchcraft. He then immediately starts in that I should curse him, his life is a curse, he's been cursed and that he would just embrace my curse. As I gathered my things I looked him in the eye, " Instead of a curse how about I bless you with some brains, and manners. Or perhaps I should talk to your administrator, who happens to be a good friend of mine. That shut him up very quickly. and just to make certain, I smiled at him, "Your not even worth the energy, your as useful as the water that come out of a ketchup bottle." As always, your a treat to listen and watch. Your American friend, Justin.
Thankyou! And as an insult "water from a ketchup bottle" is the chef's kiss!
IMHO: The sole reason as to why we need labels for witches ist, bc it makes it waaay easier to be advertised to. (Sorry, not sorry.)
Fish-witch, is that like a fish-wife?
If it's me, then I am certainly capable of swearing like one!
I think that as we get older labels or whatever are very unimportant personally, I have never been concerned about labels however, I do know what it feels like she want to fit into some thing and if somebody wants to label to theirselves, then they need to do that I initially thought this was kind of a cute channel.. I think mostly because people find it funny to watch an old lady cussing like a sailor and just FYI I am an old lady as well.. you label yourself by saying you’re an old crone. In the witchcraft group for people who have been here for many years it’s just like everything else. Sometime it becomes popular. Sometime it’s not. Your videos well some of them are comical I really start to think wow harboring all of this animosity towards subscription boxes or ads on Facebook ….. kind of sad and harboring anything or going off on things that don’t matter is anger and I would never want that inside.
Thanks for your input.