morticia monroe
Well if you love the South and can't bear to leave it, but want to be free to do your own thing without judgement, come on down to South Louisiana, New Orleans in particular. Y'all come see us.
"Are you a witch?"
Shade
"Why yes and do you have any idea how much time and money I have spent to be a Witch!"
It's a charged word so I say use it (but I say that sitting comfortably in California in my nice office with tarot cards on my desk so your mileage may very).
If you want to go coy there's always that saying "Well there's a little witch in every woman."
It's a charged word so I say use it (but I say that sitting comfortably in California in my nice office with tarot cards on my desk so your mileage may very).
If you want to go coy there's always that saying "Well there's a little witch in every woman."
WalesWoman
We think along the same lines. My answer would be, "No I am not a witch, unless you spell it with a 'B'."I have a sign on my desk at work... "the witch is in"...
and I would have replied "yes, I am... but some people spell it with a B"
HudsonGray
I think I like the 'no, are you?' answer best.
vonniedeak
Well, I am one but stuck here in the South I don't get to say it even to my Mom...it is a secret. I feel so suppressed it isn't even funny. The funny thing is, being Wiccan...what endears me to the religion is the motto, "Harm ye none, do as ye will." I read tarot but don't sacrifice animals or people...the most thing I do is use herbs and crystals in my spells in my readings. I don't judge anybody so that I don't be judged. There are pentacles which is known to witches on the Rider-Waite deck so I do think that he could have been influenced by the occult in the rendering of the cards. There are just too many things that points to the good of using tarot cards for me to see bad in it, though. The pentacle is actually a sign of all of the elements that the universe is made from...we use it in our rituals. With the pentacle being on the Rider-Waite tarot deck I can see how people attribute the tarot to witches so it could be a common mistake if someone just doesn't know the choice of religion for that person. Some witches will never even tell you if they are a witch either because they are so secret about it. Actually the tarot was made occult when it came to America. It originally was a game played by people in India then when it was introduced in Europe they made it into a deck that could actually prophesy...then it came to America where it was adopted into the occult. So originally the tarot was not by witches at all. You can tell that to people who want to know if you are witch. There are so many new decks out there now that the original Golden Dawn tarot deck is almost extinct...and the one that was in India and Europe actually is extinct and isn't used anymore. I would have loved to see the original tarot decks.
After all, what is wrong with being a witch and loving tarot...you can be different without somebody trying to always change you as long as you don't push your belief on someone else. I am who I am and my beliefs are just something that I think about...as long as I don't hurt anybody or anything what does it matter? Satan is actually a character made up by the Christians. There is no Satan in Wicca. The Devil, as he is called, is often attributed to Cernunnos who is a Pagan God of the Hunt and is part animal at the bottom and has horns and the head of a man. In the afterlife, we go to Summerland where there is an abundance of everything and where there is good will to everyone. It really isn't that bad being Wiccan and a witch. There is freedom in the Wiccan religion to believe in whatever you want without there being something bad to happen if you don't believe in something or don't celebrate a certain way. You can even be a solitaire witch and be respected (in other words you don't have to go to meetings like Christians have to meet at a church and get together). You are usually not ostracized or criticized because of a certain way you think and you don't have to practice a certain way. There are some who even acknowledge that Jesus walked the Earth and that he was a great healer, as I do. They believe he was murdered by Pontius Pilate because of his religion just as the Salem witches were murdered because of their religion.
What you have come across is someone who has so much belief in one thing that he doesn't understand the beliefs of another. There has been alot of murder in the world because of intolerance of another's religion and someone that just believed differently. Is it really that wrong to just believe differently than another person?
Blessed be,
Von
After all, what is wrong with being a witch and loving tarot...you can be different without somebody trying to always change you as long as you don't push your belief on someone else. I am who I am and my beliefs are just something that I think about...as long as I don't hurt anybody or anything what does it matter? Satan is actually a character made up by the Christians. There is no Satan in Wicca. The Devil, as he is called, is often attributed to Cernunnos who is a Pagan God of the Hunt and is part animal at the bottom and has horns and the head of a man. In the afterlife, we go to Summerland where there is an abundance of everything and where there is good will to everyone. It really isn't that bad being Wiccan and a witch. There is freedom in the Wiccan religion to believe in whatever you want without there being something bad to happen if you don't believe in something or don't celebrate a certain way. You can even be a solitaire witch and be respected (in other words you don't have to go to meetings like Christians have to meet at a church and get together). You are usually not ostracized or criticized because of a certain way you think and you don't have to practice a certain way. There are some who even acknowledge that Jesus walked the Earth and that he was a great healer, as I do. They believe he was murdered by Pontius Pilate because of his religion just as the Salem witches were murdered because of their religion.
What you have come across is someone who has so much belief in one thing that he doesn't understand the beliefs of another. There has been alot of murder in the world because of intolerance of another's religion and someone that just believed differently. Is it really that wrong to just believe differently than another person?
Blessed be,
Von
Morwenna
It's all so ironic. There are Witches who don't even read Tarot, for goodness sake. And I heard not long ago that Christianity is one of the very few religions that actually requires belief! Most historic religions were more about the stories and the behavior, not about one's level of belief.
I keep referring back to old-country Europeans who brought their folkways to the New World, and saw no conflict between their folkways and their professed religion. My French-Canadian maternal grandmother was one such: a card reader while being an extremely devout Catholic. Many families, mostly of Catholic background, have similar situations in their families: Italians and Slavs, for example. And the Irish!
And there are even now self-professed Witches who are still Christian or Jewish, and look upon witchcraft as just that, a craft, no special religion necessary. Divination is also a craft, which may or may not coexist with witchcraft in the same person. Guess which camp I'm in.
I keep referring back to old-country Europeans who brought their folkways to the New World, and saw no conflict between their folkways and their professed religion. My French-Canadian maternal grandmother was one such: a card reader while being an extremely devout Catholic. Many families, mostly of Catholic background, have similar situations in their families: Italians and Slavs, for example. And the Irish!
And there are even now self-professed Witches who are still Christian or Jewish, and look upon witchcraft as just that, a craft, no special religion necessary. Divination is also a craft, which may or may not coexist with witchcraft in the same person. Guess which camp I'm in.
Asbestos Mango
It's all so ironic. There are Witches who don't even read Tarot, for goodness sake. And I heard not long ago that Christianity is one of the very few religions that actually requires belief! Most historic religions were more about the stories and the behavior, not about one's level of belief.
I keep referring back to old-country Europeans who brought their folkways to the New World, and saw no conflict between their folkways and their professed religion. My French-Canadian maternal grandmother was one such: a card reader while being an extremely devout Catholic. Many families, mostly of Catholic background, have similar situations in their families: Italians and Slavs, for example. And the Irish!
You know, it's funny, but getting back into Tarot was a big part of what led me to leave the Catholic Church. Church teaching strictly forbids divination. I know a lot of Catholics use divination, especially Tarot, but it is a serious violation of Church teaching. It wasn't just Tarot, I was beginning to have other issues with the Church too, like the teachings on homosexuality and birth control, plus the current Pope was getting to be an embarrassment. But I had an emotional crisis, and when that happened, I needed a deck of Tarot cards. When I got the deck, I found that I got a lot more comfort and guidance from them than I ever had from prayer. Anyway that was the end of more than a decade in which I had a hard time walking past the Tarot cards in a bookstore because I was filled with a great longing for something my religion forbade me to have.
I'm an Episcopalian now, the Episcopal Church doesn't seem to have a problem with my playing with Tarot cards. And I feel more spiritually connected now that I've stopped saying a long list of prayers in the morning and started silently just saying a few short prayers while holding my cards between my hands before my morning reading.
I have a lot of issues with anxiety, and it was really annoying when the anxiety would start to creep up on me while I was saying my morning prayers- it made me angry with God for allowing me to feel anxious all the time. I've found that doing a reading will stop an anxiety attack (but only if I write out my readings in a pen-and-paper journal, it doesn't work if I do it on my computer).
Empath111
I'm a Catholic who isn't following the rules and love tarot, crystals etc. I didn't know much about the cards or Divination until I joined groups after I was getting drained from working with patients (thus the empath stuff) using an energy-based technique and not knowing to ground prior. So, when I joined these groups (because I could not find grounding techniques in other places) I started to learn about tarot/crystals/intuition - etc. What else happened was I met people who practiced many different forms of worship - or belief systems. It was amazing to me. I even started a healing group- for all people - regardless of belief systems. People could pray or sending healing energy-or light a candle. Reiki. didn't matter - just as long as it was positive and with helping intentions. As I met all of these wonderful people I found that some were Wiccan, some without any formal religion, some Christian etc. I had so many new and wonderful friends, and was loving the tarot. I was also learning I had intuitive gifts and healing gifts. Now, I would not have had these wonderful experiences if I were not led to these types of groups (this one included).
I tend to think some people (like your friend who made the "witch" comment) are uneducated. People assume things they shouldn't. I am happy there seems to be communities like this forum where we can all share a common interest and have respect for each other despite different belief systems
I tend to think some people (like your friend who made the "witch" comment) are uneducated. People assume things they shouldn't. I am happy there seems to be communities like this forum where we can all share a common interest and have respect for each other despite different belief systems
Asbestos Mango
Empath111- the guy's not a friend. He's someone I'm in a day treatment program with, who I had only known a couple of days when he asked me for a reading. And he pestered me with inane questions (mostly ones I had already answered, but also ones that started "you said...(something totally different than what I had actually said.) He got on my nerves to the point that I won't even talk to him now, which is a bit dicey because I'm in three groups with him.
Empath111
I should have put friend in quotation marks
I was being a bit flip using that term. Sounds hairy...good luck with dealing with him..and maybe hide your cards when he's around! And yes, the way he said it sounded derogatory- and it wasn't necessary.
