Are you a good witch or a bad Witch? Way back in the dim mists of my past when I was a young Witchling I got my first tattoo, a Pentagram. On discovering that a friend of mine taught his parrot to say “Is she a good Witch or a bad Witch?” whenever I entered his house. Walking the paths of initiatory experiences I walked both paths, as you must. Now that I am a much older and wiser Witch, a Crone, I have come to understand some things about what a Witch is and where the whole good/bad thing fits.
Witches work with the natural energies of the Cosmos, and as many have pointed out, “Mother Nature is a bitch.” What that means is that there is a very dark side to the natural energies of the Cosmos. It is neither good nor bad, it simply is. It is often hard for humans to look at the dark side, but it’s there, and one of magick’s harshest lessons is to give you the strength to look at the darkness head on, and learn to use it. How harsh the lesson becomes in a personal life depends on hard you resist the lesson.
Past the good/bad thing, are you a Witch at all? As a child I loved the TV show “Bewitched”. Samantha was a great thaumaturge, working magic to change reality around her. She did not practice theurgy. There was no religious or philosophical aspect to her magic. That is not a statement about good and evil, she was neither. She simply changed reality around her to achieve a goal. She was a Witch, however, and she worked with the reality around her to change things. Do you do that? If you do, then you are a Witch. Choosing a religious aspect to your magick adds a whole new level of understanding. And just a note – male witches are NOT warlocks, they are Witches! My biggest complaint about “Bewitched”, even when I was a kid.
So, are you a good Witch or a bad Witch? What are you doing with the natural energies around you? The energy is just the energy, what you do with it is the answer to the question, now isn’t it? And if you are changing the reality around you in any religious persuasion, then you are a Witch, because that is what Witches, Mages, Shamans, Priests, Priestesses, and all the rest do. They change reality around them by shaping the energy to meet their Will.
Have a Merry Trickster Night and a Blessed Samhain!
