For centuries witchcraft and magick have been looked upon with an air of suspicion, skepticism and hostility.
From the “burning times” of the 16th and 17th century, right through to the modern day, occult practices and esoteric thinking can often be regarded with a fair level of fear, judgement and misunderstanding.
As a result, many myths and superstitions have sprung up, generated from this fear and knowledge gap.
Let's dispel some, shall we?
Myth 1: Witches worship the devil and are “in league with Satan”
Since the emergence of Christianity into the western world in around the 1st century AD, initially as a sect within Judaism in the Roman province of Judea, the idea of “the devil” as a characterisation of all that is evil has been perpetuated.
It gradually became an egregore - a collective thought form - which developed and grew within the collective consciousness, and was passed on by word of mouth over many generations.
The figure we regard as the devil is actually the Christian bastardisation of the pagan god of nature, Pan. The horned head and goat-like cloven feet are directly ripped from the figurative description of a faun, with the intention being to demonise one of the major pagan gods and place into the mind of the masses that to worship Pan was an act of evil.
The egregore of the devil also serves as a system of control for believers, as it solidifies the idea that if you don’t live your life according to the doctrine, then you are evil and so will go to hell to be eternally tortured by the devil.
In truth, the devil isn’t even a figure which occurs within the belief system of witchcraft - we certainly don’t worship the devil as he is entirely a figure of the Christian faith.
Myth 2: Only women are witches
In many parts of the world, both men and women have traditionally been cunning folk (the traditional term for folk healers, and what we now regard as witches).
In fact, in Iceland and many of the Scandinavian countries, it was far more common for men to be practitioners of magick than women.
In ancient Celtic Britain and Ireland, the Druidic classes were predominantly men.
The truth is, both men and women have always practiced magick for as long as mankind have existed.
The idea of only women being witches mostly comes from the witch hunt hysteria of the 1600s, where poor, elderly or otherwise irritable or assertive women were accused, cast out, tortured and very often put to death for nothing other than their neighbour's words, odd behaviour or simply their appearance.
Myth 3: Black magick is evil
The “colours” of magick are often used to describe positive and negative magickal practices.
Black magick is often associated with dark acts, evil intentions, curses and hexes, while white witches are seen as light workers and healers.
But in reality, the colours of magick aren’t really relevant. Intention is what matters.
Just as a knife is merely a tool, neither good nor evil, it’s only the intention of the use of the knife that makes the difference. It can be used to feed a family, cut away a cancer or take a life. Intention is everything.
There are circumstances where baneful magick is used for healing.
This is a type of magick which uses curses, hexes, binding, banishing and destructive spells, in order to bring about “harm”.
But in witchcraft the term “harm” isn’t always as black and white as it seems - "harm" is entirely subjective.
Whilst casting a spell for you to get a new job for instance, would you not be doing “harm” to the other candidates who didn’t get the job? After all, they too have to put food on the table for their families...!
It could be considered harmful in the short term to banish or bind us from certain behaviours, but could in the longer term be highly healing and beneficial.
A spell to help someone to overcome alcoholism for instance, in the short term, would cause them a great deal of distress and could be deemed as harmful, but in reality and in the longer term, it would be highly beneficial and healing to their lives.
So you see, what constitutes harm and healing within magick often has a very thin line between, and just as the knife is merely a tool, as too is magick.
It’s all about the intention in the use of that magick.
Witchcraft is a hugely complex practice, and is filled with many nuances and paradoxes.
Understanding magick and dispelling the myths and superstitions around it helps us to have more informed conversations and removes the fear from our collective consciousness, which all helps to empower us and reduce the division.
If you want to learn more about witchcraft, ask your friendly neighbourhood witch!
For more musings, why not join the Facebook group Beneath The Canopy?