I AM A WITCH
by Constance Wise
I am a Witch, spelled with a capital W since it is my religion. Often people ask me if I’m a “white witch” or a “black witch.” They think they are playing the silly language game of “white” equals good as in cowboys in white hats and knights in shining armor on white horses and not the racial language games of “white” equals evil as in white supremacists, nor “black” equals good as in Black Power. So I tell them I’m a white witch, and they laugh because really they are playing the language game of witches-are-not-real, as in Glenda the good witch or evil old hags from fairy tales. What they don’t realize is that they are insulting my spirituality.
As I write this, I’m sitting in my study where I have four altars with colored candles and objects appropriate to the meaning of each direction. Blue in the East for inspiration and new beginnings, red in the South for fire and passion, green in the West for water and cleansing, and brown in the North for the Earth and grounding. I have lit my altar candles today, as I often do when I work at my computer, to surround myself with the reality of my spiritual practice, to seek inspiration and passion for communicating my truth in this blog, for cleansing from my anger at people who dismiss my religion as nonsense, and for the grounding I need to speak my truth. In a traditional Wiccan ritual space there would also be a candle in the center representing the Goddess. As I sit at my computer and work, I represent the Goddess at the center of this room, and I feel the presence and love of the Goddess, even as Julian of Norwich felt the presence of God and the truth that “all will be well” when she went into her trances. I feel grounded, self-confident, and significant – all the positives that people insulting my religion steals from me.
Today “witches” are most often associated with Halloween, not a totally inaccurate association since one of our major holidays is Samhain (pronounced Sow when) on October 31, the day we believe the veil between the worlds (roughly what Kant would call the noumenal and phenomenal worlds) is the thinnest. Or people think of the witches burned at the stake in the 13th through 17th centuries, again not a bad association since we claim a spiritual link to these persecuted souls, though today most Witches have abandoned any factual historical link. Or we find our place in people’s imaginations as the witches, good and bad, of children’s literature. A minority of Christians at the right margin of that religion hear “witch” and think of Satanic practices, a truly inaccurate association since Satan is a product of the Christian tradition, an entity in which we Witches do not believe. But I’d almost rather people jump this last meaning since it at least puts us in the language game of religion. What most people do not think of at the mention of the word “witch” is a practitioner of a religion that is present and growing rapidly in the U. S. and other English-speaking countries. What I want to communicate is that we Witches are not frivolous, silly, and certainly not evil.