In dialogue with witches

  This Halloween season, many are binge-watching their favourite spooky movies, like Halloweentown or Hocus Pocus, hundreds of children are getting ready to wear their witch costumes out trick-or-treating, and some might even try their hand at magickal rituals for the first time. But what is witchcraft? Are all witches green and warty? Are they flying their broomsticks across the night sky, cursing candy, and cackling? The truth is, modern witchcraft is more common than you might think. Witches and practitioners of witchcraft are all around us, even at UofT. I had the privilege of moderating a conversation between two students who identify as witches as they shared their stories, their craft, common misconceptions, and things you might not realise about witchcraft!

The names of the students in the article below have been changed upon their request.

The Strand: Tell me a little bit about your practice. How do you identify with witchcraft? What was your journey?

Rene:  I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to hardcore label myself as a witch just yet. I suppose I’m still a beginner and kind of exploring things. But kind of how I ended up here is that I’ve always naturally been drawn to or interested in the occult and witchcraft stuff in general. But it was more, at that time, like a fantasy to me. Then I ended up getting my first tarot deck back before university started, and I realised that the messages kind of do sometimes sync up with what I’m feeling, what I’m seeing, or even patterns in other people’s lives. I ended up basically diving into tarot, like the whole theory behind its origins. It was originally played as a card game, right? But then people started using it as a divination tool. So, divination is what I would say I’m specialising in. Tarot specifically hits really close to home, and now I have six different decks. 

Audie: That’s cool! I love my first tarot deck. It was gifted to me, which is the tradition.

R: Yeah, I’ve definitely heard of the whole tradition where the first deck should be gifted to you. I guess in a sense, for me, I kind of follow the non-traditional route, compared to many other people, because I don’t believe that it is necessary. If the path calls to you, you should take it, as long as you take it respectfully. So yeah, that’s how I ended up here. I found tarot, and now I’m trying to learn more about how to align my craft with the phases of the moon while looking more into green witchcraft, as well as chaos magick.

A: Lovely! For me, I would classify myself as an eclectic, secular witch. My practice mainly involves a lot of shadow work, spell jars, a lot of kitchen magick, some crystal magick, and the phases of the moon are really important to me and my practice, as well. That’s just a little bit about me. I’m kind of all over the place and draw on whatever I feel the most connected to when I’m looking to fulfill a specific set of intentions with my craft. What you said that really resonated with me is finding the path that calls to you and taking it. I think that’s totally relatable. I feel passionate about the energies of the universe and how everything has correspondence and purpose. Although my practice isn’t necessarily religious, the nice thing about witchcraft is that I can practise a more secular brand of it, while still practising my faith as a separate thing. Obviously, there are also witches who have more religious practices, like Wiccans and other witches, who use deity work and incorporate more pagan traditions into their craft. Whatever your path—totally cool. Witchcraft is so personal and flexible that you don’t have to fit yourself into a box to practice, and I think that’s really awesome.

R: Definitely. I would say my practice is also a lot more secular, and I have the utmost respect towards people who do deity work as well. For me, and this may sound a bit blasphemous, but I’m my own deity. I make my own magick.

What are some ways that you incorporate your practice into your everyday life?

R: One of the best ways to incorporate your practice into your everyday life could be cleansing. We all want to maintain a clean home, so why not make it a little fun and witchy? If you’re into green witchcraft, throw some herbs in there for your wall washes and stuff like that. If you’re into divination or tarot, do a tarot pull every single morning just to feel out the vibes or the energy of the day. Simple things like that. If you’re really into jewellery, you could do glamour magick to enchant your jewellery to your own needs or purposes. And that just becomes a part of you. [Trying to make my practice an everyday part of me is] something that I’m still working on, but those are a couple of ideas I have in order to make your practice, your magickal journey, or whatever you want to call it, embedded as a part of you.

A: I don’t think anyone’s practice is really perfect. We’re all human. As much as you research and practice, there are still elements to be worked on. Like I said earlier, shadow work is like a big part of my practice. As scary as it sounds, it’s based on the theory of the shadow self by Jung. Essentially, it’s confronting all the parts of yourself that you don’t like or haven’t uncovered yet, in order to grow as a person and better develop into who you want to be. Introspection is tough, but knowing yourself and working to be better is hugely important to the success of anything you’re trying to manifest or conjure in everyday witchcraft. 

For people who don’t know anything about witchcraft, there is a term called “closed practices.” These are practices that are reserved for people who belong to certain racial, cultural, or religious groups. Can you talk a little bit about that?

R: Oh, my God. I am so glad you asked me about closed practices. I feel like this is a discussion I have almost every single day. I’m born and raised Hindu, and I’ve grown up that way my entire life. I would say that my spiritual beliefs still do incorporate well into my practice. So it’s a tricky subject, because you want people to explore other cultures and practices and to learn about you. You want them to get excited about that! Historically, a lot of people of different colour, cultures, and traditions have been put down tremendously. So what can you do if you want people to appreciate it? There comes an extent where that appreciation becomes exploitation. And I see this a lot in the witchcraft community, especially in this current New Age era of spirituality, which is primarily founded on stolen Hindu mysticism. For example, I see a lot of people coming in and saying, “I want to learn how to unblock all of my chakra. What crystals do I need? What herbs do I need? What should I do?” And I’m like, honey, please take a step back and realise where that concept originates from. So the thing is, my take on closed practices is that, on one hand, I don’t completely mind if someone does want to take up an interest and also wants to practice. But what needs to happen first is dedicated research towards the originating culture and not just how it’s practised. Also, where [the tradition] came from, why [it] is the way it is, the theory behind it, and how it was historically treated by outside cultures.

A: Very well put. I’m not a person of colour, and so that’s something that I really want to respect in my practice. And so I do think that research is one of the number one foundations in witchcraft, but also treating everything in your practice with respect is so important. I know most people also don’t realise smudging is a closed Indigenous practice. Even just cleansing with white sage and palo santo is frowned upon if you don’t belong to the cultures that those plants are sacred to. 

What are some common misconceptions about witchcraft?

R: I think people think that we’re all devil worshippers. They think we’re out to cut off their tongues!

A: Think of your classic Shakespearean witches’ chant, with your eye of newt and toe of frog. Something that most people don’t realise is that those are just traditional nicknames for common plants. 

R: Oh really? I didn’t know that!

A: Eye of newt is mustard seed, and toe of frog is buttercup. So, as scary as it sounds, most spell ingredients are really just herbal remedies.

R: I feel like people keep thinking that witchcraft is something ominous and demonic;  meanwhile, me and all the other witches I know are just kind of here like making our own lotions with herbal remedies, blasting music, and being like, I do music magick.

A: In Wicca, a huge concept is to do no harm. There’s this principle where anything that you do will come back to you threefold. So make sure not to send out negative energy into the world. Your actions have consequences.

R: That ties into the whole law of Karma that I personally believe in as well. People are really out here thinking that we’re gonna hex them at any chance. 

Of course, it’s improper to label someone a witch if that’s something they don’t self-identify with, especially with the stigma that’s been placed on that word historically, and culturally. With that aside, what are some things that people do that they don’t realise are part of some witchcraft practices?

A: Your birthday candles. You make the whole circle with your birthday candles and then you make a wish, or you put the number of candles that correspond to your age and then you make a wish. All of that has a paganistic tradition.

R: Well, even when you lose an eyelash and you make a wish on that. That eyelash is basically acting like a taglock.

A: Another thing that’s really interesting to me that I feel like has become very mainstream is crystals and using them with their associations, like the whole rose quartz craze.

R: [Another example is] good luck charms!

A: Yeah, good luck charms are a huge, everyday thing. Even just wearing your favourite colour, because you feel more confident in [that specific] colour.

R: That’s true, colour magick is a thing. People use it every day by dressing to correlate with their moods and what vibe they want to give off when they see other people. And then that reminds me of all those TikTok trends of people giving tips on what you can do to get some sort of desired effect. Oh, have you heard of that one [trend] with makeup where you put the white dots on your eyes to make a man like, totally hypnotised by you? In a way, that’s kind of a spell in and of itself.

         Witches, and those who practise witchcraft, are incredibly diverse in beliefs and practices, but they’re also still people with regular problems, like juggling their school work and social lives. Thank you to the students who volunteered to answer my questions. You brought magick to the pages of The Strand.

The word “taglock,” in this interview, refers to any object coming from a person or animal which witches can use to make them the target of a spell.