Truth About Witches, The Most Popular Halloween Symbols

By Prosperity66

When one hears the word witch it typically brings to our mind green-skinned old hags hovering over a large iron black cauldron filled with horrifying ingredients, chanting some sort of enchantment and worshipping the devil.

Fairy tales and derivative films made in Hollywood are mostly responsible for such unrealistic idea of those characters simply because it makes the film more exciting.

We also generally associate witches with the Halloween holiday. However, do we know what exactly are witches? Let’s find out…

First of all the word ‘witch’ is in fact derived from the words wiccian, wicce or wicca; all meaning ‘wise woman’, or in the plural, ‘wise women’. From the beginning of mankind, there have been women and men, who have been passionate by the different ways of healing, the specific properties of plants, the course of the stars, the moon, and other planets as well as the different aspects of the natural world.

Witches are normally associated with the earth-based religion known as Wicca but many others could be called “witches” as well while they are not following this particular religion. The truth is that those called “witches” practise a mix of ancient customs that come from the old pagan times. These rites existed centuries before the advent of the Christian religion. Christians propagated the word “witch” as well as the idea that those who lived under the cycles of nature were worshipping the church of the devil.

It was the Catholic religion which established the idea of Satan or any other demon. Until the Catholic church came on the scene there was no idea of Satan or any other demon. In reality, the word “pagan” itself stands for “people that live in the country” – not devil believers.

Men can be witches too, but the word is more associated with women. There is a misconception of the term that male witches are called ‘warlocks’ – this too is another of those Hollywood driven ideas because the word has a more virile consonance.

In reality the word “warlock” originates from the Middle English “warloghe”, and from ancient English “wrloga”; which means “the one that breaks faith” or “betrayer”. The word “warlock” was used by the followers of the pagan ways as a term of abomination to describe someone who bretrayed his people and the ways of Nature.

It is known that the main occupation of witches is to cast spells. The word ‘spell’ comes from the old german word “spiel”, whose definition is “to pray”, or “prayer”. Basically, someone who casts a spell, prays for a certain outcome; which is no different than what the followers of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. do. Indeed, the notion is that they are supposed to use the power of the forces of the universe to get what they want.

Just like in any other religion, it is necessary that witches set the mood and state of mind in their practice. And so, they use some tools in order to cast spells such as Athame – a ceremonial knife, book of shadows (spell book), scented oils, herbs, etc.

While witches are considered as being evils by many people, truth is, whether or not anyone is good or evil is up to the particular individual. Witchcraft is neither black nor white, but merely is and how it is used depends on the user.

As the basic law of magick states, do what thy will so long as it harms none.

“For as you send, so shall it return to ye thrice-fold.”

Do not forget this and happy spell casting on Halloween!

D. Halet is an European history, Holidays and Tarot Cards passionate; she writes articles and creates websites dedicated to these subjects.
For more info on Halloween Costume ideas, visit My Happy Halloween! and receive a free My Happy Halloween Guide.

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Topics: Halloween | Comments Off

Tags: craft tools, Halloween, magic, spell, Wicca, witchcraft, witches

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