Spoiler alert: witches aren’t fugly bitter women like movies and shows depict. I was only a little disappointed when I found this out. I know what you’re thinking: how does one stumble upon this knowledge? Well, over the summer, a friend of mine had mentioned something about witchcraft to me and it sparked my interest (and by sparked my interest, I mean it was quarantine and I had nothing better to do). I spent about a week researching and learning about witchcraft in modern society and learned so many interesting and cool things that I never would have related to modern witchcraft.
Turns out, witchcraft is still practiced to this day and there are covens all over the world! One of the first things I learned when doing my research is most modern witches are actually pretty normal people, meaning they don’t necessarily stand out in a crowd. Witchcraft is all about karma and what you as a person add to this world. They believe that what you put out into the world will come back to you threefold. What this translates to in very mundane terms is if you treat people with kindness and empathy, you will in turn get 3x the amount of kindness and empathy back to you in your life. It’s not an instant gratification, but rather the Golden Rule we were all taught in elementary school; treat others the way you would like to be treated.
There is a variety of witchcraft paths, but the one I found the most interesting is the one called green witchcraft. Green witches are basically plant loving nerds. Many green witches enjoy keeping and maintaining plants by nurturing them and treating them with respect, especially ones that will be used for food down the line. Another path of witchcraft that I had already known about, but did not know it was related to witchcraft is rocks and gems. We’ve all seen jewelry with different gems or rocks in them saying they will do a specific thing if you wear them. For example, rose quartz is known for being the gem of love and compassion. Jewelry is sold with rose quartz advertised as being symbolic of love, and this all stems back to witchcraft and their belief that all natural things have a certain energy, ~vibe~ if you will, to them. Many witches will incorporate different gems and stones into their daily life to help them receive the specific energies they would like or need that day.
There is so much more to witchcraft than the few things I chose to write about and I hope I sparked a little curiosity in you to learn more. After a lot of reading and YouTube videos (by Harmony Nice), I came to the conclusion that witchcraft is either accurate about the meaning of life or a fantastic placebo. Either way, it works for some folks and helps to spread more kindness. Hopefully, if more people educate themselves on other ways of life and practices, this world might become a brighter place.