Modern Witchcraft: Beginners Guide

Witchcraft & Religion

Let me get one thing straight: witchcraft is not a religion. You do not have to believe in gods and you don't have to follow specific dogma. Witchcraft is a tool, a practice; you do not have to be religious. You can be religious, but you don't have to be.

Witches who practise witchcraft without religion are known as secular witches. It is not necessary to work with deities and spirits. Secular witches instead just rely on their personal power, or they work with non-specific energies (e.g. the elements, universal energies, or the concept of "Spirit").

Having said that, a lot of witches do practise witchcraft religiously. Another important thing to understand is that witchcraft can be practised in conjunction with any religion. Yes, that includes Christianity and Catholicism. But mostly you will find witches who identify with some form of paganism. That is not to say that all pagans are witches; some pagans do not practise witchcraft.

Types of Theism

Throughout your research into witchcraft and paganism you will likely come across a plethora of different belief systems about divinity. From the belief that it does not exist, to the belief that divinity exists everywhere. Divine is used to describe that which is godly; deities, or concepts that transcend human capacity.

0️⃣ Atheism: the firm belief that divine does not exist; there is no God or gods. It may seem surprising, but witches can be atheist. There also exist (although uncommonly) atheistic pagans; most pagans of this type believe that deities are more like ideas, archetypes, or projections of human qualities.

1️⃣ Monotheism: the belief in only one God. You are familiar with this concept if you have any experience with Christianity, Catholicism, or Islam.

2️⃣ Duotheism: the belief in exactly two gods; a popular example of this can be found in Wicca. However, the Wiccan gods are also henotheistic, which means that other gods are believed to exist as facets or aspects of the Wiccan God and Goddess. (A similar concept is found in Hinduism, making it a kind of monotheist religion despite the reverence of many deities).

🔢 Polytheism: the belief in multiple deities; this is not synonymous with pantheism but the beliefs can be combined. Most forms of neo-paganism involve polytheism such as Celtic paganism, Norse paganism, Kemeticism, and Hellenism. (Duotheism is a subtype of polytheism).

♾️ Pantheism: the belief that there is no separation between divinity and reality, or that everything that exists contains God within it. An equivalent term you may come across is omnitheism (meaning all-god) which is the belief that everyone and everything is a god within itself or that God is part of everything. This is the belief that I personally hold; including that humans are not separate from divinity but rather we are divinity. Pantheists refer to their God by many names; The All, Akasha, Spirit, The Source. I prefer 'The Universe', 'universal consciousness', or 'universal energy' (1).

🌳 Animism: the belief that spirits exist in all things; the belief that objects, creatures, and all things have some form of spirit or soul. This is a very common concept in most forms of paganism and some witchcraft traditions (2).

❎ Irreligion: the rejection of, absence of, or indifference to any kind of religious thinking. An irreligious witch is one who excludes religious beliefs from their practice; they might simply practise by following their intuition without any kind of religious teaching in mind, or instead opt to practise scientifically using psychological techniques. There are plenty of practices in witchcraft that are detached from religion completely.

❔ Agnosticism: this is neither the belief nor non-belief in divinity; it simply means that one is not sure about their beliefs about divinity one way or another. You can be agnostic-atheist or agnostic-theist; the former being the belief that you're pretty sure that divinity doesn't exist but you can't be certain, and the latter being that you believe some kind of divinity exists but you are not certain on the exact nature of that divinity (you cannot describe your belief as monotheism, pantheism, or other; you simply don't know). Needless to say, witches can be agnostic; there is nothing wrong with that and it does not stop them from practising witchcraft.