Why do witches call themselves "witches"?

I am guessing that they call themselves witches because that’s what they are.

Ah, Sam, but communism IS admired by some people today. Likewise witches and witchcraft are appealing to some people today. But in the case of witches, the shock factor is something most of them get off on (if truth be told).

It should also be noted that there is very little about being a witch that requires the witch to do much more than make the claim. No seminary training or degree or even a denomination to call the person into service or a standard set of beliefs. A quick reading of some book on what is supposed to have been what witches did in the past and the aspirant is in business!

Sam Davis said:

I am guessing that they call themselves witches because that’s what they are.

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Yes, and they are PROUD of their sinfulness, not ashamed of it. (unless they are given a living conscience, and then their conscience will cause Godly sorrow for their sin, hopefully leading to repentance and salvation instead of more severe judgment and God's condemnation for their unbelief (their consciences being seared as they reject it) .

cloudyday2 said:

The word "witch" evokes images of old women with long warty noses and pointy black hats. In addition, various Bible translations instruct the Israelites to kill "witches" and European Christians accused many people of being "witches" in centuries past.

Why would a modern religion want to associate itself with a word like "witch"? The alternative word "pagan" is almost as bad, because that was a Christian slander - somewhat like "bumpkin" or "hillbilly".

If I was a "witch" I would invent a more marketable name for the religion. "New Age" is an example of a marketable name for a religion. It is almost as though the witches wanted to worry Christians by claiming ownership of a negative word.

And the beliefs and practices that Christians traditionally associate with the word "witch" don't apply to most "witches" today. It would be like forming a modern political party and calling yourself "communists" even though you don't actually share much in common with the original "communists" and you know that "communists" were not popular in the past.

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I usually don't treat the topic of either Wicca or New Age much, and I don't plan on changing this any time soon, but I'll just leave this song from the 80's that I've always rather liked as my general 'comment' on this whole kind of thing. Enjoy! (Think 'A-ha'!)


Band: Justus - Song Title: That's Not For Me [Lyrics]

When I walked in the room there was a crystal ball on the table,
She looked into me with eyes of mystery,
And she said, "What's your sign?"
I don't believe you live your life by the stars, but woman,
That's not for me!

Don't you know I've seen your kind before.
I turned around and walked right out the door.
That's not for me, that's not for me, no!

He had the cards in his hands,
He was ready to deal with my fate,
Who will I be, Who will I marry,
I just can't wait!

It's just a game, they like to play,
It's all the same, I'd like to say,
Why, why, why, why can't you see,
No, no, no, that's not for me. NO!

Sure, but that approach which some self-styled witches take is quite fanciful and is not what witchcraft in the past was all about. The idea of the "good witch" that appears in children's stories and etc. is a modern invention.

Albion said:

Sure, but that approach which some self-styled witches take is quite fanciful and is not what witchcraft in the past was all about. The idea of the "good witch" that appears in children's stories and etc. is a modern invention.

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Yeah, the whole idea of Hansel and Gretel still gives me the Heebie-Geebies!

In medieval times in Europe witchcraft seems to have been a nature based folk religion. The so called "witch" quite frequently was also a herbal healer and/or midwife. Midnight rituals and the casting of spells seems also to be more in the imagination of outsiders than in actual reality.

cloudyday2 said:

The word "witch" evokes images of old women with long warty noses and pointy black hats. In addition, various Bible translations instruct the Israelites to kill "witches" and European Christians accused many people of being "witches" in centuries past.

Why would a modern religion want to associate itself with a word like "witch"? The alternative word "pagan" is almost as bad, because that was a Christian slander - somewhat like "bumpkin" or "hillbilly".

If I was a "witch" I would invent a more marketable name for the religion. "New Age" is an example of a marketable name for a religion. It is almost as though the witches wanted to worry Christians by claiming ownership of a negative word.

And the beliefs and practices that Christians traditionally associate with the word "witch" don't apply to most "witches" today. It would be like forming a modern political party and calling yourself "communists" even though you don't actually share much in common with the original "communists" and you know that "communists" were not popular in the past.

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Maybe Hollywood is to blame just a little? Not so long ago I saw the recent movie, "The Witch," and while I'm not usually too disturbed by Gothic type movies, I found this film to be somewhat unsettling and I'm thinking that modern witches probably aren't happy over this kind of rendition of their various nature-induced beliefs?

Whenever I hear the term "witch" I think of it in female terms, I thought the term "warlock" was the male equivalent. Still hard to get used to guys referring to themselves as "witches".

Which if fine, nothing wrong with it people should use whatever terminology they want. When I describe my past spirituality I use the term "sadomasochism" a lot. Even though its a heavily loaded term. Invokes a sense of sexuality that wasn't present in my religion and who knows what else. Yet I feel like it is the most apt term to describe my spirituality and I'd rather stand tall about what it was than cower and use some softer terminology.

Same reason people who don't believe in god have mostly adopted to using the term "atheist" to describe themselves. When "agnostic" could be just as apt and maybe a little softer on the general populace to take in.

Many modern witches do not practice witchcraft as a religion, but as a craft that is entirely secular. Some religions such as Wicca *may* include witchcraft within their religion. Some witches consider witchcraft as part of their spiritual practice, but still not consider it as a religion, and some of course will consider witchcraft as their religion.

If you come across someone who is a modern witch, you really will need to ask them about how they define it since most assumptions are probably not going to be true. The witch living next door to them may have entirely different beliefs.

I have mixed feelings about using the term "witch" for a modern-day practice. On one end, many people have a difficult time losing all of the negative connotations of the term, and also for male witches, everyone assumes that witches are female rather than all genders. On the other end, there is something empowering in reclaiming a label that has been misused and abused.

In the bible, "witchcraft" is often a bad translation of something entirely different than our own perceptions of the term, so scripture could be specifically speaking out against the use of herbs to poison people, and modern-day bible literalists will use it to insist that demons are leaping out of the picture of the unicorn that Aunt Nancy has on the mantle above her fireplace.

cloudyday2 said:

Why would a modern religion want to associate itself with a word like "witch"? The alternative word "pagan" is almost as bad, because that was a Christian slander - somewhat like "bumpkin" or "hillbilly".

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The term "Christian" was once considered derisive, as well.
Christians - Wikipedia


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RayJeena said:

The term "Christian" was once considered derisive, as well.
Christians - Wikipedia


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In fact, it was actually Christians who were called pagans by the Roman Empire because it was Christians who did not believe in the gods of the Empire.

cloudyday2 said:

The word "witch" evokes images of old women with long warty noses and pointy black hats. In addition, various Bible translations instruct the Israelites to kill "witches" and European Christians accused many people of being "witches" in centuries past.

Why would a modern religion want to associate itself with a word like "witch"? The alternative word "pagan" is almost as bad, because that was a Christian slander - somewhat like "bumpkin" or "hillbilly".

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Because it's deliberately a reclamation: the same way Christians are called what they are; or Lutherans or Methodists. These weren't terms of endearment. It's the same way pagan, heathen, and queer have been reclaimed. It's pulling the locus of control of language out of the hands of oppressors. This even includes non-offensive terms like Shaman, where there are an undercurrent of trying not to appropriate the continued religious traditions of closed groups like Native Americans because their language has been erased and simplified.

cloudyday2 said:

If I was a "witch" I would invent a more marketable name for the religion. "New Age" is an example of a marketable name for a religion. It is almost as though the witches wanted to worry Christians by claiming ownership of a negative word.

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New Age isn't a religion though, similar to paganism its a broad umbrella qualifier that some might or might not wear. And you're right that some did it deliberately to annoy Christians: mostly because Christians can be infuriated by the most trivial of things.

Plus there are so many different religions and groupings in play here that we can barely get anyone to agree on common terms as it is. These issues feature very prominently in the community especially when it comes do how naturalistic/atheistic pagans fit in with eclectics, reconstructionists etc. -- this is already very hotly contested.

cloudyday2 said:

And the beliefs and practices that Christians traditionally associate with the word "witch" don't apply to most "witches" today. It would be like forming a modern political party and calling yourself "communists" even though you don't actually share much in common with the original "communists" and you know that "communists" were not popular in the past.

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Most serious polytheists and neopagans have been moving away from the term and its become more closely associated with specifically the Wiccan religion. As polytheism continues to come back into its shoes; many of its reconstructed adherents take titles based on their specific religions; Heathen, Kemetic, Hellene, Rodnover etc.

I have no particular stake in that, I usually go by the term Neopagan for reasons that John Halstead makes clear in his latest book.

cloudyday2 said:

I would propose a better name for the religious approach - "Romanticism". It seems to have a lot in common with the literary movement called "Romanticism". A common thread to witches seems to be a desire to celebrate and experience the romance/magic of life. "Romanticist" is a lot more marketable than "witch" IMO.

Romanticism - Wikipedia

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A lot of pagans are working really hard to distance themselves from an early intellectual framework that grew up in Romanticism's often fervently Nationalistic bent. Many are looking to move the Intellectual infrastructure towards a more modern evaluation that doesn't teach revivalist religion as purely the adventure of those looking for a racially pure society. Plus its confusing because the term Romantic has a totally different meaning to people who have no background on the musical, intellectual and literary period it relates to. There's a lot of Romanticism I relate to, but I fail to see how using that term reduces confusion.

MehGuy said:

Same reason people who don't believe in god have mostly adopted to using the term "atheist" to describe themselves. When "agnostic" could be just as apt and maybe a little softer on the general populace to take in.

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I know its unrelated but this kind of drives me nuts: I'm generally of the position that the knowledge of gods isn't relevant and people only stay away from the term Atheist because Christians have done such an effective job at demonizing a massive group of people. If you do not believe in gods, you are an atheist in my book. Now, generally I prefer to use terms that explain my philosophical positions more like humanist or existential nihilist which sort of would imply a certain position but America has this weird psychosis with the term Atheism that gets under my skin.

Okay rant over lol

Zoness said:

I know its unrelated but this kind of drives me nuts: I'm generally of the position that the knowledge of gods isn't relevant and people only stay away from the term Atheist because Christians have done such an effective job at demonizing a massive group of people. If you do not believe in gods, you are an atheist in my book. Now, generally I prefer to use terms that explain my philosophical positions more like humanist or existential nihilist which sort of would imply a certain position but America has this weird psychosis with the term Atheism that gets under my skin.

Okay rant over lol

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Yeah.. I remember I had a co-worker who wouldn't use atheist or agnostic.. but some other weird made up term that just seemed to be the same as atheist.. kind of bugged me.

Weren't Christians called "atheists" during the Roman days? Lol.

On the other hand, there is nothing inherently defamatory about being an Atheist, since the term is about as straightforward and non-judgmental as can be--a (without) theism (belief in a god).

If there is something subtly scornful involved, it would be because of the attitude that theists have towards the atheistic POV, but that's not built into the term itself.

And as for such terms as Humanist , Nihilist, or Pagan...those words all carry OTHER meanings and are not actually synonyms for Atheist.

MehGuy said:

Weren't Christians called "atheists" during the Roman days? Lol.

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That's true, but that was the case because the pagan Romans thought that the Christians actually were atheists. They weren't using the word in any different sense.

Why do witches call themselves "witches"?
Because they weigh the same as a duck?