This guide provides a solid foundation in 20 key areas of witchcraft and spiritual practice, including the mysteries of Tarot and the power of magic. It emphasizes that finding your path is not about choosing what kind of witchcraft you want to practice, but about allowing your craft to develop its own flavor and personality as you are.
There are various types of witches, such as kitchen witch, ceremonial magic, folk magic, and more. To create your own magickal path, start by clarifying your intentions and exploring your interests. As you delve deeper into the craft, you may find yourself drawn to specific paths, such as Wicca, Hedge Witchery, or Eclectic Witchcraft.
Witchcraft is not synonymous with being a witch, so not all witches are wiccan. Ancestral Witches are an ancient form of magick contingent upon communicating with one’s ancestors. Wicca is not synonymous with witchhood, so not all witches are wiccan.
There are dozens or even hundreds of witchcraft paths, from cottage witch to kitchen witch and from shadow witch to hedge witch. Having a specialization or personal path in your witchcraft can be a challenge. Every individual witch will find their own path, which is customary in Witchcraft to choose a special “Witch, Magical, or Craft” name once educated, have practiced, and are certain it is right for them.
📹 How to choose your Witchcraft Path
Watch next: What is Folkmagick || Exploring Folklore & Practices Part 1 https://youtu.be/jGY_uTuo-yY WHAT IS WICCA // Wicca for …
📹 Choosing a Pagan Path – How to Choose Your Pagan Tradition
Choosing a Pagan path can be one of the most cumbersome parts of becoming a Pagan as there are so, so many to choose from.
I am an eclectic pagan myself. I incorporate deities from different pantheons primarily egyptian practices, native american practices, norse practices, greek practices and irish gaelic practices and animism. I feel it allows me to gain the full benefits of everything that the metaphysical world encompases and with me working with crystal healing and magic having all of those different deities gods and godesses really brings alot of power to my manifestation practices. I dont even refer to gods and godesses as such i call them the divine ones cuz i like to to adresses all the higher powers that i believe in while praying meditating and setting intentions with my crystals. Thank u for sharing this. Now i dont feel as bad about having more then one pagan path
This is very helpful. I been trying to discover my pagan path for a few years. I am more into animism than anything else. when I walk into a forest I feel a alot of spirits around me and when elements blend together my soul heals greatly. So I am more animism. But thank you for the article, I have to rewatch it again to pick up more what you said. Once again thanks for the article and keep on being connected to life.
Very helpful, thank you. I’ve been Christian for many years but my interest in herbs, natural health etc has seen a number of people identify me as a witch, and I’ve always felt some pull to that identity. At this stage I’d describe myself as Christo-pagan, emphasis on the ‘Christo’ and with prayers in place of spell work, but have accepted that I’m currently in an unfinished time of significant change so am focusing on forming my ‘Pagan’ identity and interrogating my Christian aspect in light of this
So I’ve been in and out of pursuing a greater understanding of my spirituality for most of my life. I was able to find Drawing Down the Moon online and I’m reading it just eyes wide. I’ve never considered magic, religion, and other views described in the book until now and I feel like it’s sort of blowing my mind. Thank you so much for making this article and recommending this book!
I am just starting my pagan journey in midlife after decades of being an atheist, but growing disillusioned with the hyper rationalism and mechanistic materialism underpinning much of that movement. Personally, I’m attracted to Hellenistic practice, perhaps due to my getting a degree in philosophy when I was younger and reading a lot of Greek writers. I also find relevance in the Norse pantheon, particularly Thor, and have always believed in reincarnation, having also read extensively on Eastern philosophy / religion (perhaps also motivating my distance from atheism). So my approach is eclectic, to say the least!
I’ve been a lot of different types of Pagans (Wiccan, Celtic, Asatrú, Eclectic, etc). But, around college, I finally found out about SubGenius, and stayed within that framework. I’ve been a Chaos Mage/Chaote about as long as I’ve been Pagan, and needed a DIY Path that let me do my own thing, while providing some stability, without making me feel like a twelve year-old. SubGenius has Short Duration Personal Saviors, where I could worship Dionyssus one day, David Bowie the next day, and Myself every Wednesday (or all three and more at once). 🙂 I consider SubGenius a Chaos Religion, because it’s easy to incorporate Chaos Magick, and do my own thing. Other Chaos Religions include Discordianism, Thelema, and Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos.
I’m currently christian but something is drawing me to paganism. I’ve always felt different from my family in beliefs. So I’m trying to find my path, I need to know what I’m talking about and what I’m doing before I openly practice because my family will have words with me. I feel like I might have skills in herbs and “spiritual communication” (if that’s what you call it, idk) but I’m thinking over going down that path. As well as I’m leaning towards, Norse or Celtic religion. 😊
I recommend the book, “Paganism – An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions”, by Joyce & River Higginbotham. In my opinion, it does an amazing job in covering this mass umbrella term of Paganism. Let’s face it, trying to define it is quite a complicated. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. -Eugene
This article was really great. You’re really good at explaining things. I just had a question. So I’m feeling drawn to two Norse Gods and one Greek one and I’m open to looking into witchcraft in the future. While I’ve decided I want to take things from both Norse and Keltic Paganism as I feel such a pull to both, anyway, would that fall under the term Eclectic Paganism? I ask mainly because I’m unsure and I’d like to be able to put a name to my beliefs that aptly describes them if it ever comes up.
I feel like I took nature for granted until I moved to a big city where vegetation is few and far in between. After living here for a few years, I’ve been longing to be surrounded by nature again. Anytime I have the opportunity to be around it, I feel such a connection now. I have never really been a spiritual person for most of my life, but after experiencing such a cut-off, I definitely feel it now
It’s weird because in my mind most of anything someone believes in can be true. Animism, witchcraft, the God and Goddess, Nordic religions, Christian religion, etc… It’s a feeling of both the terrifying unknown and complete wonderment of what could be. I lean towards The God and Goddess of Wiccan religion, Mother Gaia as a Goddess, the plants and animals having a souls, the idea of magick in all living things around us, magick and soul in the elements, magick in all things we do if we keep ourselves aware and do things with intention, the magick in belief, etc… I’m going to ask myself the questions you posed in this article to try and figure these things out for myself.
I like your distinction at the beginning between Magickal Practice and Pagan Faith. I am a Kaos Mage, but am Northern Trad Animist Heathen who follows the standard Celtic/ Wicca Feast Calendar. If that makes me a Universalist, so be it. Heck, i study Mazdaism, Hermetica, and Neoplatonism…even Gnostic Christianity. When asked, i simply say Folk Heathen. Never belonged to any Coven or Magickal Order…but i always try to make offerings to the Woodland Spirits where i live.
At the beginning of the article I was like, being a pagan doesn’t mean you’re a witch, it’s not the same thing, BUT I’m glad I continued perusal the article. Very well made article, finally someone who really does understand this topic/religion! Good job! 👏🏻😌You earned my subscribe ❤️ (slavic pagan here 🙋🏻♀️)
Hmmmm…..my beliefs center around Reincarnation, I love Brian Weiss and Michael Newton. But I also feel so at home in Nature, like I feel this amazing Life Force Energy when I’m in the forest, or the ocean, as I live in South Florida. Not particularly keen on the idea of magic(at the moment) as it sounds like Christian prayer. With that being said, does what I believe sound pagan? I know there is no formal doctrine, but it feels good to me to have correct beliefs and thoughts. Blessings!❤
you should probably not take the gods out of their original context, it’s disrespectful to the religions and cultures they come from. it’s okay to add your own twist but you should acknowledge the entire religion they come from, including the mythology, ethos, ethics and history. you can do non traditional things, but maybe try incorporating other parts of the religion into your path too. like if you worship Egyptian gods, practice ancestor worship or learn when their festival days are or what their ancient epitaphs are.
Thank you to you and Heather. I am really learning a lot from your website! You have reassured me that I can be electic in my spirituality. It really fits in with how I feel. I believe in reuncarnation, I dont know if there is a god and I feel a great affinity with Nature. Like you I feel ok that I dont know.
I don’t know what I am but I relate to spiritualism, sadly, it died out (no pun intended) and even though I don’t know much about spiritualism, people faked hauntings back in the day, and the rest is history, but I do believe in 1 God and ghosts, but I don’t vibe with Christianity or any organized religion……so I dunno. I’m also kinda agnostic too but I’m leaning on something spiritual being out there.
I’m a bit of an existentialist and I also hold pretty close onto Marxist materialism. I believe that the universe and the world is completely unexplainable and unprovable beyond our own senses, and the only thing that truly exists is material as it’s the only thing we can interact with on a mutual basis and understand beyond our own shared abstractions. And this interaction with the material world is what shapes society and social relations which in turn largely shape is as people. I’m interested in paganism because as an existentialist I believe whatever brings you value and fulfillment is just as valid as anyone else’s as long as it doesn’t degrade it, it may not be good but it’s valid to them. And I think this is a good way of exploring what brings myself value.
Just so you know Aphrodite was originally the goddess Astarte, the Phoenicians introduced her to the Greeks and she took on a life of her own. The Greeks also worshipped Egyptian gods, particularly the goddess is:s (sorry censoring bc of the name connection and YouTube). So eclectic paganism has a historical precedent
Your definition of Pagan was given to you by Christians. Not other pagans. The old Pagan didn’t have gods. They communed with nature. Not unlike Buddhist, but without temples. The spiritual aspect was brought about through ritual and MEDITATION. Polytheism is a Christian term. Which ironic since they all seem to ignore the UNKNOWN GOD in the bible proving there are two.
Well babe im not mad at you but i think you are wrong as i think buddhism teach meditation and i think for any practice of witchcraft its very important to know this knowledged because it awakes your subconciousness and their are many forms of meditation. If you go to thailand you will open your mind and you will know that they are related with something quite similar to witchcraft practice(thais like rituals and know about occult stuff).I did not know that witches are not all pagans,really? where you get that?very weird ehh……as you might know witches in the past comes from pagan root and polytheistic believes. I personally believes polytheistic believe its a form of knowledge to know different aspects of human life and different roles in the ´planet earth. I visited thailand 2018 and also i visted Iceland i do not have a preference in the pagan way or heathen way but i think i like norse vikings and i think they have a very good heathen pagan organization in Iceland called Asatrufelagio and the history of those vikings how they never forget their pagan roots makes the country a very interested place to visited again. So what are your preference?
Sounds to me like you’re a perennialist. You’re not thinking about how absurd what you’re saying is. All of these different views are ways of viewing reality itself, and they’re mutually exclusive as they have different views of metaphysics. Contradictions are nothing more than nonsense. So the only coherent position for you to take is something like there is one truth underlying all pagan religions that each individual religion has its own expression of. The question then becomes what criteria do you have for demarcating which beliefs in the many religions are true and which are false?
hey! firstly, thanks for this article, it really helped me a lot. ever since i was a child i believed in reincarnation cycle and that was it. i didn’t see myself fitting into any of the abrahamic religions as i didn’t believe in heaven and hell, and i also don’t believe in the christian god or the islamic god. i believe that we are part of the nature and the creator, that everything is alive, breathing and has a soul. i see nature as sacred and believe that gaia/mother nature is its source. that part is certain, i believe in magick but i want to stay close to nature as possible as i can so i don’t want to participate in it. i believe that we can connect with the deity/deities through rituals so i’m really open to doing that. the thing is, i don’t necessarily believe in mythological stories, i feel like the deities are real but the stories are exaggerations. the purpose of them is to make us understand our earthly mistakes through stories. ( i believe that the thing they call heaven and hell is on earth, our souls chose to come here to experience and when the cycle ends we return back to where we are originally from -to gaia-, because all souls are part of her) i also think that since some mythologies share common deities, they were just named differently but the deity was the same one so we can call them by whatever name we want. i celebrate the sabbats, try to live according to my beliefs. what i wanted to ask is, since ancient pagans believed in nature and there is polytheism in neo-paganism and i participate in both, what should i call myself?