Unpacking Myths about the Modern Witch
Hello and welcome back dear readers to our newest installment of the Witches of Wide Island series. It has been a while. We have been thinking about all of these things we like to share with you all from looking at the zodiacs to Witches in pop culture and in doing so we have failed to really address some very basic points. What is modern Witchcraft? More importantly, what is it not? So we thought that we would begin here today and dispel some Hollywood myths and give you insight into the life of a Witch. Grab a snack and cozy warm tea or coffee of choice and settle in while we look into the practice of a modern Witch.
One of the most common questions surrounding modern Witchcraft is “do you worship the devil”? You’ve seen the images of a barely clothed lady of the night riding on a goat (her hair was flawless by the way, look at the picture she definitely used Olaplex) or perhaps you’ve seen that odd reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, or more quaint depictions like that of the witches of Hocus Pocus. The one thing they all share in common is some practice or worship of the Christian idea of Satan. Now, the short answer to this question is no. Witches ascribe to a variety of pantheons and deities and often you will find Satan is not among them. It doesn’t always apply. However, the long answer is some, but not in the ways you might think. Some Witches may choose to operate within that pantheon and include deities like Lilith or Lucifer but they do not carry the same weight or full negativity as the Christian connotation of Satan. In short, not really no, but like how one chooses to conduct any spiritual practice it comes down to personal choice. Some people mix pantheons while others have none at all.
Another common question that you would think would be a joke is do you dance naked under the full moon? Again if you’ve spent on Netflix recently, chances are you’ve seen something like Outlander (which we are convinced is 50 Shades of Gray for people who were obsessed with Pride and Prejudice as teens) where in season 1 the witch Geillis is doing some sort of ritual dance under the full moon in her birthday-suit. We are sorry to disappoint dear readers, but most Witches do not run around in their skivvies dancing under the full moon. While we cannot say that all do not, the ritual practice of being skyclad is not very common amongst practitioners.
The idea behind it was that there would be no barrier between you and the ritual you are performing. There are similar ideas in Judaism like the idea that there should be nothing between you and the ritual bath or Mikvah that you take in order to be cleansed. It is important to note that the concept of skyclad came from the founder of Wicca and he was also a nudist so not surprising that he introduced nudity into his spiritual practice.We also feel that the greco-roman idea that the followers of Bacchus/Dionysus would “revel naked” also heavily influenced the perception since throughout history there have been “revivals” of interest in the cult worship of the Greeks and Romans and depictions of it. Being skyclad is a personal choice, but not one often practiced by modern Witches.
This ties in nicely with the question of are all Witches Wiccans questions. The answer is no. While they are both pagan religions, they are different spokes on that wheel. Some people may use both titles while others will not.
Now let’s get to the pentagram and the pentacle shall we? One question we hear so often is why are you wearing that? Or we get looks and while this does not mean everyone does, it does happen. For a long time the pentagram and pentacle were considered to be apotropaic symbols. Now to save you from going down the crazy google scroll that is apotropaic magic and coming across things like Witch bottles and cat mummies, we will give you a brief definition (although for our fellow ADHD folks, we shall see you in an hour). Apotropaic signs and items are meant to prevent bad things and magicks from harming you. People still perform apotropaic magic whether knowingly or not like the idea of tossing salt over your shoulder if you spill it or knocking on wood if you said something you do not wish to come true. The pentagram and pentacle were signs of protection, not evil.
Did you know, dear readers, that the pentagram was used in depictions of Arthurian knights like Sir Gawain. Most prominently it features in his story with the Green Knight and represents truth and morality not Satanism. The story of Sir Gawain is one that heavily followed the chivalric tradition of the time which mixed christian ideals with that of heroism. So, it wouldn’t have been out of place in chivalric tales although Sir Gawain’s story was one of the first to utilize it. .
It was used as an early christian symbol for the five senses, something that can also be seen in the story of Sir Gawain or as a representation of the five wounds of Christ. The pentagram can be found in a number of religions by a number of different names, The sigil has only recently garnered its tarnished reputation and satanic associations. We slowly start to see the pentacle and pentagram receive magickal elements in the renaissance when they are given neo-platonic elements (fire, water, earth, air, and spirit). The renaissance was a crazy time, if you need further proof just google Julia Tofana and Cesare Borgia and come back. For that google trip, we can wait.
Like most things the pentagram got picked up by the occultist movements in the early 19th century. Here some people decided to invert it and decide that it looks like a goat and therefore represents Baphomet and Satan by extension. So, it was fairly recent in history that the pentacle and pentagram garnered this evil and satanic reputation. Later goth and other similar movements coopted the pentacle into fashion and used it as a way to reference darker themes of horror and neo-paganism (though this is largely due to hollywood and music influence and less so paganism). The pentagram and pentacle are often very sacred symbols to Witches, much like a cross would be to a christian. So we believe it is best to be respectful of other religions and their symbols as we would want them to be to ours.
The last question is do you cast spells on people. Hollywood really does ruin everything it touches and paganism is no exception (don’t get us started about depictions of historical dress. The ugg boots in Little Women are still unforgivable). Many people’s perceptions of “spells” are often from movies like Practical Magic and the Craft. While both are killer moves in their own rights dear readers, they are not accurate depictions of what modern Witchcraft considers to be a “spell” or a “working”.
All religions have ritual practice both large and small. Mass in Catholicism, the writing of Sutras in Buddhism, prayer in Islam, these are all forms of ritual and worship. Witchcraft is the same in that it has ritual practice in the form of devotionals to deities, offerings to ancestors and deities and spellwork. Most if not all spellwork is inwardly focused on the Witch who is performing the right. The belief is that working on your intentions will attract good things to you and repel things you do not want. We do not go around casting love spells on people or cursing them. While hexing exists, it isn’t the way you’d see it done in the Craft. We cannot shapeshift into other people, or pull things out of thin air, if that were true we would not need to spend thousands of Yen on hair dye and hair appointments that’s for sure.
Now that we have cleared up some of your misconceptions, let’s talk about Witchcraft and how witches may practice in Japan. We can only speak from our own experience but for us things are in some aspects much easier and in others harder. One thing that is easier is the absence of the Judeo-Christian and historic ideas about Witchcraft. Japan has their own thoughts and opinions about Witches and sorceresses that are very much informed by the Shinto and Buddhist religions. For the people we have been comfortable sharing our practices with, they have been more than accepting and mostly curious. Now the hard part is sourcing supplies and specifically for us finding a way to balance respect for the local deities and spirits with devotionals to our own.
It’s a known fact that Japan has a limit on herbs and spices and while we can hear many of you shout the usual solutions of IHerb and Amazon it is important to note that those aren’t feasible for everyone in every circumstance. Often many people forget about the inconvenience of living in the inaka with no car and as we have stated before we can’t fly a broom so we are stuck with public transportation and dying of heat stroke to walk where we need to go. For example, our supermarket doesn’t exactly carry edible grade lavender or often not even rosemary from time to time so it makes rituals a bit challenging. Not to mention the kawaii nature of everything means that candles often only come in certain colors (PINK……while we love self love and beauty workings… its….yeah) so that’s another challenge.
As we said earlier, we also wish to be respectful of the deities and spirits who call Japan their home. It is their space and we are guests in it. While we do not worship or leave devotionals to the shrine gods or land spirits, we find it important to be aware of where we are and wish to be respectful. That means we do not engage in prayer at the shrines or purchase any of the talismans they sell there (this has been a recent personal choice). If we are not giving them our full commitment then it is rude to ask them for blessings and favors we did not put in the work to receive. Plus it can feel odd sometimes doing devotionals to diaties who do not belong to this land while in the home of other spirits. Again this may just be our personal choices dear readers.
Lastly there is the difficulty of untangling the modern concept of Witchcraft in people’s minds from the pop culture depictions of it and that’s no easy feat in Japan. Depictions of Witchcraft range from the kawaii of magical girls in Cardcaptor Sakura and Kiki in Majounotakubin to the more exorcist/ sorcerer vibes of Natsume Yuujinchou. The latter or which heavily features things that both western and asian cultures associate with Witchcraft or magical working like the use of sigils and the presence of animals specifically cats, foxes and rabbits. Both bring biases and assumptions to the word Witch or practitioner of “magic” and this is in addition to the people who just think you’re plain weird or strange and do cosplay. WE do not have the skills that cosplayers have….we can barely operate a hot glue gun without becoming tangled in the glue strings.
Anway, we hope that this helps you think about any biases you may have regarding paganism and modern Witchcraft and that knowing this will help make things clearer in the future when we discuss practice in Japan as foreigners and or even Japanese practitioners of Witchcraft. We hope that you enjoy your week and spend some time in the sun with good snacks and we will see you again soon!
Until next time,
The Witches of Wide Island
