Practice, practice, practice!

If you think about it, there are some pretty inspirational witches you may have grown up aspiring to be like. Sabrina, Hermione, and Glinda, to name a few. Of course there was also the Wicked Witch of the West, Winnie Sanderson, and Ursula. Witches have taken on many different images—sparkling and magnanimous or, often, evil and deadly. But, a real witch and the meaning of witchcraft is very different than the sorcery we’ve seen in pop culture.

Ultimately, practicing witchcraft is ritualistic. It’s a religious practice.

One girl tells Teen Vogue that her Irish-Catholic mother and grandmother, “did things they would never label as witchcraft, but that’s what they are, like hanging a rosary on their door to keep evil away.”

Another identifies herself as a “professional witch.” The other compares witches to musicians, meaning to say that one may be born with an innate talent or can learn and practice to become an expert.

In interviews, the witches explain their spirituality and the types of rituals that are involved in their lives. It is very connected to nature, to the changing year, and to the power of intuition, visualization, and dreams.

If witches could magically do away with the stigma attached to the word “witch,” they probably would. A witch called Lady Vanessa from Louisville, Kentucky actually said she has no problem at all with people teasing her about her spirituality. She said, “If someone asked me at a party if I arrived on my broomstick, I’d say ‘yes, it’s parked outside.’”