A little blurb on Witchcraft as a Religion..I mean little

It's been another lazy morning for me, but it's Sunday and I don't mind that so much. I did get some reading done though, so it wasn't all bad. 

I'm really not sure what to write about today though...I'm kind of drawing a blank. It feels like I just wrote, but on top of that all I've done so far is eat, read, and get myself dressed. 

...

Maybe I'll go to one of the questions from a few months ago and answer that...

When did you first hear about Witchcraft being a religion? How do you feel about Witchcraft as a religion?

Well, I first heard about it in grade 7 - when I was 12 - from a new friend at the time. I had just moved to a new school and she lived up the street from me, so we became friends pretty quickly. One day she told me that her sister had been a Witch and I didn't believe her. Until that point I thought witches were fictional halloween characters, that they couldn't possibly be real. A quick internet search led us to several Angelfire websites indicating that witches are very much real, and that their religion is Wicca. Keep in mind, this was around 1999 and Google wasn't really a thing yet, and Wikipedia wasn't really either, so our source material wasn't exactly the most reliable, but it's in part because of those early web searches that I'm sitting here today writing this.

It's funny looking back on my life growing up - my dad had a collection of crystals, a crystal ball, tarot cards, and a Ouija board. I had no idea what that all meant, so I didn't realize that Witchcraft was right under my nose the whole time and I didn't know it. 

Anyway, up until the last few years I would have argued that Witchcraft wasn't a religion, but that Wicca was. I would have said that Witchcraft was a practice more than a religion. After a few solid years of really delving into things, reading more, and doing more, that viewpoint has changed somewhat. 

How do I feel about it as a religion...just fine I guess XP I mean, having taken a degree in Religious Studies I feel like I have a fairly decent understanding of what constitutes religion and what's more cultural practices. Sometimes it's really hard to distinguish between the two, especially in the case of more Eastern religions, but I think that one could certainly call Witchcraft a religion apart from Wicca. You just have to look hard enough to find the differences between the two, and that's what I found to be challenging for a while. Although there's not necessarily a unifying doctrine to Witchcraft, there are governing laws that - depending on the witch - people ascribe to (see the Hermetic Principles). Without going into too much detail here, because I'm now running short on time, there are also a general set of practices and certain times that most witches will observe and do. You really just have to look at the bigger picture, and to take a step back to see it. 

Now I've got to head off - I've got a whopping 10 minutes to make sure I've got everything ready for work before I leave.

Until next time!