Do you see witchcraft as a religion or a practice?

This is a really good question, and my answer is pretty short: practice.

But the long answer is, and pardon the foul language, but WHO THE FUCK KNOWS. It seems that there isn’t a real consensus out there, honestly. Google, it seems, is not my friend in this instance because entering “is witchcraft a religion” came up with tons of articles and websites that said, “Well, some say it is and some say it isn’t.” That’s the problem with paganism in general– there’s not governing religious body that makes decisions on how to define yourself and your path (just kidding, I actually really like that about paganism). Everyone is more or less free to define their religion as they please. That’s not to say that there isn’t some fighting about it, but at the end of the day you get as many definitions of paganism as there are practicing pagans.

I’m also gonna just throw it out there that there are some sites who start their Wicca 101 pages using Wicca and witchcraft interchangeably, calling both a religion. So it’s no wonder people call witchcraft their religion, considering the most easily accessible resources are defining witchcraft that way.

But as for my own beliefs, I see witchcraft as a practice, not a religion. People from different religions practice witchcraft or magic, even if they call it by another name, and that doesn’t make them pagan. I’m sure some would disagree but honestly, does it matter? People will define themselves as they want to, and really, how much harm is done? Not a lot, if any. It was only until very recently that I saw myself as a soon-to-be Jew who also happened to practice witchcraft (and that is not as uncommon as one would think). As you may know from previous posts (here and here), I have stepped back from that path, but I don’t regret it, and I may come back to it some day. I don’t know if the two are mutually exclusive, and there are Jewitches who would agree with me (and many Jews who wouldn’t).

This question has got my mind going all over the place. I hope something in there made sense to someone. Hopefully day 5 goes a little better!