Sorting Witches – Part II

Kitchen – Kitchen witches use whatever is at hand to create their magic, be it a paring knife or a screwdriver. This is the magic of everyday life, of home and hearth.

Solitary – Solitary witches practice alone, rather than as part of a group.

Traditional – Depending on who you talk to, traditional witches are either eclectic witches who are more conservative or “orthodox” in their choices, or they are people who insist that what they do pre-dates anything that Gardner did, and is therefore more authentic.

In addition to the above (and in Sorting Witches – Part I), the term “British Traditional” is bandied about quite a bit, but it can mean two different things. British Traditional Witchcraft focuses on the pre-Roman and pre-Christian beliefs of the British Isles, and is frequently a solitary practice. British Traditional Wicca (BTW), on the other hand, refers to those who practice Alexandrian or Gardnerian Wicca, and who have been initiated by a recognized BTW coven.

This list is by no means exhaustive. Several of the practices mentioned have offshoots of their own. It is also possible to combine approaches. For example, it is possible to be a Solitary Eclectic Kitchen witch, or a Dianic Green Hedge witch.

Of course, there are those who would object to having Witchcraft and Wicca in the same list. Such objectors hold that, while Wicca uses witchcraft, Witchcraft is a separate entity. On the other hand, there are others who insist that Witchcraft is the real “Old Religion”, and that Wicca is merely a denomination of it. It all boils down to whether or not you want your practice to be based on scholarship, or mythology. Modern scholars have debunked both Margaret Murray’s “Witch Cult” theory, and the theory that those persecuted in the European witch trials were the last remnants of an ancient pagan religion. Thus, what we are left with is whatever has verifiably come down to us from ancient times – original sources like Herodotus, Ptolemy, Thucydides, Pliny the Elder, and Pliny the Younger, as well as the literary and dramatic works of Euripides, Homer, Ovid, and Virgil, to name a few. For those who wish to ground their practice in scholarship, such classics are an excellent place to begin the process of reconstructing a spiritual/magical system, and many witches have done exactly that. However, there is nothing wrong with pure mythology. The Bible has also been debunked, and yet there are roughly 2 billion Christians in the world today. There is no reason why Wiccans cannot embrace their own mythology.