WHAT DO WITCHES BELIEVE?

LIFE IS A VALE OF CELEBRATION. Witches believe that life is sacred and wonderful and fundamentally good. Witches believe that everything--every life, every landscape, every system, every soul--is inter-related. Witches believe in the laws of physics and the power of love.

THERE IS STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY. Witches practice a life-affirming nature religion that recognizes the spirit in all beings. Wicca respects all people, and values our diversity. We are not threatened by other perspectives and practices; rather, we are all enriched by our companions' individuality.

MATTER AND SPIRIT ARE NOT SEPARATE. The world of spirit and symbol is as real as the physical world. Many Wiccans and other Witches believe the Goddess and the God exist in both worlds, as active principles in the physical realm and as the Mother Goddess and Her Horned Lover and Son on the spiritual plane.

POLARITY IS FUNDAMENTAL. God and Goddess? YES! Goddess is all that is eternal and generative. As the female produces seeds and gives birth in the plant and animal worlds, so in Wiccan thealogy the prime and generative principle is female. God is the name we give to the mortal cycle, all that dies and is reborn. Witches believe that mortal forms — including our own -- come from the eternal, and that it is through our mortality that the eternal is revealed. One cannot create or destroy energy, after all; one can only transform it to matter of almost infinite variety.

NATURE RECYCLES EVERYTHING. So Witches believe in reincarnation -- that after a rest in the Summerland, the dead return in new bodies to rejoin their clans in other generations. (Ask a dozen Wiccans how reincarnation works, and you're likely to get 13 answers! Because nature does so many things in more than one way, we expect reincarnation works in more than one way, too.)

IT’S SUPER TO BE NATURAL, AND THAT’S AS SUPERNATURAL AS IT GETS! Witches believe that everything we know or can imagine is part of nature. We believe that nature is cyclical; the Moon's phases and the Seasons birth, growth, death and rebirth tell us so. We believe the polarity we see in these cycles is complementary, not adversary. We do not see the world as being inevitably in conflict.

GODDESS IS ALIVE AND MAGIC IS AFOOT. We believe in magic as a natural force. Just as gravity keeps our feet on the ground, so a force we call magic bonds us on the pyscho-spiritual plane to every other creature and feature that shares this planet with us. Working magic takes different skills than working with gravity, but the magic Witches do is no more sinister than ballroom dancing!

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. Witches believe that the Three-fold Law (what you put into the world comes back to you three-fold) holds true in all the worlds, and experience confirms it. The Wiccan Rede, "An ye harm none, do as ye will," is accepted by many neo-Pagans, not just Wiccans. We believe in the wisdom and the practicality of the Law and the Rede.

LIFE HERE AND NOW IS HOLY. Witches celebrate the Wheel of the Year:: eight Sabbats and thirteen Esbats. Sabbats are solar (astronomical) holidays that mark the Seasons and stations in the God’s life; Esbats are meetings on the phases of the Moon. Witches believe that in keeping the Sabbats and Esbats we keep ourselves tuned to nature and honor the God and Goddess.

WHERE THERE’S LOVE, THERE CAN BE NO FEAR. Finally Witches believe, as the Charge of the Goddess tells us, that love unto all beings is the Goddess’ law. "Behold," She says, "I am the Mother of all things, and My love is poured forth over all the worlds." No matter what any leftover Inquisition propaganda or B-movies say, we DON’T believe in any devils; we just believe in life.