Some Light on the Subject of Witchcraft

Witch, witchcraft, witchery, witched, bewitched. The very words reek of mystery and magic. Our libraries and bookstores overflow with books on the subject. Adolescents thumb through them, looking for a spell to undo the discontent they will probably outgrow. The poor, the disenfranchised, the chronically unlucky, the ignorant, the helpless, the hapless light candles and chant ancient syllables they do not understand. Poets and novelists are attracted to witchcraft because their daily work consists of tapping an invisible source whose workings are often mysterious to them (thus they wish they could propitiate the muse through some dependable means). The rationalist scoffs, secure in his superiority to all those who claim that intellect is not enough to take us through this life. (But is he really so secure? Doesn’t he too wish there were some magic he could believe in?)

We are all drawn to witchcraft—we all wish for a craft of wishing—yet few of us know what it is. Even the “authorities” do not agree, and most of the people who hope to practice witchcraft haven’t the remotest idea what the word means. Well then, some illumination on the subject of witchcraft—before we plunge into the fertile, teeming darkness.