I thought the article below was interesting, but not all inclusive....we need to remember that our spirituality is a very personal thing, and not everyone is going to practice or even believe the same thing...I would be interested on seeing others comments on this article...I think it will lead to some very good discussions.... LE


The 'W' Word (Witch), What Does it Mean?
by Summer Woodsong

The other day I sat down and again tried to define what it is that I
am doing. We are talking about beginning our church next year, but a
church of what? I am the type that is most comfortable with a clear
and complete understanding, so I began at the beginning.

I am a Witch. OK, fine. That means I am also a High Priestess. Great!
Of what? Oh, yeah � I am a High Priestess of the Gods. OK, so this is
a religion? Well.... It's a philosophy, I'm not certain it is a
religion. But it acts like one.

Religion, according to the dictionaries I can find, is a combination
of philosophy about our world and a set of social guidelines for
people to live together. In research I found several different
definitions, but one fact always came across fairly clearly � religion
always acknowledges power outside ourselves.

Now for Pagans this can be very difficult to incorporate as a concept.
We are fiercely independent critters, and do not seek anything that
smacks of that old time absolutist system where someone stands above
you and tells you not only what is right and wrong, but also that you
are going to catch hell � literally � if you don't obey. Obey �
there's the difficulty. Systems that demand obedience, in the name of
knowing better than you, do not recognize the innate authority of each
individual to run their own lives. Authoritarian systems dishonor our
choices of what to learn and what to experience. They also provide a
fairly predictable community, which has advantages.

However, what Paganism, Wicca and Witchcraft have in mind is broader.
Rather than tell you what you can and cannot do, it seeks to provide
guidelines within which you can do whatever you like, without
infringing on anyone else's similar pursuits. What the hell does that
mean? Well..... Let's go back to those basics I spoke of.

We are a community/religion/culture/group because of certain
commonalties. We as a group favor a life focused view � we do not
experience our lives as a `veil of tears' which we must suffer through
in order to arrive at a glorious afterlife. We also do not see life as
some sort of a trial we must undergo and pass through with a minimal
of screwups in order to qualify for eternal bliss.

Pagans see life as a celebration of a series of mysteries. Most
religions tend to ignore life transitions in favor of focusing on
attaining some pre-defined perfection. Paganism celebrates life,
birth, growth, proficiency, and attainment identified in three stages
� maiden/youth, mother/father, crone/sage. These stages represent many
diverse aspects of our humanity, but the explorations of
learning-exploration-warrior energy, then the
discipline-nurture-stability energy, and finally knowledge attained �
wisdom/non-manipulative judgment and acceptance phase. We do not rail
against the ravages of time on our physical self, we watch with
fascination the changes we experience and personify as we move through
the circle of rebirth, life and death. This is not to imply that all
of us are yet comfortable with these cycles. Most of us are the
product of strong death-centered religious philosophies and are only
now incorporating the joy of all facets of life into our world-view.
We value things that are not a commonality in the broader cultures we
inhabit, but are becoming more defined in our Pagan/Magickal communities.

What are these values? Well, at the basic level we certainly value
independence and strength of purpose. Even if we don't always agree
with someone's goals, there is much admiration for people who can get
things done, people who tend to have things arranged to their
preferences. We are only now beginning to produce the caveat that
success should not be engineered at the expense of another's choice of
path. We value experience. We are developing a reputation as one of
the world religions that has respect for Elders. Certainly later we
will be accused of worshipping them, veneration and respect are very
similar to worship, so why quibble over details. We value our
children, but there are some differences here as well. Our children
represent the cycle of life, the turn of the wheel in action. We are
able to share what we have attained that they might start further up
the ladder, but we do not compel. We view our children as being
entitled to a complex combination of potential and self-directed life
and spiritual choices. This tends to exist whether the parent is a
reincarnationist or not. It's part of our cultural beliefs.

Our values are expressed through a process of anthropomorphization
onto our Gods. That (if you think it's hard to read, try to say it out
loud!) is jargon for the process where we project our human
characteristics on things that are not human. In the attempt to make
the divine comprehensible, we give them attributes we understand. Just
as people call their cars � him, or large ships are she and subsequent
occurrences on that ship are interpreted as though the ship is a
living entity � we have Goddesses and Gods which represent important
things in our lives. Artemis/Mars for the ability to bring force into
play when it's needed. Aphrodite/Pan to allow indulgence into physical
love without apology for being divinely engrossed in its effects. We
look to Mary/Inanna/Isis/Hera and many others to represent the
confusing combination of nurturance, love, teaching, discipline and
patience which most female parents provide. Our male parenting figures
are largely underrepresented for some reason. Herne and other male
gods of the forest provide us with a male figure of that age that acts
as procurer of necessities and provider of strength. But we'll
probably find male nurturing figures as time goes by. And then we have
Hecate, Selene and the gods of age, wisdom and death. And one of the
most important figures, Loki/Coyote, who personify the forces of chaos
and unpredictability which explain misfortune and random acts in our
lives. Through these Goddesses and Gods we make the world and its
forces explainable, understandable and predictable.

These deities provide for us the framework of values for our culture.
Through the mythology surrounding these figures we define the ethics
of our community in an applicable fashion. Ethics are the rules, the
absolutes, the embodiment of our values brought into a form which we
can apply to ourselves, our peers, the members of our community and
our life situations/occurrences/transitions. We tell each other,
outsiders and our children stories of our Gods and their
experiences/adventures to illustrate what is right and expected within
our culture. Paganism is operating at a disadvantage at this time
because of the lack of definition in our mythology and culture � but
we are beginning to provide it. Although we use the names and
archetypes of Goddess and God's from many different cultures, they
need adaptation to be relative to our existence today. My husband
recently went on a trip to Scotland. There he bought a wonderful book
on mythology. He found a special place to read, and as he settled his
back to one of the smaller sacred circle stones that occur in many
places in Scotland, the day was perfect. But he was vastly
disappointed. The stories made no sense. They didn't touch anything
inside of him. There was no connection to a greater understanding and
empathy with the people in the story. Those stories were truths of a
different time based on the emotional needs of that era. These stories
don't incorporate cell phones, career ladders, working with
technology. We have to create new stories to bring these issues into
focus for our Pagan culture as it exists now. And the substance of
this mythology would mean nothing to that earlier culture.

One of the fondest myths we have abroad in the Pagan/Wiccan/Magickal
community is the myth that we are reclaiming a religion. There are
aspects of this that may hold some validity, but in the main we are
creating something incredibly different from Paganism of the past.
While we are reclaiming the veneration for our natural world, its
component ecosystems, creativity, sexuality, sympathetic magick, cycle
of life, etc., we are shaping them in a way that reflects the
abilities of our current technology, medicine, financial access,
social needs, motility, education, communication and choices. These
have changed vastly in just the last fifty years, never mind the
incredible changes that occurred in the fifty years prior to that!

As our mythology has failed and become irrelevant, so too did the
common Gods. We now demand more. And one of the areas which we must
address at this point in time is the creation and definition of Ethics
and Morals for our community. Why? Because these two areas will allow
us to finally take our place as a conjoined force among the world
religions, and allow formation of common goals which will provide us
the opportunity to wield the political, social and philosophical power
necessary to see the spread of the values that make up our religion
and our philosophy � or at least to ensure we continue to have the
right to believe and behave as we see fit, rather than conforming to
the norms of other � less suited � religions.

One of the continuous cries I have heard over the last 10-15 years is
the need for courtesies within our community. Etiquette. Manners.
Appropriate social interaction. There is reason for this. When our
culture shifted so sharply, there was a void in Ethics and Morals.
There was new info on the horizon and so the broader culture's rules
for social interaction began to fray and dissolve. This has prompted
many discussions around the United States, and I am certain in many
other countries as well. Over time I came to the understanding that
etiquette was not a low level concern. In going through the same
analysis process I had used to understand what and how ethics fit into
our lives, I was startled to discover that etiquette was not only as
important as ethics, but its companion and soul-mate. If ethics are
the absolutes from which our culture develops it's history, mythology
and definition � then its active component � etiquette � is the method
by which we convey and weave those definitions into the social
interactive methods of our people. Rather than being the fussy
afterthought that imposed manners seemed to me in my youth, these
social interactive styles are not the grease on the wheels of social
interaction, but the composition of the wheels themselves. Only by
conveyance of behavioral absolutes can we incorporate the substance of
our values into day to day life. Wheeee!

What does that mean? Well, if our Gods are the anthropomorphization of
our values, then Ethics are the ironclad rules by which we operate in
order to honor those stated values, members of our community and our
Gods. Etiquette is the indoctrination we provide newcomers to and
members of our community in order to ensure we all are working out of
the same book. This similarity in view allows us to operate within our
defined culture with predictability of social acceptance, sexual
customs, physical safety and success � or not � as we choose. This
allows us to know that the basic emotional, physical, social and
spiritual needs of our lives are provided for, and move on to
experience our lives on a very different level than mere survival.
Community is a method by which we humans are able to pursue evolution
of our culture, race and selves.

Now, I am about the last person anybody ever expected to be talking
about absolutes � ethical or moral. I have given many a lecture on
Rational Emotive Witchcraft and have taught who knows how many, that
absolutes lead to extremist thinking which is not productive for the
individual. But, absolutes have their place in a society. Thou Shalt
Not Kill � is an absolute. Thou Shalt Not Steal � is another. While
these seem simplistic from a distance, they fulfill a necessary
function � guidance for the development of morals. Defining morals was
one of those difficult processes. The dictionaries seemed to move in
circles. At the end of the definition, it would then bring in another
phrase which we thought was nailed down earlier. I are using the word
morals here to mean the individual interpretation of the ethical
absolutes for personal application. What!??? OK, if we look at our
first LAW mentioned above, thou shalt not kill, we can then see where
the personal application and differentiation comes in. But what if
he's trying to kill me? But what if he really needs killing? And
looking at the second LAW � thou shalt not steal, we come to similar
places on an individual situation. What if the thing I want to steal
was mine, but somebody stole it from me? Can I ethically steal it
back? What if my children are starving, and the baker has plenty � is
it wrong to steal to save lives?

These are moral dilemmas. Ethics have already defined the practice as
unacceptable, but morals allow individuality of response to the
particular situation. Sometimes called situational ethics, these are
the most difficult decisions to justify. Ultimately, it always comes
down to making a decision and going with it � and later accepting the
consequences.

Within our culture we have gotten into philosophical hot water, and
seriously damaged the credibility of our stated values, by mistaking
ethics for morals. If sufficient amount of the population understand
and empathize with divergence from the ethical code, then the act is
justified by the population as necessary and tolerable under the moral
code. This does not compromise the ethic and value. It provides for
one isolated aberration from the cultural standards that prevail. The
very confusion in which we hold the terms ethics, morals and related
terms show that we as a culture have no clear definitions from which
to work. This acceptance of individual variances from the LAWS are
what make our judicial and jury systems so incomprehensible from a
distance. Again and again we look at the bizarre results of trial by
jury and believe that it is an illustration of justice not prevailing.
Not so! Many times it is an illustration of the society condoning
moral choices within a framework of absolutes that simply did not suit
the conditions within which the individual found themselves. In fact
our legal system exists to allow for deviation and determination of
appropriate moral choices. If the choice cannot be justified and
integrated in the social values, then the individual is ostracized,
penalized and set apart from the ethical and moral components of that
society.

OK, back to the beginning. What is Witchcraft? Wicca? Paganism? Are
these religions/philosophies only a set of working social guidelines,
a reflection of wishful thinking, spiritual truth or the most
important piece of humans living together? Yes. All of the above.

I have come to believe that we have seriously underestimated the
importance of religion, spirituality, philosophy, mythology and all
their ramifications in our lives. There is no secular. There is no
mundane. From where I stand now I can see that all these items make up
important components of our total world. These items together comprise
our social, legal and religious environment. There is one definition
of the word religion that links it back to a word origin of relinking.
In its truest sense then, religion provides the commonalties in
viewpoint needed to define individual members within its parameters.
It links together predictable norms in terms of personal and
interpersonal interaction, sexual ethics and morals, financial
interactions, legal and judicial standards, interactions with the
divine, and methods for transactions and contracts. Religion is the
overarching concept that encompasses community, etiquette,
spirituality, values and ethics. In a very real sense, where ever you
have a group with common values, beliefs, and interactive rules, you
are looking at religion in action.

The primary difference between other established religions, and the
current status of Pagandom, is that we have yet to provide these
definitions to our populace, and to those who ask who and what we are.
We have gone to some lengths to avoid definition of our selves and
groups, believing that to compromise that maverick and rogue energy
will destroy what we most value in our religion. And we are coming to
a place where we must provide guidance and standards to that new group
of spiritual seekers, or let go of the concept of furthering Wicca and
Paganism amongst the masses.

It seems most irrational to have come to a point where we must
advocate absolutes in order to prevent absolutist behavior and
customs, but we have arrived. When I began to discuss Pagan Church, a
friend was caught between indignation and sarcasm. "What?", he
inquired, "Are you going to bring dogma to Pagans?" "Yes!", I
asserted, "If I can dogmatize the need for self-reliance,
responsibility for one's actions, creativity, and tolerance for
others, then, you bet!" If we don't provide these definitions now,
then others, perhaps with less vision and scruples will. It is time
for those who have tried to stay out of the limelight to contribute
their wisdom that we might build and define the most important aspects
of what we are trying to do for those who will come after us.

So that brings us back around to this church idea. A church is defined
as a body of worshippers, a group in faith. I cannot think of any
group of people whom I would rather be associated with than those in
the Pagan community. And I want to provide quality access to those who
are seeking knowledge of our mysteries, religion, and world-view. I
would love to see the beliefs of our community become commonplace. It
was never my intent to be a public figure, but if I don't agree with
the messages other individuals are providing as Pagan representatives,
then I have a responsibility to be accessible and provide my own
messages. Ethically, I have pledged my time and energy. So where does
that bring me?

I am proud to be a Witch. I have made my vows to the Goddess and God.
I, with full knowledge, have undertaken the obligation to further
harmony and growth in my world. Little did I know what strange waters
it would bring me to. But I am still afloat, and invite all my peers
to join me in the wildest trip to the new world. And we get to create
that world. I'm looking for a world rich in variety, beauty and joy,
and it's up to us to each put our oars in the water. I may not be
going in circles, but we're not moving forward as fast as we could.
Come on in, the water's fine!!

�OK First off, I could so not read all that!!! I gotst a head-um-ache!!!

Ok, I did read the biggest part of it, enough to know I have to argue!!!! �

First off no matter what you call things, it is what it is. That being, whatever it is you think it is, it is. By that same token, you are what ever it is you think you are.

If you think you are a Witch, then by Jorge, you are a Witch. If you consider yourself Pagan, then so be it, you are Pagan. Wanna be a Wiccan, then grab your shorts, you are a Wiccan.

Sure Wiccanism would most likely fall into the 'religion' catergory, but I don't think that anything else would, unless you follow it as if it were, and you thought it was, then guess what, it's YOUR religion.

I consider it a lifestyle. A way of living, not thinking. If ya gotta think that much about it, then ya ain't doin sumfin right dude! IMHO!

Are we part of a greater whole, yup. Do we have to seperate our Self from that greater whole, and look to it as something other than part of us? Dun think so.

The Gods and the Goddesses give identity to concepts. They are identifiers, focal points. Small pieces of the All, the greater Whole. Example, Hecate, Goddess of the Crossroads, the Dark Mother, when one needs help in decision making is it easier to seek focus with a big question mark, or to give identity with Hecate? She gives life, reason, meaning to the concept of decison making, confusion. it is our connection with the all, the Greater Whole thru which we receive our answers.

Does that make them any less 'real'? Hell no! They are as real as we believe them to be.

The same can be said of tools they are merely items, used to help focus our energies, our thoughts, our actions. We can acheive the same ends, reach the same goals without anything except our Self, and the All that is, without names, identities, or physicalities.

Why do we have to put things into boxes? Give them labels? Because it's easier.

AND as far as the whole absolutes!!! !!! Thou shalt not kill, then by damn thou shalt not eat!!!! Want meat, gotta kill a cow. Wanna chop, oops there goes the piggie. Want egg on that salad, well there goes one baby chick, not to mention all the now dead vegggies you got in that thar bowl! So you see, no matter how ya slice it, to live something must die, and if the tiger on the hunt gets hungry, well you might just be dinner!

Thou shalt not steal. There's even times we may have to do that. If I love someone is gonna do something stupid, I'll by surely steal his means to accomplish it! When we get into a desperate situation, you never know what you'd do if you had to, for you children. I kow. i did. I'm not proud of it, but at the time, I saw no other way to put food in the mouths of my children. I was caught. I was charged. Felony Grand theft, over $500. I did right. I returned. I repaid. I was seen in the eyes of the law, and those who I stole from, not to be a bad person, but a desperate person. I was rewarded in the end, with a clear record. I did wrong, but in the end, rightness won out.

So, there are no absoultes, only goals.

So very well put Novia.

I only read part of this, also, and maybe my response is way off track, but I like to talk, so there you have it...
I have seen so many people rebel against the "normal" or the "accepted".  Why?  Too many rules!  I watch my kids in school everyday.  I know the ones that come from overly strict households.  They are my sneakiest students.  When a way of believing becomes a "religion", then it becomes legalistic.  I learned this as a christian growing up.  I see this in the Muslim circles around me and in my school.  I see it in pagan communities (those I read, as I am not openly social as a pagan).  Whenever a "religion" starts saying "you must" or "you must not", that is exactly the thing that will cause many people to run the other direction.  Whenever there are people arguing over whether their way is better than another or not, then it has become a "religion", in my opinion.  The author tells us that religion is the combination of world philosophy and social guidelines.  People will follow a philosophy whether or not they believe in it, simply to be accepted by the common group.  They will convince themselves of it so thoroughly that they will believe that they believe it, when in fact they do not.  (figure that one out, if you will...) Social guidelines, as we all know, are rules.  ("sign, sign, everywhere a sign...do this don't do that, can't you read the signs?")  Rules to keep us out, keep us in, keep us under control.  What is control?  It is the act of one who wants ultimate power over others for whatever reason.  Do humans really have the capacity to control themselves?  I don't know.  I do know that as a solitary who follows her own path, (a toddling one, anyway), I am far closer to deity than I ever was as a Christian or Muslim, and I will not confine myself to the rules of a group, pagan or not.

Thank you Ladies, these thoughts are what I was thinking as well.

Seamonster you made a very good point when you stated "Whenever a "religion" starts saying "you must" or "you must not", that is exactly the thing that will cause many people to run the other direction." SO very true. In the end we are responsible for our own actions, and the repercussions....no one else. To have such boundaries and limitations placed upon us when we have free-will is ludicris. Yes, we need rules within society, but in our spiritual lives things should be as out conscious and subconsious self decides.

Novia, when you stated, "I consider it a lifestyle. A way of living, not thinking" that is it in a nutshell.....yoo many folks expect to come into this spiritual path desiring rules and plans to follow like sheep....well, not here folks....we live in balance...with all walks of life...and if it requires me to do something some other people may not find "kosher" so be it.  You must have the darkness and the light, you MUST have balance....and most of the spiritual paths out there do not provide this balance. This is a way of life, not a set of rules and commandments...

I look forward to what other people have to say ont he subject...it fascinates me and I know many of us here have very diverse ideas on living the Craft....we can learn and gain so much from each other....what a great place to explore!

To me, A Witch is someone who practices 'Witchcraft'

But that's just me. Maybe there's more to it.

I agree with Novia also, for me it is a lifestyle, a way of being.  I would much rather make my own decisions and then be responsible for them, than have someone giving me a list of thou shalts and shalt nots.  To me, it is being more fully alive.  I'm living my own life, making my own decisions, dealing with the consequences of those decisions.  I'm steering my own ship - it's exilerating and liberating, and I'm learning and growing and evolving.  

The Goddesses and Gods I turn to may be anthropomorphic, but they help me understand our ethics much better, and therefore are very real to me.  And I'm glad we are diverse to the point of being almost undescribable.  I'm glad we are having difficulty defining ourselves as a group to the general public.  To me, that means that we are getting it right.  In a sense I am an anarchist.  No, I don't support violence and lawlessness- I dream of a world where there don't have to be any laws or rulers.  Where everyone can follow their own paths in a balanced, healthy way where they 'harm none".  

I am a witch in that I live a life honoring Mother Earth, believe in the power of magick, and try as best possible to be responsible for myself.  I am a pagan in that I use a polytheistic system to try to understand the power that flows through me and is all around me.  I think part of the problem may be that we are trying to define ourselves in terms that are outmoded.  How can a right-wing conservative xtrian group understand what we profess, when it is so deeply ingrained in them that anything but what they have been taught is just plain wrong?  It's the whole, "let those who have ears, listen and understand" thing.  Some people just aren't ready.

I remember when Ifirst became interested in learning something new, Granted it started with Sylvia Browne tlellng me that there was a mother and a father God as to life everything a yin and a yang, once I read that (and quite a few more things) I felt this big weight lift off my shoulders, now this makes sense I thought, then fast track to Pagan/Wiccan learning, it just made sense.
I never did well following Rules!!(and I never understood how church made so much money and I was a "starving Sinner!!!"  Novia's right in my opinion, Seamonster too, take responsibility for your own life(easier said than done, but truth nonetheless) live right, live according to your morals....no religion to that....Very interesting Ladies....Thank you

Lavendar Ice

I do agree a lot with what Novia said. I've never been in the position where I had to break the law to keep my family fed. I've always thought of myself as a virtuous individual, and the idea of becoming desperate enough to do something that violates that sense of virtue is not a pleasant thought; but on the other hand, I have told lies to people to keep the peace. And as seamonster said, "Whenever a "religion" starts saying "you must" or "you must not", that is exactly the thing that will cause many people to run the other direction." Very well put!

I wonder though about the 'author' of the article, what is her background? From the time just following my 16th birthday, a couple friends introduced me to Wicca. I began to study and really felt this kinship with reverence for nature. It had been building up within me for quite sometime. Ever since my youth I was drawn to the ocean or the forest, and to thunderstorms.  Same goes for ideas of a male god and female goddess, whether as individual gods or representations of the great divine. I fell in love with uniting with the natural world. And yeah there were changes, but I never went back to Catholicism. There was something inside of me that was being called to a different way of believing and a different regard for oneness with the divine, than what my parents had taught me. My spirituality, not necessarily Witchcraft, I see as a means to process all of those things that have shaped me religiously and spiritually; the purpose of it is to weave my own path, make my own decisions. If they are good decisions that's great. If they are bad decisions, then I'll take responsibility for the repercussions. Either way they're mine. Witchcraft I see as a large part of my spirituality, but it is not the only influence, just one among many.

Regardless, I spent 14 yrs as a child growing up in a society rife with ideas about right and wrong, that was heavily steeped in the religious overtones of my parents, and their parents before them. The Croatians and Cubans tended to be Catholic. Anyways..I was always a very spiritual individual, and as a child found myself practicing these traditions, and at least in my mother observed a heaping amount of conformity to a woman's role in American society: polite, subdued, catering to the husband, viewing sex and menstruation as taboo subjects (not to mention birth control), foci on appearance and home design trends; believed that specialists (doctors, school administration, etc) are always right. Well that's so not the case. As I grew older, started to pay more attention to some of these social structures that she had such definitive trust within, and I didn't feel the same way. I was teetering on the early edge of teen angst and rebellion. I was a tomboy at that point. While I generally remained polite and exhibited manners, I never got why it was such a taboo to discuss what's happening with women's bodies. I remember writing a poem about my menses as a teenager. It got lots of laughs from the rich girls, but my teacher at the time, a feminist in her own right was never more proud.

I was never very concerned about looking like the women on the magazine covers, or cared about home design. I liked science, and literature, especially history and mythology. I wrote poetry and thought I wanted to be a guitarist. This was well into the 90s. By then, women had already began to break into 'careers'. I've learned the hard way that you can't and shouldn't automatically place your trust in figureheads of authority unless they prove themselves capable.  And thinking about these things when I noticed them has certainly impacted my life. I have a husband now, and my life doesn't revolve around him. Sometimes I'll do something nice for him, but most of the time if he wants something I'll tell him to get it himself. He thinks I'm being mean, but that's not it at all. I don't want him to ever expect me to be the woman that his mother is (or that my mother was). Its a reminder that its a two way street, and our union is one that we've come to on equal footing, and so we should carry an equal load.

I guess what I am getting at is that there are things that our parents teach us, fundamentals that we know are important elements to uphold in society, but then there are those viewpoints that we may not agree with, and we should feel free to push the envelope - not with the means to break the system, but to understand why other people fear to engage with it and express the need of engaging with a system that we are part of, in efforts to adapt it to the changing times.

Despite all the technology, medical advances, influx of alt religions and spiritualities, there is a greater need for manners and etiquette, that we've somehow lost in our society. Communication is more than just a text.

This is excellent!  I've merely skimmed through these great responses, but just want to add that "Witch" is the only description that seems to fit my beliefs and practice.  One of the original meanings is said to be "wise"... But I consider myself "wise" and "otherwise" because, however much I may have learned, there is so very much more I have yet to.

I was raised Christian, but I didn't rebel; I just kept having these crises of faith.  A better description is that I embraced my faith in "me" and came home to my Self when I stopped fighting what I knew in my heart.  There were too many questions, too many contradictions... but not after I studied on my own with an open mind and heart, realizing what struck a chord with me and what did not, although it may have for others.  To each his/her own!  And how can we interact and help each other if we're all exactly the same?  BORING!    

Diversity is a teacher if we let it be.  Never take for granted that we know exactly what a Witch is... until we know him/her!  Witches are many, many things and come in all varieties and flavors.

Free will and responsibility... Oh, yes!  No spoon-feeding!  We can GAG on that!

Blessings,
RK )O(  

It means whatever we think it means....I don't necessarily have a definition that would fit everyone which is probably good. Labels tend to limit people and inhibit their growth.