The Old Religion

My name is Sam Conway. I am a 7th grader at St. John's Prep, I collect the souls of the damned and, oh yeah I'm a witch! First of all, witches are no Satanists, dammit! Our deities are usually thought of as the Lord and Lady, or God and Goddess. These are essentially the male and female aspects of nature.

Our major holidays are called Sabbats. These are; the Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lamas, Autumn Equinox, Candlemas, and Yule. These are based on the solar and lunar calendars. The year is also divided into two sections; the Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer. The Autumn/Winter are ruled by the God, and the Spring/Summer are ruled by the Goddess.

A common misconception about witches is that they are old hags that sit around steaming cauldrons, throwing in really ishy shit muttering mindless dribble. This is simply not true. The one element of truth here is that we do use a cauldron, which is a symbol of the Goddess. The fire is kindled in this cauldron instead of under it... We also use a broom, but not for flying! They are used for symbolically cleansing areas and at hand-fastings(weddings) in which they are used for "jumping the broom," your guess is as good as mine as to what this is. We also use many other tools, including the athame (ritual kife [not used for slaughtering infants]) wand, cup pentagram, and candles.

A witch keeps a book called a grimoire, or "book of shadows." this is not a Bible or holy book. It contains spells, rituals, and pictures. It is written by an individual witch or coven. A coven is a group of witches. Witches can be in a coven or be solitary prectitioners.

There are many different traditions, or denominations of witches. These include Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Third-Road, Seax-Wicca and Celtic. The major difference in the traditions is the different set of deities they follow, and how their rituals work. For example, Celtic Wicca focus' on the ancient Druids, so their Deities are Cernonos, the Dagda, Brigid, and Cerridwen. I should mention, however, that all Gods are the same God, and all Goddess' are the same Goddess, just with different names and aspects.

You may have heard the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. In this, 19 people were murdered on the accounts of being a witch. The reason that the Puritans persecuted the practitioners of the Craft was that witchcraft was a major rival religion. The people in Salem were not witches, they were just eccentric. The Salem Witch Trials were small and downscale in comparison to the mass inquisition that occurred in Europe between the 1300's and the 1800's. Twenty-six million people-more than four times the number of Jews killed in WW2- were murdered. Most of them were falsely accused of Witchcraft. Many confessed during torture, or died in the process.

Witches are not people who worship Satan, nor are they old women who fly around on brooms. They are you and they are me (well, maybe not you, but me.) We are not evil, in fact, our creed is "If it harms none, doeth as thou will." Well merry part.