What Is Witchcraft? A Modern Guide to Energy, Intention, and Reclaiming the Word Witch

What Is Witchcraft?

Ask a hundred witches and you’ll probably get a hundred slightly different answers. That’s because witchcraft is a deeply personal practice, shaped by your beliefs, your experiences, and the way you connect with energy, nature, intention, and symbolism to shape your reality.

It’s not a religion (though some witches blend it with spiritual paths), and it’s not a fantasy from storybooks. In this post, I’ll share my understanding of modern witchcraft - as a secular (non-religious) witch - and explore its true meaning, its painful history, and how contemporary witches practise it today.

What Is Practising Witchcraft?

Most witches believe in some form of energy. People might call it spirit, chi, light, or life force, but it’s often understood to be present in all things (or at least all living things).

Practising witchcraft means becoming aware of that energy and learning how to work with it.

Most witchcraft practices fall into one of these core categories:

Working with Existing Energy

This is about aligning with natural rhythms in your life. You might plan new projects for spring, work through summer, harvest in autumn, and rest in winter.

Or tune into the moon’s cycle: setting intentions at the new moon and releasing at the full moon.

You might also work with energy through colour, crystals, or herbs in everyday life.

Interpreting Signs and Symbols

Divination (like tarot, oracle cards, pendulums, or scrying) is about reading symbols and signs to uncover deeper insight. Some witches also interpret messages from nature or intuition. More than fortune-telling, divination is a tool for reflection, pattern noticing, and self-awareness.

Shifting Energy Through Spellwork

Spellwork is the art of influencing a situation by shifting the energy around it.

Rituals and intentional actions align your inner intentions with outer change.

Whether simple or elaborate, communal or personal, the power lies in focused intention and ritual structure.

Want to try a little summer magic for yourself?

My Simple Summer Spellbook is packed with easy, joyful spells and rituals to help you tune into the season’s energy, with no fancy tools or experience needed.

Is Witchcraft a Religion? Are All Witches Wiccan?

Short answer: no.

Wicca is a modern religion that includes witchcraft, but witchcraft itself is not religious. Founded in the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, claiming ancient Celtic roots (though evidence is sparse), Wicca centres around the five elements and nature-based rituals. In the 1960s, Alex Sanders created Alexandrian Wicca, adding divine feminine and masculine emphasis and Kabbalistic elements.

Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca still exist, and Wicca is recognised as a modern witchcraft religion - but that doesn’t mean all witches are Wiccan.

Many witches today consciously move away from Wicca. Some identify as Pagan: following specific gods or pre-Christian spiritual traditions.

Many modern witches, myself included, are secular. We don’t worship deities literally, though we might engage with them symbolically.

Witchcraft is a practice. It can belong to a religion, but it doesn’t have to.

A Brief (and Bloody) History of Witchcraft

It’s vital to understand the history of the word witch before reclaiming it. Historically, a witch was not a spellcaster, it was someone accused of working with the devil.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, around 50,000 people across Europe were executed for "witchcraft." Executed often meant tortured into false confessions, then killed.

Most accused were women, but not witches in our modern sense.

They were healers, midwives, widows, loners, or simply disliked. Their only crime was not fitting into a Puritan definition of femininity. These were violent acts meant to control and silence women’s autonomy and knowledge.

So when you call yourself a witch in 2025, it’s a feminist act. You are reclaiming a word once used to oppress, and wearing it as a symbol of liberation and power.

Is a Male Witch Called a Wizard?

No.

The idea that men are called wizards and women are called witches mostly comes from modern fantasy stories. In particular, everyone’s least favourite TERF-y author popularised the idea that witches and wizards are the gendered terms for magic practitioners. 

A wizard is a figure from folklore and fiction. Wizards are usually imagined as powerful, wise men, often educated and respected. Think: Merlin, Gandalf, Dumbledore.

It is worth noticing how the powerful magical man becomes a wise and respected wizard in stories, while the powerful magical woman becomes a dangerous witch.

Today, anyone of any gender can be a witch.

However - I personally think that if you are someone who benefits directly from the patriarchy (ie. a straight cis man), you should think very carefully before claiming the title of witch as your own. It is a word rooted in the persecution of women and marginalised people.

Using it should come with reflection, respect and an understanding of the history you are stepping into - as a bare minimum. 

Are You a Witch?

Only you can answer that!

But if you have read this far, there is a pretty good chance you are (unless you are just here trying to understand your weird auntie, in which case ✌️).

If you are unsure, try it on for size. You do not have to commit forever. Just see how it feels to say “I am a witch.” Light a candle, try a simple spell (there’s some in my Summer Spellbook), or pull a tarot card and journal about it (my free Tarot Companion Journal can help you with that)."

If it doesn’t feel right, that’s okay! But take a moment to ask yourself why.

Being a witch is not just about working with energy. It is about standing up for yourself. It is about standing with the marginalised and the misunderstood. It is about reclaiming your power and using it with care.

If some part of you feels drawn to that, even a little, then you might just be a witch!

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