#If men can't be witches then who the fuck was Gerald Gardner?

[breelandwalker]

Hey Bree! Haven't been keeping up with you so I hope you're doing well ^^ My coworker at work (who is wiccan) has been criticizing me recently on being a witch. Stuff like you can't call yourself a witch because you're a boy, you have to be a warlock, why do you use the wiccan calendar and holidays if you're not wiccan (in response to my mentioning Mabon coming up), I can't be a pagan witch and not wiccan, and I *have* to chose a pantheon, etc etc. And while I'm not really mad, it's kinda got me thinking that I actually don't know much about the wiccan religion itself! (I kinda have an aversion because an ex tried to force me into it and I didn't like the seemingly strict "harm none." I think I was too hex positive tbh) anyways! Sorry for the mini rant! Can I have a history/religion lesson please?

-sound of Bree gnawing through a table leg before answering-

Witchling, I want you to listen to me and I want you to internalize what I'm about to tell you, okay?

Witchcraft is for everyone. And witch is a gender-neutral term.

The whole "male witches must be warlocks" thing is a misnomer. And unfortunately, a lot of older witches still believe it and parts of modern pop culture still perpetuate it. And there are certain sects, such as Dianic Wiccans, that believe people who identify as anything other than AFAB can't be witches at all.

I don't usually like to wholesale naysay other people's beliefs, but these people are full of shit and so is your coworker. There is more than one way to be a witch and nobody gets to tell you you're not "doing it right" simply because your way is not the same as their way.

If you identify as male and you want to call yourself a witch, you go right the fuck ahead. If you want to be a pagan witch and not choose a particular path or pantheon, you go right the fuck ahead. If you want to keep your witchcraft and your religious practices separate, you go right the fuck ahead. All of these things are entirely up to you.

And while the Wheel of the Year cycle IS a Wiccan creation, most of the holidays it includes were borrowed from other traditions and the concept of celebrating the harvest cycle is hardly original to any one path, let along Wicca.

If you want to celebrate those holidays, there is nothing stopping you. Granted, Ostara and Mabon as we know them were created by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s, so if you'd rather just celebrate Harvest Home or the autumn equinox or the fall harvest, you can do that too. There's a ton of overlap that's open to everyone, regardless of their spiritual preferences. (You may want to check out Ep. 12 of Hex Positive, "Secular Celebrations," for some ideas and suggestions.)

Also, if Wiccans hadn't spent literal decades trying to convince the entire witchcraft community that Wicca was the only legitimate path for modern witches and insisting that their ways and traditions were supposed to be universal, maybe there wouldn't be so much confusion. But that's just my opinion. 🙄

Since I'm not Wiccan, I don't think I can give you a proper overview of the whole story there, but I can tell you that it's been around since the 1950s and is still very much in the process of evolving with the times. I highly recommend checking out @traegorn's discussion of the history of Wicca in Ep. 3 of BS-Free Witchcraft, appropriately entitled "The History of Wicca," and talk to them about any Wicca-related questions you may have.

Stay strong, poppet. The only one who can decide whether or not you're a witch is YOU. Don't let the haters bring you down! And if anybody gives you shit for not conforming to their way of doing the thing, you tell 'em come talk to me. If I can't set 'em straight, I'll certainly chew their ear off in the process.