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As with the words "artist," "doctor,"
"scientist," or "diviner," the word "witch"
is almost meaningless without some sort of qualifying adjective
in front of it. Here is a brief review, in alphabetical order,
of the classification system I have created to distinguish the
various European and American sorts of witches from one another.
Note that several of these categories are capable of overlapping
and/or of being mixed by living individuals.
Anthropologic Witchcraft
Anything an anthropologist calls "witchcraft,"
usually referring to either or both of the following meanings:
1. The practices of independent (real or supposed) magic users
who are suspected of at least sometimes using their magic outside
of their society's accepted cultural norms
2. A perceived state, often involuntary, of being a monster who
can curse people with the "evil eye"
Christian Witchcraft, a.k.a. Christo-Wicca
The beliefs and practices of those
who mix Neoclassic Witchcraft (see below) and/or Neopagan Witchcraft
(Wicca) with a liberal form of Christianity, thus creating new
Mesopagan versions of Wicca. Those who do primarily the former
are often believers that "witchcraft is a craft," not
a religion. Those who do primarily the latter are looked at askance
by most Wiccans, who are inclined to think of them as "heretics."
Naturally, all but the most liberal of Christians consider people
doing any flavor whatsoever of witchcraft to be heretics, since
Christian priests, preachers, and ministers are supposed to have
a complete monopoly on all performances of magic.
Classic Witchcraft, a.k.a. Cunning Craft
The practices of the people that many
modern witches think were the original witches, but who are more
properly known as the cunning men and women. These folk were
seldom called "witches" (at least to their faces) and
could have any or all the following in their bags of tricks:
midwifery; healing with magic, herbs, and other folk remedies;
providing abortions, love potions, and poisons; divination; and
casting of curses and blessings. Classic Witches have continued
to exist to this very day, in ever dwindling numbers, mostly
in the remotest villages and among the Romany or other traveling
peoples.
Criminal Witchcraft
Witchcraft as originally conceived
by those who used the term first: the suspected or real use of
magic for negative purposes -in other words, magical malpractice.
This is probably what the word "wicce" originally referred
to, annoying as that may be to modern Wiccans, and is very similar
to the way anthropologists define witchcraft.
Diabolic Witchcraft
An imaginary cult of Devil worshipers
invented by the medieval Church, used as the excuse for raping,
torturing, and killing scores of thousands of women, children,
and men. The cult was said to consist of people who worshiped
the Christian Devil in exchange for magical powers they used
to benefit themselves and harm others. I used to call this "Gothic
Witchcraft."
Dianic Witchcraft
1. A postulated medieval cult of Diana
and/or Dianus worshipers (Margaret Mur-ray's idea).
2. Term used by some henotheistic Neopagan Witches to refer to
their concentration on the Goddess as more important than the
God.
3. Term used by some Feminist Witches, especially those who are
separatist, to describe their practices and beliefs.
Eclectic Witchcraft
The beliefs and practices of those
on the liberal/heterodox end of the Wiccan spectrum. See "Traditional
Witchcraft."
Ethnic Witchcraft
The practices of various non-English-speaking
people who use magic, religion, and alternative healing methods
in their own communities and who are called "witches"
by English speakers who don't know any better.
Family Tradition or "Fam-Trad"
Witchcraft
The practices and beliefs of those
who claim to belong to (or to have been taught by members of)
families that supposedly were "underground" Paleo-
or Mesopagans for several centuries in Europe and/or the Americas,
using their wealth and power to stay alive and secret. The overwhelming
majority of the people you will ever meet who claim to be Fam-Trad
Witches are simply lying, or have been lied to by their
teachers. Family Tradition Witchcraft is also sometimes called
"Hereditary Witchcraft" or even "Genetic Witchcraft."
These latter terms are used by those people who think they must
claim a witch as an ancestor to be a witch today or who think
that such ancestry "proves" them to be better witches
than those without such ancestry.
Fairy/Faery/Faërie
Tradition Witchcraft
1. Any of several different (and sometimes conflicting) Traditions
of Meso- and/or Neopagan Witchcraft started by the blind poet
and "scoundrel guru" Victor Anderson (19172001)
during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. He mixed British and Celtic
folklore about the fairies, Gardnerianism, Voodoo, Max Freedom
Long's version of Hawaiian Huna, Tantra, Gypsy magic, Native
American beliefs, and anything else he was thinking about at
the time he was training the founders of each Tradition.
2. Varieties of Neopagan Witchcraft focused around homosexual,
bisexual, and/or transexual images and magical methods rather
than the heterosexual (and sometimes homophobic) ones used in
most Wiccan Traditions.
3. Other sects of Neopagan Witchcraft focused around real or
made-up fairy lore, often taken from romantic poems, plays, and
novels about the fairies. In most of these Traditions, there
is usually an assumption that the medieval assumed associations
between fairies and witches were true, and that the fairies were
"originally" the Paleopagan nature spirits and/or deities.
Feminist Witchcraft
Several new monotheistic or henotheistic
religions started since the early 1970s by women in the feminist
community who belonged to the women's spirituality movement and/or
who had contact with Neopagan Witches. It is partially an outgrowth
of Neopagan Witchcraft, with male deities booted unceremoniously(!)
out of the religion entirely, and partially a conglomeration
of independent and eclectic do-it-yourself covens of spiritually
inclined feminists. The religions usually involve worshiping
only the syncretic Goddess (who is all goddesses) and using Her
as a source of inspiration, magical power, and psychological
growth. Their scholarship is often abysmal and men are usually
not allowed to join or participate.
Note, many other varieties of Witches also consider themselves
feminists or act like ones whether they use the term or not.
Gardnerian Witchcraft
The originally Mesopagan source of
what has now become Neopagan Witchcraft, founded by Gerald Gardner
and his friends in the late 1940s and '50s, based on his alleged
contacts with a surviving British coven of underground Pagan
Witches. After he finished inventing, expanding, and/or reconstructing
the rites, laws, and other materials, copies of his work were
stolen by numerous others who then claimed Fam-Trad status and
started new religions of their own. (See Ronald Hutton's Triumph
of the Moon for most of the messy details or Appendix 7 for
an overview.) Though Gardnerians are sometimes called "the
scourge of the Craft," together with the Alexandrians and
members of some other British Traditions, most of them may be
considered simply the orthodox branch of Neopagan Witchcraft.
Goth Witchcraft
People in the "Goth" subculture
who practice one or more varieties of Neoclassic, Neopagan, or
sometimes Neodiabolic Witchcraft. Goth Wiccans tend to focus
on "dark" gods and goddesses (meaning ones that rule
such matters as death and the underworld) and try to look scary.
Grandmotherly Witchcraft
Refers to the habit common among modern
Witches of claiming to have been initiated at an early age by
a mother or grandmother who belonged to a Fam-Trad but who is
now conveniently dead, doesn't speak English, and/or is otherwise
unavailable for questioning.
Immigrant Tradition or "Imm-Trad"
Witchcraft
Refers to the customs and beliefs
of postulated Mesopagan peasants and Fam-Trad members who immigrated
to the Americas and mingled their magical and religious customs
with each other, the Native Americans, enslaved African Americans,
and the previous immigrants. Examples of such Traditions might
include the dozens of kinds of American Voodoo and Hoodoo (see
Voodoo
and Afro-Caribbean Paganism, by Lilith Dorsey for details),
Pennsylvania "hex" magic, and Appalachian magical lore.
I don't use this term much any more since most of these people
seem to be just eclectic cunning folk, who don't seem to consider
what they do to be mostly religious.
Neoclassic Witchcraft
The current practices of those who
are consciously or unconsciously duplicating some or many of
the (real or assumed) activities of the Classic Witches/Cunning
Folk and who call themselves (or are called by others) "witches."
Neodiabolic Witchcraft
The beliefs and practices of some
modern Satanists, who work very hard to be everything that the
medieval Church and current fundamentalists say they should be.
Some of them perform Black Masses, commit blasphemy and sacrilege
toward Christian ideas and objects, hold (or long to hold) orgies,
and so on. There is some small overlap with the "Goth"
subculture of the 1980s, but most Goths are not Satanists.
Neopagan Witchcraft or Wicca
Many new duotheistic religions founded
since the 1960s, most of which are variations of Gardnerian Witchcraft
but some of which are independent inventions and/or reconstructions
based on real or supposed Fam-Trads, Imm-Trads, literary creations,
and so on-just like Gardner's! Most groups who call what they
do "Wicca" are Neopagan Witches, though some of the
more orthodox may be considered Mesopagan ones.
Neoshamanic Witchcraft
1. The beliefs and practices of those
modern persons who are attempting to rediscover, duplicate, and/or
expand on the practices of (postulated) Shamanic Witches.
2. Neopagan Witchcraft done with feathers, drums, crystals, and
other New Age additions of a vaguely shamanic flavor. Most use
drums and chanting rather than drugs to achieve their desired
trance states.
Shamanic Witchcraft
1. Originally, the beliefs and practices
of members of postulated independent belladonna/Moon Goddess
cults throughout premedieval Europe, remnants of which might
have survived into the Middle Ages.
2. Currently, Neoshamanic Witchcraft as done by those who do
not use the Neo- prefix.
Traditional Witchcraft
1. The beliefs and practices of those
on the conservative/orthodox end of the Wiccan spectrum. See
"Eclectic Witchcraft."
2. An extremely vague and badly abused term used by Gardner's
competitors, supposed Fam-Trads, and other folks trying to make
their practices seem older and more authentic than Wicca.
witchcraft-with-a-small-w
The beliefs and practices of those
modern persons following one or more varieties of Neoclassic
and/or Neopagan Witchcraft who refuse to admit it, usually while
claiming to be Fam-Trad Witches.
Witta
1. An imaginary form of Paleo- and
Mesopagan Witchcraft, supposedly practiced in ancient and medieval
Ireland, yet called by a Germanic term.
2. A modern blend of Anglo-Saxon/Germanic Reconstructionist Paganism
with Wicca.
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