Pittchcraft: Lessons from a Pitt Witch

College is a time to create an identity for oneself. It’s a time to make friendships, figure out a career path and further develop as a person. For me, my time in college has taught me that I want to be an architect and that I have a very strong connection with nature. Most importantly, it has been a time for me to finally accept who I am and be proud to call myself a Witch.

The term Witch has always been synonymous with evil — until now, that is. Recently, the practice of Witchcraft has come to represent much more than cauldrons and eyes of newt — it has become a term for a universally harmonious way of being. Witches are no longer green-skinned old ladies on broomsticks. They are normal people, just like anyone else, and they often go unnoticed.

With such a misunderstood term as Witch, it is no surprise that many people who practice the art often avoid labeling themselves out of fear of how others will react. But the term has finally come to mean something more pleasant, so it’s time for Witches to embrace who they are. It’s time to educate those who don’t know about Witchcraft and let everyone know that real, modern Witches exist. That being said, the idea of modern Witchcraft is often unknown to most people.

So what does it mean to be a Witch in this day and age? The greatest aspect of the redefinition of the term is that it is no longer representative of only a select group of people. In the past, mostly women were accused of being Witches. Nowadays, it doesn’t matter what gender, age or religion you are — truly anyone can be a Witch. Labeling someone a Witch used to suggest someone who practiced the Wiccan or Pagan religion. But no longer does one need to be a Wiccan or a Pagan to be a Witch. In the modern sense, Witchcraft is a way of life and something that can be molded to the individual and their personality.

Being a practicing Witch means believing in energies like the powers of the universe, nature, the power of your own mind and in many cases, spirits. Witches focus on the energies from these different aspects to strengthen things in their lives through regularly performing rituals. We use the term magick to define the harnessing of energies for our own use.

Not only are there numerous variations of Witchcraft, there are also numerous focuses of the practice. Kitchen Witches focus their energies on their home and their cooking. The magick they create is infused in the creation of something relating to the home, whether it be dinner or simply decorating their home with certain ornaments that they feel drawn to. Cosmic Witches focus on astrology and the alignments of planets to produce their magick. Eclectic Witches take their practices from all variations of Witchcraft and transform them all into their own unique rituals. Lastly, Green Witches focus on the forces of nature and the elements from which to draw their magick.

I am a practicing Green Witch. I was first introduced to Witchcraft in high school by my best friend, a Wiccan. When she got to know me, she realized I seemed to have a natural inclination towards universal energies and nature.

Back then, my family of hardcore Christians kept me from admitting my love for Witchcraft. But I kept learning over the years through my Wiccan friend and some other Witches in our school. I also found some great Witchcraft blogs and books from which to learn. My love of plants and instinctive connection to nature led me to being a Green Witch with Mother Nature as a sort of deity. Since strengthening my skills as a Witch, I have felt connected with myself and the natural world around me and focus more on living in the moment.

In all of my writings here, I will strive to normalize what it means to be a Witch of any kind, but I will be doing so from my experiences and knowledge as a Green Witch. For anyone who is not a Witch but is interested in the practices, I will also offer some small practices such as calming teas to incorporate into your nighttime ritual or herbal concoctions for easing stress.

An easy recipe anyone can try to bring good luck:

1. Take a jar of any size.
2. Fill the jar with equal parts pink salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Place a penny and a piece of quartz at the top of the jar.
4. If you have one, light a green candle and pour the wax over the lid of the jar to seal it.