Witchblood

General Discussion
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I am so amused by the talks of science and genetics. I am scientifically oriented myself, even claiming extreme Atheism in public, but when talking about matters of magic, why even bother involving science? According to science, we are all delusional quacks.

I believe in Witchblood and I am certainly not obliged to acknowledge the authenticity of everyone who claims the name. Witchblood isn’t necessarily passed through families, but it is also passed through families. We recognize each other because we all come across as arrogant “snowflakes” and “larpers” to other people the few times we voice our beliefs (that in no way affect other people), and unlike the woman in the meme link provided, we typically do a far better job at hiding who we are from the world around us like @Mulberry . To everyone around me, I find any and all belief in the “supernatural” completely ridiculous and join the masses in laughing at the absurdity of it. I am also known to many people as someone to whom things just seem to “happen”, always seem to just “know” things, and somehow people who cross me always seem to end up getting theirs. If only they knew how.

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There’s a fine line between manifestation and claiming your DNA has a self proclaimed title in it that makes you more adept in something general.

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45

But having “something” in your DNA that makes you more adept at something is hardly a stretch. I am more intelligent than my sister. My sister is built in a way that makes her far better at her sport than I could ever be. We are all different. Why is magical prowess such a stretch?

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46

Claiming you’re a witch by blood is a stretch as witch isn’t a DNA thing it’s literally something people decide to call themselves based on the paths they walk. Oh don’t get me wrong we are all very different but that doesn’t mean someone has witch DNA, demon DNA, lizard DNA.

Your sister is simply different because she inherited 10 generations worth of varying DNA in your family compared to you. That’s common, being siblings doesn’t mean anything you inherit 10 generations worth of genetics that in those ten generations there will be clear differences.

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You are the one bringing up DNA, not me. I am just that arguing science about something magical is silly, because magic isn’t real according to science. I am also of the blood, my sister isn’t.

I realize “Witchblood” is a major trigger for some people, but I don’t understand why. Our snowflakey views on the topic of Witchdom shouldn’t bother you.

I don’t see being a Witch as something people “decide to call themselves based on the paths they walk”. Certainly people do that and that’s their prerogative. I just don’t see them as what I know to be Witches. But it’s fine. The better to hide the rest of us.

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You revived a dead topic that was centered around witch blood that was about being a witch by blood. Lol so yeah you kinda did. However, still claiming to be a witch is pretty much a choice, same as pagan, Wiccan, LHP, etc.

There’s no hiding anyone no one cares if people claim witch lol besides special snowflakes.

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Yes, I apologize for reviving a dead topic. The newer ones bored me, so I went searching.

It is fully up to people what they call themselves, just as it is up to me whether or not I regard them as such. My opinion, of course, is merely my perception. Shouldn’t bother them in the slightest, if they are sure of themselves.

And yet we do hide.

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You’re fine if you don’t want to accept their path lol.

However, you see actual witches openly state they are. This isn’t the days of witch hunts nor is it charmed. Being a witch doesn’t make you special or need to hide.

I’ve already experienced groups of kids who thought being witch meant they were these special people that needed to hide from the world or be hunted. Witches are no different from any other path besides their execution of their energy work.

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I don’t know any actual Witches who openly state what they are. Some do, of course, but they typically still do not “out” the family they have been taught by.

Well, if it makes kids feel special, then go for it. I see nothing wrong with children feeling special.

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This topic caught my eye, because there was some snarkiness on a Facebook group I belong to on this subject.

I also watched a Youtube video where a guy went to interview “real witches”. I hate myself for it, it was so shallow, but…the older witch said she thought witches were born, not made. And I have the book “Witchcraft”, which I picked up for some pointers on things, not my whole practice, and the author again makes the claim witches are born.

So this statement really sticks out to me right now. What does it mean to be a “born witch”? I suppose we could look at how practice influences DNA. That’s not too weird for me, since some researchers are now saying generational trauma can influence DNA, I think I read for several generations.

Looking at my own background, which is all I really have…I could say my mom was a witch, I suppose. She was unfortunately very mentally ill, so it did not benefit her, at all. And she came from a background in which organized religion was the only acceptable outlet for any spirituality. I know that when my brother and I were very little, she conducted a seance in the apartment where we lived. My aunt, who was living with us at the time to help take care of us, got us out of that place immediately. I think it was because Mom was obviously not well, and the people she had around her were not good. So I don’t blame my aunt, at all.

Then there’s me. I won’t bore you anymore than I already have, but I’ve always been drawn to the spiritual and all my childhood religion, and my chosen religions as an adult, have discouraged the occult, to the point of fear and revulsion. Still, I’ve been drawn. I can’t help it.

I have two children, grown now: a son and a daughter. My son has no interest in the occult, and identified with my more religious side. My daughter has a great deal of interest in the occult, and we discuss astrology and the tarot as easily as others talk about school or boys. I know she got that from me.

Now: what about that is “hereditary”? My daughter and her friend, whose mother is a Reiki practicioner, are known in their school as the “witchy ones”. Of course, this being 2020, witchcraft is very out there, some call it “trendy”, so it’s easier for my daughter’s friends to identify her and be okay with it. It’s easier for me to teach her what I know about astrology, tarot, and some energy things I do, and it’s easier for her to accept it. Contrast that to my own upbringing, as a child in the 70’s and a teenager in the 80’s. No way. I tried so hard to be a good Christian, even up to just ten years ago. I gave up. My occult “whatever” is too strong. But can you call that hereditary, a function of DNA? I don’t know.

I think of a “born witch” or “born occultist” as someone who feels that pull and cannot deny it, no matter what. That’s as much as I can definitively say. I suppose you could say you were born with it. You could say you were born into it. Does it matter?

Those who can claim hereditary, pedigreed, acknowledged witch ancestry I think are very lucky. I’m glad for them…they have a lot of the work of learning done for them, and an environment that encourages it, even if it must be secret from everyone else. The rest of us feel the call, but have to fight. We have to do the fight our parents, grandparent, and other ancestors may not have been able to wage.

If someone is a true, hereditary witch, that’s great, but don’t get too proud. You are the beneficiary of someone else’s hard work, someone else’s battle, someone else’s public shaming and perhaps execution. If that’s anyone here, I hope you appreciate it. And keep in mind, no matter how long your line of witches and occultists, someone, if you look back far enough, had to be the first. Someone in your line had to be the one to look elsewhere, to be brave enough to go where no one else in their family or society would go. Either they were born with real ability or real curiosity…I suspect it would be both. Also, as far as family, I think that if we could all go back far enough, we’d find the witch in our family, if we knew what to look for. They’ve always been everywhere.

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Three convicted witches in my family tree. My direct ancestor was executed. One of her sisters died in jail. The third sister survived. Their mother was accused back in the old country, but not tried.

Do I appreciate their struggle? You bet your ass. I vocally support keeping church and state separate, and I put up an ancestor altar for them every Halloween/Day of the Dead.

I get my psychic abilities from a different branch of the family tree (a long-ago ancestor was a well-known oracle). No one expects this, but I sometimes wish I didn’t have them. Knowing something bad is going to happen and not being able to prevent it is horrible.

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I’m pretty sure psychic abilities is just a natural part of being human to be honest, some more adept than others.

My grandma’s family practiced Hoodoo, my dad fears it, I dont care for it lol.

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I can only speak for myself and my beliefs (and perhaps slightly on behalf of the Witch who taught me a thing or two when I was younger). I believe Witches are born. While I realize this belief opens me up to scrutiny, I find this statement no more controversial or unlikely than the idea of magic itself.

According to my belief, Witches feel the Calling when the Witchblood starts to stir and we begin to remember. Remembering is what guides us when we have no mentors, although sometimes we are lucky enough to find a Family that can help. While Witchcraft is certainly available to the many, I don’t believe a stang makes you a Witch anymore than a Torah makes you Jewish, if you get my drift.

A Witch who is starting to waken and remember will know - even as a child, if that is when the awakening begins - what Witchcraft is and isn’t. That doesn’t mean she knows everything, but it means for example if she is presented with Wicca even at 10 years old, she will know it to not be Witchcraft on a deep level.

Essentially, it is this “Witchblood” that separates the Witch from, say, the Wiccan who reads a book about folk magic, goes and makes a poppet and now calls herself a “Wiccan Witch” for example.

No one else has to share my beliefs, everyone is free to use whatever names they want for themselves, it’s all well and good, but I am not obligated to consider everyone a Witch, nor is anyone obligated to consider me one (and I promise you my self image will remain intact if someone decides they don’t).

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This is a powerful response, thank you for it. I’m so, so sorry to hear of what your relatives went through. I’m curious as to what you mean by the old country. I know that Romania has a strong tradition of witchcraft, and some countries in Africa are actively hunting those whom they all witches.

I guess what I’m referring to is what I’ve seen from Facebook witches (I suppose predictably) as claiming witchcraft ancestry, as though they personally are entitled to it, with no mention of what their forbears have or are going through for it. I don’t refer to anyone here, obviously. Being a true, family, hereditary witch does mean suffering on someone’s part. That is part of the point I was trying to make.

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I am sorry about and in awe of your ancestors. How powerful to be descended from these women.

May I ask you how you Sight works? I have always been fascinated by people who See. I’m someone who Knows, rather than Sees. My powers are more centered on living energies, my environment, thoughts, feelings, secrets, what people hide, their True Self etc.

I do sometimes see, mostly in dreams, but it’s always mundane things like pregnancies and relationships.

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Thank you, this is actually what I mean. You have a calling. Whether it’s from your ancestors, or you simply have it, there is a thirst for being with the occult, the spiritual, the weird and unknown, that no background, no family, no “raising” can eliminate. It can be delayed, it can be thwarted for a while. You can choose not to. But even if you have to make the choice that shows that it’s there.

It’s like being born into a musical family. If everyone plays music, even if you aren’t as good at it as your family, you’ll still probably have a deeper appreciation for it. And if you are born with the talent of your relatives (and some are, that’s a DNA thing I don’t pretend to understand), you can choose to cultivate that or turn your energy to something more “practical”. Even if you are talented and make a choice against it, it’s still there.

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England. The three sisters in question lived (and died) in Massachusetts. (My oracle ancestress lived in what is now Ukraine.)

That is very true. Whenever I see someone post pictures of the Salem Village Witchcraft Victims Memorial, I thank them for keeping my 10th-great-grandmother’s memory alive.

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Exactly, it is a calling and it will never go away, because it is part of your very being. I believe Witches are rather than Witches do, although Witches certainly do too.

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It’s tragic. I’m sure your ancestors were actual witches, if that’s what you’re taking from it and have personally gotten from it. That’s a tremendous injustice to them, and their suffering is unbearable to think about. Then there are the people, mostly women but some men, who were accused, but mostly because they had property and were somehow “different”. I’m surprised your oracle ancestress in Ukraine was accused and jailed, I wonder when this was? From the bit of reading I’ve done, witchcraft in Eastern Europe is not seen so badly? But maybe that’s a “that was then, this is now” thing. Acceptance of the occult in societies can swing wildly.

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All of this. “Witches are, rather than Witches do.” The doing is the dangerous part, the part that accepts that one is, and must “do” something with it.