I must ask is witchcraft and Magic the same thing?
Last night during a workshop we did the ritual where I had to write down on a piece of paper what I accept and then burn it.
It keeps bothering me that I should have written on the paper that I accept Magic dark and light instead I’ve written I accept witchcraft power of dark and Light.
My goal is to balance myself Darkness with light
I was hurry so that we move on with the ritual
It’s not like when you’re on your own and you get to plan everything and you get to take your sweet time
Witchcraft is one of many names used for a magical practice. Magic, as part of the occult, is a general term that encompasses all aspects of practice and could mean socerery, witchcraft, or other mystical beliefs that include spells and castings to spirits, nature deitys and demons.
Magic, is a series of techniques to control or manipulate the spirit world with your will and intent to obtain an outcome that you desire. Witchcraft is simply just another name for magic.
The terms magic and occult are often used interchangeably by contemporary practitioners of magical practices or religions. Magic has traditionally been seen as distinct from the occult, which literally means “hidden knowledge.” The occult is the study of various magical practices. The occult defines a series of beliefs and practices that are outside standard scientific reasoning. The purpose of occult practices, like magic, is to influence the normal course of events through nonordinary means.
Many countries and cultures have their own branding or various names for witchcraft all employing magic as a technique to manipulate the spirit world.
Magic and religion have traditionally been as two separate entities. Religion is viewed as more complex than magic, involving the worship of and prayer to the divine or unholy deitys who can choose either to answer or deny those prayers.
I was just discussing this with another. In my belief, wicca/witchcraft is entirely different from esoteric/solomonic or occult (magickal) practices. With wicca, you have beings who are devoted to gaia, absorbing prana then using white magick for curing or aiding others, giving back to gaia and other creations. When using and understanding the occult, the adept must know that this is soley for the individual. For inner-expansion-ascension-divination. When one knows what he must do to develop these attributes. Which is why when choosing to contact and devoting ones self to Lucifer-Amaymon, when performing invo/evocations correctly (until one, can protrude “Themselves” naturally within Regnum Spiritis). You will sense and harness the energetic presence with the spirits of the goetia or E.A.'s rediscovered demons throughout his books. Eliphas Levi and Arthur Edward Waite have always seem to be spot on with describing the difference and similarities. I hoped this helped. Have a wonderful day friend!
sorcery and magic are two things slightly separate, witchcraft is not wicca is a practice, ie the witch uses what works beyond the theories that compose it, the magician instead follows the theory and then experiments, the magician as it was in the past times did experiments in fact if you read the books of Solomon you will see that he was talking about experiments, while witches do things they need, this is very similar to when a witch has a problem and does a ritual as a result, does not experiment to see if it works because in fact, witchcraft is the art of the witch and therefore the art of the wisdom of how the energies and spirits are used for their own and others’ needs, the magician instead delights in theories, laws and the like, magic and religion are practically the same thing, only that religion is said so because it is the belief of most of the population not because it has something morex … the practical difference is this, then you can find this well written in texts that speak of magic and witchcraft in antiquity, sometimes these words today describe similar things, but the approach is completely different …