In any case, the casting of spells is a highly symbolic process that depends on the witch having a sophisticated vocabulary of both personal and cultural symbols.

Witchcraft attracts many kinds of people, but it is especially appealing to artists, creatives, and those with the ability to find power, beauty, and utility in overlooked or unappreciated places.

One of the central features of witchcraft of all kinds is the power it grants practitioners to imbue all kinds of objects with both magical and spiritual significance.

Many practitioners frame their witchcraft within the bounds of psychology—a creative way to alter their thought patterns to be more productive and healthier, to address and recover from past traumas, or to develop a stronger sense of self and personal value.

The witch consciously harnesses these symbols (and is likely to learn a multitude of symbol systems) for use in spellcasting, creatively combining them to direct their focus and personal energy or power.

Also distinct in witchcraft spaces is the tendency to speak of deities in terms of partnerships or working relationships instead of relying on the language of worship.

Why is it, after all, that some seemingly fantastical things get categorized as magic and others are called religion? Why do we say that a witch lighting a candle to make something happen is doing magic, but someone making a wish over their birthday candles isn’t?

Sometimes, in an extension of our own human creativity, we come to see our emotions, proclivities, passions, and challenges as spirits too. In making such abstractions a little more concrete, it becomes easier to manage and direct them, allowing witches to live more balanced, fruitful, and joyful lives.

Some witches, for example, do not see the gods as literal beings with their own agency but rather as mythological constructions representing human abstractions, like love or justice or compassion. The act of engaging with them as metaphors is no less real or powerful for such witches, who may identify as archetypists or atheists as readily as