Indians and Witchcraft

Quote:
"But witchcraft is a specific word for a specific practice."

As far as i'm aware the word 'witch' comes from old English 'wicce'... a germanic word probably derived from even older indo european forms, which simply means 'magic user' or 'sorcerer' or 'diviner'. - Basically, someone who communicates with the spiritual world.
However wicca does seem to have it's own particular 'trinkets and trappings' with it's ritual tools, coloured candles and the like, but does this make it a 'different' path from something mutch more generalised like 'shamanism'? I think not, .. just the rituals and tools ect are a variant of rituals and tools used elsewhere the world over.
Themes which run throughout all of this indigenous spirituality are the same ... 'the otherworld' (call it what you will), 'the souls flight' or shamanic journey and astral travel, familiars and power animals, soul loss and retrieval ect.
So if someone chooses to identify themselves a witch over a shaman or a shaman over a witch, what difference does it make?
The main thing of importance is to identify with your spiritual nature. The ego loves all these naming conventions.

 

You didnt say anything different than what I did....except i believe that each culture prefers their own word for the vocation....you have to consider languages. Witch does come from an Anglo-Saxon word, like I said, WitchCraft means Power to Bend. If those Saxons looked upon Tungus tribes, they would say Witch. If the Tungus tribe looked upon the Saxons mystic practice, they would call it Shaman....

Not sure what your point was...and who mentioned Wicca? I was talking about witchcraft proper.

 

Ok i'm really curious, how is wicca not 'witchcraft proper'? And what do you consider proper witchcraft to be? ... and how does witchcraft mean 'power to bend'?

Oh, i mentioned wicca simply because it's my understanding that that is what witchcraft is.
I'm mutch more familiar with 'shamanism' and have only really just started learning a little about 'witchcraft' (although it fairly clear that the two are fundamentally the same thing... so i'm curious.
Oh and i mentioned a few things that the two seem to have in common, but in reading about witchcraft i don't see mutch (or anything at all so far) about 'initiation' ... the process of being devoured and stripped down, so to speak, to ones spiritual core. Can you throw any light on that? i'll admit i've read only a few odd books on witchcraft so i may have simply not come across it yet.

 

When I speak of witchcraft, I speak of the tradition of the Northern European English speaking people, not a neo-pagan pseudo-spiritual path you read about in BarnesaNobles.

You are correct that the two, shamanism and witchcraft, are fundamentally the same. But, again, you are using two seperate languages to describe essentially the same thing. Its like saying that squid and calemari are kinda like the same thing...they are the same thing, just two languages at play.

The devoured shaman is akin to the witches death, the point is that the false ego dies, and an unfettered being is born from it...not limited to the sleep awareness of the mundane folk. From that death comes new sight, the Witch sight, and ones Fetch is seen....upon what is somewhat like enlightenment, the fetchbride, or groom, and the spirit become one in the Grand Initiation....the goal of the witch....If you are going to read anything on witchcraft, study Trad Craft...not wicca.

As to the etymology, Witch comes from the word Weik that means Bend{er}, and Craft comes from Craeft....Power.....so witchcraft is the power of bending, some etymologies suggest also it means power to speak, or power to wake....as in dealing with the dead.

 

Ah, the witches death eh. There it is. It had to be there.

Fetch? Is this the soul? Kinda like ... the 'beloved'?

 

Fetch is the following spirit, the personification of the strand of fate that one is an event on....that event is where the soul comes into play.

 

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, selfpity,guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. "The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

 

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I thought that Indian (native American) witches were called "skin walkers". Shamans and medicine men (or women) are something else entirely and considered completely different than a "witch". From what I've been told, native Americans definitely recognize a difference between "witch" and a shaman or medicine person.

 

I thought the skin walkers believe when they wore the skin of a animal they posses the attributes of that animal

I may be mistaken, but it seems I just read something about that

No looks like there is more to it than that.. here I am in Navajo country and I didn't get that right

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

 

awesome... thanks

 

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Wasn't the movie Wolfen partially based on the legend of the skin walkers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVtWfYOdbg


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