Yeah, I saw an article about witches in the US.
Quote:Meet Maryland’s modern witches: From kitchen magic to moon rituals
Witches are everywhere in our state — one might even be your neighbor.
Maryland is full of witches.
The Pew Research Center in 2014 estimated that there were 1 million people who identified as pagan or Wiccan in the U.S. And social media is putting the coven in the spotlight. “WitchTok,” the witchy community on TikTok, has 9.2 million posts, and USA Today noted that the #witchtok hashtag had garnered nearly 20 billion views.
We found several Maryland witches willing to come out of the “broom closet” to demystify what they believe.
David Salisbury
Type of practice: Anderson Feri tradition, Hellenic polytheism.
Focus: Relationships with gods, spirits of the land, ancestors. Traditional Hellenic worship.
When you realized witchcraft worked: “I did a banishment spell on a bully, a really awful, ruthless bully.
“A few days after doing that, I found out that his father had an immediate job relocation and they moved to another state, basically overnight.
“And that’s when I really realized, ‘Oh, this is very real.’ And I should maybe be careful.”
Philosophy: “The concept of a healthy relationship with power. Many mainstream religions will say the power of religion is either up top, in the priesthood, the higher echelons of a church, or within a very remote and jealous god. Whereas with witchcraft, the power is within you, it’s within the land, with the spirits and ancestors that you’re working with.”
Jessica Davis, “Dahlia Moon”
Focus: Moon magic, crystals, tarot, protection, journaling. “Hekate is my goddess. I talk to her every day.”
Origin story: “My mom was a Wiccan in the ’90s. ‘Practical Magic’ and ‘Charmed’ were popular when I was in high school. I pulled tarot cards, oracle cards, loved going to psychics, but I wouldn’t have considered myself a witch. My mom was the witch.
“Then COVID happened. The algorithm found me. TikTok kind of brought me into it.
“I did my first Yule ritual, and I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement and passion. I cried, and I was, like, ‘This is it. I am a witch. I am a powerful witch, and I enjoy doing this.’”
Philosophy: “We are all energetic creatures. When you add elements, lunar cycles, crystals and herbs, or colors, things that have different correspondences, and you put that all together, along with your word, which is a very powerful tool as well. And deities. All of it works together.
Etc.
https://www.thebanner.com/culture/witche...XTKQYPXIM/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
