I decided to make a separate, more detailed post about my beliefs & practices that expands upon what is written on my About page. This is going to be pretty long, but I feel that’s necessary since this is such a weighty subject.
DISCLAIMER: The following is 100% my opinion. A lot of it is based on scientific fact, but a lot of it is based on my personal worldview and is colored by my life’s experiences. I do not mean to attack or demean anyone who believes differently than I do, and I have tried to reflect this in my tone of writing. If I slip up in that regard, it is unintentional. I write this not only for self-exploration and understanding, but in the hope that someone else who is searching and seeking may benefit from my definitions and explanations. Onward!
Religious Background
Let’s start with a little background…In my childhood and early teen years, I tried out several churches with my mom (Jehovah’s Witness) and my friends (LDS/Mormon, Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, SDA). None of these ever really sat well with me and from the time I was about 9-10 years old I was seriously questioning things in the Bible. When I was in high school, I started doing some independent reading and research which led me to the decision that organized religion and the concept of deities were definitely not for me. At this point, I became an atheist.
In my later teens and early 20’s, I started getting interested in Wicca and witchcraft. A close friend was also really into that and we shared books; a lot of the resources we had available were whatever could be found at B&N or other bookstores. This was the late 90’s/early 00’s so there wasn’t a whole lot available through the internet at the time. I enjoyed the witchcraft part and dabbled in it a bit, but I didn’t really jive with the Wicca part and I still considered myself an atheist. I couldn’t reconcile my atheism with the Goddess/God deities that are such an integral part of Wicca. Back then I didn’t understand that Wicca and witchcraft are separate things; I thought you had to be a Wiccan to practice witchcraft.
Identifications
Officially, I consider myself a spiritual agnostic atheist, meaning I personally have not seen sufficient evidence for the existence of any deities, but I would not rule out the possibility if such evidence were to present itself. I also think such evidence is subjective and may vary wildly from person to person. If asked, depending on the audience I will say that I’m an atheist, not religious, or a spiritual atheist. Even though those terms serve perfectly well, they still don’t describe the depth of what I believe.
Even though I don’t believe in any deities, I have always had sort of pantheist and animist views on souls, spirits, “energies,” and the like. I’ve always held an interest in things like Tarot, crystals, elements, and oils. A few years ago, I stumbled on some atheist witch videos on YouTube (links at end of post) and the Atheopagan blog…and I could feel the light bulb switching on over my head. This is what I’ve been unknowingly looking for! Since then I have been researching and practicing witchcraft in general so that I can gain understanding of how to practice magick and witchcraft while not believing in any deities. It’s been interesting fitting witchcraft into a secular framework – most of the material I’ve read so far assumes the practitioner is a theist of some sort.
What I believe
I have always believed that everything in the universe is connected. All living things on Earth share at least some DNA. All living and non-living things share many of the same chemicals in their composition. We are all made of star stuff (thank you Carl Sagan) and everything in the universe comes from the same singular point in time and space. Scientific research is revealing the depth of intelligence and emotion that animals and even plants possess. Western society (coughCHRISTIANITYcough) has long held the view that humans are somehow outside of or above nature and other life forms, which in my opinion is just not true. We humans are a part of the universe and the universe is a part of us.
These are very animist and pantheist-leaning views. I might even call it “pananimist.” I don’t necessarily believe in “souls” per se, but I do believe that there is something besides DNA that differentiates one organism of the same species from another, especially in organisms that have any degree of sentience.
When I think about how connected we all are with other humans, with other living things, with our planet, our star and the rest of the universe, it stirs a feeling of awe and wonder inside me. When I think about all of the things that had to happen to lead up to this moment – the Big Bang, gravity making objects, our star, planet, and moon forming, abiogenesis, the process of evolution and natural selection, the entirety of human history, a certain sperm and egg just happening to meet, myself even being born and then all of my life experiences, it is awe-inspiring and can get a little emotionally overwhelming (especially when you consider that at least 99% of all that stuff was pure coincidence).
I also consider myself somewhat of a subjectivist, a nihilist, and an empiricist. Here's some short definitions of those terms (thanks Wikipedia):
Nihilism is the philosophical viewpoint that suggests the denial or lack of belief towards the reputedly meaningful aspects of life.
In philosophy, empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.
My senses are not the same as everyone else’s, therefore my reality (or experience thereof) is different from others’. This ties into my viewpoint that nothing has any inherent meaning. Any meaning that a symbol, image, event, or concept has is given or prescribed. Now, to me this does not make things like herb or color correspondences any less meaningful, as I think the collective bestowing of meaning can be powerful and/or meaningful in and of itself. But I also think that if a person thinks the color red has calming properties, then by golly it has calming properties, at least for them.
My Practices
I see witchcraft as a tool or method for exploring and getting in touch with one’s Self and with Nature. For me, it’s primarily a self-improvement tool. I see magick as what happens when we put our energy (time, effort, and intention) towards a personal goal.
As far as WHAT I do, currently I work mainly with the 4 elements, color magick, crystals and some oils. I practice as a solitary witch. I don’t follow any particular tradition, and my practice is very personalized. Any spells I do are written entirely or heavily customized by me. Sometimes I incorporate hypnosis audio, sigils, meditation/binaural sounds, scrying, and cannabis into my practice. I do live in a legal recreational cannabis state.
I knew this was going to be a long post! But I think it’s been good for me to type all this out and organize my thoughts about this subject. Spiritual beliefs are such a personal and varied thing – I truly believe that for every human on this planet, there are that many different views and beliefs. Even within the same religion, sect, or denomination – because different people with different lives and different experiences will interpret the same information differently.
There are some parts of this I may expand upon, but I wanted this to be more of an overview. I’d love to hear from you especially if this helped you define and crystallize some things for yourself. Please feel free to drop a comment below!
Thanks for reading and Blessed Be!
-Aranea
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