Witchcraft is Real and Finally Coming Out of the Shadows
Written By Brandi Fleck
A personal and cultural exploration of witchcraft, magic, ritual, and intuition that examines why the modern witch is emerging from the shadows and reclaiming ancient wisdom in a changing world.
When I was around 11 or 12 years old, my best friend (let’s call her Christy) received a book of spells from her older brother and couldn’t wait to show it to me.
I was enthralled.
If you’ve been around here long enough, you know that I had a tumultuous family situation growing up. If you’re new here, welcome — I have spent the first half of my life healing from childhood trauma. This is relevant to know because on this particular day, I had run down the street to Christy’s house to seek refuge, as I often did.
Her parents were extremely accepting and I ate dinner over there a lot. To this day I am extremely grateful for Christy and her family. Not only did they show me care, compassion, and what real love was before I understood what I was observing and receiving from them, but Christy’s house is also where I got my first real taste of spell work without being judged.
And in the middle of the Bible Belt in Greenville, SC, doing spell work in the mid 90s wasn’t something you were going to broadcast, lest ye be sentenced to a full week of church activities and judged by the popular kids whose parents worked at the church.
So Christy and I flipped through her new book with delight.
We chose our spells.
She sat on her bed, I on her floor.
I don’t remember what her chosen spell was about. But mine was about divining the truth about a specific situation.
The ritual was so ordinary, I remember feeling a little underwhelmed.
My First Spell: A Divining Ritual to Find the Truth
Even as a tween (which we called a “pre-teen” back then), I cared deeply for the truth.
At twelve, I’d definitely already learned what weed was and had even been smoking cigarettes. That’s a story for another day, but I had caught a whiff of the devil’s lettuce in my back yard. I vaguely recognized it, but still wasn’t quite sure if I was right about what the smell was.
Now, in the mid 90s, we had been knee deep in the D.A.R.E program. Drugs were bad. Anyone who did drugs must be a criminal or low life. And judging by the way my step dad treated me on a regular basis, he must have been the source of the smell.
I had to know.
Did my step dad smoke weed?
Deep down, I already knew, but at such a young age hadn’t learned to trust my intuition yet. In fact, I was at the age where intuition is almost completely conditioned out, even if it was strong as a young child.
So I read the steps to the spell.
It said to close my eyes and become present. Now I know that’s simply meditation.
It said to ask one question I wanted to know the answer to.
And then it said to wait.
Eventually, the answer would come to you.
There was no guidance on how it would come or how long to wait.
I was unsure, but I followed the instructions.
As I lie on my back staring into the back of my eyelids in silence, the dancing lights slowly started to converge into a shape.
Clear as day, a marijuana leaf, outlined in green light like a neon sign, appeared right there, behind my eye lids.
I didn’t imagine it or somehow manipulate the colors or shapes.
I had my answer.
The spell had worked.
Magic is Real
I had just experienced magic.
Magic (also sometimes spelled magick) is what we call things we can’t explain.
Magic is also sometimes equated with perceived luck.
Real magic is the transmutation or influencing of energy through a ritual.
Some of it, such as medicinal properties of plants, for example, is explainable by science now, and I believe that within our lifetime, we’ll see more and more scientific evidence that magic is real. But then, it just becomes common knowledge and the way things are and the next level of the unexplained becomes “magic.”
Types of Magic
Types of magic include divination, alchemy, manifestation, healing, miracles, and doing certain extrasensory activities in non-physical or psychic ways. (This is not a comprehensive list - if you have another type you’d like to add, meet me in the comments).
Divination
I now know that the first spell I ever did was a type of divination called scrying, where you look into a black or shiny surface of some sort (today my favorite scrying medium is coffee, but others use crystal balls, water, and black mirrors, for example). Many forms of divination exist, such as tarot card readings or simply tapping into an answer in your mind’s eye like I did at 12. It’s about seeing into the unknown. Sometimes it’s about predictions, but gaining truth is the crux.
Alchemy
Alchemy is like cooking. It’s chemistry. It’s changing one thing into another in a seemingly magical process. We all engage in alchemy when we make dinner or concoct a holistic remedy.
Manifestation
It seems everyone is into manifestation and the law of attraction these days. But truly aligning yourself with your truth and allowing what serves you to grow and expand while allowing what does not serve you to fall away is a skill that becomes easier and easier as you age from the mother to the crone. It’s a true form of witchcraft - creating something from nothing. Imagining a dream and creating it from thin air. It’s truly embracing divine feminine and empowerment.
Healing
Aside from divination, this is the lane I work in the most right now as a Reiki Master and certified trauma-informed coach. This type of healing is more medicine-woman-like, treating the whole human instead of just their parts and often drawing upon holistic remedies and ancient practices. The healer's role is not to fix another person, but to hold space so the body can do what it was naturally designed to do.
Miracles
Miracles are absolutely magic, even it typically attributed to Jesus. Jesus belongs to us all. Miracles are unexplainable, sometimes mind blowing, and they’re often life changing. Those who believe in miracles often begin to notice them everywhere.
Extrasensory Abilities
This magic is when we use our extrasensory senses, those senses we have in addition to our physical senses, to give or receive messages. Extrasensory communication includes telepathy, animal communication, remote viewing, telekinesis, and psychokinesis, for example.
You could argue that these gifts are more in the realm of psychic abilities (and is considered paranormal) rather than witchcraft, but nonetheless, they’re still considered magic in most of today’s common knowledge because the mechanics behind these methods are not widely understood yet.
Various Kinds of Witchcraft
There are many different types of witchcraft just as there are many different types of witches. Types of witchcraft often get their characteristics from a combination of cultural heritage, geographic location (if you’re somewhere different than where you have cultural roots), preference, intuition, worldview, and your relationship with nature.
Witchcraft is not to be confused with Wicca, which is a religion in which people practice witchcraft a certain way. But you don’t have to be Wiccan to practice. I personally know Christian witches and atheist witches.
Before we dive into the list, it’s also important to know that any type of witchcraft can also either be benevolent or baneful.
Popular Types of Witchcraft
Here are a few types of witchcraft I’m familiar with.
This is by no means a comprehensive list and currently aligns with my cultural heritage. If you want to add to it, please do so in the comments.
Green Witchcraft
Green witches work closely with nature, plants, trees, herbs, and the natural cycles of the Earth. Their practice often involves gardening, herbalism, foraging, connecting with local ecosystems, and building a relationship with the land where they live. Green witchcraft is often highly intuitive and rooted in environmental stewardship.
Kitchen Witchcraft
Kitchen witches bring magic into everyday life through food, drink, and the hearth of the home. Preparing a meal with intention, brewing herbal teas, baking bread, and infusing recipes with love and healing energy are all forms of kitchen witchcraft. The kitchen becomes both a practical workspace and a sacred space.
Appalachian Witchcraft
Appalachian witchcraft is a form of folk magic rooted in the traditions of the Appalachian Mountains. Influenced by Indigenous knowledge, European folk practices, Christianity, herbalism, and generations of oral tradition, Appalachian witchcraft often centers around practical magic, healing, protection, signs, omens, and a deep relationship with the natural world.
Hedge Witchcraft
Hedge witches are often solitary practitioners who focus on working between the physical and spiritual worlds. Traditionally, the "hedge" symbolized the boundary between ordinary reality and the realm of spirit. Hedge witchcraft often includes meditation, journey work, spirit communication, ancestor work, divination, and developing a deep relationship with intuition.
Chaos Witchcraft
Chaos witchcraft (or chaos magic) is a highly flexible and experimental approach to magic. Rather than following one specific tradition, chaos witches borrow tools, symbols, beliefs, and practices from many different systems. The focus is less on rigid rules and more on what produces results for the individual practitioner.
What Witchcraft Really Is
Witchcraft is simply intention backed by energy focused at a specific outcome. It’s also a way of life that aligns with nature and is in harmony with nature.
If you walk into a room, notice the vibe, and decide to influence, I think that’s witchcraft.
If you set an energetic boundary around your house or body for protection and do so by saying a little prayer to a deity of your choosing, that’s witchcraft. If you brew some tea that has liver healing properties, that’s also witchcraft. If you’ve ever carried a lucky charm (like a rabbit’s foot on your keychain), attended a women’s circle, danced and sang by a fire, or made moon water, that’s witchcraft. And, if you’ve ever offered flowers to or lit a candle for a deceased loved one or spirit, that’s witchcraft.
There is nothing evil about it in and of itself.
As with any tool, the practitioner can choose to use it for good or for evil. So witchcraft is nothing to be feared. Even if you come across a practitioner who uses witchcraft for evil, you still have free will and there are ways to not be susceptible to such intentions to curse and hex you. And honestly, plenty of people who don’t consider themselves witches curse and hex people everyday — think road rage, trolling on the internet, and judging someone harshly that you don’t know. But I digress…
Why Witchcraft Became Shrouded in Secrecy
We all know why — “witches” were hunted, burned, tortured, and so had to hide to survive. We’ve all at least vaguely heard of the Salem Witch trials. Unfortunately, many innocents did not survive.
I won’t go over the complete history of the persecution of witches because it’s so easily researchable now, if you don’t know about it.
But what is important to point out and say louder for those in back is:
Witch hunts aren’t about spells and rituals or interacting with nature. They weren’t then and they aren’t now.
Witch hunts are about a fear of innate, sacred, pure (as in uncorrupt) power and a need for control.
In my view, many witch hunts were less about actual magical practices and more about controlling women, healers, midwives, and those who existed outside accepted social structures.
These women were incredibly powerful. The kind of power that women possess allows for a free society, unencumbered by the trappings that are poisoning us and the Earth now.
This is my opinion, and I’ll say it again.
Witch hunts were really just women hunts.
Women (and embracing the divine feminine for anyone who wishes to, because men can be witches too) is about living cyclically. It’s about trusting your inner knowing, feeling the pull of the sun, moon, stars, and elements. It’s about allowing your body to flow with the seasons of the Earth.
Being a woman is about being a master creator — someone who can form life from our own flesh and bring it across a sacred threshold into this world to experience it as it is and as we are, in harmony.
Being a woman is about magnetizing and receiving in a way that force and disconnection can’t compete with. Sometimes this magnetism materializes as sexuality and sometimes it materializes as command through presence.
In order to be safe from the emerging patriarchy, women had to fall in line. Women had to start denying our true nature, squashing the divine feminine, and adopting masculine ways of being or submitting to the masculine.
An imbalance was created that is about to reach a tipping point in modern society.
Why the Rise of the Modern Witch is Now
Luckily for us, despite the secrecy needed for hundreds of years, traditions have been handed down orally and through families and communities.
Even though witchcraft is still somewhat taboo and frowned upon in certain religious circles, it’s becoming more and more popular. I’m observing that this is for several reasons:
Despite the uncertainty in the world right now, it’s safer than ever to be out as a witch and not be unalived.
The crumbling of outdated systems and ways of being, including the patriarchy, because it’s run its course — the imbalance became so … that the scales are tipping naturally. These systems of destruction and extraction that are in disharmony with nature can no longer be sustained.
Brute force and disconnection from our true nature has also reached a tipping point.
The atmosphere of these human systems and events reaching their tipping points have created conditions for us to wake up and remember who we really are. We see things are no longer working and it’s encouraging us to tap into ancient knowledge that is in our bones. The more we reconnect with ourselves and with nature, the easier the ancient wisdom comes back online.
I believe certain galactic and cosmological events are aligning and happening that are assisting with our evolution that is allowing more and more of us to remember, and at the very least, tap into magical practices in an extrasensory way that is not completely explainable yet.
Additionally, when a movement starts to get momentum, it attracts more and more people and with mass picks up more and more speed. Eventually, the inertia of that movement becomes a force in and of itself that can’t be stopped.
All these conditions are a perfectly curated and divinely timed set of events and circumstances that are here to help us claim our true nature.
And, with the fast-moving pace that technology is advancing, we’re more tapped into the global community than ever before, with access to learn about different cultures and practices because people are talking about them.
To come full circle, which is very witchy of us, different cultures have preserved special practices over the ages, and even though many practices are different, they all have a common denominator: the ritual.
The Power of a Ritual
Rituals can be extremely powerful.
Think about it — this is just one example, but if you brush your teeth every day, your teeth typically remain healthy for long periods of time. If you don’t, your teeth can rot. It’s not the act of brushing your teeth one time or a few times that does the trick. It’s the fact that you brush your teeth consistently over time, usually at the same time of day in the same type of way, that produces the results you want.
The more you do something over and over, the more energy you’re putting behind it, and therefore the more power it has. Imagine engaging in a ritual that is a continuation of something your ancestors also did repeatedly. Over the course of time, the collective power and intention behind that ritual is bigger than we can imagine.
The phrase “there’s power in numbers” applies here.
And when we think of numbers, we all engage in rituals, and therefore, every single one of us practice witchcraft to an extent. Think about what we would be capable of as a species if we all came together on one intention and put some energy behind it.
In fact, studies have shown that when people come together to meditate (definitely a ritual), it makes a difference in the larger collective, spreading positivity and wellbeing. That’s influencing an outcome through energy if I’ve ever seen it.
But to be fair, there are particular rituals that are more associated with witchcraft than others.
Types of Witchy Rituals
With all rituals, intention is the primary driver of success. When I work a ritual, I prefer to set intentions that honor my own free will and open up space for possibilities while honoring the free will of others. I’m not here to force anything. I mostly just want to commune with the seasons and elements while expanding my own life and wellness.
At times, there is a need for protection, but any ritual done to counteract negativity can be approached with the same reverence for free will and humanity. That’s an important topic for another day. For now, let’s dive into some examples of rituals.
Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but if you want to add to it, please do so in the comments.
Mirror Work
Mirror work is a form of shadow work that uses reflection as a tool for awareness and healing. Sometimes that reflection comes from literally looking in a mirror, and other times it comes from recognizing yourself in the actions and behaviors of others. Energy flows where attention goes, which is why mirror work can reinforce either self-criticism or self-love depending on how it is used. Like any magical tool, its power comes from intention.
Candle Magic
This is one of the practices I work with most today. Setting an intention while lighting a candle and using herbs and oils you anoint the candle with is really fun and therapeutic. Then, you get to watch the flame dance and observe the wax drippings until the candle or candles extinguish or are extinguished. Then, you get to read the behavior of the wax and use symbolism to determine what the fates allowed form your request. This is much like reading a novel and gleaning meaning from the symbolism in the words. The energy and properties of the herbs and colors of the candles help reinforce your intention.
Herbalism
My great, great grandma, or even my deceased great aunt who’s been with me since she passed when I was seven, may have called this folk wisdom instead of witchcraft, but the line between the two is thinner than most people realize. The actions of putting together a home remedy or using certain native plants in your beauty regimen is herbalism.
Protection
Many of us use symbols, lucky charms, and sigils or say prayers for safety. Many of us set boundaries within relationships to protect our energy or hide when we feel vulnerable. This can be ritualized. We also cut cords in relationships to remove unhealthy attachments which is an embodied and physical representation of what we want to happen in our lives. Grounding a wish into a physical ritual like a cord cutting puts more energy behind it. Sometimes that’s needed in order to make it happen.
The Power of Intention
At the end of the day, whether you consider things you do to be witchcraft or not really doesn’t matter.
The intention behind your actions is what matters.
Distilled down to its simplest form, intention is what witchcraft is. You don’t have to know specific herb meanings or candle dripping patterns or how to read tarot cards in order to set an intuition and put energy behind it so it comes to fruition.
Witchcraft is real.
It’s ingrained in the very fabric of our being, even if that’s hard to hear.
But witchcraft is not what revisionist history and dominant religious and cultural narratives have made it out to be.
It’s embracing balance between the divine feminine and divine masculine.
It’s a circle.
It’s community.
It’s living in harmony.
It’s matriarchy at its finest.
She’s on her way.
The modern witch isn’t someone becoming someone new. She’s simply remembering what she already knows.
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Hi, I’m the founder of Human Amplified. I’m Brandi Fleck, a recognized communications and interviewing expert, a writer, an artist, and a private practice, certified trauma-informed life coach and Reiki Master Teacher. No matter how you interact with me, I help you tell and change your story so you can feel more like yourself. So welcome!
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