[nopardons]

The witches that you know, are play acting. " CURSES " , work, because the cursed person believes it will. Many people, throuhtout history, have claimed that they were " cursed " , when all it was, was a spate of bad luck, or normal illness.

Have you read ANY of the HP books ? Have you seen the movie? Just what do you know about witches, other than from knowing some self proclaimed witches ?

There is NOTHING at all pagan / occultic in the HP books. Do the characters worship pagan gods and goddessed ? NO ! The word occult means HIDDEN. Rather, the idea of wizadry is far older than England as a unified country. Does the reading of the Arthurian legend lead children into the occult, and paganism ? NO ! Why not ? Merlin is a GOOD wizard. What about " THE WIZARD OF OZ ", fairy tales, and the vast amount of pre 20th century children's books that had stories about " magic " , fairies, witches ( both good and bad ) , wizards , and all manner of " little people " in them ? There is NO proof that generations of children, exposed to this stuff went off to join paganism, or try to be wizards.

Please, do try to be rational.

[winslow]

Have you read ANY of the HP books ? Have you seen the movie? Just what do you know about witches, other than from knowing some self proclaimed witches ?

In modern society there are two main official groups of witches;Alexandrian and Gardnerian. Most groups believe in forms of Pantheism; the belief that all things are essentially divine or connected to some divine energy. Also monism: the belief that all things are essentially interconnected commonly stated in the mantra "all is one and one is all". These beliefs are also a mirror of eastern philosophy/religion.
I would point out however that witches are not required to hold to any particular creed so what one witch believes may differ significantly from another. I would also point out that the witchcraft presented to the public today is not necessarily a representation of witchcaft throughout the centuies, in fact it is a type of PC witchcraft,so to speak.
If you do your research you will find that the majority of pagan religions worldwide did advocate animal sacrifes and also child sacrifice.
This was practised by the Celts, Romans, Vikings and others, quite often as a command of the goddess.
Also prevalent in some pagan groups is worship of a horned god which is a symbol to the pagans of fertlity.

I once wrote an essay on the occult which was about 20 pages long. My grandmother was a medium, and like I said I do know more than a couple of witches personally.
If you want me to FReepmail you on any other information I'm confident I can answer any questions you may have