Hi, I'm not sure if there are any wytches here but if there are...do you adhere to or believe in the so called 'Thirteen goals of a wytch'? If so, do you think they are the best you could do, would you add something else or take anything out of them?

I. Know yourself
II. Know your Craft
III. Learn
IV. Apply knowledge with wisdom
V. Achieve balance
VI. Keep your words in good order
VII. Keep your thoughts in good order
VIII. Celebrate life
IX. Attune with the cycles of Terra
X. Breathe and eat correctly
XI. Exercise the body
XII. Meditate
XIII. Honor the Goddess and God

Would be gratefl of any opinions, wytches or not

Rainbow Blessings

Why are you spelling the word 'Witch', 'Wytch'???

It's just the Old English spelling for some people, nothing to panic about. Interesting goals, seem to come from older sources, being as nowadays the ninth line is usually: Respect Nature.
Mind you, these rules also apply to most indigenous shamanic practices.

As I understand it those 13 goals are Wiccan, so I suppose Wiccan Witches will probably take them seriously... although, in general there isn't anything wrong with them.. and know thyself etc are very sage advice..

Don't forget however, there are plenty of witches who are not Wiccan and who do not honour dieties.. and the impression I get of witches who do honour dieties do so seperately from their craft.

yup.

nice enough goals.

not central to what I do.

As others have said, there's nothing wrong with them, they seem to be good ideals to live by. Me personally I have three main ones. known as the three R's

Respect for Self,
Respect for others,
Responsibility for my own Actions.

Two of those are reasonably easy to live by, but one gives me a hard time quite regulaly. Yeah I have other "goals" to live by and upto but those are three of the main ones.

they all seem quite reasonable.
the roman numerals are nice
do you still practise the five fold kiss?

These remind me of the so called 'five tenets of Witchcraft'... I prefer the idea of personal choice rather than a list of written ideas.

Somehow following somebody elses suggestions leans toward dogma... but to take the information and manipulate it to what it mans to your life means that there is constant growth within the faith.

Of course this does mean that you will always have people with differing views and ideas on what Paganism means to them; but, as we have such a diverse faith that has always been part of the thrill.... it certainly keeps us talkin

I follow my own principals of Love, Honour and Courage and thats done fine for me

It is? Ye Olde Englysshe maybe, but OE itself, no. OE spelling is Wicce (feminine) or Wicca (masculine), pronounced Witchay and Witcha.

I believe the 13 Goals of a Witch were originally written by Scott Cunningham in Wicca; a Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, and therefore are aimed at solitary wiccans (whether they are followed by coven Wiccans I don't know), rather than Witches in general. Cunningham tends to use the term witch and wiccan interchangeably, and this has been discussed many times elsewhere on the site, suffice it to say that the two words do not neccessarily mean the same thing.

I don't follow the 13 Goals myself, because a lot of them have no relevance to witchcraft as a whole. I see it as a craft, rather than a religious belief. You don't have to be pagan to practise witchcraft, and the only belief you require is in the methods you use and in the results you produce.

XIII certainly has no place in my path, nor in that of many other witches I know, many of whom are polytheist, pantheist, animist or atheist.

Similarly, not every witch meditates, or feels a need to follow the cycles of the earth, or believes they have to breathe correctly or eat correctly.

A lot of them are good tenets for living a happy life though, and I can see why they appeal

Note: I said "some people" not "all", as everyone seems to have their own fashionable interpretation of terms, especially where foreign languages, customs, traditions and beliefs are concerned.

But you can't have a 'fashionable' way to spell, if you did no-one would ever buy another dickshonairy

That said there are plenty of people that seem to feel spelling in slightly odd ways imparts age and authenticity. Not restricted to Paganism either as can be seen by the number of Ye Olde Fummer Fayres there are

Hi all,
I personally do not employ the 13 goals, but I am always interested in what others might say about them. I should have added it was basically a wica (please don't try giving me a hard time for the spelling of that) thing, my apologies.

I am humoured by such concern for the spelling of witch. I know full well it isn't OE or anything like (although you could spell it WYCH), but why the problem? I am not harming any, or destroying any's faith by a mere change in spelling, not like anyone didn't know what I meant.

Sorry if I upset any, I will be more cautious in future

Rainbow blessings

Ah no I think you misunderstood the questioning on your spelling.. it was more trying to gage yourself. In the past we've had a few trolls who like to take the mickey..a nd they tend to use such language because they think that's how all pagans spell words like witch, magic,fairy etc.

It is quite a contentious issue lol.. what isn't within Paganism

Indeed I had to wonder what all that fuss was about. Imagine trying to put together a Pagan dictionary in hell-knows what version of English, not to mention all the foreign proper terms?

Hi Very & all,
I am not sure if I misunderstood, I like to gauge folk & it is fun to see the response to such. I am dyslexic, but yee ha for spell checker...I could have been a bit hurt by the response to my spelling, but fortunately I was aware it was going to happen...intent is everything, a lot anyway

Rainbow blessings

Mahutsuki, if you feel hurt every time someone questions something you type, you are going to end up with some seriously bruised feelings. Everyone on here will get questioned and picked up and corrected on things, it's part of being in a community, and a great way to learn.

It's also because many of us like to learn new stuff. You might have spelt it that way because that's how the original author spelt it, or because you believe in numerology, or even because the 'i' button on your keyboard has stuck! If we don't ask, we don't know.

I think often people are sensitive to spellings, because they use words to define themselves. So a mispelling (or, if you like, alternative) of witch, or druid, could irritate a witch or druid who is reading it, because it's a little like having someone get your name wrong. Plus sometimes changing the spelling can change the meaning- I've seen people who practise Wicca, and those who practise Wica, and apparently the two are different.

Drach (or should that be Drak?)

Hmmmmmm

**Coz wanders off to correct pronunciation guide**

Dratch'n'Fatch Drakenfak

Yup

That was the reason for my question.



So if you were expecting that reaction, why do it when you could possibly be hurt by it? As Drach said, if you're going to feel hurt everytime someone questions you on here, you will end up with bruised feelings and if you are that sensitive, surely it's better to not leave yourself 'open' to such comments - especially when you're doing something that you know will provoke comments you may not like.

Right back to the topic at hand

I don't go off the 13 goals of a Witch and in fact I find it quite presumptious that someone decided to sit down and decide what every Witch's goals should be. As previously mentioned, the 13 goals are more of a Wiccan thing but even so, non-Wiccan Witch or Wiccan - surely it's better for the Witch as an individual to sit down and personally decide what his or her goals should be.

Not sure that the 13 would be the same as my list.

One of my top ones would be "be aware of the consequences of what you do", I've always thought that was quite important for all Pagans, however they spell "witch"

gwyn eich byd

FFred

I always asumed that i was able to breathe properly. I proved it once by blowing over 600 into a volumatic. ( used to measure strength of breath. The average severe asthmatic might manage only 200 )

nitpicking asside.

That all sounds very 'nice' doesn't it. I don't subscribe to any particular ethos. Basically if I can wake up in the morning and look myself in the face in the mirror then I'm doing fine.

Besides which I'm not a wytche I'm a Heathenne.

In all honesty, spelling typos don't come into it, however we have found that there is a certain type of person who spells wytch like that. And they don't stay in wytchcraft very long either

As for the tenets, well that's yet another version of different ones I've seen bandied about over the years. And in this way they are only meant for Wiccans and not the rest of us who happen to be witches. Knowledge of yourself is always good, know your craft however, well you may know it but only through life long experience can you ever really know it. As for honouring the Goddess and God, well many witches do not have Goddesses or Gods at all, or have many. But for me, my Gods are nothing to do with my witchcraft.

But again going back to above, it ain't for me, too, for want of a better word 'girly' Life isn't just about the good things and the niceties, life is like watching nature, it's looks lovely from the outside, watching that sweet little rabbit munching away in the field, the reality is that the rabbit will either get blasted away by a shotgun or killed screaming by the fox. You cannot have the good without the bad, you can't know true happiness until you've experienced the opposite. My witchcraft runs my own rules, it's the way it's always been

Nods @ weather witch

Tis a fact that plenty o good witch's can sulk for England, are self opinionated buggers, can argue the back leg off a elephant , an often charge in where them angel things wouldn't dare tread.

Life is too damn short to spend all that time worrying about yourself . Wisdom comes through experiance an hardship.

Rabbits are food an will eat yours if you dont eat them first, an that scot cunningham has to much time on his hands if you ask me.

Rain

Indeed, here's some source information on the topic of this thread:

http://www.pathcom.com/~newmoon/goals.htm

for those wondering where it came from. By all accounts these goals were copywrited.

A lot, okay, most, of the goals are simple common sense and most of us do them without really thinking about it. It's not really something I consciously consider - it's not like I go around thinking "I am a witch. I MUST remember the 13 goals" - generally speaking I'm a pagan and a witch and I just get on with it.

And being the polytheist I am (and a contrary bitch to boot! ) I honour many gods and goddesses - usually whichever one is prodding enough or who I want a favour from...