I hope this is in the right forum, and from what I can see, there isnt a specific thread about this yet.

As a witch, I have certain 'skills' that I feel to be an integral part of my craft. For instance, I have always been able to sense/feel, smell and sometimes see 'spirit', and more recently I am able to hear them as well. It took someone more experienced than me to tell me that those skills also actually classed me as psychic - lol.

But that ability to 'sense' the unseen is - to me - just an extension of my intuition, and I still, at times, find it astonishing that other people cant 'detect' what I can. It catches me at times if I sense something and comment on it to someone I am with who I am very close to, and they just look at me gone out - lol - because they dont notice the same things.

I know I take this 'skill' for granted to a large degree because its a bit like having brown eyes - its something I have always had.

But others have described it as a gift.

And I find it such an integral part of being a witch that I cannot imagine being a witch without it.

Yet I see my mum's skill of being able to just be in the room with someone and know they are pregnant before they do themselves, and to know exactly what a person needs to ease a minor ailment, as more of a gift. And that for her is an integral part of being a witch. She says she cant imagine being a witch without her own set of 'skills'.

So - what skills / gifts/ talents do you as a witch have that you cannot imagine being without ?

Divination is part of it. I don't do that, much, these days.

To be honest, I'm happy to have the gift of logic which disregards the bullslip and goes directly to the heart of the problem.

One "gift" which I'm only recently coming to realise I have, is the gift of zeitgeist.

I'm an Aspie - an Aspergers Syndrome sufferer. We are the mad scientists, off in our own little world, and tend to regard most of day-to-day fashion, or culture, as meaningless froth. Hollyoaks? Can't stand it. Coronation Street? Bores me to tears. Hip-Hop? Intolerable. Modern Music? Impenetrable. So generally, we (aspies) ignore stuff like that. We don't keep track of who's who in terms of Footballers or other Celebrities.

And yet I know it. I know I don't know it, but I know enough to pass for normal. I also pick up on trends that are happening before they happen. It's like a precognition but works on Modern Culture. Haven't a notion how, but there you go.

For example: I'm wearing a forage cap that I picked up in the Oxfam shop. Six months later, my daughter is wearing something similar, from DeviantArt. And I see other people wearing them. They're not like baseball caps.

And (hmmmm!) I've just picked up from a stall a Furry hat like a Polish Frummer. This is the next big one. You heard it here first!

I've never considered what I do witchcraft, as I fully understand the nature of my psychic abilities and how they make an integral part of causality. Rather I spent much of my formative years trying to maintain a degree of subtlety, not only whenever I had to deal with Christian society but especially many popular esoterical trends. Indeed they took much for granted, thus made the often fatal mistake of trying to fit it to some ideal. Nature just doesn't operate that way, rather life is the great experiment and all things are subject to change. All I can say is I can read and effect causality in more ways than most people are aware of, and for that I don't really need an excuse or a cause, let alone a name for it. I just do it.

Like Quasi, I'm not sure whether my talents are Witchy or simply psychic, or a variation/mixture...

Empathy, I suppose, and sometimes knowing what's what with people. And transmogrification. And sometimes getting images/stories from holding objects. Heightened awareness too. OBEs.

I'm quite boring really. I don't do the usual witchy stuff (apart for a bit of fun) as I never felt the calling/need, or maybe it’s simply that I can’t. I’m not sure that I really know. But i have infallible "knowing" stuff and "feeling" stuff. I've never figured it out where it comes from or if it has a name, all I know is I was born with it and as it works fine for me as it is I really have no inclination to tamper with it for fear that, like dowsing, it may vanish. So I just get on with it. I trust my instincts and can smell out all sorts of things (my witch trainer described me as Clairodorant ). I get atmospheres and communication and feel energies and memories but it’s really hard to describe. It’s not like your normal medium type stuff. I don’t get the voices often or see things. ‘fraid it’s all down to feeling and knowing and smelling. Quite dull but I would be lost without it as it compensates more than adequately for quite a few bizarre shortcomings.

I havent got time to answer at the mo, but I thought MG meant what so called gifts were deemed necessary to be a witch.

People (including me I guess) have been saying witches are born with certain abilities, but no one has answered what those abilities actually are.

Knowing MG as well as I do I think thats what she means. Anyway I'll be back after I've had a few hundred hours sleep. Moles get weary you know

Odd. I could have sworn the replies here indicated what people viewed as abilities.

I think I recognise that. When people say "But how did you know that was going to happen?" And the only reply I can make is "What do you mean? It's obvious!"

Cackles!

Interesting thread.

I'd say my 'skills' areas are (and like Tas says which are witchy and which are bog standard psychic leanings).

I’ve quite acute degree of empathy, which is equally a blessing and a bloody curse at times.

Clairaudience (I hear voices and odd snatches of music, which can again be bloody annoying when you're trying to concentrate).

Touchy feely-ness (Ok I'm ad-libbing with this one, it's not so much as healing per se, but touch is incredibly important to me and the way in which I interact with people, and I'm really doing a piddle poor excuse of explaining this, but the more I touch people the easier it is for me to ascertain moods and connect and work with them).

Fertility workings, in terms of spell work, fertility and keeping buns in ovens til their done is my signature working.

My less developed skills, would include divination (I think I'm crap but people still often ask for readings) and more generic type healing (as in I'll have a go, but I wouldn't say, look at me I'm the most fabtabulous healer in universe).

Q

Yeah. I get that, and so does a friend of mine. Ours are precognitive, and we hear them "for real" at a later date.

Hmmm... hate doing this, but OK, let's go for it.

I don't do healing, or buns in oven, or love or anything wonderful like that. Do do protection. You want to be guarded against something nasty and I do it.

This is a bit of 'as above, so below' stuff, as I do pretty much the same IRL. You wanna guard dog?

As to the 'essential skills' bit - I do smelling out the nasties. Whaddya expect from a guard dog?? I can tell what they're likely to do next. When I meet them, my hackles rise. I know how they behave. I can warn people about them - not that anyone ever believes me. Cassandra, that's me.

And yeah, I can do healing. I don't like doing it because it drains me. But sometimes people need it, and I know what they need. Ho hum. But it's the protection-from-nasties kind of healing. Gee, why me?

As to the other psychic stuff - that's down to my gods. Or my great grandmother. Or something. I'd rather not know what's going on in people's heads.

And because some of us aren't being overly specific, quite possibly due to shyness, here is a handy checklist:

http://www.psychic-junkie.com/list-of-psychic-abilities.html

I dont think its that some of you havent "been overly specific" of your talents Tas, its just that my original question was

"So - what skills / gifts/ talents do you as a witch have that you cannot imagine being without ?"

Which has partly been answered by some people.

The aim of the thread was about talents and gifts within witchcraft, not in a general psychic sense.

But its interesting that from the replies so far that the type of skills discussed are all very similar, which is reassuring - lol.

But would you all say that you couldnt imagine being who you are (and for the purposes of the thread, that's ideally a witch) without those gifts??. Which translates - as Comfrey so rightly said - into the talents that are an essential part of witchcraft. Or even - can you actually BE a witch without a good level of psychic ability?

Or even - can you actually BE a witch without a good level of psychic ability?

[/quote]

I think it would be a lot more difficult to be a witch without some sort of psychic ability, to me witchcraft is about the raising and manipulation of natural energies.

When you open yourself up to raise this energy, it's almost like you are opening up other channels which lead you to improve other skills as well... as you learn to sense the energies, you naturally become more in tune with the world around you and you become more intuitive. This intuition means you become better at divination, and also any psychic abilites become finer tuned. The same energy you are raising for spell work can be used in healing, so your natural healing skills improve as well the more you do it. And the more healing you do, the more practise you are getting at raising energy in the first place, so it feeds back to the beginning again.

Thats how it seems to have worked for me anyway, I have noticed a general improvement in several areas the more I practise energy work... not sure I have any natural gifts that stand out, I have had to work at them. But I am a pretty decent healer and getting better with my divination all the time (I suspect it is self-confidence in this area I lack more than anything)

[quote=Stormbringer,Jul 15 2008, 12:38 AM]
Or even - can you actually BE a witch without a good level of psychic ability?

[/quote]

I think it would be a lot more difficult to be a witch without some sort of psychic ability, to me witchcraft is about the raising and manipulation of natural energies.


[/quote]

Hope nobody minds a quick parenthesis (cheesy grin smiley here)
I'm not sure i agree with this. If some of us can easily raise and manipulate natural energies, redress balance and so on but are not psychic in the usual sort of way, how does that explain us? And what about those that are psychic and couldn't manipulate a cod in a sock if their lives depended on it? Does clairvoyance/audience/levitation/divination/mediumship etc. have anything to do with manipulation of energies or even witchcraft (whatever that is)? Or are these just the side shows to the main event? Is witchcraft even about people?
Apart from divination, which is the only thing i really still find impossible to believe in (whoever is doing it) everything else i consider part of a natural series of talents/gifts. Until recently I had far far better vision than most fighter pilots and excellent hearing, especially high end - bats, fish etc. - (i am also wonderfully good looking rich and intelligent ) which other people who don't are going to find a bit extraordinary. But we all accept those characteristcs as normal. I sometimes seems to me that just because someone in the 1800s decided psychic was what it was everyone has stopped thinking about it.
Close parenthesis back to original topic to avoid mod separation intervention.

I tend to agree with what Stormbringer has said. I believe we are all born with an innate ability to see and to know (being psychic?) but that society is such that we lose this PDQ. It doesn't fit in too well, as Quasi has pointed out.

So some relearn it, others it's unquenchable and keeps popping up despite efforts to repress it. The relearning may be a part of Witchcraft. But I reckon it's innate, and also stronger in some than others.

A part of being a Witch? Or apart from being a Witch?

Hmm, my definition of psychic is a bit screwy. I always thought it meant to have gifts like clairvoyancy, clairaudience, pre-cog etc. But according to the dictionary it can also mean "sensitive to influences or forces of a nonphysical or supernatural nature." In which case I am more psychic than I thought.

But not very much. I have no 'spooky' talents which seem to litter boards like this. Never had a dream that came true, never seen or heard anything from the past or present that shouldn't have been there, never seen a ghost (and living in York that's some achievement). But then I have never needed those skills to make my magic work.

To answer Moongazer's question which she clarified here:
(I notice this doesn't say 'supernatural talents')
I can honestly answer that my skill is reading people. I can even do it to some extent online, as people give much more away in their writing than they think. I am also good at NLP, which is half the battle at reading people. I have good empathy, although not always. I also have synaesthesia which I have found has made visualisation seem a lot easier to me than accounts of others I have read. All of these I have either had since birth or developed early for self defence. I couldn't imagine my life without them, and find they enhance my practice a lot.

I don't have any useful skills or talents of that kind, which is probably why I'm not a witch, though there have been times when I would have liked to have been one.

I can't read people, my bullshit detector is faulty, the only psychic thing I have noticed in myself is knowing when people are about to telephone or arrive, but that's no use at all because it doesn't influence anything.

I get immersed in words. Sometimes that seems to shift things. Sometimes it becomes a distraction. But if you can make spells with words, I think I could do that. And I would hate to be without words.

No, I can't imagine myself not being me.



Well no doubt witchcraft would hardly be practical without some degree of psychic influence. Even those working exclusively with deities or spirits are doing so through channeling. So you could very well say its relative. The archetype implied by the term "Witch" in this thread however is quite unclear, as the idea can vary greatly with language, culture and individual experience.

Hey Moongazer interesting question!

I was thinking about this last night, trying to work out how to express what I felt in my head... thats always a really hard thing for me to do!

So.. bare with me on this ramble!

Ok... yes I have (as you put it) gifts or talents or skills. Like you I have pretty much the same gift, as well as a sense of emotion and very much like Queenie, it can be distracting at times!

Divination is another thing, mostly with my cards, again tho, they are just a "tool" and I can use pretty much anything. (not runes tho... dont do runes! lol)

I guess Magick is my main "thing". People tend to come to me for "things" like... ehhh... ok example... a girl I didnt know, a friend of my sisters.. she wanted to be in a particular "class" in uni, which was highly friggin unlikely since they were splitting the year alphabetically, so that one I wiggled for her. I dont do fertility... although I quite sure if I put my mind to it I could, however there are people out there more suited to it. I guess I dont specialise when it comes to my magick.

Um... one Im not sure how to define... but for me its huge, I call it "big picture". Its when I sense that something isnt right. Either a person is out of place, or something needs to be shifted to set the track right again. I have no idea how to explain this (especially since I dont believe in fate!) and my example is going to be shit, but hopefully someone will get my meaning. Diana... yes the dead one... car accident, um... well in my eyes she should have been dead sooner. I mean something happened at some point, to prevent her from taking the "path" she was supposed to take and it kinda kiltered things, for about 3 years before the accident I was telling my other half she shouldnt be here. However things have a way of "snapping" back into place. I remember the night of the accident, I was getting ready to go on holiday... my OH came into the room and told me she was in accident and they were waiting on info. I told him not to bother standing about waiting, she was dead.

Now I have NO idea how to dial that down to smaller things, but it doesnt have to be something huge like that, it can be something small.. something out of place, or not where it is supposed to be... I hope someone out there understands. Im sure someone will.

Anywhoooo... back to the original point.

No... I cant see me being a witch without these skills because, well I dont see how you can be one without them! A witch without skills isnt a witch, he/she is just a person in a pointy hat no?

Very good question Moongazer, we are all born with different talents and levels of natural ability, as we grow we may develop them all or only some of them, we also learn and develop skills along the way as well.

I have always had some clairvoyant/precognitive ability, sometimes to a frightening level and empathic ability not only when the person is near me, but through what they write. There are skills such as divination, meditation and concentration that I have actively developed.

Storm Raven

"A witch without skills isnt a witch, he/she is just a person in a pointy hat no?"

Sooooo.....
Would the arte of growing hairy nose and chin warts count as an ability too then?

For me the one "gift" or "talent" I could not live without is my empathy and ability to read people and their nature. (although that ability seems to fall short on some occasions when I really could do with the clarity it brings.) a very big part of my personal take on witchcraft is knowing human nature, and recognising patterns of behaviour in folks.
I guess my main focus craft wise is healing (be that emotional healing a la counsellor style which links in with the above mentioned empathy and reading human behaviour, or the taking physical pain away) as I have expressed in other threads, and I would be lost without that, as I know I have brought comfort to several people with it. (can't seem to use it on myself though no matter how much I have tried.

Oh I would think so... Im working on that skill as we speak!

Some great answers - thank you.

Stormbringer, I agree, i think it would be difficult to be a witch without my skills and talents in the 'psychic' category, but then Woozle comes in and asks a very valid question, that isnt off topic at all, Woozle.

If you can raise energy - that is part of being a witch. But then again, Woozle, I do recall you describing yourself as a 'feely' - does that not come into the kind of skills we are discussing here ?? Maybe you are a witch afterall.

Tas - I am not sure that everyone is born with these skills. I am more inclined to believe that some people arent, but they might have other skills that we dont. But I agree that it is innate and stronger in some than in others.

WW, yes, there is a kind of clash between the terminology of psychic 'stuff' and witchcraft, and I think we all have frames of reference for the 2 things as being separate, which isnt necessarily the case.

LOL - it didnt say supernatural because I dont consider such gifts as being so. To me they are perfectly natural and 'everyday'.

And Wow !! Synaesthesia - most definitely a gift. Do you think your magic would be harder to achieve without this skill ?

Words have power Julai



I think the definition of what a witch is has been done to death, so it shouldnt be too hard to understand what I mean, especially seeing as most of us here speak English.

Xalle - I understood that PERFECTLY. I do get the sense of emotion too, especially directly from other people I am in the room with, which helped me enormously in my job. And people used to come and just sit in my office for a few minutes because they said it was very 'relaxed' in there, which is the energy I would be giving out as I was dealing with difficult teens. But I agree with you and Queenie, it can be distracting especially if you are caught unawares by someone else's powerful emotion.

And I know exactly what you mean by 'the big picture'. I refer to those instances where somehow things just 'shift' as Cosmic Clicks - LOL. I see it as the way a train track moves at a junction - it can be going one way, then there's a cosmic click, the track at the junction switches tracks and its now going in a different direction.

I am really pleased to see so many people all have the same kinds of skills. To us, they are just a part of us, but to other people - as I have realised - we are really strange. I know I got called a witch by one lass who experienced my intuition with emotions (or empathy) - LOL.

Healing in a physical way doesnt come easily to me, not like it does to my mum, but healing in an emotional sense does, as well as protection, getting rid of nasties, and hexing are all things that I do well.

Very well then, my answer remains as before.

Well I dont classify myself as a Witch, but you can judge for yourselves!
Gifts or Talents....Im told Im a very good Healer, working with Energy in that way, mainly to restore Balance, though sometimes I wish I wasn't, especially when it comes to Relationships as I seem to naturally act as a Catalyst to start a long emotional re balancing process, even when Ive done nothing! I have a fair bit of Empathy and occassionally get confused by who's feelings I am actually experiencing! I occassionally get the Clairaudience (hearing), often Clairvoyence (seeing), sometimes smell. I used to far more so, but had to block them to cope with normal life!
Dejavu and Dreams is definetly connected in me.
I have a Natural affinity with Mammals (wont say Animals, not so good at Reptiles and Fish), even the wild ones! A massive respect for Nature!
Im very Artistic and Creative, I dont really deal with Negative Energy, it tends to leave before I get there! Meditation and Visualisation techniques I am good at doing and helping others with. Divination, the Tarot and Runes are usually fairly accurate, but thats more 'cause and effect' and 'people reading' than Divination I suspect?
These are the most obvious ones I can think of.
The more Psychic 'feely' stuff is very much connected to my Emotional State, if Im in Love, for example, they go through the roof and life can get awkward, especially in my job!
Most of the time my Emotions are fairly constant and level, so there arent too many problems now.
But at the end of the day, I am who I am!

You know Tas, I was only trying to help. I tell you what, if everything I say pisses you off SO much, why dont you just put me on ignore, because I'm sick of your sniping !

I actually asked MG to start this topic because I thought people were getting irritated by my questions and so out of respect for the longer term members I tried to take a back seat.

SO sorry if thats not to your liking.

I'm out of here.

Look I'd like to apologise for sniping back then. It was an over reaction and I'm sorry

This thread has bought up some fantastic replies and I should have concentrated on that instead.

However in my defense it has been obvious that some of us new comers to the site have not been exactly welcomed in some quarters. I dont know why this is as I think we have been perfectly polite.

Would it be possible to wipe the slate clean and start again?

Again I apologise for my quick temper, but I did warn people I could be a bit hot headed.

Oh fuck me, I take the time to visit the hospital to collect my daughter after her latest operation, and look what happens. Tsk tsk.

Actually Comfrey, I wasn't remotely "pissed off" by anything you've said in this thread. However, if I had been, please be assured that I would have made it clear. You have maybe misread my emotions in my posts. Don't worry - it happens. And there is no need to aplogise.

As for what I'll be doing? Concentrating on the important things in life.

I'd like to just respond and add to what Comfrey has just said. Comfrey did ask me to post about this topic, after various discussions between different people to get a wider range of opinions, and I was happy to oblige, and glad this topic did get an airing as there have been some really interesting responses. And I hope that doesnt stop here.

But - I agree that there has been unecessary sniping going on, and its been mentioned on other threads as well, by other people.

But it should be remembered that for some of us who are posting recently and might be considered newcomers by some..........well, we arent really newcomers at all. We are not new to witchcraft, or paganism, and Comfrey and I certainly arent new to UKP.

We were both members of UKP wayyyy back - some 8 years ago, I believe, and my member numer is 85 as I rejoined after UKP was reformed after encouragement, if I remember rightly, from our beloved Weatherwitch.

Now then, this gives us no special privilages, that's for sure, but it does mean that we are old hands in more ways than one. But we havent become active on UKP for any other reason than it was our first home, we both know a fair few people on here, and we respect the mods for running a wonderful site.

Its also nice to have a fresh load of opinions and experience to interact with

it would be nice if the sniping would stop. Although it doesnt look as if that is going to happen judging by the post above this one, and that's a shame, because it doesnt make the people being sniped at look bad, it just makes those who do the sniping look silly, and it stops the real newcomers from posting because they fear they will get the same treatment.

Now then .................where were we ??

Oh yes.................gifts and talents.....................

Sniping? Get real please. I don't know where you are coming from on this. You have only my word for that. Nonetheless, I find you and your friends' accusations not only boring, but also deeply insulting.

Okay, Mod hat on (I know, you were waiting on it weren't you?) (Collective "you" btw in case anyone feels singled out )

It's no surprise that witchcraft is often called bitchcraft

Let's put the handbags away and get back to the point of the thread, okay?

i do not call my self a witch
I do have a few psychic talents
i am clairaudient i hear and smell things all the time
i do trance work on occassion
and when i let go i can channel
these are parts of me i can not imagine them not being part of me

Mojie

I think another talent of a Witch is to be able to rise above situations which are intended to goad one into acting rashly or irrationally.

Using one's Craft skills requires a clear head and focus, IMO, else it can all end up going pear-shaped!

Sometimes witches have to be ready to jump in with both feet. In my opinion, witches should be fearless, especially in the face of criticism. I don't practice Tas's version of witchcraft, I am sure they don't practice mine. But querying exactly what someone means sets this forum apart from others. We are so used to taking offence it has become second nature.

Anyone on this forum is welcome to criticise me. Whether or not I accept that criticism is up to me. One day I am right and you are wrong. The next day it's vice versa.

Wyrdwoman, I am slightly confused by this post.
To whom (or indeed to what) does "fearless" apply?

You state,

"I don't practice Tas's version of witchcraft, I am sure they don't practice mine."

As a solitary/hedgewitch (see my profile) I am not quite sure who the "they" you refer to are? Or am I simply being pedantic here? I may of course be "querying [too] exactly" here, as you pointed out,

And your final para I agree with totally!

I am not sure whether you are male or female so I used 'they' instead of 'him' or 'her'.

As for the rest of the post, I apologise for being vague. However, as it was written after 5 pints of very nice real ale, all I can tell you is that it made sense to me at the time. Now? Not so much.

I have got into trouble in the past talking about psychism because people automatically think it mean mediumship and it doesnt. I dont know if actual mediums exist but I have a friend who if they dont gives a very good impression of it.

But I think every witch I have spoken to who seems to know his/her stuff are actually using psychic talents and what has caused the confusion is pedantics over words.

A witch will often talk about mediation and journeying. Or being able to follow the "web" and tweak it. Where as someone with psychic spiritualist training will say "astral travel" and "remote viewing". But they amount to the same thing.

With that in mind, I think a witch should often times have a knowledge of something before it happens or have some 6th sense around certain places and people.

It could be just a gut reaction to things, but how many of you witches have a feeling of doom around certain places and yet notice other people not sensing it at all.

These are things I have experienced since young and I dare say most other witches have too and these are the basic "tools" I think which can be developed.

I wonder if all children are born with a certain sensitivity which life experiences knocks out of them. Probably I reckon. But those who grow into witches have not or indeed cannot have it knocked out of them because its actually a part of their make up.

Which leads me on to the fact that I believe anyone can be taught these basics. For years I ran a psychic development circle and contrary to popular belief it wasn't about talking to the dead, it was about fine tuning our natural gifts of 6th sense for the want of a better term.

How to recognise the difference between imagination and gut reaction. Gut reaction which was not to be ignored. How to just sit and "feel" your surroundings, and of course how to meditate and then how to perhaps decipher what that mediation has bought forth.

But whilst I believe these can be taught I also think some people really are as dead as a house brick toward this sort of thing. So equally there will be people who have a natural talent and then go on and use this as a part of themselves in every day life.

The rest is either taught or learned. Spells are only a way of focus, just as ceremony and ritual are. At least in my opinion.

But sometimes there is nothing better than gathering things around you to "create" a spell and then to spend time working it in whatever way you wish. But without the ability to change reality, albeit in your minds eye, then none of this matters.

In my opinion (only) the magic starts with the witch. It comes from within not from outside "stuff"

To continue on from this, you wouldnt really find a 6 year old who is a witch nor actually are there many I have seen who are younger than 25, and normally a LOT older. Because a witch should have a level of maturity to know when and how to use these abilities.

That doesnt mean they cant sometimes act childishly but that for the most part they are pretty level headed and able to suss a situation before acting.

Again though, having said that, some of the very best I have met have been foul tempered bints, especially as they get older, and I think this comes from frustration that perhaps they can see things in situations that others cant.

I personally try to remain calm, because the minute ones fuse goes, then thats when you have lost control of a situation. But as you have witnessed this isnt always the case.

Theres many reason why I dont think a witch can be a youngun, (although that doesnt mean they wont) and it is by no means an insult because some are fantastic at the actual witchcraft.

But to me at least they would be practising witchcraft without yet having become a witch, because being a witch is more than about the magic.

Its perhaps the difference between Granny and Magrat

I like everything you've said there Comf.

Ah - ta.
Tas is a lady BTW! (See profile) Otherwise she'd look rather odd wearing her magical Tas drawers!

As far as talents go the only one that is constantly there and relied heavily upon is the Empathy thing, there are days I hate it days I couldnt live without it. Like anything in life its a double edged blade. But anything really funky? no I dont think I have. Infact the longer I spend in the Valley the less inclined I am to apply the term Witch to myself

I'm after getting confused, but i think I'm answering the question - apologies if this rambles!

for me the only basic talent a witch should have is the abilty to do magic.
I know people who can do this but have not once ounce of psychic ability and they are witches none the less. I think intuition is a good tool for any witch, but I really think in the end, either you can or cannot do magic. (obviously "do magic" encompasses a large amount of talents in itself, eg heal, hex, weather magic, etc) I don't know that being able to sense or feel spirit would affect my witchcraft in anyway; my "can't do without" talent would literally be the ability to raise magical energy and aim it.

I have never met a real psychic despite some very concerted efforts (especially recently, for the laugh I went looking) but I do know people I would consider a witch; I would probably think about psychicism, spirits, sensing things, as being in a different field than witchcraft. Maybe I just have a very practical approach lol.

Hi

But dont you think that depends on what you view both psychic and witchcraft? As I said there is a huge mix up when it comes to the wording. What you are describing about seeing and sensing spirit is mediumship NOT psychism.

Ok mediums have to be psychic but not all psychics are mediums. There is a HUGE difference. The two are not interchangeable.

How would someone hex? Or heal? or journey? Just lighting a candle and hoping for the best? You talk of sixth sense. What is that if it isnt a psychic ability?

Its all well and good saying a witch can do magic, what I was trying to do was explain where that magic happens and how it happens and the fact I was taught terms other those which people like to use in this pagan PCness gone mad, does not mean we arent actually talking about the same thing

People get bogged down with terms.

So, the ability to commune with spirit (a la Derek Acorah) is mediumship and may or may not exist.

Psychism is what witches practise within their craft whether they chose to call it that or not.

Hi I'm not sure what part of my post you're referring to?

Moongazer mentioned both psychic ability and intuition, I was replying that i think the first is a seperate field and the second is a useful tool but (for me ) not the most important in witchcraft



I didn;t mention sixth sense? sorry I am totally confused what part of my post this is in reply to?
IMO (and just imo) any magical spell is the result of the ability to raise magic that is how someone would hex. i don;t consider that any form of psychic ability.



yeah but if we know what we mean by various terms it's not as confusing to try to talk about it.





Um I just disagree I'm afraid. I agree that psychic mediumship a la acorah is one think and general psychic abilities another but to say that psychism is "hat witches practise within their craft whether they chose to call it that or not.""is not true, imo, it certainly it would not be true of me and others i know who are witches,Not saying it isn' true for you but it is not what witches do necesarily.

edited because the quote function defeated me!

So i have been on this planet for almost 50 years and i have never come across the word psychism. I have looked it up and am none the wiser. Could you explain?
I think Saramacha explaied it very well. I am not psychic as far as i am aware but i hex, heal and journey quite adequately thank you. Do you for example consider instinct and the abilty to feel right or wrongness to be psychic ability?
As I think i said above I cannot see that being able to access the sprits etc. is going to help your craft much. It's a nice hobby but were does it get you (unless of course you want to help the dead and have fun at parties)?
If the aim of witchcraft is to redress balance etc. divination too is pretty pointless. Of course everyone uses whatever method he or she can to boost his or her powers but how can this be necessary? Especially if as has been said, you are born a witch.

People get bogged down with terms dear comfrey because nobody defines the terms and some even like to use them wrongly or imposing their own definitions on the word, i.e. witch (i don't mean you). So, to understand your final line one would first need to understand your definition of psychism.

Sorry, I meant to write intuition not sixth sense.

The part I was referring to was the confusion between talking to spirit. I dont see that as a part of witchcraft either. But then when someone tell me they are communing with their Gods, I find it hard to understand the difference, except Gods are way more powerful

Take away the whole spirit thing because thats where the confusion lies. But this intuition or healing or whatever, isnt that performed through some form of psychic ability?

Isnt the "raising of energy" a psychic tool?

I dont know why when the word psychic is mentioned there is a huge problem. It isnt special and it doesnt mean one can blabber away to aunt Mary on the other side. Its what I believe is happening when energy is raised and when we get that gut reaction to things.

But I am quite willing to accept others dont see it my way and thats ok, but often I've been told by someone they are "as psychic as a brick" only for them then to go and tell me something which proves otherwise.

Woozle I've tried to explain. I think its acually just down to words we feel comfortable saying.

Each witch surely comes at their craft from different back grounds and experiences. Much of my experience came from within the spiritualist movement, so these are the words I'm comfortable using and these days I have got to the stage that I will use them even if people think I'm trying to sound superior.

I'm not. I belive all witches have the psychic gift even if they say they havent.

But that is just my opinin