Gods and Devils: A Witch’s Perspective

I think one of the things that confuse people most about being a witch is the ridiculous amount of propaganda about witches being “devil” worshipers. The funny thing is most witches not only do not “worship” the devil, many do not even believe in the one as described in the Christian religion, at all.

Most of the popular current religions teach their followers that there is a “God”, which is a being that is 100% good and a “devil”, which is 100% evil. As witches, our Gods and Goddesses can be either, or neither. They are true constructs of reality just like humans are. Our Gods can be wonderfully loving and caring individuals who want the best for us, or tricky little bastards seeking death and destruction. Some of them even want to be one way or the other, but end up being both… just like their followers.

As humans, I believe that most of us truly want to be the best us we can be. We strive to excel, we want to make good choices for our lives. We consider what is best for ourselves, and those around us, and we do our level best to do all we can to achieve it. Do we fail on occasion? Of course! We cannot be perfect no matter how hard we try. Do we try to learn from our mistakes and do better next time? Of course! It is just human nature to fail at some things and have to try, again.

Take, for example, parenting. I think most every parent wants to do the very best parenting job ever. A few could care less, and it shows, but I believe that most parents want to do a better job at parenting than their parents did. We can all look back at things our parents did and say, “What the hell were they thinking?”, but at the same time, we know that our kids are going to feel the exact same way about some of our decisions. Did we think our choices were the best we could do at the time? Of course! Did we know there was a better way to handle a situation and then make a conscious decision to do worse? Of course, not!

Many religions teach that in striving for good that people are trying to be “God-like”. These same religions blame the evil that men do on their being tempted by the “devil” to do evil acts. As witches, we acknowledge that the potential for good and evil exists in every man and that it is up to the individual to choose to which they will allow to let out. We do not need some external force to lay claim to when we make good choices, nor do we need an external force to blame when we make bad choices.

As a witch, I believe that it is a conscious choice each person makes with their life whether they are going to do good or evil with their lives. They alone choose what to make of their lives. They alone will bear the ultimate consequences for their actions. If they choose to commit to evil acts it was completely their choice and not to be blamed on some mythical “evil being” which sneaks around whispering in people’s ears. What lives in a person’s heart is what will come out in their lives. For good or evil, we are masters of our own fates, deciders of our own destiny. Good or evil is in our hearts, minds and hands and only we can decide to act upon it, or not, as we see fit.

As witches, we may call upon our Gods and Goddesses to help us with our choices, to aid in our endeavors, we do not try to blame or praise them for the choices we make. We know that our choices are our own and that our deities are free to help, hinder, or ignore as they see fit. This is the life of a witch. We make our beds and we lie in them, for better or for worse. Enough said.