<Ranting>
Why I will always be a Witch…
Not a Pagan, although I AM that too, but I will always be a Witch because, so many years ago now… 15…16 years… do I only count my Dedication ritual or do I count some of the Witchy stuff I was doing before that? Well, lets call it 16 years, with definitely Pagan leanings for 19 to 20.
Anyway… I gave myself to the Goddess and God of Witchcraft (as best as I understood and understand them) that night. I offered myself to them in their service and worship. Body and Soul… I have Circled and Prayed and Magicked and had a few run-ins with Divinity…. both my own and others… I was a young and stupider Witch once…
Even when I started feeling a pull towards the Gods of Greece… especially Hecate and Dionysus… I worried that I was straying from Witchcraft even as I crafted a ritual of introduction and welcome for Hecate…. and later too opened a place in my heart and life for Dionysus…
yet if you dig into their histories you will see why Hecate and Dionysus’s myths and legends seemed somehow strangely familiar to a 21st Century Neo-Pagan Witch…
I am a Witch, whether I am Calling the Quarters or simply making an offering of Incense and moving on with my day… I am a Witch. This is not something I put on or take off… it is not for the convenience of the moment… if I face trouble or pain or fear or poverty… THEY are there… as are dear friends and family…
Perhaps I am lucky, I have never had a time were I truly felt without the Divine… whether in a more general sense of knowing and resonating with the Divine in All of Creation, or those few blessed ( an occasionally terrifying) moments where I have experienced a specific Presence. Or those times I have reached out to the Elemental energies and felt them there…
When books written by my fellow Pagans paled I started looking elsewhere… Books by Buddhists on facing fear and difficult times… self-help books on being more effective… books on History and Psychology… my College Classes… especially the Wines Class and the Environmental Sciences class…
All of these have been Teachers to me. If I am not finding inspiration or beauty or strength or power or compassion or honor or humility or mirth or reverence in Witchcraft and Paganis; it is not because it is not there! It is because I am not looking for it in the right way… or with a clear mind and heart…
The thing is, I am REALLY NOT trying to offend anyone when I say these things… I have written a lot of essays on this site and done my best to make the pages of this site a useful resource for my fellow Pagan traveler’s and for the budding Witches of the world.
I know what it’s like, I’ve been a solitary Pagan for nearly 2 decades a Witch for most of that time… I have been there and am still there… and while I would dearly love the opportunity to share experience and fellowship and laughter and faith and magick with others…. I don’t have to have that in order to be complete as a Witch or Pagan.
While I would grievously miss them, and Them, if I never had another dramatic Theistic encounter I would still remain a Witch and Pagan.
For me it is a faith and a life and a philosophy and a part of who I am and what I do and how I view the world around me…
I really have a mental block in understanding folks who (it seems to me at least) casually let drop that they are leaving Paganism or Witchcraft because of some lack in these paths or communities. Of course, I have in the past been moved to try being some of the things I perceived lacking in the community…
ok, ok,
</ranting>
Chrysalis 
I will always be a witch as well despite where my path may lead me 🙂
I don’t consider myself a witch as much as I do consider myself a pagan …. My Spiritual path lead straight into the woods instead of a named god or godess…but i am very happy that you are solid in your faith and draw strength from it.
that is most important
Books can have so many directions and sections and full of datd , but it dosn’t matter unless the spirit of your creator touches you itsself.
Beautifully said.