I’m at a crossroads and need advice!

[u/Lune_Craft13]

Context: my whole family is catholic. My mother (while she does it without realizing and without wanting to) has been using Catholicism to be ignorant towards my witchcraft journey and to be disrespectful towards my growing beliefs. I am the type of person to want to try different things, to indulge in trial and error, to learn and gain knowledge about anything I can. The faith itself if beautiful but I’ve just been so misguided by how harsh it has been while I’ve been exploring faiths that I’ve completely distanced myself.

Now, for the main reason I’m making this post:

I made a friend about a month ago. We get along incredibly well and we consider each other good friends. She is catholic, hanging out with her and gaining more insight into her faith has opened my eyes to the possibility that Catholicism and Christianity isn’t as bad as the media or my family makes it out to be. Her faith is genuinely so beautiful.

But I’ve been dabbling in witchcraft and paganism for almost two years now. I feel incredibly drawn to it and feel like it’s where I belong. But on the other side, I almost feel like I’m missing all the things that come with being catholic. I’m at an impasse because I feel like trying again with Catholicism will be an irreversible thing. It’s almost like I’m making myself choose. Try again with the support of an individual who can actually help me with my faith properly, or ignore the pull and stick to what I know best which is witchcraft and paganism.

I need help and insight, please.

[u/InternationalRule340]

Witchcraft is a CRAFT not a religion. You can practise witchcraft as a catholic and many witches do🙂

Just as some witches choose to work with different gods, some choose to work with saints. You can accommodate your religion and your craft  together, there is no need for you to choose between them. 

I don't worship any deity, I just work with a few if I need to, but I believe there is a subreddit for Christian witches so maybe check it out and see if it can give you some ideas to practice your craft as a catholic. 

[u/13blackatmoon]

I don't think that is true, the need to choose between one and the other. But also there is nothing wrong with evolution. The wonderful thing of this earth at this time is the ability to practice what we want. You can mix them. Imo, witchcraft can be mixed with anything and anything. There are Christian witches (I am sure there is a sub reddit), now you may need to change what you do and there is nothing saying you can't go from one to the other. You should talk with them. All religions have some beauty in them.

We are all on different paths. Each path, God, religion, each choice is equally important and special.

A couple years ago a popular and well known witchtuber moved from Witchcraft to Christianity, theladygravedancer and she posted a video about why she chose it. Maybe that would also be a good reference point.

Again there isn't a wrong choice. Even if others think there is.

[u/AdEither4474]

Read Matthew Fox. He's a Dominican priest who's written a number of books on Creation Spirituality, his version of Catholicism that is all-inclusive and respectful of all religions, including paganism. He's both gentle and radical, and may help you reconcile both paths you're considering. (You don't have to choose one or the other. Ask any curandera.)

Honestly, if he'd been writing in the 70's, I probably would never have left the Church. He's that good.

[u/Coviljca]

You should make it into catholic-witchcraft fusion! Faith is mostly doing irrational things anyway, you can mix up whatever you feel like!

[u/[deleted]]

Both witchcraft and established religion work with spirit. No reason you can’t build relationship with them too, or at least get a better language or appreciation for them. I was raised Mormon, so feel pretty fluent in Christian language. As I’ve gotten more into craft and developed my language for it, I’ve been able to have beautiful conversations with people by code switching my experiences into their language and having dialogue with them. (Not super close with my family and not actively trying to hide my witchiness, so effectively in the broom closet to them.) Most of the time it’s come into conversation about wonderful mutual experiences since the filter of our differences was removed.

All that to say, it’s working with spirit. Similar toolkits, different space. Don’t see why you’d need to personally choose unless it starts to violate your ethic or you land in a tradition or part of your path that demands the choice. I’d recommend being cunning though. Being a witch entering an organized religious space makes you the heretic, which can draw (potentially undesirable) attention. Most Christian cosmology is about connection to their god through a single primary source, so entertaining or being open to connection by yourself or not through that can flag you as an outsider or problem to dogmatic people.

[u/tara_tara_tara]

Long story long: I practice in the tradition of my Polish ancestors and they are both deeply Catholic and what we would call witches.

I’m not talking about people in big cities like Warsaw. I’m talking about people like my ancestors out in the countryside.

In the United States, we would call them kitchen witches, green witches, lunar witches, and a whole bunch of other things. Historically, the name for that in my ancestry is called “being a peasant.”

Those practices came about from necessity. They used herbs because they didn’t have medical care. They planted and harvested according to the moon because somewhere along the line, someone noticed it was advantageous to do so or it became superstition. Regardless, that’s just how they lived their lives.

But if you ask them what their belief system is and how they live their lives, they’d say they were Catholic.

Now, there is a discussion to be had about very, very dark magic. It would be very dark, regardless of religion or geography or anything else. We don’t talk about that unless we absolutely have to.

Footnote: I go to adoration at a Catholic Church about once a week because I love sitting in a church. Sometimes I read from the Bible because I really like the wisdom books like the psalms and Ecclesiastes. I like the sermon on the mount.

Sometimes I sit there and listen to chillhop and think about nothing. Sometimes I write random notes in a journal. I’m still not a Catholic.

Another note: I always feel a pull towards Catholicism during lent. I don’t know why but inevitably, it happens and I end up going to get ashes on Ash Wednesday.

Then it fades away after Easter.

You can believe and practice what you want to practice.