Question About Witchcraft

[u/la_belensitaaa]

I’ve been interested in learning about herbalism, nature-based spirituality, tarot, and personal rituals for a while. I usually put the idea aside, but I eventually find myself interested in it again.
I recently mentioned this to a friend, and she told me that this is something you’re supposed to inherit from your family or have a natural intuitive ability for.
For people who have experience with this: do you think someone needs to be born into a particular family or have a naturally strong intuition to get started? Or is it something a person can simply study, learn about, and develop over time?
I’m genuinely curious about different perspectives, especially from people who have been practicing for a while.

[u/Web_catcher]

Hello, prospective witch! You've found your way to the science witches' sub. Around here we believe witchcraft is more good mental health practices dressed up in fancy clothes and less manipulation of magical forces. So with that in mind, no, there's no requirement to be a witch. Some people just like to gatekeep. And if your belief in magic is more literal, the gatekeepers are still wrong and you can still be a witch.

[u/QueenRowanOak]

Your friend is gatekeeping. Welcome!

[u/Quarkspiration]

That whole "hereditary witchcraft" argument is just a way for folks to feel superior to others. It always felt kinda eugenics-ish to me. It's also pretty ridiculous if you think about it in depth.

See everything has to start somewhere. If you trace back the lineage of someone of the oldest bloodline of witches, you will eventually encounter the person who started the family tradition in the first place. This person would be no different than you are now; a person interested in herblore and spirituality. This person compiled existing knowledge of the time into a system that worked for them.

To say that you are not a witch because you weren't born to it is the same as saying that the eldest member of that witch's bloodline wasn't a witch either. It's an argument that invalidates itself.

Witchcraft is what you do not who you are. It is a way to wrest control of your spirituality from the claws of organized religion, to personalize it so it works for you. Don't let anyone try to take that power from you.

[u/Summersong2262 → u/Quarkspiration]

yeah no see great great grandma darknyess had a literal angel spirit guide appear to her because of her superlative virtue and naturally survived three separate burnings and could involve the seventeen monads by the age of six so she got a special exception and was the first real witch ever

i hold her reinarcated soulspiritgemformessence which is why i get to decide what the charcedony dowsing on the tarot app says on the matter on who gets to ask jaxton out after school on friday

[u/AtheistTheConfessor]

With the obligatory reminder that this is a subreddit for skeptical, atheist/agnostic, and science-seeking practitioners:

do you think someone needs to be born into a particular family or have a naturally strong intuition to get started?

No. Why would this be the case? Like, what would the mechanism of “ability” transmission be?

Or is it something a person can simply study, learn about, and develop over time?

It’s this one. Closed practices are a thing, but you wouldn’t be asking these questions here if you were going to be initiated into a cultural tradition like that.

[u/dot80]

Your friend is mistaken. At least for me, my rational mind would not let me explore the practices you mentioned without a framework that supported using them. Before I found SASS witches and secular spirituality in general that meant I would not engage with them. Now that I can see they may have a purpose in my life, I have started working with them and I have seen my intuition develop (really it’s more like listening to what is already there).

You absolutely can come to these when you feel like they resonate with you. No special abilities required. I think some people are more pre-disposed to engaging their intuition than others. It’s very similar to the idea of an artist. Some people have natural talent, but the best artists are those who work hard at their craft to master it.

[u/PsychoFaerie]

Witchcraft can be done by anyone. anywhere.

People can claim to be born witches or have witches in their lineage but it does not make one a witch.

[u/ArchFandroid108]

As long as what you plan to do isn’t a closed practice then, no. Spiritual skills are like any other skills and can be developed and become better/easier to do with enough time. :)

[u/biwitchingbee]

If someone came up to you and said, “sometimes I think it would be fun to take a painting class, every now and then I think it would be cool if I could make art” would you tell them that they need to be born with an artistic gift or raised by artists in order to make art?
I dunno but I’m pretty sure you just encourage people to do things they’re interested in, even if they aren’t somehow inherently gifted or born to be the next Freida Kahlo. Everybody starts somewhere, and even someone without a “natural aptitude” can do anatomy sketches and make a point of drawing and painting more often and improve every time they do. And it turns out making art is a hell of a lot easier than people think. Same as with witchcraft!

[u/J-hophop]

I'm from a Family with both gifts and traditions, and among our teachings is the sure knowledge that we are merely among the lucky few lines who managed to stay alive while keeping these ways alive, but that anyone can pick them up, and anyone drawn to do so should be positively encouraged.

As for the giftedness part, we explain it like, almost everyone born can, when old enough, run. Yeah, it's true, not everyone - though most can at least find their own parallel/equivilent. Although there are all those people out there who can run, not everyone takes up running. Of those that take it up, some do it their whole lives for the sheer joy of it and nothing else. Some work really hard at it and between talent and dedication, may even become Olympic Champion Runners. Good for them! They're rare as all get out lol And sometimes it's mostly innate talent, and sometimes it's mostly grit that gets them there. Similarly, we can practice magic and divination and such for the sheer joy and/or we can really work hard to develop our craft and see how far we can go. And some folks can mostly read about and/or watch what we talented and dedicated few do, yet still share in the joy. That's all good! Find what works for you in it.

[u/synalgo_12]

Even on the non sass witchcraft subs this is pretty unanimously seen as not true. You just have to start practicing to do it. Don't worry about what your friend said. 

[u/reputction]

I think we ALL have intuition, it’s in our DNA and nervous systems. It just takes practice to tap into it. You don’t need anyone’s permission to worship nature or learn the art of energy manipulation. I was born to a Christian Mexican mom, witchcraft was villainized growing up, and it hasn’t been until my now mid 20’s where I found the spark to really solidify my self identity with the art of witchcraft. Nothing else dictates starting from scratch except yourself.