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Aster's avatar

Do you believe in witches that cast spells with pentagrams?

Asked by Aster (20023points) August 19th, 2013

Firstly, I don’t think I believe in witches but I’m not positive. I’ve never given it much thought. But my daughter called and said her neighbor was “making the neighborhood a very evil place” and she was yelling about it. She said the neighbor, who even “looked like a witch” wanted to cast a bad spell on somebody. First this “witch” drew a pentagram in the dirt, then she wrote the name of the person on paper then burned another paper on top of the pentagram. I advised my daughter not to go over to that woman’s house. Is all this witch stuff fantasy or is there at least a little bit of truth to it ?

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17 Answers

ragingloli's avatar

no. just no.

Kropotkin's avatar

More than a little bit of truth. I would gather all the concerned neighbours and put this witch on trial. She could turn someone into a newt.

Do you know what you do with witches? You burn them. Do you know what else burns? Wood burns. And wood floats on water doesn’t it? What else floats on water? Ducks float on water.

Therefore, if this woman weighs as much as a duck, she is a witch. If this happens to be the case—which I’m almost certain is the case—you will have to burn her at the stake.

You’ll need to find a duck and build a large enough weighing scale.

elbanditoroso's avatar

It’s like any other irrational and unprovable belief. The Wiccans think and maybe hope that they are casting spells. And like any other religion, if it feels good to them, then who are we, as unbelievers, to criticize them?

The wiccans obviously believe in their spells. But how are these ceremonies any different from Baptists casting out spirits and speaking in tongues, Catholics doing catechism or exorcism, Jews and Moslems praying to the East, and so on and so forth.

Harmless and pointless.

LuckyGuy's avatar

i believe a neighbor can make a neighborhood an evil place – but not by casting spells. They do it by increasing crime, by performing vandalism, by calling the police for many minor infractions, by having dogs barking, by not maintaining their property or illegally burning trash.

Those evils spirits are pretty clever and skillful if they can read paper that has been burned. They could have a great career at the NSA or in the FBI’s forensics lab.

elbanditoroso's avatar

@LuckyGuy – I think you have hit the nail on the head. The NSA and CIA (hi guys, if you are reading this!) are made up of witches and warlocks! That’s why they are so evil.

ucme's avatar

No, they’re living a lie & should be ignored as a matter of course.

Pachy's avatar

The only witch I ever believed in was a former co-worker.

Oh wait—I misspelled witch.

jca's avatar

I would just advise your daughter to stay away from this nut.

flip86's avatar

Yes. I also believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

I used to be a witch, back in the day. I believed my spells worked. I’m not even going to comment on any of the assumptions about witches mentioned in the details.

That aside, I think certain energies that are positive and negative can be channeled to make things happen.

elbanditoroso's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – how does that work? How do you ‘stop” being a witch?

KNOWITALL's avatar

I think it’s real and I think if you open the door to Satan he may just come on in and take over the place which is your soul. Which is why you don’t play with ouija boards or practice spells in a book, draw pentagrams, etc…

That being said, there are a lot of poseurs for any and all schools of thought.

Show respect like you would for anyone else, like a Muslim or Hindu, and go your own way.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@elbanditoroso Well, I got pregnant with my first child and felt that pregnancy wasn’t the right time to be passing things/energies through me. Then, I got busy/felt it was no longer necessary.

drhat77's avatar

I think witchcraft as a “thing” is very hard to disprove. It doesn’t mesh with our current understanding of how the world works, and it is possible to prove that any particular instance of a “spell” was not in fact magic but some variety of hokum. But witchcraft seems non falsifiable – I cannot think of an experiment that proves every possible interpretation of witchcraft without basis. What about herbalists – witchcraft? But jibes with our understanding of the world. And certainly part and parcel of the witchcraft of yore.
Blah blah blah.
That being said, a general rule for dealing with people is the louder they declaim themselves to be something, the less likely they are that thing. So a conservative who is vehemently pro-“American family” is more likely to be caught having anonymous gay sex in a mens’ room, and that crazy lady down the corner making a very public show of her witchcraft is probably just crazy. At the very least she seems like some social maladjust the way you describe it.

Blondesjon's avatar

@Kropotkin . . . She turned me in to a newt.

i got better

rojo's avatar

@Kropotkin You know what else floats in water?

More witches!

Cider!

Apples!

A Great Gravy!

Very small rocks!

Churches, Churches, Churches with wooden steeples.

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