Witchcraft

Witchcraft is a magickal practice used outside of the deity worship that a lot of Pagans use. It's used mostly by Wiccans, but there are no rules on who can or can't use it. It doesn't have any dark and evil or light and good properties unless the user assigns that property to it. Magick just is. It's a force that can be used like most forces in physics. It doesn't move by itself unless you yourself move it. It also comes with karma attached, meaning that whatever you use it for, that will come back to you three times. Therefore, if you use magick to curse and hex, you will receive that comes curse three times worse. If you use magick to bless and heal someone, then blessings and health will come to you three times good. (It's called The Threefold Law. Some witches believe in it, but some don't.) Karma is also a force that can only give back whatever it's given. It's not subject to opinion and it doesn't have any mercy. Just like inertia or any other physical force will not be forgiving if you fall off of a tall building. It's said that magick usually takes up to 21 days to work. (Source: Dorothy Morrison's The Craft: A Witch's Book of Shadows) If it doesn't happen until then, then it probably isn't meant to be. There are a lot of different traditions in magick, including more arcane ones such as Voodoo, Santeria, Alchemy and more. The magick used all depends on the user. Witchcraft is essentially just a practice, but it is also a periphery in Wicca (kind of like how studying the Bible is a periphery in Christianity). But, anybody of any religion can use magick, including non-religious people and even Christians. (Although, with the basic of tenets of that religion, I don't know how that would work. I guess that's just something I shall have to research.) There are a lot of theories about the practice of witchcraft and the use of magick. I laid out a few basic ones here. Some of it is common knowledge among witches and some of it is what I found in my readings. I'll delve more often into it, post a few spells, discover a few magickal supplies and discuss the basic ones later. But until then, one thing that opponents of the Craft need remember is that:
1.) Most Wiccans, Neopagans and most Western witches in the modern day use magick only for good. We are required by our creed (The Witch's Rede) to do so and we do NOT use magick for evil or cursing.
2.) Even if a few of us are flawed and use it for evil, that doesn't mean that all of us are. (Just like how not all Christians are like Westboro Baptist Church, not all Muslims are terrorists or not all Hindus are like that creepy Hare Krishna offshoot that raped, beat and starved children.) Human nature has many sides to it and sometimes, the worst side makes us act in the worst ways. I've met people, good people, who believed in using hexes for revenge against someone who hurt them or their loved ones first. I personally don't believe in using a hex for any reason, and that brings me to my next point...
3.) You can also use magick to defend yourself. There are a number of things that magick can do, but you always have to think it through first and think, "What will be the consequences of this?" Whatever you do, it will have a consequence somehow and may end up taking from someone else. Use your good judgement when using magick. I personally use it next to never, because sometimes, I either end up resolving the problem or it ends up resolving itself. Magick takes a lot of preparation and needs to be done carefully, or else the spell may not come out right. But, you are perfectly welcome to use it for protection, since that in essence doesn't hurt anyone.