Wicca or WitchCraft ?

In my Musings on Wicca, I state that Wicca and Witchcraft, or The Craft, are not synonymous.  I think I should explain that a bit, especially because many books, written by well-established, much-respected, internationally-acclaimed Witches, have been written as if Wicca and The Craft are the same thing.  Laurie Cabot and Ann Moura are among those author Witches, both with decades more experience and history in either Wicca or The Craft than I have.However, I know that you can practice The Craft, you can do Magick, without following any particular spiritual path. You may work with many of the same Earth energies as are called upon and honoured in Wiccan ceremonies, but still you needn’t follow a spiritual path in order to do so.

Wicca is a beautiful spiritual path, using rituals to summon loving universal energies, such as The Lord and Lady. And while many Wiccans may not actively practice Witchcraft, there still is magick in the rituals that summon those energies.

While wicca, witch, wise woman, etc. share a common etymology and share many common practices and qualities, I do not believe that Wicca and Witchcraft are the same thing.   Although Magick is inherent in much of Wicca, I perceive the spiritual path as separate from the purely magickal, or energy-bending, practice of The Craft.

One can be a Witch and practice The Craft, Magick, as an end in itself, without following any particular spiritual path. One can be Wiccan, calling upon magickal energies in rituals, without being committed to the use of Magick.  Of course there is much communion of the two practices, the spiritual and the magickal. There are many Wiccan Witches.  It is difficult sometimes to see any separation, and yet I do see it.

And do I have the audacity to disagree with some of the greatest Witches and Wiccans of our day, who do not differentiate the two? Apparently, I have.