October has arrived, and with it comes what many people call “the season of the witch.” I’m a witch all year long, of course, but I know the wider world tends to think about witches only when the leaves turn and the Halloween decorations come out. And when most people picture a witch, they imagine the ones from fairy tales and movies — mysterious, dramatic, sometimes frightening. As entertaining as those characters are, they don’t resemble real witches or the lives we actually lead.
Witchcraft itself isn’t a religion. It’s a practice, something you do, not something that requires belief in a particular deity — or any deity at all. You’ll find witches in many faiths. I’ve met Christian witches, pagan witches, and atheist witches. Witchcraft is the art of working with the natural energy of the world to help manifest change. Those energies exist whether we believe they were created by a god, by many gods, or by no divine force at all.
Even though witchcraft doesn’t require religion, most witches I know do have a spiritual life. The community I belong to tends to believe in a higher power, or in many. Many of us are religious pagans who honor gods and goddesses from various cultures. There’s a lot of overlap between paganism and witchcraft, but they aren’t the same thing. You can be pagan without ever casting a spell, and you can be a witch without being pagan. As I mentioned earlier, plenty of witches follow Christian paths, secular paths, or other religious traditions entirely.
So what are real witches like? There’s no official census, no registry, no way to know how many people identify as witches today. What I can say is that the number is growing. Trying to define witches as a group is like trying to define any broad demographic — you’ll find every kind of person among us. Most of us would tell you we’re ordinary people. We deal with the same daily challenges as anyone else. Being a witch doesn’t grant special powers that let us skip the school pickup line or avoid paying the electric bill. We go to work, care for our families, and do our best with the lives we have.
And truly, anyone can be a witch. You don’t need to be born into a magical bloodline. You don’t need to dress a certain way or adopt a particular aesthetic. Witchcraft isn’t tied to ethnicity, gender, or appearance. The only requirement is learning how to practice magic. Magic has structure and technique, but it doesn’t come with dogma or built‑in moral rules. It’s neutral — like any tool — and what matters is how a person chooses to use it.
Because witchcraft is so diverse and so personal, you can’t easily identify witches out in the world. We’re your coworkers, your neighbors, the person chatting with you in the grocery store line. Many witches keep their identity private, often because of the long history of discrimination and misunderstanding surrounding our practice. Unless someone chooses to tell you they’re a witch, you may never know.
Other witches are more open. Some of us wear their identity proudly, and some — like me — have jobs where being a witch is part of the work. As one of the owners of The Broom Closet, my witchcraft is woven into my professional life. But when I’m out running errands or moving through spaces outside my community, no one can tell. I look like any other person going about their day.
As October settles in and the world turns its attention toward witches, I hope people remember that we’re not just characters in stories or symbols of a spooky season. We’re real people living real lives, practicing a craft that connects us to the natural world and to our own sense of purpose. And we’re here all year long — not just when the pumpkins appear.
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained pagan clergy, and dog mom.
