Contrary to popular belief Witchcraft, or Wicca as it is now called, has nothing to do with malevolent witches worshipping the devil, riding on broomsticks or casting curses.
Neither do its current practitioners indulge in wild orgies as is sometimes reported.
Such lurid images are largely the creation of the early Church who saw "the Old Religion" as a potential threat to its authority and to its hold over an uneducated community.
Now, with the decline in orthodox religion and the increasing interest in alternative beliefs, Wicca has revived and is becoming more popular, particularly among young woman who see it as a natural expression of their feminine spirituality.
The Craft, as it is also called, has cast off its image as a fringe cult to become the fastest growing alternative religion in America where it is estimated that there are now over half a million practitioners.
Whatever its past, it has now successfully re-styled itself as a benign from of folk magic based on the worship of nature and the celebration of each individual's affinity with the forces of creation.
Wiccans do not appeal to, or acknowledge, the existence of external discarnate beings, only the all pervading life force, and so there is no supernatural elements to their practises.
