The Many Roads Through the Forest

Witchcraft isn’t a single story, it’s a wild, branching tree with roots digging through continents, cultures, and centuries. What one witch holds sacred, another may never touch. That’s not conflict it’s diversity. Some traditions are solitary, others woven in community. Some are ancient as dust, others newly born under neon moons. The core truth? There is no one way. But whichever path you walk, let it be with integrity, respect, and an unflinching willingness to do the work.

This list is not exhaustive. It is a glimpse, a doorway, a spark. You’ll find open traditions that welcome seekers with grit and genuine intent. And you’ll find closed traditions, guarded, ancestral, and held within living communities. They are not for casual hands or spiritual tourism. That said…what you do is your choice.
But choices carry weight. If you step where you have not been invited, understand that you may face consequences, not just from people, but from the spirits, ancestors, and energies who guard those paths. This isn’t about permission. It’s about accountability. Walk wisely. Walk humbly. And know that magic remembers.

Open Traditions & Practices

These paths are open to anyone with genuine intent, respect, and the grit to do the work. You don’t need blood ties or a secret handshake—
just a willing heart, sharp mind, and reverence for the craft. But don’t mistake “open” for “anything goes.” Study your ass off.
Learn where the path comes from, what it asks of you, and how to walk it without making a mockery of those who came before.

Wicca

A modern pagan religion birthed in the 20th century, rooted in ceremonial magic and reverence for the Goddess and God. Wicca includes structured rituals, Sabbats (seasonal festivals), and the belief in the Threefold Law. Subtypes like Gardnerian and Alexandrian are initiatory and formal, while Dianic focuses on the Divine Feminine. Celtic and Norse Wiccans incorporate specific cultural pantheons and lore.

Traditional Witchcraft

Older than Wicca and rooted in pre-Christian folk customs. Regional, ancestral, and down-to-earth, this path often involves spirit work, land-based rituals, and the teachings passed down by cunning folk and wise women of old.

Hedge Witchcraft

The walker-between-worlds. Hedge witches work solo and often dive into trance, spirit flight, and liminal realms. They heal, craft charms, and keep the old ways alive in quiet, powerful ways. The “hedge” is the veil between worlds.

Kitchen Witchcraft

Magic stirred into stew and baked into bread. Kitchen witches enchant the mundane: herbs, cooking, cleaning, home. Their altar might be a stovetop, their tools a wooden spoon.

Green Witchcraft

The woods are her cathedral. Green witches work with plants, seasons, and the land. Herbalism, gardening, foraging, and working with the spirits of flora are their strengths.

Eclectic Witchcraft

No dogma, no boxes. Eclectics take what works and leave the rest, weaving their craft from multiple traditions with discernment. Think of it as a magical patchwork quilt, stitched by intuition and experience.

Ceremonial Magic

The high ritual path. Ceremonial magicians conjure with precision, using sacred geometry, astrological timing, and arcane texts. Influenced by Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Thelema, and the Golden Dawn.

Folk Magic

Rooted in the people’s traditions, gritty, raw, and powerful. Practices vary by region like Appalachian granny magic or Italian stregoneria and often include charms, remedies, and ancestral spirits.

Chaos Magic

Rule-breaker magic. Chaos magicians use belief as a tool, not a truth. They craft their own systems, take what works, and discard what doesn’t. Results matter, not tradition.

Shamanic Witchcraft

Walks between worlds with drumbeats and dreams. Draws from indigenous shamanic practices. Focuses on spirit journeys, animal allies, and healing.

Druidry

A path of deep reverence for the earth, seasons, and sacred groves. Druids honor ancestors, the natural world, and often deities from Celtic lore. Though distinct from witchcraft, there’s overlap in practice and philosophy.

Satanic Witchcraft

Often aligned with LaVeyan Satanism atheistic, individualistic, and focused on personal empowerment. Not devil-worship, but self-deification and ritual-as-psychodrama. Others may work within the Left-Hand Path with more spiritual or theistic frameworks.

Solitary Witchcraft

A style, not a tradition. These witches walk alone, crafting their path without coven or circle. Independent, intuitive, and often deeply personal in their practice.

Elemental Witchcraft

Harnesses the raw power of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit. Elemental witches align themselves with nature’s forces, sometimes focusing on one like sea witches (Water), storm witches (Air), or fire witches who light up the night.

Cosmic/Celestial Witchcraft

Looks to the stars for power. These witches time spells with planetary movements, track lunar cycles, and draw down celestial energy. Astrological magic, moon rites, and cosmic attunement guide their path.

Crystal Witchcraft

Stone-wise witches who know the secrets locked in crystal lattices. They use gems for healing, protection, grounding, and amplifying spells. Quartz, obsidian, amethyst tools of the earth with memory.

Ancestral Witchcraft

Blood and bone magic. This path centers on honoring the dead, working with ancestors for wisdom, protection, and power. Requires deep respect for lineage, culture, and sacred rites.

Art Witchcraft

Paint it, sing it, dance it then enchant it. Art witches channel magic through creative expression. Their rituals might be a canvas, a poem, or a melody that bends reality.

Dream Witchcraft

These witches use dreams for divination, healing, and spirit communication. Lucid dreaming, dream journaling, and sleep-time spellwork are their bread and butter.

Energy Witchcraft

Witches who feel the buzz and flow. They work with subtle energies like auras, chakras, reiki, qi and use them to heal, ward, or conjure. It’s all about sensing and shaping unseen forces.

Grey Witchcraft

Neither light nor dark, but both when needed. Grey witches don’t play by moral binaries they cast to protect, heal, bind, or banish as they see fit. Balanced, pragmatic, and fiercely independent.

Animistic Witchcraft

Everything lives rocks, rivers, wind, flame. These witches talk to the spirits in things, building relationships with land, trees, animals, and places. Deeply rooted, respectful, and relational.

Secular Witchcraft

Magic without the mysticism. Secular witches strip out gods and spirits, focusing instead on intention, psychology, and results. Spellwork as self-empowerment and ritual as focused action.

Urban Witchcraft

Magic amid the concrete jungle. These witches adapt to city life, drawing power from street grit, neon light, and subway rhythms. Think alleyways instead of forests, glass instead of stone.

The following are noted as Closed Traditions & Practices

Hoodoo

A powerful African American tradition born from survival, rootwork, conjure, and folk magic woven from African, Indigenous, and European threads. Grounded in ancestral wisdom, protection, and practical magic. It’s lived, inherited, and community-held.

Vodou (Voodoo)

A rich, complex spiritual tradition from Haiti, blending African religions with Catholicism and indigenous practices. Devotion to lwa (spirits), community ritual, ancestral veneration, and strict initiatory structure.

Santería (Lucumí)

An Afro-Cuban religion rooted in Yoruba tradition, merged with Catholicism. Centered around orisha veneration, divination, ritual, and initiation. It’s a deep, sacred path guarded by elders and lineages.

Indigenous Spiritual Practices

From the First Nations to Aboriginal Australians, Native American tribes to Arctic Shamans each has its own distinct worldview, spirits, and rites. These aren’t generic “earth magic” traditions.

Brujería

A diverse term encompassing folk magic and witchcraft in Latinx cultures. There’s no one-size-fits-all version—some are open family practices, others are fiercely closed.

African Traditional Religions (ATR)

Spanning Ifá, Akan, Bantu traditions, and more, ATR paths are rooted in ancestral lands, spirits, and rituals. These religions require proper initiation and cultural grounding.

Traditional Kabbalah

Kabbalah requires years of study, guidance from a rabbi, and a deep understanding of Jewish theology and Hebrew texts. Closed to those outside the Jewish faith.

Polynesian and Pacific Islander Practices

Traditions like Huna, Māori tohunga rites, and Samoan spiritual systems are rooted in oceanic lineages and sacred stories.

Hereditary Witchcraft (Certain Lineages)

Some families carry their own tightly held magical practices passed down through blood, bone, and breath.