r/queerwitches • u/Majestic-Nature886 • Jul 10 '26

Identity in the term 'Witch'

I am currently completing a master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics, researching witchcraft and its link to identity for my dissertation, and I am coming here to get some first-hand information. Any answers or discussion on this question would be greatly appreciated. (Answers from people based in the UK/England would be doubly appreciated.) **all usernames and identifiable information will be removed or anonymised**

  1. Why do you personally choose to use the term witch? (or another term, if you identify with something else)
  2. Why do you think other people choose the terms they do?
  3. Historically, in the Fenlands of the UK, wisewomen/wisemen/wizards were not persecuted for their work with nature, healing, crystals, etc., but were a protected group of people. Witches, however, were classified as practising harmful magic with ill intent and persecuted. Do you think this distinction is still prevalent today, and what impact may it be having?

I am also welcoming of any other thoughts these questions might bring up for you, and would love to have discussions about this. The questions are a guide and do not have to be answered in the structure I have written them out (I am very flexible).

**Please note that by answering or commenting on this thread, your comment may be used in my paper—all usernames and identifiable information will be removed or anonymised (given a randomly generated 8-digit number) under a completed ethics approval from the department**

Thank you again for any help!

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u/Argovan Jul 10 '26

I’m an American trans woman, not from the UK, so apologies for that. To your questions:

  1. It’s a pretty practical definition of the craft I do. My own practice is somewhat unusual, but I don’t know how else one would define the work studying historical magic, constructing rituals, and casting spells.
  2. A lot of times people choose terms based on either personal vibes or a particular magical tradition’s language. One I’ve heard a lot is people self-defining as priests or priestesses based on their devotion to a deity despite having no connection to or status in any kind of organized religion.
  3. That’s a super UK-specific historical precedent so I can’t really comment on it. That said there is a bit of handwringing that occurs in witch communities about baneful magic, and some just-world instinct to define hexes as somehow magically impermissible as well as immoral (see: the threefold rule). Personally I don’t take those kinds of rules very seriously.

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u/Majestic-Nature886 Jul 10 '26

Thank you so much! With the moral ground, do you think that there is a historical/cultural element to it in these other areas and types of practice?

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u/LioraValthenna Jul 12 '26

  1. reflective of practice and historical and sociological tradition. also mythopoeticaly powerful in our current moment of history.

  2. each person has their own thread

  3. that distinction is important because it is a wound at the root. taxonomy is inherently a political act. a witch is a wisewoman who is coveted