ABSTRACT
The word witch is defined so differently by different people that a common definition seems impossible. "A witch", a person may be told, "is someone with supernatural powers", but revivalist Witches do not believe in a supernatural. Isaac Bonewits does away with some of this confusion, as we shall see, by dividing Witches into many types, including Classical, Gothic, Familial, Immigrant, Ethnic, Feminist, and Neo-Pagan. The very power of the word lies in its imprecision. It is not merely a word, but an archetype, a cluster of powerful images. It resonates in the mind and, in the words of Dr. Ann Belford Ulanov, takes us down to deep places, to forests and fairy tales and myths and friendships with animals. Once on a strange and unfamiliar shore a group of young and ignorant revivalist Witches were about to cast their circle and perform a rite.
