I know some people do it as a hobby/curiosity/passion/personality thing. They don't actually believe it, but it's fun and looks cool. That's harmless. The people who believe it's real though? That's not as harmless. It makes you less engaged with reality and fact, and maybe you won't participate in actual work to fix things because you think your magic is just as good, or better.

it’s really harmless.

No its not. Belief in bullshit has negative consequences for the individual, their friends and family, and society as a whole.

Now, is it comparatively less harmful than some other things they could believe in? Absolutely but its still bad.

Are you... Gerald?

Same. We exist.

I had a few friends who introduced me to the topic. I've never cast a spell, but I learned a lot and really took to heart the end of the Witches' Rede: "An ye harm none, do as ye will". Which is empowering and generally fits in with the laws of the land.

Since that phrase has been a cornerstone of my personal philosophy, I'd call myself a witch.

Not witchcraft but, I went through a "try to train hard enough to get Dragon Ball Z powers" phase for similar reasons.

Does fungi phase count?

It's certainly mostly girls

Too bad there aren’t any since witches aren’t real

When Ezekiel raises the dead, it's a blessing from god. But when I do it...

What's the go with necromancy/nigromancy? This is all new to me and sounds fascinating!

I will never willingly go caving, not after the nutty putty cave incident.

And sometimes it's both...

My 4 year old ran around in a dinosaur costume yelling "Abra Dabra" last week.

Girls going through a witch phase is no different than a boy going through a katana wielding mall ninja phase. Both are lame af.

But what about undead vs a bear?

Another comment above addressed this: the “power via pact with Satan” is how Christians present witches, but not really how witches conceive of themselves

I think there's a difference between "these rituals and metaphors help me deal with the struggles of the world" and "yo I totally hexed him that's why he got the flu".

The former is pretty harmless. Some people meditate. Some people lift weights. Some people draw cards from a deck and reflect on how they feel about getting The Tower when they asked about their boyfriend. It's just a lens to focus your thoughts.

I love to collect herbs. But I hate to tell people about that because just after then, I ccan discover how much people love to believe in "cancer curing herbal medicine".

My father once suggested a toxic plant is great for health.

people who don’t leave the witchcraft stuff behind when they grow up are on par with disney adults and hardcore weebs

People with harmless hobbies? I see no problem with this. Why would a self-respecting adult care if others cringe at their interests?

Eh, the mind is a complicated thing. You have the conscious part, which experiences things and makes active decisions, and the subconscious part, which processes raw sensory data into categories that the conscious part can engage with. When you get a new car, suddenly you see the same make and model more than you did before. That's just the result of your subconscious assigning significance to that make and model.

Magick, properly practiced, is just a system of rituals and correlations to influence what the subconscious assigns significance to. Even things like visualizing your chi can help you move with focus and intention.

It's all just about moderation. People can atribute their mistakes to holoscope so that they won't dwell on it and move on, but to use it to deflect legitimate blame would be toxic.

I say this not because your mention sounds misogynistic but as if using societal acceptance as a bar to judge someone's hobby or ritual (religious or non-religious sense, not limited to witchcraft stuff).

Just something to think about: the next time you have a difficult task in front of you, 'gather your chi'. Do the breathing, feel your chakras spinning up, visualize that white light flowing through your body. Direct your 'chi' towards the task, then open your eyes and go. See how you feel about what you did by the task's end. Even better if the same task comes up and you don't do this so you can compare notes.

This is kind of the level this stuff works on for sane esoteric practitoners. Are you actually conjuring up something mythical? No, not really - you're psyching yourself up and/or shifting your focus using a psychological tool/metaphor. I personally find it hard to judge that too harshly - save that for folks doing the same thing for health problems without also doing evidence-based treatments.

That said, you're entitled to your opinion. Just be kind to folks you think are dorks if they aren't otherwise causing harm.

Shame that people feel they can't critique something they find silly for fear of sounding misogynistic. I don't think that's the kind of equality anyone should want.

who don’t leave the witchcraft stuff behind when they grow up are on par with disney adults and hardcore weebs

Try to think about it in terms of historical psychological therapy, tarot cards are a metaphor engine, like a Rorschach test, spells are CBT, and on and on, the themes are repeated. I'm misandrist, so IDGAF, pretty freeing, but I'd say those who stick with their childhood perspectives in adult life are either really cool or dreadfully boring. This opinion seems the latter, might want to look to that...