Witchcraft, a term loaded with fear and kitsch, dredges up images of pointy hats and bubbling cauldrons. But for an increasing number of people today, witchcraft is not just a spooky movie or costume. It’s a way of life and a religion, a community, a spiritual journey and a daily practice.

It was during the 1960s when witchcraft first emerged on the public scene alongside other cultural movements. Many of those early practitioners adopted Wicca, a nature-based religion that only had just arrived on U.S. shores from the U.K.

“Wicca,” explained elder Michael Smith, a Wiccan elder and member of the Delaware-based Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, “is a set of religions that has embraced witchcraft as part of its understanding of the way the world works.”

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Over the last 50 years, many Wiccan churches and organizations, like The Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, have received nonprofit designations, helping to further legitimize the religion as a whole and afford its adherents legal protections.

Smith began his own religious journey in the 1980s as a ceremonial magician, another form of occult practice. While he loved the work, his path eventually led him to Wicca, where he’s stayed ever since.

Wicca, like most religions, provides an agreed-upon language and framework, he explained, and that structure appealed to him, as did the overall community experience.

Although Wicca is not centralized, many traditions are coven-based and offer an intimate group dynamic and shared worldview. According to Smith, that community support helps keep him “from becoming delusional.” His coven mates “act as a sounding board” for spiritual and magical work — something that is highly subjective and “not measurable in a scientific sense.”

While Smith advocates for group learning, he recognizes that many Wiccans do practice alone and that his religious worldview is not the only one.

“It is essential to understand that there are other traditions and patterns” in the larger witchcraft movement, he said, and all are equally “valid and potent.”

“One can be a witch without being Wiccan,” Smith stressed.

In fact, Wicca is not the only religion to include witchcraft within its operations. Magical practices exist in modern Druidry, in many Afro-Caribbean religions like Vodou or Santeria, and forms of modern Heathenry.

A survey last year from Pew Research Center explored the growing interest in “spirituality” and found that 45% of Americans say they have experienced a profound sense of wonder about the universe and a deep “spiritual peace.”

“We use divination in service of our community, our spirits, and Gods,” said Irene Glasse, a Heathen witch living in Maryland. “One of the most common forms [of magic] is Seidr.”

“Seidr” (pronounced Sayth) is an old Norse word that defines a set of magical practices originating in pre-Christian northern Europe. Glasse’s divination practice is only one form.

Within that process her group builds “a religious container” for the work, she explained. They “put out offerings, set evocations” and then speak to deity or other “larger than human” entities.

“This is a highly theistic practice,” she said.

Glasse didn’t begin her witchcraft journey as a Heathen witch; she was originally an eclectic nontheistic practitioner. Then in 2014, she escaped an abusive marriage and set off on a new path.

“One of the interesting things when you dramatically change your life, is that many times the threads of spirit become much stronger,” she said.

It was at this time that she began to hear whispers from Freya, a goddess in the Norse pantheon, during meditations. Shortly after, she became a Heathen and a devotee of Freya.

Theistic witches often honor a number of deities and sometimes will personally devote themselves to one or two.

Like Smith, Glasse enjoys the presence of her religious community and stresses its strength in practice. However, she also acknowledges that marrying religion and witchcraft is not for everyone.

She said, “This is by no means a one size fits all situation. All paths are valid.”

Over the past two decades, those valid paths have been diversifying — not only in the way magic operates within religion, but also in the way it works outside of religion.

For some, like author and podcaster Mat Auryn, witchcraft is a spiritual path, devoid of religion.

“Spirituality is about direct experience and personal exploration,” he said, “while religion is structured around shared beliefs, communal practices, and a set framework that tells you how to interpret your experiences.”

Auryn found witchcraft in the 1990s after experiencing childhood trauma. In those early years, he worried about candle colors, perfect timing, and ritual mechanics rather than “the meaning of it all.”  That has since changed.

“When witchcraft is approached as a spiritual path it is more than simply changing your external circumstances,” Auryn explained. “Each spell becomes an opportunity to uncover something about yourself.”

When he stopped “treating witchcraft like a set of technical skills to master,” his life was transformed, Auryn said.

Although he does not follow a religion, Auryn does believe witchcraft must be protected as one, and he is indebted to all those who have fought and are still fighting for those rights.

He said, “Defining witchcraft as a religion might not capture the full complexity of what it means to many witches, including myself, but it’s crucial for securing our place and protecting [all of] our freedoms.”

That “full complexity” includes witches who practice magic as purely craft, without religious or even spiritual implications. Folk magic, which may or may not include religious language, is arguably the most common form of magical work and often labeled witchcraft.

Holly Faust, a Pennsylvania-based eclectic witch and interfaith minister, is one of those many witches who proudly practices a nontheistic and nonspiritual form of witchcraft.

Faust grew up learning Lakota herbal traditions from her maternal grandmother and hearing Irish folk stories from her paternal grandfather. Those childhood experiences gave way to a magical practice deeply rooted in nature, not religion.

“I’m a tree hugger,” she said, laughing.

Faust embeds magical energy into everyday activities, like stirring her morning coffee with positive intent.

“When I’m cooking,” she said. “I put in love and caring, thought and happiness. It’s like a prayer but without being a specific type of prayer.”

Faust believes witchcraft is not about any religious path, but rather about “your walk” in life and being “one with the natural world.”

“Of course, witchcraft can work totally independently of religious belief,” she added. “People can believe in nature but not believe in a higher power.”

In her practice, Faust relies chiefly on the natural world and its energy.  When someone is in need, she said, she makes incense or herbal medicines for example.

“I don’t call on any specific gods or goddesses,” she said.

As an interfaith minister, Faust said she has seen many instances of witchcraft working outside of any specific religious operation. She knows Catholics and Baptists, she said, who practice magic independently of their faith traditions as well as pagans and atheists.

The decision, she said, on whether to or when to blend witchcraft with religion — any religion — is a personal one.

She also emphasized that witchcraft is not a one size fits all experience.

Witchcraft, religion and spirituality can meet and combine in many ways; those combinations are endless, subjective and ever growing.

“All of us have a little magic in us,” Faust said, “and with the proper intent and the proper encouragement we can make changes in this world.”

Heather Greene is a freelance journalist, editor and author of “Lights, Camera, Witchcraft: A Critical History of Witches in American Film and Television.” Her writing has appeared in Religion News Service, Circle Magazine, The Washington Post and others. She has a master’s degree in film studies from Emory University and is a member of the Religion Newswriters Association and Covenant of the Goddess. Heather has been writing and presenting on the cross sections between belief, pop culture and alternative spirituality for over 20 years. Follow her on X @Miraselena01.