Witchcraft! Do you believe in it?

[Vormotus]

For curiositys sake, as most of you are to me quite "americanized" , what is your personal take on Witchcraft?

Down here it is pretty common, and specially in my country Venezuela, where we have several native religions heavily based on Orisha and Nature Spirits Like Maria Lionza.

See some of these videos>

https://youtu.be/Kpcc4D9e3BY A typical ritual, warning its ... bloody.

https://youtu.be/jL7ialG-QMI ---- Doctors out witches are in in Venezuela

For me, as a mind health and wellness practitioner it has been part of my training to know about these things as well, if I get to see a client that has these beliefs I must be aware of the common practices and the types of "curses" and "hexes" and "favors" and treat them according to them.

A lot of Venezuelans go to Sorte Mountain, a sacred place where people go to die , pray, get possessed by spirits or get rid of them. People disappear, get killed or mugged in there, and it is recommended you go there in groups.

I went there several types as the local Folklore is quite rich and colourful, but usually when talking to people from other countries they have a wide variety of reactions.

So decided to cast the net here [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My informal training goes into reading tobacco as well plus cards and many other things for fun and empirical knowledge as my country has a strong tendency to magical beliefs and well I worked in a Psychiatric hospital, which further encouraged me to dig deeper into the vast web of beliefs in my country.

To top it off, we have a lot of native population, each of them with their gods, spirits and belief systems, from the Mohanes of the west on the Colombian Border to the Piaches of the West near the Brazilian Borders and a plethora of magical practitioners in the middle.

Find it always a good topic of discussion, so wanted to see what other people think about it or their experiences with it.

When I was in Dominican Republic a couple years ago I was invited to see some nice rituals near the Haiti Border, and was quite thrilled to find a lot of Europeans and Americans in there, just like when I found them in Venezuela, so I know a lot of you guys are into it as well haha.

Some of the most prominent patrons usually end up being foreigners, so always curious about it.

A super big hug from the Isthmus my friends!