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I dont like the ideas of clans either, but i can see their purpose. My problem is there isnt really any clans that suit me, the closest is burhide, but thats still pretty far off. Are these the only clans cause they do limit what you can do, example: Healing without plants? and just by using ones hands and energy to heal.

I think I'd prefer to be half Brightendale half Rowanwand (I think you spelt the latter wrong on page 1... Just checking, because it may be me that's wrong.)

I like healing, but plants arent my forte... And a little ancient know-how wouldn't go amiss.

EDIT: I think I read every page except this one - So I have something to add.
I don't think clans really restrict you... Nobody is really a pure blood-witch. And even if they were a pure blood witch of only one clan (an extreme example) you still wouldnt have those sorts of restrictions. The reason behind strict stereotypes about clans, is that they didn't have so much interaction... Nowdays It means little, especially because with every generation, there are dramatically fewer blood witches. Some doubt there are any anymore... Well pure ones anyway... being a descendant of a member of an old clan is said to help... Less with each generation of mixing of course... but not ruling out the benefit. I can cope with not being particularly powerful or anything on the grand scale of things... but I can't help but be a little jealous though.

I don't really agree with the idea of clans as such. I think that as we live our lives and our souls grow older we learn different skills as beings and as witches and that it is through the experiences of our soul that we become strong wiccans, not whether we are blood witches or have hereditary links to a 'clan'.

I think perhaps that how much we practice has a part to play, as does our lifestyle. Many witches these days, although connected with the earth do not live with it in the same ways as in the past. Also, who is to say that past witches were more powerful then witches now? They are 'legendary' because of the way they were regarded by others, it doesn't mean that they were magickally stronger back then. I think that you are as strong as you allow yourself to be, some people may find the path easier than others, but everyone is capable of following it if they choose to. The more we familiarize ourselves with casting a circle, for example, the easier and stronger it becomes.

true, but surely blacksmithing is a skill that someone either has or doesn't have to a certain point. Just because someone may come from a long line of blacksmiths doesn't mean that they are necessarily going to want to be a blacksmith, be any good at it even if they do or require less training. They would just have the information they needed more readily than someone with no family line in the trade but an inate skill for blacksmithing. Surely the same can be said of the craft?

Ah, but the reason why some legends are out of proportion to the way things were, Is because there was a group of people who stopped really existing... Witches didn't stop existing, so anything said about them could still be corrected...

If you are going to read only some of the posts... please try to at least read the more recent few. And also, using an opinionated statement like a fact is offensive to other people's beleifs. If someone told you that what you believed in was full of crap and that was the end of it, you wouldn't be happy either. It's one thing to state an opinion, but another to stop people from forming their own. Also - That doesn't really have much to do with the argument at all... Unless you're saying that the past few generations are the only ones that have ever included witches, which is something entirely different different. I have reason to believe Witches have been around for a long time.