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Witch.... It all depends. If the person who says it drips venom when saying it, yeah, I would find it horribly offensive. Now, if it were me and my [Wiccan] friend talking, I'm sure I wouldn't mind.

I don't get offended by anything, so know, it doesn't offend me. I don't even get offended by being called a EDIT BY MODS: we ask that you please avoid using such language when posting - really there is no call for them as some members may be offended...thank you!!!

I'm saying I am not offended, as many rather nasty insults do not offend me, so witch is just... feh.

I personally like being called a witch, even though I'm male. It makes it easier to explain to my friends what sort of "witch" I am, rather than explaining to them exactly what a "wiccan" is.

I'm one of the folks who believes the terms "wiccan" and "witch" are not mutually exclusive. Since it was discussed earlier in the thread, I won't go into it here. razz

But no, I would find neither term offensive in all honesty. Calling me a Wiccan would simply be an incorrect statement. smile

I actually prefer to be referred to as a Witch because I don't believe in just working one type of magick only, therefore I don't believe I can be labled as a wiccan because there are times when I will deviate from the rede.

The rede says more than that. But even if that is what she meant, all circumstances are different and you don't know what she has done or why she had to do it. I don't follow the rede perfectly, nor does most of the Wiccan community.

I didn't mean to go off like that, but it really bugs me when people only consider the "harm none" stanza when talking about the rede rather than the poem in its entirety.

But the Rede is actually only the "'an it harm none, do as ye will" part. The poem is something separate, that encorporates the Rede. The 2 links below give a good explaination of the differences.

Wiccan Rede
Wiccan Credo

While many people do follow the Rede, it is primarily something that is associated with Wiccans. Those who soley consider themselves Witches (and other pagans), are not subject to either the Rede or the Threefold Law (unless they so choose to be). While personally I would never intentionally do harm, others have their own ways of doing things. This doesn't necessarily mean that they go out of their way to hurt people, but they might not have any problem with cursing, hexing, etc... if the situation called for those actions. Whereas I might look for a different solution to the same problem.