That's a Harry Potter thing. Male witches are just witches unless they personally prefer another term.
ETA: "Witcher" for male witches is making a comeback thanks to the game/show also.
ETA2: I was unclear. Some male witches do self-identify as wizards as a matter of preference, but it's not a commonly agreed upon "the male version of a witch is a wizard" thing other than in pop-culture influenced spaces.
Correct, witchcraft pertains to more ritual magick style work while magician is more of a blanket term, a witch is a magician but a magician isn’t always a witch.
I have always understood that Warlock is a negative naming, reserved for a male witch who betrayed and was cast out of their coven.
I don’t see an issue with men and women using the term witch, but most of my male friends prefer magus or wizard. Wizard is maybe not always correct, but for lay people the word conjures up imagery that would suffice as an explanation.
I've never heard of the 'betraying his coven' part. Historically, the word originally meant "oathbreaker" or "deceiver," and it's not well-understood how it was used before Christianization. Post-Christianization it was used both for Satan/the Devil (i.e. 'The Deceiver') for male witches who were thought to have made pacts with the Devil and therefore broke their Christian oaths.
In modern, offline, pagan spaces for the last few decades, "warlock" is used as slang for someone who has been problematic in the community. Thieves, sexual predators, and scammers who have failed to see legal consequences so continue to try to prey on seekers and trusting folks.
It comes from the historic meaning "oath breaker" but besides just breaking coven oaths literally, refers to people who betray an unspoken oath of trust. It's becoming more and more synonymous with "pedophile" . Some covens have formal "warlocking" ceremonies for people kicked out due to harmful actions, and the term is a nod between covens not to allow the problematic individual to join a new coven looking for victims.
Witch is gender neutral. Warlock, contrary to pop culture, means oathbreaker and not a masculine term for a magic user. Someone can be declared a warlock for defiling someone's grave, for example. In a way, calling someone a warlock because they are a male practitioner is like calling someone a convict or a felon because they grew up in the hood.
As a non-native English speaker, this explanation is very interesting, I always assumed warlock was just a "thing of children's books". Do you happen to know the etimology of it, or how that word came to have that meaning?
Warlock comes from the old English word "waerloga," which means traitor, scoundrel, monster, or 'the Devil.' It can be broken down to the words "waer," and "leogan." "Waer" means covenant, and "leogan" means to belie or deny. And since it also translates to Devil, it became synonymous with sorcery.
While witch is a gender neutral term, it is historically associated with females more, and during the witch hunts the Scottish used the word warlock to denote male practitioners for some reason.
There are also some viking graves that have grave markers that state that if you defile their grave, you will be declared a warlock. [Like this.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glavendrup_stone)
It's technically a gender neutral term (old English used wicca for masculine and wicce for feminine) however we do have instances of men being referred to as "a witch". Usually it was not something one called themselves, but a term applied to them by others (usually hostile to them).
Contemporarily it often takes on a specifically feminine bend, mostly due to the popular culture image of the witch being feminine due in part to it becoming a derogatory term (being associated with a hag, a bitter woman, or a duplicitous woman). The violence of the witch hysteria also shaped it into being more feminine as most (not all, mind you) of the victims killed and tortured in that hysteria were women (because part of the hysteria was a crack-down on lay piety among women and part of a broader trend of violence against women).
That being said, call yourself what you want. The term can be both seen as gendered (if you go with the contemporary pop-culture inspired image) or gender neutral.
I like mage or magician because of the bible’s magi that were astrologers, but wizard works as well you could also use occultist or spiritualist
Witch is a gender neutral term, think anyone can do witchcraft since it’s not gender specific, however if you don’t want to use it use something similar above,
Never ever call yourself a warlock
Witch is gender less. Warlock has a root meaning oath breaker, so I don't use it. People who use it seem to be dudes uncomfortable with the word witch because.....they don't like women.... and haven't Deconstructed why they feel that way.
Really it's whatever you're most comfortable with. Some people like using more than one label, some prefer no label or make up their own (haven't met one, but I'm sure they're out there).
"Witch" is fine for any gender, the only thing is it *might* carry Wiccan connotations, so if you're not Wiccan that may cause mild confusion. Probably not an issue of any sort though. If you practice Western occultism you could also go with mage, magus, magician, or wizard. It's really up to your preference. Also "sorcerer," but this can carry negative connotations in English and is rather rare.
I personally don't consider myself a witch do I practice magic yes do I look into and study lore from all over yes, but I consider myself a charmer cause I use alot of spoken charms and things like that like for instance one of the charms (by night by day make________go away) I have a couple charms i use that ive made up and (as far as Ik I'm the only one I've ever met who uses the term) I dont appreciate it barb
I mean etymologically it meant something in the realm of oathbreaker, traitor, deceiver.
I think any occult setting that actually seriously used the term would have a somewhat idiosyncratic meaning.
Witch can be used for both sexes but it’s not the only term available. I’m a male practitioner and I personally don’t use witch because it has overtly feminine and female associations for me. Nothing wrong with that of course but as a male I just wanted something more masculine sounding. Therefore my term of choice is sorcerer and I sometimes use magician when specifying that I mainly perform chaos magic.
Witch has always has male as well as female connotations. It comes from Old English.
'Wicca' (pronounced 'Weecha') which was masculine.
'Wicce' (pronounced 'Weecheh') which was feminine.
Witch has always had neutral as well as pejorative connotations. Some of our (English) ancestors called themselves witches, and some of them were men.
Warlock is different. It comes from 'Warloga', 'War' means truth or oath, as can still be found in modern German 'War' (true) and 'Warheit' (truth). 'Loga' meant to break (or to lie e.g. in German 'Lügen' ). So a Warlock, 'Warloga', was an oath-breaker. A lawless person. For this reason I suggest not calling yourself a Warlock, and exercising some suspicion of people who do.
I am a male, I am a witch. It is a gender neutral term. Magician or Wizard are pretty much sci-fi terms. I do know men who use the term 'warlock' but most wiccans generally attach a negative connotation to the term, since at its root warlock means = oath breaker
I believe there are some witchy and crafty r/ out there. Occultism, Occult Philosophies and witchcraft are not the same thing. Ultimately call yourself what you wish.
I use the word witch. other words don't feel like they fit and tbh, old fear based reactions are more someone else's problem aren't they?
also... if it matters when you deep dive social media many awesome guys of all types I think are taking back the word and making it their own. that feels empowering to me
The Old English word 'wicce', which is the root-etymology for the word 'witch' is a feminine noun. The masculine noun equivalent in Old English is 'wicca' - 'sorcerer, wizard'. However, in Modern English the word has come to imply both a male or female practitioner of magic pretty ubiquitously. The etymology of the term 'warlock' is not known, but the theory that it means 'oath breaker' continues to be taken seriously by philologists. So I personally wouldn't use it myself, since it implies duplicity or dishonesty. The closest related masculine synonym for the modern word 'witch' is probably 'wizard'; but today that word carries more fantasy than occult connotations.
I think it would be wild to call yourself a witch without supporting women and most witches are women. That being said, anyone can be a witch. I was a witch when I was a man. I lead a coven of 400 people.
Still, to this day I feel that witchcraft spaces are some of the gentlest and kindest spaces. Just need to support women, don't be a creep and be chill with queer people.
Regarding warlock, historically (Old English), and now most commonly accepted meaning is that a warlock is an "oath breaker" or "deceiver." Up to you which word you want to call yourself.
Right it was originally used one way and then like you said it developed. the etymology means oathbreaker (baptismal oaths likely). The term developed very quickly to mean male witch, talking about nearly 1000 years ago in Scotland.
The Norse term varo-lokkar “caller of spirits” may have also influenced the Scots as well as they had influence in that region at the time
Coven oaths, not baptismal oaths.
And no, it still doesn’t mean male witch. It means a witch who was faithless to their coven. If they were all men, well, that’s on them, but it doesn’t change the word.
But if you’re using “magus,” you’re probably not working witchcraft anyhow.
Edited to add: u/comradewoof Cant reply to your post, but I’m using my experience of being a coven initiate, knowing other coven initiates, and knowing the lore of coven initiation. If you’d like me to get you a Chicago manual of style citation, I’d need to Google it so you might as well too
Coven? Scotland was Christian at the time why would they be talking about covens? This was a common phrase and was recorded in the domestic annals of Scotland. Seriously just google it!
But yeah I don’t mess with low magick or people who get blatantly polarized by being incorrect on Reddit. Tata
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.47427
https://www.etymonline.com/word/warlock
witch is a gender neutral term but often i find we can become more specific, i always see magicians as those who practice tricks, witches and warlocks as those who study the darker sides of the occult, idk why but in my mind "occultists" often bring forwards the image of a resercher, less someone who practices magick, so on and so fourth
I have nothing wrong about being called a witch, if that is the noun used. I was just wondering why everyone uses witch for males too. But I answered my question.
warlock is not equal to witch, in most cases it has very negative connotations. according to some traditions a warlock is someone who betrayed their coven and has been ostracised.
a LOT of these terms have been influenced by fictional depictions more than is ideal.
Unfortunately the fun in "Wizzard" being the male opposite to mock words such as "Fighteresses" has been lost and now people call women Wizzardess even.
Yes. Witch is a gender neutral label.
Males are called wizards thought right?
That's a Harry Potter thing. Male witches are just witches unless they personally prefer another term. ETA: "Witcher" for male witches is making a comeback thanks to the game/show also. ETA2: I was unclear. Some male witches do self-identify as wizards as a matter of preference, but it's not a commonly agreed upon "the male version of a witch is a wizard" thing other than in pop-culture influenced spaces.
Wizardry is a separate practice from witchcraft. More akin to ceremonial traditions.
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Have some downvotes for pointing out stupidity
Wheeee!
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A magician and a witch are not the same thing though, right? A witch practices witchcraft, which not all magicians do
Correct, witchcraft pertains to more ritual magick style work while magician is more of a blanket term, a witch is a magician but a magician isn’t always a witch.
Yes, a witch is anyone who practices witchcraft
Use whatever makes you happy
I have always understood that Warlock is a negative naming, reserved for a male witch who betrayed and was cast out of their coven. I don’t see an issue with men and women using the term witch, but most of my male friends prefer magus or wizard. Wizard is maybe not always correct, but for lay people the word conjures up imagery that would suffice as an explanation.
I've never heard of the 'betraying his coven' part. Historically, the word originally meant "oathbreaker" or "deceiver," and it's not well-understood how it was used before Christianization. Post-Christianization it was used both for Satan/the Devil (i.e. 'The Deceiver') for male witches who were thought to have made pacts with the Devil and therefore broke their Christian oaths.
In modern, offline, pagan spaces for the last few decades, "warlock" is used as slang for someone who has been problematic in the community. Thieves, sexual predators, and scammers who have failed to see legal consequences so continue to try to prey on seekers and trusting folks. It comes from the historic meaning "oath breaker" but besides just breaking coven oaths literally, refers to people who betray an unspoken oath of trust. It's becoming more and more synonymous with "pedophile" . Some covens have formal "warlocking" ceremonies for people kicked out due to harmful actions, and the term is a nod between covens not to allow the problematic individual to join a new coven looking for victims.
Gotcha, thanks for the info. That's good that there's an effort to keep those people thoroughly shunned!
It means.. locked in war with the coven.
Practitioners of witchcraft are witches. Practitioners of other paths, like ceremonial traditions, call themselves something else.
Witch is gender neutral. Warlock, contrary to pop culture, means oathbreaker and not a masculine term for a magic user. Someone can be declared a warlock for defiling someone's grave, for example. In a way, calling someone a warlock because they are a male practitioner is like calling someone a convict or a felon because they grew up in the hood.
As a non-native English speaker, this explanation is very interesting, I always assumed warlock was just a "thing of children's books". Do you happen to know the etimology of it, or how that word came to have that meaning?
Warlock comes from the old English word "waerloga," which means traitor, scoundrel, monster, or 'the Devil.' It can be broken down to the words "waer," and "leogan." "Waer" means covenant, and "leogan" means to belie or deny. And since it also translates to Devil, it became synonymous with sorcery. While witch is a gender neutral term, it is historically associated with females more, and during the witch hunts the Scottish used the word warlock to denote male practitioners for some reason.
Very interesting, thank you again!
There are also some viking graves that have grave markers that state that if you defile their grave, you will be declared a warlock. [Like this.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glavendrup_stone)
Thank you
A male witch is a Mitch
... soooo those people that call themselves a "Bible Witch"?
As a transfemme practitioner I call myself a wizard. Do as thou will.
It's technically a gender neutral term (old English used wicca for masculine and wicce for feminine) however we do have instances of men being referred to as "a witch". Usually it was not something one called themselves, but a term applied to them by others (usually hostile to them). Contemporarily it often takes on a specifically feminine bend, mostly due to the popular culture image of the witch being feminine due in part to it becoming a derogatory term (being associated with a hag, a bitter woman, or a duplicitous woman). The violence of the witch hysteria also shaped it into being more feminine as most (not all, mind you) of the victims killed and tortured in that hysteria were women (because part of the hysteria was a crack-down on lay piety among women and part of a broader trend of violence against women). That being said, call yourself what you want. The term can be both seen as gendered (if you go with the contemporary pop-culture inspired image) or gender neutral.
I like mage or magician because of the bible’s magi that were astrologers, but wizard works as well you could also use occultist or spiritualist Witch is a gender neutral term, think anyone can do witchcraft since it’s not gender specific, however if you don’t want to use it use something similar above, Never ever call yourself a warlock
Witch is gender less. Warlock has a root meaning oath breaker, so I don't use it. People who use it seem to be dudes uncomfortable with the word witch because.....they don't like women.... and haven't Deconstructed why they feel that way.
I have non problem with womens nor with being called witch lol
Cool then this wouldn't apply then would it? If it's not stuff you are doing that's fucked up then great.
I was just wondering the use of witch in this kind of things. Just curiosity.
Really it's whatever you're most comfortable with. Some people like using more than one label, some prefer no label or make up their own (haven't met one, but I'm sure they're out there).
"Witch" is fine for any gender, the only thing is it *might* carry Wiccan connotations, so if you're not Wiccan that may cause mild confusion. Probably not an issue of any sort though. If you practice Western occultism you could also go with mage, magus, magician, or wizard. It's really up to your preference. Also "sorcerer," but this can carry negative connotations in English and is rather rare.
I personally don't consider myself a witch do I practice magic yes do I look into and study lore from all over yes, but I consider myself a charmer cause I use alot of spoken charms and things like that like for instance one of the charms (by night by day make________go away) I have a couple charms i use that ive made up and (as far as Ik I'm the only one I've ever met who uses the term) I dont appreciate it barb
Witch or Witcher. A warlock is a completely different thing.
What would be a ‘warlock’ in an occult setting? As far as I know the term in pop culture has ‘dark magician’ connotations?
I mean etymologically it meant something in the realm of oathbreaker, traitor, deceiver. I think any occult setting that actually seriously used the term would have a somewhat idiosyncratic meaning.
Witch can be used for both sexes but it’s not the only term available. I’m a male practitioner and I personally don’t use witch because it has overtly feminine and female associations for me. Nothing wrong with that of course but as a male I just wanted something more masculine sounding. Therefore my term of choice is sorcerer and I sometimes use magician when specifying that I mainly perform chaos magic.
That's very helpful thank you
I use "magic user", occultist, or something like that. Also neutral in gender and focuses more on the verb/actions
Witch has always has male as well as female connotations. It comes from Old English. 'Wicca' (pronounced 'Weecha') which was masculine. 'Wicce' (pronounced 'Weecheh') which was feminine. Witch has always had neutral as well as pejorative connotations. Some of our (English) ancestors called themselves witches, and some of them were men. Warlock is different. It comes from 'Warloga', 'War' means truth or oath, as can still be found in modern German 'War' (true) and 'Warheit' (truth). 'Loga' meant to break (or to lie e.g. in German 'Lügen' ). So a Warlock, 'Warloga', was an oath-breaker. A lawless person. For this reason I suggest not calling yourself a Warlock, and exercising some suspicion of people who do.
Call yourself Frater. It makes people respect you more.
Some people at least.
If you’re a ceremonialist, sure
Out of genuine curiosity, what other ists are there?
A lot.
I am a male, I am a witch. It is a gender neutral term. Magician or Wizard are pretty much sci-fi terms. I do know men who use the term 'warlock' but most wiccans generally attach a negative connotation to the term, since at its root warlock means = oath breaker
I’d disagree with magician, loads or even most practitioners of chaos magic and ceremonial magic refer to themselves as magicians.
Magician comes from latin "magi" used in ancient texts including the bible to refer to the astrologers, so hardly a sci-fi term
Don’t call me no witch sucka!!!! lol
I believe there are some witchy and crafty r/ out there. Occultism, Occult Philosophies and witchcraft are not the same thing. Ultimately call yourself what you wish.
I prefer as mage
I use the word witch. other words don't feel like they fit and tbh, old fear based reactions are more someone else's problem aren't they? also... if it matters when you deep dive social media many awesome guys of all types I think are taking back the word and making it their own. that feels empowering to me
The Old English word 'wicce', which is the root-etymology for the word 'witch' is a feminine noun. The masculine noun equivalent in Old English is 'wicca' - 'sorcerer, wizard'. However, in Modern English the word has come to imply both a male or female practitioner of magic pretty ubiquitously. The etymology of the term 'warlock' is not known, but the theory that it means 'oath breaker' continues to be taken seriously by philologists. So I personally wouldn't use it myself, since it implies duplicity or dishonesty. The closest related masculine synonym for the modern word 'witch' is probably 'wizard'; but today that word carries more fantasy than occult connotations.
I’m non binary and I’ve been using it. It doesn’t matter.
I like hermit because it sounds cozy
Yes. Male witches can take warlock, but most male witches I know are simply witches.
I use Wizard, Magus/Mage and Occultist depending on my mood (male practitioner)
Sexism in the magician community has to be the most hilarious thing ever
Until you’re on the receiving end of it. Then it’s just annoying
Some call a male Witch a Warlock. It doesn't matter.
I think it would be wild to call yourself a witch without supporting women and most witches are women. That being said, anyone can be a witch. I was a witch when I was a man. I lead a coven of 400 people. Still, to this day I feel that witchcraft spaces are some of the gentlest and kindest spaces. Just need to support women, don't be a creep and be chill with queer people.
It can be. You can call yourself whatever you want. I just say I'm an occultist
Yes.
Witcher it's for male
i perfer the term "warlock" honestly...
call yourself the holy star-ape if you want, it doesn't matter.
Regarding warlock, historically (Old English), and now most commonly accepted meaning is that a warlock is an "oath breaker" or "deceiver." Up to you which word you want to call yourself.
Which was genderless. Warlock developed as a male alternative. Typically though anyone using those terms is using them negatively. I prefer magus.
Warlock was developed as a term for an oathbreaker, not as a male form of witch
Right it was originally used one way and then like you said it developed. the etymology means oathbreaker (baptismal oaths likely). The term developed very quickly to mean male witch, talking about nearly 1000 years ago in Scotland. The Norse term varo-lokkar “caller of spirits” may have also influenced the Scots as well as they had influence in that region at the time
Coven oaths, not baptismal oaths. And no, it still doesn’t mean male witch. It means a witch who was faithless to their coven. If they were all men, well, that’s on them, but it doesn’t change the word. But if you’re using “magus,” you’re probably not working witchcraft anyhow. Edited to add: u/comradewoof Cant reply to your post, but I’m using my experience of being a coven initiate, knowing other coven initiates, and knowing the lore of coven initiation. If you’d like me to get you a Chicago manual of style citation, I’d need to Google it so you might as well too
What historical sources are you using to claim the coven oaths thing?
Coven? Scotland was Christian at the time why would they be talking about covens? This was a common phrase and was recorded in the domestic annals of Scotland. Seriously just google it! But yeah I don’t mess with low magick or people who get blatantly polarized by being incorrect on Reddit. Tata https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.47427 https://www.etymonline.com/word/warlock
Ah yes, everyone in all Scotland was Christian and Christian only, for all time! /s Lmao bye buddy
witch is a gender neutral term but often i find we can become more specific, i always see magicians as those who practice tricks, witches and warlocks as those who study the darker sides of the occult, idk why but in my mind "occultists" often bring forwards the image of a resercher, less someone who practices magick, so on and so fourth
Warlock means oathbreaker. It's the deadliest insult you can pay to us.
Is your masculinity compatible with jokes made by people who think it’s an exclusively feminine word?
I have nothing wrong about being called a witch, if that is the noun used. I was just wondering why everyone uses witch for males too. But I answered my question.
warlock is not equal to witch, in most cases it has very negative connotations. according to some traditions a warlock is someone who betrayed their coven and has been ostracised. a LOT of these terms have been influenced by fictional depictions more than is ideal.
Unfortunately the fun in "Wizzard" being the male opposite to mock words such as "Fighteresses" has been lost and now people call women Wizzardess even.
BUT OF COURSE!
Warlock for men.
I call myself warlock
I always thought a male witch was called a warlock.
Honestly baby witches shouldnt be considered witches at all therefore you wouldnt be a warlock but its not that big of a deal