The Business of Witchcraft: A Review

The other day, while looking around in our local Barnes & Noble Bookstore, I picked up the newest edition of The Witches Almanac. I usually only buy it for the yearly calendar and maybe a couple of interesting articles and such. Paging through it, I came across an article titled, "The Business of Witchcraft" by Laura Tempest Zakroff

It left such a bad taste in my mouth after reading it that I decided I needed to write a post of my own about both the article and the subject she hit a nerve on! In the interest of keeping this post from getting too long and detailed, I will stick to only the main points from her rather ill-advised views.

She begins by mentioning witchcraft and business, saying: 

"... quite a few witches tend to get uneasy when you mention business and money in reference to Witchery."

Then, she continues by comparing the services of witchcraft to non-spiritual and metaphysical services, stating:

 

"We don't ask our farmers, lawyers, or doctors to give away their services or expertise."

Really? First of all, some services provided by witches such as tarot, palm readings, any type of divination or spell working, even Reiki (although if a Reiki Master chooses to charge money within reason due to materials and their time and cost incurred for their own training it may be understandable), involve the ethics of the witch in question because he or she is  NOT God or our Mother Herself (the Divine). In other words, the witches themselves are only using the "gift" given by the Divine and furthermore, are using the Divine to profit from this gift in regards to the craft and services they are performing. 

I always question the motives of some other witches and how they view their own "ethics" when practicing their craft. I, personally, never ask or demand any monies when performing tarot readings for anyone. I feel however, that if they wish to give a couple of dollars as a thank you (gift) I will accept, but I NEVER charge! I have always held a personal general rule about it because I feel it is too self-serving at the very least.

This author does nothing but make excuses and tries to rationalize personal behaviors. Her attitude is quite obvious in her below YouTube video when she tries to twist and change the idea of The Three-Fold Law - the idea of karma and the universal law of return. 

I, myself, have a few posts on the subject of The Three-Fold Law of Return and protecting yourself the RIGHT WAY while doing so. In my opinion, this author is extremely misguided. 

(For more info regarding this "author", I have included one of her YouTube videos in case anyone is interested)