Ask a Christian Witch: Believing in God After Atheism, Worshipping Other Gods, and Crying Over God's Love

Damn, there was some deep stuff in here this time.

Hey, everyone! Got some good news for you: When Angels and Demons Collude is now available for pre-order! I'm finishing up the final chapter edits this week, and then it's time to spend all of April formatting. The release date is June 30th, 2025. Grab a copy now so you're first in line to get it when it drops!

And now, our March questions. Remember: if you have any questions, all you have to do is check out this Google Form right here and fill it out with your question!

Ask Me Anything!

Now for all this good conversation!

Is It Bad that I Want to Do Magic Outside of God?

So basically I’ve been having kind of a crisis, because I really want to worship pagan gods, but I also love God, and while I definitely love using God in spells and tarot readings, I sometimes like to do them without Him, not because I don’t want His guidance but more so because I sometimes like to see what my own personal energy can do. (Yes, I know all energy comes from God; I’m just talking about the extra stuff, and with Tarot sometimes I like to just bond with the spirit of the deck.) Is it bad that I feel this way? —Anonymous

Hey, there!

(As a side note: there was another person asking about Aphrodite who would like to remain anonymous. My friend, this answer can very well help you as well; please consider this!)

Is it bad that you feel this way? I don't know; I'm not the one that can give you an answer about that. However, from my armchair psychology perspective, it seems like you might already have some type of feeling about wanting this.

What I will tell you, though, is that this kind of curiosity is natural. In fact, it's a large part of the reason I started the series that led to Where the Gods Left Off (and its upcoming sequel, When Angels and Demons Collude). I was getting that FOMO feeling, seeing everyone on #witchtok talk about all their different deities and whatnot, and I wanted to see for myself what everyone was talking about. Outside of myself, I also find that this is a similar thing as what happens with the Amish, when the kids turn eighteen or so and are allowed to add a bunch of doodads and modern stuff to their life, or go out to amusement parks and whatnot, to see if they want to make the choice of staying with the Amish lifestyle or taking off to the realm of modernity. (Only caveat there, though, is that once they leave, there's no going back.)

You may find it worth it to go on a similar adventure, if that's what you're really called to. Sometimes, people can tell you all day long what the outcome will be, but it's not until you experience it for yourself that you can make concrete decisions and learn lessons. However, if you do want to get some perspective before embarking on this, here are the two perspectives I'll tell you:

1. My Own POV: Honestly, the interviews with the spirits I do were the best way for me to realize, concretely, that I could give two shits about messing around with other gods or other spirits. It's highly unnecessary to me. Even the Slavic gods, who feel like my distant family (because they are, likely), just don't grip my attention, love, or worship the way God does; I think they're wonderful and cool and I definitely respect them, but if it came between them and God, I'd always choose God (and I think they know that). In the end, they aren't my gods the way God is. I've discovered that what I feel for God, and what I've experienced with God, is special and right and good, and that none of these other spirits or gods cut it; none of them are my Creator the way God is. I don't need to ask a god of springtime or a god of water or a god of whatever for help; God is already all those things. There's no reason to go seeking a thousand new faces and names to match what God already holds within Him. To do so, and incorporate these other gods of these million different things into my life, would just be to further delude myself about the nature of Divinity with this over-anthromorphizing of Divinity, in my experience.

2. The POV of Ex Christian Witches: I don't have any one specific story to tell, but this is an amalgamation of many I've seen. For several people, that transition from Christian to Christian Witch ultimately ended in their transition to just Witch. They found that actually, God isn't the holder of their hearts; God is great and cool, but there's a bond they felt with these other gods that felt right and good in the way that made sense to them. That's fine. God isn't in the business of forcing people to love Him or stand by Him. It was this last curiosity, and this freedom to experience and witness other gods, that helped them realize in the end that the religion they were born into just wasn't for them. That there is no value in just one big Monad that does and is and has everything, that they need to compartmentalize Divinity this way for it to make any sense to them.

You could go either of these ways. Or some special third way I haven't touched on or realized, I don't know. What I do know is that you should take these feelings to God and ask Him to help you sort them out, because I'm not Him and don't have that final say like He does.

Whatever happens, though, you'll be okay.

How Do You Feel About Witches of Other Faiths? (And God?)

How do you see others who practice witchcraft of other faiths? Also do you also cry when trying to understand an unfathomable amount of love from a God that only wants the best for you and to keep you in good graces. Also do you feel it is worth forgiveness if your sin hurts no one, to me it is carnal desire and acts. While I recognize the sin attributed to it, I have trouble mustering the guilt outside of guilt for causing separation from the higher being and the possible degradation of my morals. Although morals are changing things. Thank you for your time. —Gabriel

Hi, Gabriel!

We got one hell of a multi-part question here! I'm going to answer with bullet points and then get a little deeper into this:

1. I see witches of other faiths as just people. It really doesn't matter to me what others believe in; that's not my business.

2. Yes. 🙃

3. This one is sticky, because there's what is actually sinful, and there's what purity culture has dictated is sinful. Oceans of difference here.

Witches of Other Faiths

So, with witches of other faiths, I don't know what people think you need to think as a Christian, but I personally do not give a good Goddamn about other people's religion or what they decide is right and good for them. Maybe it's because the way my own faith works, I know what it is to have that personal and strong connection with a deity that can't be faked and that I simply can't pull away from. If other people don't feel that with God, but instead feel that with Hekate, or Lilith, or Loki, or Apollo, or whoever else, then who am I to say anything? What would I even say? "Hey, that personal and deeply devotional connection you have to this deity, toss it out and force it with my God instead"? Like?

If God isn't your God, then God isn't your God. That's... really all there is to it.

The only time I get annoyed with witches of other faiths is when they don't give me the same courtesy and start telling me that my God is bad or fake or whatever else. That just screams unhealed religious trauma, and while I can sympathize, I do not want it to be my problem. Do not make your issues my problem, or I will personally become your problem. Pain in my ass.

Crying Over God's Love

This is one of those things that feels really silly, but also isn't really that silly when you think about it. There are times where I reflect on God's goodness and God's love, and especially when I feel that love, that my brain just sort of turns off. I am overcome with that feeling of warm, pure love, and it really does feel like nothing else matters or is important. It reminds me of the Jewish story of the men who went to storm the gates of heaven and actually got inside, making it all the way to God's throne. One of them went crazy, one of them was sane enough to tell the story, and the last just withered away and died because nothing on earth appealed to him anymore; nothing was anywhere close to the goodness of heaven.

I'm not saying I'm going to just turn into a husk and die or nothing when I feel this love, but it does greatly reduce my anxiety about material and earthly things. I simply cannot bring myself to give a shit about a lot of the stuff that a capitalist, materialist society tells us to give a shit about. I already didn't so much beforehand, but now it's even more pronounced. I don't care to have more money, more items, more this, more that; I don't need it. I don't care. What I care about is that I am alive and am connected to my God and the people I love; I am rich enough just being surrounded by sunlight and birds and whatever else. Things will happen in their own time, goals will be met and things will be accomplished, without my having to stress over them. I trust God to guide me where I need to know; I've felt the love He has for me and know that He doesn't want me to suffer for the hell of it. In fact, I know most of my suffering is really either my own problem that I created or the result of a stupid world that cares too much about stupid things like money and materialism. The rest is whatever.

Sins We Don't Feel Guilty For

Again, what do you mean by this? Purity culture has taught us that all "carnal desires" (or... however they call it; kaj fuk je pa karkol' tale—ugh) are bad, but the reality is that, like, we're human? Who gives a shit if you feel some type of way and wanna handle it in the privacy of your own house? That's not really what these things are about. Having any such feelings or desires in and of themselves, and even handling them, are just part of what it is to be a human being and deal with some self maintenance, in my opinion. Barring asexuality, it is what it is.

If you are actively pointing eyeballs at people, though, and objectifying them (honestly whether they have a partner or not), that's a different story. You gotta think about why these things might be issues. Your fellow humans are humans; they are not meat or toys or objects. This doesn't mean you can never acknowledge someone is attractive or something, but when things become sin is, in my opinion, when things become harmful or strip the dignity of other people—especially in this area. It also goes without saying that if you're eyeballing other people while actively in a relationship, that also sucks, because why would you be drooling over people who aren't your partner? Big difference between acknowledging someone is attractive and doing stuff like that, which is objectifying, dehumanizing, and gross.

And that's all I gotta say about that, really.

Does This Dream Mean Anything?

Hello. Last night I had a dream and in one part I was in a room that had an alter to Baba Yaga; it was filled with amythest and wheat and some other crystal. I was wondering if this means anything. —Natalie

Hey, Natalie!

These kinds of questions can't be answered by other people like myself, unless you're asking someone to ask Baba Yaga for you (which... with this spirit specifically, if you can't muster up the beans to do something yourself or reach out yourself, she has no problem just eating you up, so my advice is to not do that).

Is it a dream that inspired you to look more into Baba Yaga? Is it one that stuck with you for days afterwards? Is it one you kept thinking about over and over? If so, it might mean something. But if it was just a one off thing, then that's that. I have dreams all the time that, like e-mails, I should probably follow up on and just don't. At the end of the day, it's your business.

How Does Deity Worship Happen as a Christian Witch?

How does a Christian Witch deal with stuff like deity worship? Like obviously God is the King, Ultimate Creator. But how does venerating angels and such work? Or even other deities? —Angie

Hi, Angie!

This is a reasonable question. Many Christopagan practitioners, like Hannah (spirituali.tea) exist, who incorporate multiple deities or spirits into their practice. What we say as a general rule of thumb is that so long as God is your first priority and is acknowledged as the main God above all other gods, it's fine—but in reality, you need to work that out with God.

Some religious practices don't mesh with this. They won't accept being considered under or subordinate to another deity; they don't want to accept a relationship where they are not your main, or at least equal, priority to anyone else. Other deities don't really care and are happy with being honored or given a gift here and there for their time and blessings. It really depends on who it is you're talking about.

When it comes to angels, however, it's important to note that Abrahamic angels do not want to be worshipped. They are not gods. They work for God. They'd rather you direct any of your worship and devotion to God and deepen your relationship with Him in exchange for their help and guidance. They don't care about gifts and such; they care about you growing spiritually. Veneration is not worship, too; veneration is high respect, but not the same as worship, which is more complete and utter self sacrifice and submission along with the highest honor you can give to an entity. So at least with angels, you don't even need to worry about all that.

How Do I Know I'm Not Making My Experiences Up?

So I don't know which religion to believe, like... I adore pagan religions and Greek sorcery, but I like Christianity too. Like, I feel drawn to Catholic or Orthodox saints, rituals, and churches. And the other thing is I really wanna work with deities or God but I feel like I am making things up when I do deity work, like, one time I tried to work with Lucifer but I always thought I made things up and couldn't focus.I believe in spiritual stuff and sometimes I really superstitious but I can't do like deity works or pick a religion; I really don't know what to do about🥲 Also, is cursing people who have hurt me okay? (I know karma doesn't happen in this life time.) —Anonymous

Hey!

So, while I think we've covered the other parts of this, I will address the "making things up" part because that happens to me too! Even today, I still wonder sometimes if I'm making things up. The only way I can really mitigate that feeling is by using something tangible like tarot cards. I might think I'm making things up, but if I pull cards that align with whatever I was getting through my own intuition, that helps me verify it and accept it as more than just whatever it is I'm making up. Eventually, you do this enough and verify that what you're picking up is what's being said, and it's easier to trust when you're thinking something vs. when an entity is actually trying to tell you something.

It's still good to keep verifying even when you're sure, though, because being too sure about anything can always become a problem. There's a reason mystics warn against chasing these experiences and these direct revelations: it is very easy to think that what you want to hear is really what's being said. But that doesn't mean everything is a lie. You just have to work your discernment like any other muscle in your body.

What Resources Can Help with Tarot?

I’m starting my journey into Christian witchcraft and I wanted to ask where would be a good source to learn tarot? I’m still deconstructing been for a few years now and just looking for advice.—Anonymous

Hi, there!

So, with tarot, honestly, the best way to learn is just by doing it. I had someone else ask me if there were any books I learned to get good with tarot, but it was a combination of doing it regularly and using various different decks with different guidebooks that helped me learn. I definitely recommend having more than one deck because each guidebook has a different way of explaining the same card, and that can help you synthesize the different ways of interpreting said card, but otherwise it's like languages. You can read books about Spanish, or you can just go and learn Spanish and then use it, fucked up and broken as your language skills may be at first, until you gradually get more and more fluent and capable in the language.

That's what worked for me, anyway. Now I can tell you off the top of my head what nearly any tarot card is about because I've seen them all a hundred times. It's all practice in the end.

How Can I Incorporate My Partner's Faith Into My Practice?

Hi! I’m born and raised catholic and currently working through what place Catholicism has in my spiritual practice, although it will certainly remain as some form of devotion as it has familial and cultural significance. I'm dating a man who is a converted but devoted Norse Polytheist (not the Neo nazi kind I promise). I’d love to cultivate ways to incorporate his practice into my own while still honoring and remaining true to my roots. He is nothing but supportive of me and my journey and I want to support him in the same way. Have you had any experience with this? —Maureen

Hey, Maureen!

I personally have not had this kind of experience (my fiance is a staunch atheist), but I know people who have pretty much the same set up that you do, and what I've seen of them is that they really just stay out of each other's way, honestly. You might incorporate smaller details like runes if you'd like, or even Christopaganism if you want to include these other gods. Or, more than all of that, you can look into specifically Scandinavian Catholic folk magic and see how their pre-Christian religion got synchrotized into Catholicism.

But there's really no reason for you to absorb parts of another practice into your own in order to support your partner. You can just support him by being open and accepting of him and his faith without necessarily participating in it. Support and acceptance doesn't mean doing the same thing as other people are doing.

How Do I Get Past my Rationalist/Atheist Ideological Bend?

As I explore the aspects of spirituality regarding the afterlife, I feel a renewed urgency to develop my faith in God. It's not that I believe that I will be rewarded with heaven by having faith, it's that I want to tap into the same comfort that people find in faith, and thereby be more prepared for an afterlife in closer proximity to God. I am someone who plunged themselves head first into rationalism and atheism as a teenager and I find it very difficult to remove the layers of pessimism from my experience of that worldview.

So my question is, how can someone fully embrace the faith aspect of interacting with divinity when they have so much ideological baggage holding them back? —Jessica

Hi!

You know, I used to wonder if maybe I was just stupid for being religious. I would get really bent out of shape about it, knowing rationally that a lot of these things don't make sense, that they can't be proven, that it makes more sense based on what we know for God not to exist than to exist, etc. Especially because my fiance is a hardcore atheist that finds religion as a whole to be pretty stupid. (He never made me feel stupid, but he wasn't shy about saying what he thought about it whenever I pressed him about religion.)

What helped me was understanding the real definition of faith. It's not proof, nor objective truth. Faith is the trust that these things are true, that God is real (and that He cares about us). And more than that, what really helped me was accepting how batshit crazy and ridiculous it all sounded.

Yes, I believe in an invisble force out there that made everything. I believe I've experienced this conscious, sentient force, that It has a name, that I've named It and It has named me. I believe Jesus died and rose again; I believe He did all those miracles; I believe He is the Son of God. Not metaphorically, but literally. I accept it all sounds stupid as fuck and highly irrational and even impossible, and I don't care. My believing in this all is a spit in the eye of a world that wants me to remove all my wonder and whimsy, that wants me to be disheartened by the things that seem impossible. My God is impossible, and that is why I make the irrational, radical, and rebellious decision to believe in Him anyway: because if He is impossible, and yet I know I've witnessed, experienced, and communed with Him, then anything is actually very possible, and this world cannot stop me from achieving all I must in the name of my God.

In essence, my belief in God is a massive "fuck you" to a broken world that wants me to believe I have no power, no worth, and no reason to exist. I accept that I must make my own meaning, and I believe there is a grand power that will help me with that and guide me to making the best meaning. It isn't a matter of moving past pessimism, but rather telling pessimism to fuck straight off and letting me be the most irrational, goofy child in my obstinate belief.

After all, Jesus says that one must be like a child to see heaven, right? I think this is what He meant: that we must be willing to understand the "adult" world, that bleak, grey place full of pessimism and drudgery and despair, and refuse to cave to it—refuse to stop believing that the impossible is, in fact, possible, if only we trust in it and keep pushing beyond all reason.

Is there a Christian Witch coven? Do You Cast Spells?

Is there a a christian witch coven? Do you do spell casting like other witches? —Randy

Hi, Randy!

There are many groups, but one you can check out is Lina the Jesus Witch's Discord server. It's in her profile link on her socials, or you can check it out here.

But in the background, Mimi, Lina, Hannah, and I are in fact working on starting something a little more official than all that. More on that as it comes about.

As for casting spells, yes. We cast spells like other witches. And learning about Christian Witchcraft certainly has made our life better.

Can I Use the Cross to Cast a Circle?

Is it ok to cast a circle using the Cross as a Magic Wand? I usually take my Cross and I make a sign of cross on the East, North, West and South and I cast a circle like that. I visualize the light from the cross forming protecting light around me from all 4 sides. I am curious to hear your opinion about that? Thanks. —Milan

Hi, Milan!

Uh, honestly, unpopular opinion, but I don't really care about casting a circle in any way. You can do whatever you want. I don't know about using the cross itself as a wand; that's not really what it's for, nor does it help you understand or draw close to the significance of it. (That's a whole mystic topic in itself.) But if you like casting a circle, knock yourself out. I personally have no need of that and find it to just be a holdover from Wicca that has no purpose in my craft.

Why Does Ephesians Tell Wives to Be Submissive to Husbands?

Sorry if this is a silly question, but is it possible for how I interpret/feel God's presence and influence in my practice to be different from someone else's? I appreciate reading about and learning from how He appears to you, but sometimes it feels like it's different from my experiences. —Anonymous

Hi there!

Honestly, I could say something about the fact that it's because this was a time where women were still seen as second class citizens, and even if Paul was progressive, he was still a product of his time. But I will also point out that this entire passage starts with saying to submit to one another, not just women to husbands (Ephesians 5:21-33):

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

I can't even talk shit; this is really sweet for its time. Remember this was being written in a time where big Roman polytheist thinkers were out there saying to not love your wife at all because she's a woman like any other and you could easily go find a new wife if you wanted (because women and all their womanliness would distract you from higher things like ration and whatever else these incel-spiration specimens were on). So Paul telling men to love their wives and honor them and make them so dignified was, in fact, really radical and beautiful. Of course, the whole "women respect/submit to husbands" thing was because, again, the time still was what it was; women weren't allowed education, were not used to being in public/seeing people outside their house and being social the way men were, etc. It was a different time. We can also think of this as Paul telling women to follow their husbands' lead, to watch and model them, because they know better about how to handle public life at that time than women do.

Now, once again, we live in a different time. These things that sounded so radical and progressive for their day seem like shitty, misogynistic teachings to us, but that's because these teachings aren't for us or our time; they were for the Ephesians who were struggling with this transition between pre-Christian and Christian life in the Roman empire in the 1st/2nd century. You just can't judge history back in time; you can't hold people 2000 years ago to the standards of today. It won't work.

(Now if only we could get every other church preaching Paul's words in modern times to understand the same thing.)

Ask Your Questions!

Remember, all your questions can go to this Google form, so don't hesitate to reach out! I'm looking forward to seeing what questions people have in the future, and I hope this has been a helpful read! Thank you everyone who participated!

—Sara

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Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.

Follow Sara on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube, and explore her fiction writing here.