As some one who has been a Pagan since 1991, I can tell you that metaphorically speaking I weigh the same as a duck and Christine does not.
This Monty Python and the Holy Grail scene about how to tell a witch is famously funny but how can you really tell who can claim to be a witch and who cannot?
Follow me over the jump and I'll discuss a few definitions of what a witch is and why O'Donnell isn't one.
There are people in this country who do call themselves witches. I am one of them. What does that mean? Well most of us also call ourselves Pagans and Wiccans and what we do is a legally recognized religion.
So what is this religion?
First let's start with Wikipedia's entry :
Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller", "rustic") is a blanket term, typically used to refer to polytheistic religious traditions, although from a Christian perspective, the term can encompass all non–Abrahamic religions.
. . .
In the late 20th century, "Paganism", or "Neopaganism", became widely used in reference to adherents of various New Religious Movements including Wicca
When talking about Paganism as a modern religion we are talking about this second meaning.
And again from Wikipedia, this time from the Neopaganism entry:
Neopaganism, sometimes referred to simply as Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by the pre-Christian pagan beliefs of Europe. Neo-Pagan religious movements are extremely diverse, with beliefs that range widely from polytheism to animism, to pantheism and other paradigms. Many Neopagans practice a spirituality that is entirely modern in origin, while others attempt to accurately reconstruct or revive indigenous, ethnic religions as found in historical and folkloric sources.
In short Paganism is a constellation of religions and Wicca is probably the largest of them. Witch is another term many Wiccans use for ourselves. But to be more accurate I need to add that not all Wiccans use the word witch and not every one who calls themselves a witch considers themselves Wiccan.
So what, you may ask, do Wiccans believe? That's a difficult question to answer because the religion is not about belief. Some people believe in literal Gods and others do not believe but find Gods to be useful myths or metaphors. Some believe in astrology, others do not. Some believe in ESP others don't. Some believe in reincarnation and you guessed it, others do not. And so on with some witches believing in almost any 'New Age' or occult concept you could name and no one belief universal among all witches. The closest thing to a universally held belief is a reverence for nature. (Of course a reverence is an attitude not a belief.) Here is one group's definition.
True confession time. I call myself Pagan and witch but not Wiccan. I have been trained by Wiccans but my beliefs are far enough from what's common that I don't claim the title Wiccan. I revere my ancestors but not any Gods. I do not believe in any of the occult things like astrology. Yet I celebrate all the same holidays with local Wiccans. I could call myself Wiccan and no one would care, but I don't.
What, then, makes this a religion? Wicca is a shared set of values and practices. Especially the practices. Witches do not believe in Wicca, we practice it.
The practice of witchcraft is usually based in what we call a circle. Basically we define a space as special. That space is then used for our rituals. I think of it as building a temporary temple out of thoughts and word. And we often time our rituals based on special times of the solar year: the equinoxes and solstices and the points halfway between them. More regular rituals are held on the full and new moons.
If you want more info on how we cast a circle here is a brief description of how it is done from About.com.
And here is a list of the Wiccan solar holidays.
You may have noticed lots and lots of qualifiers in what I have to say about Pagans. Well we are a diverse group and difficult to define except for one thing. What we do is important enough to us that we are willing to call ourselves Pagan, or Wiccan or witch even when it means people treat us like we are crazy. Some have even lost a job or custody of their kids. What we do has so much meaning and value to us that we are willing to put up with all the crap that comes with calling ourselves by these names.
So how can you tell some one is a witch? They call themselves a witch. O'Donnell does not and did not even in the original video.:
I hung around with people who were doing these things.
she said, adding
I know what they told me they do.
She knew witches and hung around with them but never considered herself one. May be she was even in a circle or two. I've been in more than one Christian church but that does not make me a Christian.
So why is it a big deal? Well because she then went on to become a conservative Christian like many of her supporters. And they have some strange ideas about witches and about Wicca. They confuse fictional magic with the ritual magic of Wicca and insist that Wicca is a form of Satanism even though both Wiccans and Satanists say they are different. The way some churches have opposed fictional magic in D&D and Harry Potter some Christians act as if they thought that kind of magic were real. To that group of Christians, O'Donnell's acquaintance with witches is a problem. I don't expect them to change their minds about Wicca in the next month but I sure would like to change their minds about supporting O'Donnell.
How do I think we should handle O'Donnell's statement "I am not a witch?" We should believe her and we should say so loudly and often, not just because it's true but also because I think the more we say 'she's not a witch' the more they will disbelieve us. And that will cost her votes.