modern day witchcraft?

So here's one of my current thoughts about witchcraft... are we too politically correct for witchcraft?

When you think of witches the first thing that probably pops into your mind is pointy hats, riding broomsticks and a old hag bent over a cauldron.

And what is in those cauldrons? Eye of newt. Snakes. Toads. That's some serious stuff.

In one of the books I am reading about witchcraft right now it talks about short cuts and modern day variations that you can use.

Now, I'm not advocating going back to the old ways, I'm simply raising the possibility that the reason you don't hear about witchcraft really working nowadays is that people have taken away its power by not doing it correctly.

For example, it used to be that you used to have to have a male priest initiate a female candidate and a female priestess initiate a male candidate. Nowadays people think that is sexist and stupid and have decided that it doesn't matter. But what if it DOES matter? What if there was an important reason for doing it that way and THAT is why it was always done that way? Just because we don't know the reasoning behind something doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. Is magic something that you can change to fit modern thinking?

To be initiated into the third degree involves a special ritual. It can be actual intercourse between a committed couple who are undergoing third-degree initiation together. Or you can just do a symbolic representation of sexual intercourse by using a chalice and athame to represent the male and female. It goes on to warn you not to fall prey to anyone demanding sex in return for your initiation. I obviously know next to nothing about this... I just find it hard to imagine that banging a chalice and athame together would have the same sort of effect as actual intercourse.

Again, let me state for the record that I don't advocate doing this, but there was one myth that witches used baby fat as an ingredient in the flying ointment that helped them fly. What would the modern day equivalent of that be? Rub your broomstick against the baby's head?? Well, of course you aren't going to be able to fly if you dumb down the spells.

I am opposed to killing babies. Even if it did mean I could fly. I am opposed.

My point is simply that it is presumptuous of us to think that we can go around and change spells and things that were done certain ways for hundreds (thousands?) of years and expect them to still work the same way.