What a great thread! Thanks for starting this Sirona.
Wicca, and witchcraft in general, have experienced phenomenal growth over the past 25 years or so, due in no small part to the increasing amount of literature and other information available, and to the large number of people who were not comfortable in their traditional faiths, but until recently, knew of no other options.
Some of the very best books for interested persons include:
Drawing Down the Moon, by Margot Adler. This is an overview of the pagan movement, with details of quite a few different traditions, history of the movement, interviews, etc.
The Spiral Dance, by Starhawk.
Wicca, a Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, by Scott Cunningham. Very good basic books for newly interested ones (Cunningham was a very prolific author, and most of his titles are quite well done).
Wicca by Vivianne Crowley
Additionally, some films made in recent years touch on aspects of wicca and witchcraft, although not very often in an entirely authentic manner.
"The Craft" and "Practical Magic" were both flawed to varying degrees, although if you watched carefully, there were nuggets of truth. Certainly, no witch in my acquaintance has walked on water, flew through the air, raised the dead, created awesome weather, or cast a spell intended to hurt another person in any manner. Some might instead attempt to work magic to draw positive energy into their own lives, and improve their own situation in some manner. Both of these films portray witchcraft as something kind of dangerous, something in which it is easy to get into trouble, and that is their major problem.
As I see it, witchcraft is just another way of looking at the world. From the wiccan perspective, everything in the universe is connected to everything else, and everything influences everything else to a greater or lesser degree. Spells are just a way of adjusting things (or at least, attempting to adjust them)to a more desireable state.
Witches don't usually view events as "predestined", but see people as the product of their genetics and their environments. Sometimes, people make choices (conscious or unconscious) which hurt themselves, or (because everything is connected) others around them. So, sometimes we experience things caused by what others have done.
Some witches practice divination of one form or another. This isn't an attempt to foretell the future, but rather an excercise which clarifies the eventual outcome of the particular set of choices one has made. If one doesn't like where that path is going, one may choose to make different choices, effectively "stepping onto another path".
Witchs accept responsibility for their own actions, believing that whatever they do will come back to them, perhaps several times over. This seems preferable to blaming every negative action or event on some external influence (i.e. "the Devil made me do it" or "they were possessed by demon").
