It is great to see the sub growing and seeing so many new witches just starting on their path. Something I've noticed, and spoken about in the past, is the amount of fear mongering being brought into the witchy community as a whole.

This often happens around deity work. There is this growing trend of people saying you need to be especially careful that you're actually communicating with the intended god and not a trickster spirit. This is not something that ancient people were concerned with and I'd also argue that no god would allow for some random spirit to impersonate them, or that a spirit would be that foolish to begin with. This also happens when witches express interest in spirit work.

I also see this happening more and more with randomly found items. The idea that they've picked up a hexed item or that it was a gift from the fair folk and telling them they should put it back and just berating them for something that is likely just a random mundane item is not helpful.

It even happens with basic spell work. People will tell you that you need to be very careful or your spells can backfire. In my years of practice I have never had this happen. Yes, some have failed to work and some have worked differently than I expected, but I have never recieved magical backlash from my own workings.

I always recommend new witches start with protection magic, but that doesn't mean you should be terrified to take the next step after that. Do not let these kinds of people stop you from pursuing what you want on YOUR path.