The other day, one of my student showed me a video of a girl who claimed herself to be a modern witch, cut her own finger and dripped her own bloods onto her client's preserved ritual candle???!!! Her altar was pretty 'dark'. I mean, Gothic fictional-kind-of dark, black satin table cloth, with the Sigil of Baphomet hanging at the back, couple rocks, an empty metal cup and so on...
I know how ridiculous it sounds, but this kind of 'witchcrafts' happened a lot these days. She simply knows nothing, so we can be sure that nothing will be gain, but at least nothing will be loss in her 'magic'. What makes me really worry is the other girl, who is teaching around in Asian, claimed she's able to make you see your past-life through group hypothesis, and heal depression within 3 sessions. According to her resume, she's a student of many famous masters of hypothesis, Spiritual & Rikki (Been in touched with two, two of them didn't know her at all) I watched few clips of her class video, well, she's been using couching method to her students, which is a brain washing method commonly used in pyramid scheme. It appeared to me that she attended many short-term workshops of some famous masters, then granted many certificates in gaining people's trust.
Schemes are everywhere as we all know, however, learning occults and metaphysics aren't that easy, if you wanted to find a short cut to become a practitioner, you might fall into schemes like that.
The special gene only gives a witch some talents, rest of them are knowledges and experiences. A witch's learning journey have nothing different from a doctor, a lawyer or a factory worker. From a list of potions' recipe to a scratch of a symbol, from a phrase of Bible to a line of Grimoire, all came from months of practice, years of reading, learning, and researching. Magical results came from hard works of a practitioner behind each candles and bottles.
I always tell my student that, if you really want to be a professional in magic, be open to learn, be suspicious to everything seems too easy, be grateful to everything that happened in your life regardless they were good or bad, be true and be modest, the most important element in magic is the intent of a witch, and wearing a rob doesn't enhance your casting.
Miracle happens to those who have faith, and real magic came from knowledge, if you want to be a real witch, maybe start by reading few folklores today.