Well, That's party stereotype. But it breaks down as follows: Most wiccans/pagans out in the world are what's known as Solitary Practitioners. This means they practice on their own, worship on their own, etc. Many more practice with a friend, or in a small group, or public circle, but don't consider this any kind of "Coven". Some see "Covens" as an antiquated term. However, many others do congregate in covens. It depends mostly on the others which which you surround yourself int he craft. There are many other stereotypes surrounding covens such as "They only practice naked" or are only gathering on full moons. Some of these are covered below.

You BET you can! People are often confused about "Spells" thinking in the hollywood way that these are a series of specifically chosen words, that are the key to unlocking secret, and powerful magick. The reality is that Magick is most often far more subtle, far less secret, and far less dependant on the words, so much as it is on their intent. Magick doesn't come from the words, it comes from people! The words are there mostly to help us arrive at a common place in our minds, very similar to guided meditation. So that when in a group, we can send out the same energy. When practicing solo, it's moreso so that you can arrive at the same energy, that you did last time you used this "Spell". Analogous to instructions for how to meditate. The words in the instructions don't matter, and there are more than one right way to do it.

Most certainly not! Some do, but some don't. We most often use the term "Skyclad" to refer to us going about our rituals in the nude. This isn't a universal practice. Many who do this do so because they believe that clothing masks the energies involved in a ritual, because being nude represents a deep trust between multiple members in a group, or because lack of robes and cingulum removes all visual sense of "Rank" amongst a group, and all can be seen as we truely are, just people, equals. Mind you if anyone else ever makes this a Requirement of a ritual with them, and this makes you uncomfortable, you should refuse. Never participate in something that makes you uncomfortable. Nudity is usually also reserved for formal rituals, it's not a nudist fasion statement.

Now this is a very difficult question to answer. Not because it's a huge ordeal, nor is it complicated, so much as it is dynamic and diverse. Ask this question to 10 different wiccans, and you will have 12 different answers. But here are the most common points covered:
1. Read everything you can. The one thing the wiccan community is MOST guilty of (our Persian flaw) is that we have little tolerance for rebellious youths who only care about Wicca as a means of acting out, or rebelling against their parents. As such we tend to expect you know at least the basics before expecting someone to spoon-feed you answers and information, or even sign on as a mentor/teacher for you.
2. Don't expect every single wiccan you meet or talk to to be an expert. We are forever learning, and the more someone claims to be an all-knowing authority, the less they often actually know.
3. Never trust just one source of information for everything. Wikipedia is a GREAT site to find out where to start, but it's the WORST place to trust as an all-knowing, always right, omnipedia. Farm and cultivate multiple sources of information, be it books, websites, teachers, on-line friends, other wiccans, etc...
4. You don't need to participate in any initiation or ritual to be and call yourself a Wiccan, but you MAY have to do so to be recognized as such by many popular groups. This is an area where you have to ask what is important to you? Are you in it to be "Seen as a wiccan" or to "Be a wiccan"?

This is a Dangerous question. The following is only the admin's opinion on this matter, so take it with a grain of salt. If you are a minor living at home, then you should really be on this site to begin with, but let's try to answer anyways. In short, you really shouldn't hide it. Your parents are your parents, It's their responsibility to raise you as best they can. They will make mistakes, and even when they do things right it will often not be the way you want. You can complain about personal freedom, choice, and what you want, all you want. But in the end, you are their child, living under their roof, for free! Even if you don't care that they are your parents, consider that it is their house, you didn't buy it, work hard for it, they did. Now if your practicing somewhere else, that's a bit less troublesome, but also easier to hide. I won't give you instruction on how to build a pipe bomb, and I won't tell you how to hide things from your parents.

Now, if you are NOT living at home, and are OLDER than 18, now you suddenly have my FULL SUPPORT to hide whatever you want from anyone you want (within reason, I won't help you hide a kidnapping victim). A few tips: if you have an altar, keep it either out of sight, or make it easy to take down and hide. Don't display your books for all to see, and don't wear 13 pentacles on your necklace when you go to your family Christmas dinner.

Nope! The site's admin is Wiccan, and he is male! (last I checked anyways). Men are just as welcome to follow the Wiccan Religion as women. As are Gay men & women, transgendered, inter-sexed, and aliens (as far as I'm concerned, I don't care if your Dr.Who, Klingon, Canadian, or have a summer house on mars). Most mainstream wiccan traditions believe in BOTH a God, and a Goddess, so practitioners of the religion can focus on either one depending on their own needs, or a balance of the two. We all relate to the divine in our own way.

This is likely to shock wiccans and non-wiccans alike, but there are not real "Rules" global to Wicca. There is no official list of almighty commandments set out by the divine. The Reed "An it harm none, do what ye will" is so often misinterpreted to mean "Harm none" but it doesn't say that, nor is it a rule set forth by the divine, this is a rule set forth by man, and I think it's a very good one. It basically says "If your actions don't harm anyone, Go for it!" what it does NOT say is "If your actions DO hurt someone, don't do it". What's the difference? It's telling you what TO do, it's NOT telling you what NOT to do. Get it? Not all wiccans follow this "rule", But simply put passing wind in the woods has a chance of somehow harming someone. The more harm an action involves, the more you have to "Think" about what you are doing before you do it.

This isn't really something that all wiccans do, it's quite common however. This is most often used to differentiate real-world magick from stage/movie magic. This can be traced back as far as Aleister Crowley who added it for numerological reasons, but in today's culture, it's more of a "style".

Yes. Witchbook is free to use for as long as you wish. We don't charge for membership. In the future we MAY decide to charge for certain extras, like a witchbook gift shop, but the site itself, and membership will always be free. If you wish to help us out, Feel free to Donate towards us, or visit our "Spread the word" page for more info on how to help without using money.

Boonex is the company that has created the social networking software known as "BoonEx Dolphin". This is the software (although we have heavily modified it, and continue to do so) that runs this site. We are currently running Boonex Dolphin v7. Our site admin has a great amount of experience working with Dolphin, and while it may have occasionally a few more bugs than other platforms, it has a lot more features, is generally secure, and is easy to upgrade and expand.

While none of our Moderators nor Admin have really played around with the iPhone version of the app extensively, We are actively working witht he Adroid App to extend functionality. (and since the apps are intended to be identical, what works for one SHOULD work for the other). Basically it's a way of limited witchbook access from your cellphone.

NO! Witchbook does not share your private information with anyone except it's own Admins (and occasionally a moderator might see a detail or two). Witchbook is not in the habit of helping marketing spammers. We spend half our time just keeping the site free of them, the last thing we would to is help them out.

If you go to view your own profile page, then click on the "Edit" button (upper left side of profile), one of the fields you can change is your password.

The e-mail address you used to sign up for Witchbook can be seen by only You, The admins, and occasionally the Moderators. Members of the site can never see your e-mail address unless you give it to them.

Not on your own. We tend not to change usernames, or give the ability to change them, as we don't want members getting confused when it comes to who is who. However if you can give us good reason why you want your username to be changed, the admins certainly can change it for you.

Well not really broken. On rare occasion, automated maintenance on our webserver can cause our chat system to "Forget" what chat rooms it has. When this happens, use the "Support" link at the top to create a support ticket for the admins. Usually we fix this fairly quickly.

First, you should try the forgot password link. That will e-mail you a new password. If your e-mail address has also changed, you may be required to contact the admins using the Support link at the top of the site.

If your question is not in our FAQ, next try the Help Screen (Help menu, Help item). If you still don't have an answer, Feel free to open a support ticket using the support link at the top of the screen (in the menu).

Unfortunately not. Signatures on other forums tend to cause a large amount of advertising, and garbage flooding the forums and making the actual conversation seem polluted with various detritus.

Mind you members who do not abuse this tend to put funny taglines, and whatnot, but unfortunately, More harm than good usually come of post signatures. We may bring this feature back in when/if our spam filtering systems can better detect and dispose of such signatures in a polite way, but until then, we will have to live without.

We appreciate your understanding.