I am witchy. I practice magic. I am a pagan. But I am not a witch. I don't know why this confuses so many people. If you light sage and have tarot cards, obviously you're a witch, right? If you tell someone "I am a Christian, but I am not Catholic." they understand without question. But "I am a pagan, but not a witch." is met with confusion and the assumption that you're just "in the broom closet."
This is further confused by the fact that I have a "witchy aesthetic." Pointy nails, dark clothes, skulls... I like all of the things that people associate with a witch. But if there is one thing that I learned being raised in a Christian cult, it's this:
The appearance of a thing is not equal to it's actuality.
They way I look, the things I like, have nothing to do with my faith or my religion. While I like having a selection of herbs, and crystals, and tarot cards, and candles and all the tools that are associated with witchcraft, they are not necessary for me to practice my religion. While there are certainly many pagans who choose to identify with the label of witch, I am not one of them. There are also many people who choose that label who haven't the slightest inclination towards the actual practices. Further more, the label of witch is most often applied to those who practice Wicca. Newsflash, Wicca isn't the end all, be all of paganism. There are thousands of religions that fall under the umbrella term of pagan.
So what am I? That's what everyone wants to know, right? If I'm not a witch, I must be something.
But that's not how it works. Paganism isn't so neatly divided into little check boxes of who is this, and who is that. That's part of it's beauty. I am not confined by straight lines and hard etched rules. My faith is ever changing. How I identify within that space is irrelevant and largely arbitrary. I don't need to put a label on it for it to be real.
So what am I? I am myself. Always.