PBP: Is it hereditary?

"I had to think about my wording on this one... I had to leave it vague, because I wanted it to be as open to interpretation as possible.

What I'm referring to here can be magic, witchcraft, spirituality, the things you can do that others around you cannot, etc. Another way to put it might be "Do you come from a family of Witches?" but that only works if you see yourself as a witch. Get what I'm trying to say here?

What you do and who you are - did it come from your bloodline? Or is it something you discovered and nurtured on your own?" (Link)

This is often a point of much debate among witches - some come from families where varieties of spells and rituals have been around for ages, others come from mundane Christian or Atheist (or...) families and discovered their path on their own. And sometimes there is debate as to what is better, or rather whether there is such a thing as "hereditary witchcraft".

I have got a two-step opinion on this (as usual).

First, I think that everyone has got it in them to be a great witch/pagan/... This is all about communicating nature and balancing the energies that surround everyone of us every minute of the day. So there is not really anything "special" about it, and practice makes perfect, as the saying goes. Coming from a family of witches does not have any advantages in this area, I guess ,except that maybe your "training" is more coordinated. On the other hand, of course, your chances for discovering great new things are slim when everything is done the traditional way and by the book.

On the other hand, there are different talents in different people, and sometimes they seem to run in the family. I know that several people on my mother's side were some kind of psychic - my grandfather ignored it (as does my younger sister), an aunt used it to rip off people, my mother never did anything about it and one of my older sisters and I use it as witches. The "flavor" of talent varies - some (used to) "see" or "hear" things, I am more likely to "feel" or "know" stuff. Note that no one else in our family does anything witchy, we still had to decide ourselves how we wanted to use this talent. And we suck in other areas, more or less.