RE: What does "witch" mean to me?
I think there is a big difference between those that self identify as witches, and those that the state or those in power identified as witches in order to execute. Regarding the latter, any woman who didn't submit to authorities was deemed a witch and exterminated in the not too distant past. I've seen credible estimates in the millions. It is part of our crushing ancestral trauma in North America that our grandmothers were hunted down and murdered. I don't believe this was limited to women who were actually practicing the craft, but instead included a broad net of those who would not submit. It left families traumatized in a way that still reverberates today. As for a definition of modern witches, there are numerous opinions, but it seems most of us find comfort in and connection to the cycles of nature and are on a wisdom path specializing in some aspect of that connection.
You're very right, the term could be easily used to root out opponents to someone's beliefs.
As to the natural path, that seems to be a common thread in the witches I've talked to. It's strange, since I've started gardening and getting into permaculture, I've been noticing a really weird draw to and recognition of natural cycles like I never have before.
I'm not sure it was so much rooting out opponents to someone's beliefs, as just getting rid of all the women who were seen as a threat to male authority, and sending a message to the remaining women to stay silent and do as they were told. The messaging to men here was equally toxic and is at the root of patriarchal social structures today. The men who didn't think this was right got called heretics and were caught up in the same net.
I think the awakening to the cycles of nature is a remembrance of something intrinsic to our humanity that was mostly stamped out or went deep under the surface in western culture.