Paganism, Pantheism, folk magic, Wicca. Religion, lifestyle, beliefs, misconceptions.

In today's society there are not many places we may look for images of the above. We have not yet made a place for nature based, love driven, non-hierarchical gathering within our culture. Those who follow such practices are marginalized and find themselves within a unique subculture. An eclectic subculture that encompasses many other marginalized groups and unites them through their differences and their call towards a nature-rooted religion.

When speaking of folk magic, or Wicca, many westerners conjure up thoughts and images linked with satanic worship, orgies, drug use, and cruel rituals such as human or animal sacrifice. In books, film, and on TV witchcraft is seen as dark and often evil. Writers focus on small aspects of witchcraft and expand and embellish them. The "dark" images associated with witchcraft stem from their acceptance of dark as well as light, male as well as female. Witchcraft reveres the woman as creator, great mother of all that is natural and they are always associated with all that is dark - the moon and the mysterious night, the female encompassing dark instead of the male aggressive light, and the dark depths of the nurturing and life producing vagina.
But how did these contemporary images of witches as Satan worshipers and dark evil drug addicts come to pass? Witchcraft grew from basic folk magic - the lifestyle of most cultures before and after Christianity came to pass. Most of today's world religions were initially accepted by common folk along with the practices found within folk magic. Healing herbs, protective amulets, and an understanding of natural energies have been used for centuries. The earliest humans used such things in their daily life. These are not new practices. Why, then, are they considered so different or controversial today - so "New" Age?
As said before, commoners throughout Europe simultaneously practiced folk magic and religions such as Christianity. As Christianity grew, it's leaders forced out pagan practices. Christians forgot their religion's mystic side and they found the mysticism associated with Folk magic very threatening. Pagan rituals, witchcraft, and folk magic were considered "evil" by Christian sources and through colonial expansion and the assimilation of various lands, this idea spread. Witchcraft was dark, evil and a direct link with Satan.
As time wore on and we grew closer to the 20th century, societies began to question their basic cultural, societal, educational, and spiritual foundations. An intellectual enlightenment occurred and science, logic and reason began to butt heads with religion and spirituality. Eventually, educated men such as Sigmund Freud, and Carl Gustav Jung began to write on the loss of our common ancestral spirituality.

Anthropologists have often described what happens to a primitive society when its spiritual values are exposed to the impact of modern civilizations. Its people lose the meaning of their lives, their social organization disintegrates, and they themselves morally decay. We are now in the same condition. But we have never really understood what we have lost. (Jung 94)

Through such theorists and educators as Jung we began to notice this loss. We, as a culture have decided to reclaim our connection to the Earth and to our past.
We studied the Earth and our niche in time and space. Science began to organize our life and name everything around us. And still, the unnamed was scary. Magic and weird unknown energies still remained a taboo subject. And yet our fascination with the world around us grew and we discovered machines - artificial life. Although amazingly helpful to society, machines and technology has been the dividing factor between humans and the Earth. We have grown isolated from our planet.
In the 1960's there was a resurgence of folk magic and life energies were no longer considered taboo. Society wanted to find something to link them with their ancestors. Primal energies and Earth forces were studied and the average American began to think about the idea of personal power - strength in life. Thus, the New Age movement began. Folk magic found a niche in culture and Wicca was born.
"Folk magic" encompasses most ancient, natural and primal practices that have evolved into the contemporary Wicca beliefs and practices. There are a few aspects of Wicca that would appeal to the average contemporary American. It includes aspects of environmentalism, feminism, and even the belief in activism.
Wicca is know for its devotion and reverence for the Earth. Practitioners tend to follow vegetarian or vegan lifestyles and they believe animals are very sacred to our existence. Since the public awareness of environmental problems such as acid rain, ozone depletion, and deforestation, many people find an environmentally friendly lifestyle very appealing.
Wicca also adds a feminine aspect to religion that many others ignore. Both God and Goddess are equally worshiped. Women especially, are drawn to Wicca for its support of the feminine divinity. Women are given the chance to discover a link to deity through their own uniqueness. Wicca is a great new source for feminine power within society. It is a religion and subculture that encompasses the new and empowered female minority.
The word "magic" is often heard in association with witchcraft. But "magic" does not mean flying broomsticks or bubbling cauldrons. Magic could be defined more easily as a form of activism. It is a way to create change while living in harmony with nature. Activism comprises a very large part of the cultural identity of the United States. Our founding fathers fought for change, and created a system for change in the U.S. Constitution. Americans fight everyday toward making this country a better society. The "magical" aspects of Wicca only attract and inspire today's Americans fighting for a better World.
Citizens of the World are growing aware of their place in time and space. The life span of the Earth has been laid out before us and we are beginning to understand where we belong. Yes, we have entered another intellectual enlightenment that has spurred on this continual spiritual awakening. "One may no longer take the 'goodness' or the 'rightness' of his own culture or subculture for granted. In effect, he is beginning to experience subcultural relativism." (Irwin 68)
We are beginning to see how interconnected cultures and subcultures may be. But with in this new awakening sits a burgeoning cultural identity crisis. On a whole, we still feel the need to define ourselves, to assign each individual to a specific group or subculture.
While each of us search for others with whom to unite, Wicca, witchcraft, and folk magic seem a viable option. They incorporate many contemporary ideas surrounding environmentalism, feminism, and activism. It is now a good time and place for witchcraft to become accepted and understood.

Rauncie Pelltier, a.k.a Lady Butterfly-Rain (thatís her magickal name) is a 40 year-old Wiccan, who lives in Ithaca. Ms. Pelltier is Chaplain for the United Pagan Ministries at Cornell University. She also is high priestess for the Coven of the Moonlight Labyrinth, which is a thread of Living Tapestry Circle, the mother coven in Indiana.

Here is what Ms. Pelltier had to say in an interview:

I am a witch, but I still am human. I think what happens sometimes is that people forget that. Thatís when you have problems. When people start thinking that they are beyond other people, or above.

I practiced since I was a very young woman. I kind of went in and out of church and when you live in that environment you kind of get guilted into that. But I can remember being really young and doing spells in the backyard under the full moon, and not even really knowing what I was doing. And definitely believing that there is a goddess too. And not understanding what was wrong with these people that thought there was only this guy with a white beard who was running around and zapping people for being bad. I just really didnít understand that. I was raised Southern Baptist so you know fire and brimstone was a big part.

What is my definition of witch? Well, for me, the most basic definition is wise. When I think of witch I think of someone who has opened their eyes to what is really around us, and is connected with the earth and other people. The word witch sometimes in our community is thought of as something not good, or inflammatory. You know, people are like, why do you want to even use the word witch because people get pissed off. But then again I think it is part of the way we feel about what we do. I mean, taking the name witch in many ways is taking a stand about what has happened to women over the centuries. And women who were murdered and tortured because they were midwives, and because they had knowledge about plants that would heal people. So many of us take that word witch and use it, and feel proud about it.

Wiccan cannot be used instead of the word witch. Sort of like in the Christian world, they have denominations. Well, Pagans do too. There are Wiccans, there are Druids, Dianics Ö So, Wiccan is not another word for witch. It is something totally different.

I personally take the name witch because I feel that what has happened to women, and men - cause there were men who were also tortured and murdered. And there are male witches in my coven. I have two men in my coven.

I think witchcraft is living a lifestyle, or just, you know the way we go through life. Again, being connected, being connected with other people and the earth. Practicing the craft is believing that there is something beyond just the everyday mundane. That we really do have the power to bring about change. Not necessarily like some people think, you know we really donít have smoke and - well, incense of course - but we donít have explosions and lightening.

When I think about magic, to me magic is the ability to bring about change, regardless of how you do it. When I think of spell work, I donít think about hocus pocus and all that kind of stuff. It is putting an idea deep inside of us that maybe we repeat over and over again, and because we do that it comes true for us. And another thing, I believe the most powerful magic is our words, what we say. Itís powerful. Magic is not going out and buying a spell book and following the recipe. I never use spell books. I do what works and feels right for me. I am not one to go by a formula because I feel like all of us are priests and priestesses - those who choose to worship the God and Goddess. And why does somebody else have to tell me how to do it? I encourage the people who train under me to do what feels right to them. I train people how to do ritual. There is a ritual format we use, and there is a great magic to that. Doing the same ritual form puts people in a special place. They are able to then make magic happen. Itís like theatre. I do theatre too. You suspend that time, that place becomes somewhere else. And it happens because you do these specific things in this specific order, and then everybody is transformed into another time, another place.

The one movie that drives me the craziest - The Craft. The thing about it that is so irritating is that they actually had someone who gave them advice, who was Wiccan. What they did was, they had just enough knowledge that there is some stuff in it that is true. But they added all this other crap in it. You know the whole thing of how they portray the young girls, especially Neve Campbellís character. Oh my gosh. I just thought to myself, now there are going to be all these young girls like that, threatening people with witchcraft, and that is not what weíre about. Now there are people who do that. I would venture to say (and some people would be angry for me saying this) that they are not witches. They just want to dress up and play. And there is the whole goth scene, and I donít have anything against that because I like to dress up goth sometimes, but it doesnít have anything to do with my spirituality.

Satanic witches are an impossible contradiction. Witches do not believe in the Devil.

There are not too many things that I have seen on television or in movies that I would say portray a witch in a true light, of what we are really about. Most of the things I have seen have been stereotypical stuff. Even the movie Practical Magic, I really like that movie, but there are things about it that are just kind of silly. Then again, the thing about it is, we embrace some of that stuff for a lot of reasons. The brooms for example come from fertility rituals. They did use to use ointment that had hallucinogens in it. And that is where the whole flying thing comes from. But they actually would try to jump as high they could, because they believed that the higher you jump, the higher the crops grew. So think about it, a hundred years ago you are in the woods and you hear all this whooping and hollering, and you go to see what is going on, and there are naked people jumping on brooms Ö rumors would fly. ìThere were these women flying on broomsÖî

Hollywood has not been good to us. It has taken me a while, but I thought of one, Chocolat is a good portrayal of a witch. Now I would call her a witch. Think about what she did. Thatís a great movie. Any woman that can bring about change like that - thatís what I really call a witch. Not Ö The Craft.

What I like about witchcraft today is that you donít need to follow the rules exactly as it is written, you wont be punished if you put something in the wrong place. Itís what you do with it that is important, what comes from within.

The best movie that has portrayed witchcraft is Lord of the Rings because they all reach within for advice. They know how to harness their magic, which is really what a witch is. My definition of a witch is someone who really knows how to harness his or her magic. They are never mentioned as witches in the movie, but they are all quite magical.

I remember cartoons with scary witches in the woods stirring cauldrens and eating children.

A witch is a person, male or female, that celebrates the seasonal and moon cycles. They may or may not follow the Wiccan path, but believe in polytheism and balance in the natural world.

Witchcraft is a faith-based religion celebrating seasons of the year and cycles of the moon. Witchcraft involves karma and reincarnation and is polytheistic.

Magick, spelled with a ìkî to distinguish it from illusionary magic, is the positive redirection of events, states of being, or feeling.

Witches are negatively portrayed in film. They are often associated with evil and the Devil, which is a Christian creation, not Pagan. Witches are made to look cooler than we are. We canít turn people into frogs. Many films imply that witchcraft is cult-like, but many people, including myself, practice alone.

I can think of a bunch of examples of films with negative portrayals of witches, and not one positive one. The Witches of Eastwick was negative. The witch in Robin Hood is seen as pure evil and she hates black people. Real witches love all people. ìThe Craftî is another one. Witches believe in threefold law- that everything one does, positive or negative, comes back to them threefold. The girls in this movie had weird superpowers and used them negatively against each other. In the Wizard of Oz, the ìevilî witch (under her makeup) is actually younger and prettier than the ìgoodî witch, who is older and not so pretty. Oh, and which witch dropped the house on another witch? The ìgoodî witch. Yeah, real good!

Witches have long been associated with evil. The Catholic church associated negative acts with the Devil. They didnít understand herbal healing practices and thought that many women were up to no good because they could not explain it. Because of this they were associated with dark acts of the Devil. Marilyn Manson, and goth culture associate with the dark, and thus a connection was made between the two by popular culture.

Bibliography

Cunningham, Scott. The Truth about Witchcraft Today. Llewellyn Publications: St. Paul, 2001.

Irwin, john. "Notes On The Status Of The Concept Subculture". The Subcultures Reader. Ed. Ken Gelder, and Sarah Thornton. Routledge: New York, 1997.

Jung, C.G. Man and His Symbols. Aldus Books: London, 1964.

Jung, C.G. Psychology & Religion. Yale University Press: New Haven, 1938.

http://www.witchware.com/ - complete pagan resource

http://www.witchvox.com/xwords.html - adult pagan essay series

http://www.witchvox.com/xteen.html - young pagan essays