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WICCA'S WORLD: LOOKING INTO THE PAGAN PHENOMENON
Zenit.org, Italy / eligionnewsblog.com
November 26, 2005
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/12931
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Witchcraft is moving into the
mainstream in the
Netherlands. A Dutch court has ruled that the costs of
witchcraft lessons
can be tax-deductible, the Associated Press reported Oct. 31.
The previous month, the Leeuwarden District Court confirmed the
legal right
to write off the costs of schooling -- including in witchcraft
-- against
tax bills. The costs can be substantial, according to one witch
interviewed
for the article.
Margarita Rongen runs the "Witches Homestead" in a northern
province. Her
workshops cost more than $200 a weekend, or more than $2,600 for
a full
course. Rongen claims she has trained more than 160 disciples
over the past
four decades.
In England, meanwhile, Portsmouth's Kingston Prison has hired a
pagan priest
to give spiritual advice to three inmates serving life
sentences, the
Telegraph reported Nov. 1. The prisoners have converted to
paganism and,
according to prison rules, are allowed a chaplain in the same
way as those
with Christian or other religious faiths. Denying them a pagan
chaplain
would infringe their human rights, said John Robinson, the
prison governor.
Earlier, on Oct. 17, the London-based Times newspaper reported
that pagan
priests in all prisons will now be allowed to use wine and wands
in
ceremonies held in jails. The Times noted that under
instructions sent to
prison governors by Michael Spurr, the director of operations of
the Prison
Service, inmates practicing paganism will be allowed a hoodless
robe,
incense and a piece of religious jewelry among their personal
possessions.
The governors were given a complete guide to paganism, based on
information
supplied by the Pagan Federation. Prisoners will also be allowed
to practice
paganism in their cells, including prayer, chanting and the
reading of
religious texts and rituals. It is not known how many pagan
prisoners are in
jails in England and Wales, the Times added.
On the rise
The practice of witchcraft is attracting ever-growing numbers,
particularly
among young women. A recent attempt to understand its appeal is
the book
"Wicca's Charm," published in September by Shaw Books.
Authored by journalist Catherine Edwards Sanders, the book
stemmed from a
magazine article she was commissioned to do. Initially
dismissive of Wicca,
during her subsequent research Sanders came to appreciate that a
genuine
spiritual hunger was leading people into neo-pagan practices.
Sanders, a self-professed Christian, defines Wicca as a
"polytheistic
neo-pagan nature religion inspired by various pre-Christian
Western European
beliefs, which has as its central deity the Mother Goddess and
which
includes the use of herbal magic."
The book, which is limited to examining the situation in the
United States,
admits it is difficult to estimate the number of Wicca
adherents. Sanders
cites an estimate from one group, the Covenant of the Goddess,
which claims
around 800,000 Wiccans and pagans in America. A sociologist,
Helen Berger,
in 1999 put the estimate at 150,000 to 200,000 pagans.
Wicca is made up of many diverse elements, yet Sanders
identifies some
common beliefs among its followers. They are: All living things
are of equal
value and humans have no special place, and are not made in
God's image;
Wiccans believe that they possess divine power within themselves
and that
they are gods or goddesses; their own personal power is
unlimited by any
deity; and consciousness can and should be altered through the
practice of
rite and ritual.
What is important to Wiccans, Sanders explains, is the
experience of a
spiritual reality, and not truth or a body of knowledge. There
is no
orthodoxy, defined text, or core beliefs. And, while it has
ancient roots,
Sanders notes it is attractive to modernity since it can be
freely molded to
fit the spiritual consumer's desires.
Spell-making is another key element of Wicca. But Sanders notes
that of all
the Wiccans she spoke to, none entered it in order to use spells
to harm
people. Most choose Wicca because they are dissatisfied with
churches and
organized religion and are looking for a spiritual experience
they are
unable to find elsewhere.
Earthy
Another common trait in Wicca is environmentalism. Modern life
has lost its
connection to the land, Sanders argues, and Wicca, with its
emphasis on
nature, seasonal calendars, and the celebrations linked to the
changing of
the seasons, is both a way to recover this connection and also
to
spiritualize the relationship with the earth. Many Wiccans also
reject the
materialistic (but not spiritual) consumer culture.
Pagan and Wiccan groups, in fact, have been present at some of
the
anti-globalization protests in recent years. Sanders describes
some the
ceremonies she witnessed in 2002 during the World Economic Forum
meeting in
New York. They drew attention to such matters as environmental
damage,
animal welfare and preserving the purity of the water supply.
The ecological aspect of Wicca draws inspiration in part from
the so-called
Gaia spirituality. Gaia was the earth goddess of the ancient
Greeks and in
neo-pagan circles she is now transformed into the idea of the
earth being
one living organism, also called Gaia.
Feminism is another important element attracting people to
Wicca. Sanders
observes that Wiccan women feel as if Christian churches treat
them like
second-class citizens, limited to teaching Sunday school.
Sanders estimates that around two-thirds of neo-pagans in the
United States
are female. Many of them practice a form of goddess worship,
commonly in the
form of a mother goddess who is a metaphor for the earth. The
Wiccan rituals
also emphasize the concept of empowerment, and the female
biological
functions are accorded a respected role.
Added to this is the belief that what today's goddess
worshippers are doing
is reclaiming the heritage of a primitive world in which a
peaceful
matriarchal society dominated. This "matriarchal myth" is short
on any
historical evidence, notes Sanders, but is nonetheless an
affirmation that
is commonly repeated.
In fact, Sanders devotes a section of the book explaining how
the Wiccan
rituals and spells have no roots prior to 1900, and are the
result of
inventions and adaptations by a group of men, notably Aleister
Crowley and
Gerald Gardner. Far from being a revival of some ancient
paganism or
matriarchal society, Wicca is a modern, male invention.
Spiritual hunger
The desire to experience spirituality in a more direct and
intense way is
another factor attracting people to Wicca. Some teen-age girls,
Sanders
notes, are unsatisfied with the superficial teen culture and are
looking for
something to give a deeper meaning to their lives.
But, instead of turning to traditional religion to satisfy this
need, an
increasing number experiment with Wicca. Sanders argues that in
part this is
the fault of some churches, which have lost sight of the unseen
world and
the reality of a relationship with Christ and the indwelling of
the Holy
Spirit, reducing their activities to just a social exercise.
Other churches provide little in the way of serious nourishment
for
inquiring teen-age minds, particularly females ones. Another
factor leading
adolescents to Wicca instead of Christianity is a desire for
rituals and
ceremonies. Modern church culture, observes Sanders, has reduced
the
importance of religious rituals and solemn celebrations, leading
people to
look for alternatives that offer more tangible supernatural
experiences.
In concluding Sanders affirms that her investigations made her
more
appreciative of the spiritual hunger leading people to
experiment with
Wicca. At the same time she argues that Christianity offers all
of what
neo-pagans seek: a message true 2,000 years ago and still valid
today.
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RELATED LINK:
WIKIPEDIA ON WICCA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca
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