Some of you may or may not be aware of modern day Pagans and if you are, you may not know much about them. When you hear the word Pagan you probably think of ancient Greece and empty runes of once great temples, or you conjure up the image of witches casting spells like in Harry Potter, or maybe even someone sneaking off into the woods at night to make pacts with the devil. There’s so many different ways that people could be wrong about this minority religious group so let’s take some time to talk about it. 

Starting with something that I’m sure dominates the mind when talking about the subject, do people really think they’re witches? Well yes, there are many people today who actively practice a form of witchcraft. Not like the witchcraft you may see in “Hocus Pocus“ or “The Craft” but as a form of folk magic. It’s hard to pin down exactly what witchcraft means to people who practice it and you’ll probably get a different answer with every person you ask. Witchcraft is not a religion but (as the name suggests) a craft or a skill that you must learn and practice. It is interacting with the spiritual energy around you and finding ways to make it work with you. Blowing out candles on a birthday cake as you make a wish, writing something down a certain number of times to try manifesting that something into your life (this blew up on TikTok a few months ago), and breaking the Thanksgiving wishbone are all things that could be considered forms of witchcraft. 

It is often considered a form of occultism. Occultism is the study and knowledge of the supernatural. Astral projection, seances, ghosts, astrology, demonology, past lives, and divination are all forms of occultism you’ve probably heard of. People often interact with it without realizing, things like tarot cards are very mainstream and are often used by people who consider themselves to be separate from the occult but they’re divination nonetheless. Occultism at its core is looking for hidden knowledge and breaking away from what is seen as normal. Though the reputation is controversial I generally suggest that people keep an open mind, especially if you’re already religious. 

Now that we explained all of that, witchcraft and occultism are separate and are not mandatory for being Pagan (though they have the habit of overlapping). Pagan, Jewish, and Christian witchcraft are all practiced and the occult often centers around Abrahamic lore. King James is one of the most well known occult writers out there. So what is Paganism? 

The word Pagan comes from the Latin word paganus which means ‘village, rustic’ as in someone who lives in a rural/country area. It later evolved in Christian Latin to mean someone who wasn’t a follower of Christ. In modern times it’s more of an umbrella term for multiple different non-Abrahamic religions. What is and is not considered Paganism is still debated. Western new age, old European, and old Mediterranean religions are all pretty unanimously called pagan but things like traditional African spiritualism and indigenous religions are still a bit up in the air when it comes to labels. Because I’ve never heard anyone of the latter religions call themselves pagan I’ll be sticking to the first three. 

One of the biggest Pagan religions out there, and probably the one you’ve heard about, is Wiccanism. Wicca is a new age belief system created in 1950s England by Gerald Brousseau Gardner. Gardner spent a large amount of time traveling in Asia where he became familiar with Eastern Mythical beliefs and upon his return to England he got into western esoteric writing (like that by Aleister Crowley). It spread to America in the 1960s and from there developed into several different branches (Dianic, Gardenian, Alexandrian, Blue Star, Central Valley, and Chthonioi Alexandrian). 

Wiccanism acknowledges two main forms of divinity, the masculine and the feminine. Because of this they often worship two deities, one male, one female. Sometimes they are non-specific forms meant to symbolize these energies, other times they will worship deities from a certain tradition (Apollo, Hades, Osiris, Athena, Isis, etc.), and in Gardnerian Wicca you’re supposed to be initiated into a coven before you find out the names of that group’s gods. These energies are meant to balance each other out and their wheel of the year is based around that. The Wheel is made up of the eight Sabbats that originated with the ancient celts and were adapted into the current Christian holidays. 

Symbolically, Yule (Dec. 21 – Jan. 1) is when the goddess gives birth to the god, Imbolc (pronounced Im-balk, Feb. 2) this is a time of growth and spiritual cleansing. Ostara (March 20) is a new beginning when the god and goddess solidify their union, Beltane (May 1) is the first harvest and represents fertility, Litha (June 24) is the peak of the god’s strength and is associated with fire and light, Lughnasadh (loo-na-sad, Aug. 1) is when the goddess gives control over to the god, Mabon (Sep. 21 – 29) is the ultimate balance between light and dark, and Samhain (sow-in or so-ween, Oct. 31 – Nov. 1) is when the god dies and then the cycle restarts. 

Some of the other basic principles they believe in is that the divine is present in nature and therefore it must be respected, the Wiccan rede states a sort of karmatic rule where whatever you put out into the world would come back to you threefold (this is seen as a way to discourage from what could be seen as harmful magic), ancestors should be honored, you are solely responsible for your own actions, and you should respect others beliefs and paths in life. Depending on what branch you join there are certain ranks you can achieve depending on your studies. 

Despite being the most popular Pagan religion, it is still controversial in some circles. One of the biggest problems being its use of closed practices (a tradition that is only open to those born into it or invited in). Things like ‘smudging’ as a form of smoke cleansing is commonly used in Wiccanism, but that term is used for specific Native American practices that has been watered down to the point where it’s used in spas and beauty parlors. It’s not a very appealing situation for Natives especially when their religions are usually closed off for the sake of preservation. There’s also the fact that most of the things people do that they call smudging isn’t actually smudging because they weren’t trained to do it the right way. The marketing around it has led to some problems with the ethical harvest of white sage. This is only one small example of the problem and it’s not limited to Natives. It’s also shown to be prevalent with Jewish and African traditions. 

Wiccans often claim to be practicing ancient religions or if you’ve ever seen one get into arguments with, say a Christian on religious issues, they may say that their religion predates the Abrahamic faiths by thousands of years. This isn’t true. Wicca takes a few names and concepts from the old religions but they are 100% new age and, being completely honest, you’d probably find the same amount of the old religions in Wicca as you’d find in Christianity. This habit that many of them seem to have often gets under the skin of reconstructionist Pagans (who I will be writing a separate article about). 

In the larger population, it is a very controversial religion because of how dominant religions like Christianity often view non-Abrahamic and polytheist religions. (It’s often mixed up with Satanism, which I will also be writing about in a separate article.) In 2017, Carl DeLuca, a man from Staten Island, NY claimed that he was fired from his job at a nursing home because of his Wiccan beliefs. Many people in his workplace were offended by him displaying a pentagram, a central Wiccan symbol. He was told to remove any depictions despite his co-workers often displaying crosses. There was a time he wore a pendant of the “Greenman,” a horned man embedded in leaves with only his face showing. The head of security claimed that it was “satanic” and a “hate crime against Christianity.” Some people even went out of their way to file false complaints claiming that he kept guns in his locker and another implying that he planned on blowing up the workplace. 

There was another case in 2017 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada a woman named Dominique Smith opened up a metaphysical store and found out that she would not get equal protection under the law when she was targeted for her beliefs because Canadian law doesn’t recognize any form of Paganism as a real religion. Since she’s opened her business she’s found pamphlets on her doorstep telling her to repent for her sins. People have come into the store to verbally harass her over her religion, her windows were smashed multiple times, and people urinated on her doorstep. She was afraid of the attacks moving from the building to her, but the police would not do anything. It can’t be considered a hate crime and vandalism isn’t considered a serious crime. She still has a shop today, but she changed the name and moved it to a different location in November 2018.

Situations like these aren’t as common as other forms of religious discriminations (most likely because of the small number of practitioners), but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them. Education is the best way to combat discrimination and hatred. That’s why I’ve set out to write a series of articles on the many different religious beliefs held by those around the world. What do you think of Wiccanism? Have you heard of it before? Let us know in the comments!

Works Cited

Abdelbaki, Mo. “What is Occultism?” Gaia, 19 Jan. 2017, www.gaia.com/article/what-is-occultism. 

Aradia, Sable. “Witchcraft’s Not a Real Religion, so the Police Won’t Protect You.” Patheos, 4 Mar. 2017, www.patheos.com/blogs/betweentheshadows/2017/03/witchcrafts-not-real-religion-police-wont-protect/. 

Donnelly, Frank. “What the devil? Belief in Wicca pagan religion got him fired, $10 million-lawsuit alleges.” Silive, 2 June 2017, www.silive.com/westshore/2017/06/lawsuit_belief_in_wicca_pagan.html. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019. 

Melton, J. Gordon. “Wicca.” Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/Wicca.