Pagan priestesses making their rounds
Witchcraft is winning the hearts of adolescent girls
GERRY
BOWLER
Special to CW Life
Even to casual observers the phenomenon of teenage witchcraft has received a lot of publicity lately. A spate of teen witch movies and television shows–The Craft, Worst Witch, Satan’s School for Girls, Charmed and Sabrina–has linked adolescent girls and paganism so often that it seems normal popular culture fare. The surprising thing is that this linkage may be truer than we have suspected.
The Internet is the first place to look for evidence of a teen witchcraft craze. There one finds hundreds of sites dedicated to various aspects of witchery from the diabolical to the feminist-ecological. Most profess some variety of Wicca, the 20th century synthetic creed that pretends to be a continuation of an ancient earth religion but which is really an agglomeration of “invented traditions.”
On Wiccan websites we see a combination of the quaintly archaic and the tacky that has resulted in every witch giving herself a new “magick” name, such as Lady FoxSong, Starhawk or Silver Butterfly. Many of them are aimed expressly at teenage girls or have pages that deal with how teens can become a witch and deal with the opposition of parents.
Anti-Christian mythology
This will often involve some anti-Christian mythology and outright lies. For example, Wiccan sites claim the Bible was changed to outlaw witchcraft and belief in re-incarnation; that Mary Magdalene was a worshipper of The Goddess hated by the other disciples; that the Inquisition was started to crush witches in order that the Church might gain more land and power; and that the Burning Times, a period of medieval Christian persecution, resulted in the death of millions of witches.
What these sites are offering teens can be seen in the following claims. To be a witch is:
• to love and be loved.
• to know everything, and nothing at all.
• to move amongst the stars while staying on earth.
• to change the world around you, and yourself.
• to share and give, while receiving all the while.
• to dance and sing, and hold hands with the universe.
• to honor the gods, and yourself.
• to Be Magick, not just perform it.
• to be honorable, or nothing at all.
• to accept others who are not.
• to know what you feel is right and good.
• to harm none.
• to know the ways of old.
• to see beyond the barriers.
• to follow the moon.
• to be one with the gods.
• to study and to learn.
• to be the teacher and the student.
• to acknowledge the truth.
• to live with the earth, not just on it.
• to be truly free!
Powerful attractions
To have power, to belong and to be loved are powerful attractions for anyone but are extremely alluring inducements for an adolescent female undergoing the torture of the high school years. This can be seen explicitly in the 1998 book, Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation, by the pagan priestess Silver RavenWolf.
This helpful middle-aged lady, who calls herself Mama Silver gives tips on setting up a personal altar, dealing with parents and finding like-minded young people. But the core of her book is a series of spells to solve typical teen problems: how to use angels to get the best bargains while clothes shopping, how to deflect bullies, how to protect your locker from being broken in to and how to keep teachers from being crabby.
Naturally there are spells to attract a call from the right boy and to keep creeps from calling, to determine who is in one’s romantic future and how to appear more glamorous.
There is no doubt that teens are buying this book. Sample reviews say:
“I was just browsing the shelves when this cute book popped out and said “read me.” Ok, so it didn’t talk but it did catch my eye. The introductories are great, after reading it to my mom in the car, she accepted my studies in wicca.”
“When I first got this book, my mom was ready to pitch it. After she read the introduction thingy-ma-bobber, it got better. I was very lucky, and she let me set up my own altar. The book though, was so awesome. I couldnt put it down. Every page you turn, thers something new.”
“... it is a great intro for anyone who wants to know the basics as well as getting into the Craft itself without having to buy multiple books. Great for parents who are worried about their children, too, because it dispells any of the negative rumars about us.”
There is much to be disgusted about here–half-wit parents, deluded kids and an entire cult apparently devoted to bad spelling–but the exploitiveness of Ms RavenWolf is on a subterranean par with the publishers of teen magazines and brand-name clothing.
By selling pagan rituals to vulnerable girls going through a difficult phase of life she shows that she really worships at the shrine of Mammon and not The Goddess. It’s up to us to show endangered teenagers there is a real power out there, one that works.
Gerry Bowler is a Winnipeg writer and historian. You can read his columns on the Christianweek Website. Contact him by email: gbowler@videon.wave.ca