NEWS: Wiccan Fastest Growing Religion for High School and College Aged

I noticed a huge upsurge after The Craft came out. Everyone in my dorm was a witch.

I think Wicca is popular because it fits into a teenager's life. It allows them to feel powerful, mysterious, magical, and sexy at a time they desperately need that. I'm not saying that some won't become genuine lifelong practitioners, but I do see why it's usually the first step toward exploring new spirituality.

Basically what you're saying is, that a cult is any smallish religion that you don't find "acceptable."

I've got no particular feelings on wiccanism, other than the perception that it's a re-invention (off the tops of some of the practitioners' heads of a religion that was wiped out by the then-cult of Christianity.

And that's the real shame. Dozens, if not hundreds of religions were wiped out by Christianity, Islam, etc.

I have to agree with Sorcha, but add that the free-form nature of modern Wicca (Cunningham especially), the easy accessibility of the books on it, the generally non-technical nature of those books (i.e., you don't need a degree in philosophy or theology to follow them) and its emphasis on personal empowerment are other factors that probably play in.

I became interested in magick and witchcraft in about 8th grade, and began studying it. My grandmother had at one point also been interested in it and had many books on the subject, so I read them eagerly. I kept studying and practicing on and off throughout high school, and soon after I started college I joined the religion of Wicca. my mom hated it, but I believed in it, and even stood my ground and spent a few nights in a homeless shelter when she kicked me out for not throwing away my extenstive book collection. She finally gave up and educated herself on the religion, realizing that we didn't eat babies, etc. Recently I realized that something about the religion never felt quite right for me. several books said that we worshipped the god and goddess because we as humans felt the need to put a face on divinity. Many books mentioned a faceless, pure divine power, that the god and goddess were personifications of, called The One. I didn't understand why I was worshipping this man and woman when I knew what they actually were. I have no problems beliving that "god" has no human face. now I sort of follow my own path, which is based on the belief that everything is energy, and there is a pure divine energy that I can tap into to have a "religious" experience, and because I am made of the same energy, as we all are, I have no questions about being "worthy" of such an experience. I also manipulate energy, be it divine or not, to produce results. this is my version of magick or prayer. I mainly use visualization to do this. being a very right brained person, and very visual, I never felt comfortable doing either traditional prayer or spells which require speaking.

I've never put my beliefs into words before, sorry for rambling. I'm late to school now.

I'm glad that people are becoming more accepting of Wicca. I myself am Wiccan. I became interested in it around seventh grade when I had nothing but angst to display and therefore completely started my own form of Wicca for personal satisfication. I was a moron. I didn't get back into the religion until I was sixteen when one day I just had this urge to go to the bookstore and get a credible book on the religion. The media always latches onto something at one time or another that was once underground and eventually they become bored with it so I don't think anyone has too much to worry about!

Most Wicca I have met cant seem to tell the difference between Wicca and Pagan. They feel those words are interchangeable. They also have no problem mixing Irish deities with Greek and Egyption deities(wich I find boderline offensive to these faiths). Never mind that fact that they were thousands of miles and hundreds of years apart. With absoulutely nothing to do with one another. They also have no clue that the Pentacle is in fact a greek mathematical symbol. They have no sense of history of the religon. They are, for lack of a better Term, "Baby witches." Now, to be fair, alot of them are late teens early 20's, pissed at there parents, and searching for identity. So they go to barnes & nobles, pick up a book, and BAM!!! They are WICCA!!!. So, or course I am not expecting them to be geniuses on the matter.
Personally, the most annoying thing I find is when I meet some who doesnt know what a Druid is. I met a guy who claimed to have druid blood in him, as if the druids were a race!!! HELLO!!!! They were the priest class Of the Celts!!! They were not a race!!!!

Now, the few long term practicioners I know have a very good head on there shoulders. They have a good sense of history regarding there religon and its roots. They are aware that Wicca is not a luvy dubby tree hugger religon. And they are not doing it just to piss off there family. I can sit there and talk to them. We have theological discussion about the pagan roots of Catholicismn and Christianity. We talk about the difference between pre-christian Religons and the like. And I get good answers, not just your standard,"Well, chritianity killed us all and now we are comming back and taking over! JESUS SUCKS MAN!!!"

It's good to know that people actually defend their religions with good arguments...that usually means that they haven't been brainwashed and they joined the religion because of those reasons and that it was their choice to join up.

The worst experience I ever had with a friend of mine being brainwashed was when she was 5 yrs old, her mother told her that she had to "save" me, so she started telling me how the way I lived my life was going against God and that if I let jesus into my heart, he would save me.

She told me this when I was six years old. 6 and already doing the devil's work...jeez.

When I asked her what it was that I was doing so wrong, she just repeated stuff over and over again. No reason, it was just how it was for her.

[Edited on May 14, 2004 9:13AM]

wow...wicca...funny as hell...gives me the retard shivers...

[Edited on May 14, 2004 by whiterabbit]

Wiccan and Satanist are completely different.

I'd wager that this is due to two things: one positive and one negative. The positive aspect is that, in a sense, the deities from different cultures are considered aspects of a more primal archetype; in that way they're not so different from the way that god-forms are used in Western Hermeticism (G.D., Aurum Solis, A.'.A.'.). The negative, IMO, is that a lot of this comes from shoddy scholarship -- and I'm being nice here -- including the works of M. Murray, which tend to portray any religion having certain features as participating in a connected historical tradition. AFAIK the only historically documented folk religion resembling modern Wicca was in the Firuli region of Italy (see Ginzburg's The Night Battles for more on this) and is reflected strongly in Stregha.

Yes... but this has to be taken in context, since the Pentacle is not unique to Greek culture, and since there's a debate over its original orientation and use even within that scope. (The Pythagorean interpretation references pre-Socratic cosmology and translates it as "health," and there's a strong contention that the positive orientation is actually what is considered "inverted" now.)

There's also the matter of Wicca being stronly influenced by the Western Hermetic tradition. From what I've read the early establishment of modern Wicca traces back to the Gardners, who were members of Crowley's A.'.A.'.. Traces of that influence are evident in the wording of the Rede and many of the rituals (the summoning of the watchtowers, for example).

That said, I have to agree with many of your other contentions based on my own experience.

[Edited for spelling, and to add that the Pentacle in Greek tradition is more accurately referred to as the Pentalpha.]

[Edited on May 14, 2004 by Infra]

Doing the Devil's Work at such a young age! Now that's what I call rock and roll!

Seriously, though, it sounds like your little childhood friend was somewhat brainwashed and I am glad that you didn't succumb to the same brainwashing.

Its a shame that so many people get brainwashed at an impressionable age. I think that this tendency is less a product of any particular religion and more the result of the way that particular humans approach religion (some people just have to force their opinions on everyone else, not just regarding religion either...they even do it with trivial subjects like sport). Now that Wicca has been popular and kind-of respectable for a while, it would be interesting to see if any children get brainwashed by Wiccan parents ("No Jimmy, dropping litter makes the Goddess cry"). At this point I am reminded of "This Be The Verse" by Phillip Larkin.