But the vast majority of modern witches are harmless people who worship God in many forms, including the Lord of the Dance, the Lady, and the Mother Earth. These are the people that Bonewits (and I) call"Neopagan Witches" - and this is what I am. I hope that this helps more than it confuses.
Q: Are you a devil worshipper?
A: I'm tempted to just say, "No!" and leave it at that, but that
probably isn't enough. Devil worship (including Satanism) is
really a Christian heresy. (If you don't believe me, ask an expert -
say, any well-read pastor or theology professor.) In order to worship
Satan, you have to believe in him - and there are no references to
Satan outside of the Christian Bible. So to be a Satanist or a
devil worshipper, you have to believe in the accuracy of the Christian
Bible, then identify yourself with God's Enemy, proclaim that you
are "evil," and then try to "fight against Jesus" or similar
nonsense.
Neopagans do not accept the Christian Bible as a source of truth. As a source of some beautiful poetry, sometimes, or as a source of myth, but not as a source of truth. Emphatically, we do not believe that God has an Opposite, an evil being trying to destroy God, the world, man, or whatever. So it is non-sensical to say that Neopagans worship Satan. Of course, many people insist that any god other than JHVH/Jesus (and his other Biblical names) is a demon or an illusion created by Satan. Well, you're welcome to believe that if you like - but over half of the world's population is going to be unhappy at you. Jews and followers of Islam are just as confident that they worship the True God as you are, and resent being called devil worshippers. So do I.
Q: What do Neopagans believe about God?
A: Neopaganism is a new religion with very, very old roots. It
harks back to the first religions that man ever practiced (based
on the physical evidence). Neopagans worship a variety of symbols
from the Old Religions - the practices of the ancient Celts, the
Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans - and differ with each other over
what those symbols really represent. What I (and many others)
believe is that they are all aspects of God (or maybe, the Gods) -
some kind of beautiful, powerful, and loving being or force that ties
all of life together and is the origin of all miracles - including
miracles such as written language, poetry, music, art ...
Q: Do Neopagans have a Bible?
A: Not most of us. The closest analogue would be a witch's Book
of Shadows, which is a sort of notebook of legends, poetry, history,
and magic ritual which is copied by every newly-initiated witch, then
added to. But on the whole, even a Book of Shadows isn't what
Christians think of as a Bible. It's not infallible (couldn't be,
they've been brought to us via hastily-copied texts under trying
circumstances), it doesn't prescribe a specific code of morality
(except for a few general guidelines), and it doesn't claim to be
dictated by God - except for a few, debatable parts. Those of us
who aren't witches don't even have that much. Neopaganism is a
religious system that relies more on the individual than on the
Book or the Priest. One of the principal beliefs of Neopaganism is
that no one, not Pope nor Priest nor Elder, has the right to
interfere with your relationship to God. Learn from whomever you
want, and pray to whatever name means the most to you.
Q: Did you say magic? Do Neopagans believe in the occult?
A: Cringe. What a badly worded question - but I hear it all the
time. Neopagans as a rule don't "believe in the occult" - we
practice magic. Magic is simply a way to focus the mental abilities
that you were born with, and use them to change the world in
positive ways. Magic can also be mixed with worship; in which case it
differs very little from Christian prayer.
Q: But I thought that you said that you weren't a demon-worshipper?
A: That's right. Magic and demonology are two different things.
Magic you also know as "psychic powers" or "mentallics" or even as
"the power of positive thinking" - in essence, the magical world
view holds that "reality" is mostly a construct of the human mind,
and as such, can be altered by the human mind. That's all there
is to it.
Q: How do you become a Neopagan?
A: In a very real sense, nobody every "becomes" a Neopagan.
There are no converts, as no conversion is necessary. Neopaganism
is an attitude towards worship, and either you have it or you don't.
My case is not atypical. All of my life, I have been fascinated by the old mythologies. I have always found descriptions of the Greek Gods fascinating. If I had any religious beliefs as a child, it was that somewhere, there was a God, and many people worship Him, but I had no idea what His name was. I set out to find Him, and through an odd combination of circumstances, I because convinced that his Name was Jesus.
But seven years later, I had to admit to myself that Whoever God is, he answers non-Christians' prayers as well as those in the name of Jesus. In either case, true miracles are rare. In both cases, the one praying has a devout experience with God. After searching my soul, I admitted that I could not tell that I was better off than when I believed in the Old Gods. And in the mean time, I had found out that other people also loved the Old Gods - and that they call themselves Neopagans. When I realized that what I believed was little or no different that what they believed, I called myself a Neopagan, too.
The common element for nearly all of us is that nearly all of us already believed these things, before we found out that anyone else did. "Becoming" a pagan is never a conversion. It's usually a home-coming. No one ever "brainwashed" me. I finally relaxed, and stopped struggling against my own self.
Q: I've heard about witches holding orgies and such. Do you?
A: No, that sort of thing doesn't appeal to me. Most of the
crap that you've heard about "witch orgies" is nonsense made up by
the National Enquirer to sell magazines. But I shouldn't be flippant
about this, because it underlies a serious question - what kind of
morality do Neopagans hold to?
"Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
An it harm none, do what thou will!"
That about sums it all up. Neopaganism teaches that it is harmful to yourself (and dangerous) to harm others. It also teaches that trying to impose your moral standards on somebody else's behavior is (at least) foolish - and probably dangerous, as you run some serious chance of hurting that person. Perhaps in a sense Neopagans don't have morality, for as R. A. Wilson said, "There are no commandments because there is no Commander anywhere," but Neopagans do have ethics - standards for behavior based on honor and mutual benefit.
Q: I saw on the news that Neopagans use a star in a circle as their
emblem. Isn't that a Satanic symbol?
A: A pentacle (that's what it's called) is a Satanic symbol in
precisely same sense that the cross is a Nazi symbol. The German
National Socialist Party used an equal-armed cross with four flags
attached to it as their emblem. (Yes, I know - that's a swastika.
Well, before the Nazis made the word common knowledge, people just
called it a "bent cross" - it's an old heraldic symbol, and it
means the same thing that a normal cross does).
That doesn't make the Nazis good Christians, and it doesn't make Christians into Nazis. In the same sense, Satanists (and some rock groups) use a type of pentacle as their emblem. That doesn't make them Neopagans, nor does it mean that Neopagans are Satanists (or even rock-and-rollers).
Q: Are Neopagans opposed to Christianity?
A: Some Neopagans are ex-Christians, and I'm not going to deny
that some of them have a grudge against the Church because of what
they perceived as attempts to control their minds. Further, many
Neopagans are suspicious of the Church, because it was in the name
of Jesus Christ that nine million of our kind were murdered.
Neopagans are opposed to anyone who uses force to control the minds of others. Does that include you? If not, then it means that Neopagans as such are not opposed to you. Do you workfor the benefit of mankind, are you respectful to the Earth? Then we're allies, whether or not either of us wants to admit it.
There are many other misconceptions in the popularmind about
the Neopagan religion. Unless you've studied it, read about it
from sympathetic sources, then you really don't know anything about
Neopagan history, beliefs, practices, customs, art, science, culture,
or magic. But it would take several entire books to teach you, and I
already fear that I will be accused of trying to win converts
(despite what I've said above). If you are curious and willing to
learn, try some of the following books:
Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon
Starhawk, The Spiral Dance
P.E.I. Bonewits, Real Magic
Stewart Farrar, What Witches Do.
Design & Graphics© 1997-1999 Catherine B. Hicks, Starweaver Creations/Cyberpanic Web Design. All rights for the work remain with the authors as stated. All rights reserved. Copying this page without permission is a violation of United States copyright laws.