“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

Circe and Scylla (1886) by John Melhuish Strudwick

One example of a popular stereotype held about witches is of a crooked crone stirring a cauldron bubbling to the brim of eyes of newt and toes of frog, cackling fiendishly to herself at her own wicked concoction. Modern day magic and witchcraft however, has become increasingly known and accepted by society since its inception and coupled with the more positive feature of Paganism, magic and witchcraft, both in the media and in popular culture, traditionally ascribed negative stereotypes, such as the one relayed above, have begun to break down.

I would like to introduce another stereotype that perhaps non-practitioners may not be familiar but it was an image with which I was repeatedly confronted when I began my journey into Paganism: A young, beautiful woman in a diaphanous white dress raises her hands up to a luminous full moon that ascends from the hilltops by Stonehenge. She calls out to the Mother Goddess for protection from the Inquisitors who will not rest until they hunt her down. This particular archetype conflates historically-uninformed, romantic notions of pagans with Neo-Paganism, as the preservers of a continuous, prehistoric tradition of witchcraft. For all the misrepresentations and typecasts Pagans have faced, I would argue that the most detrimental and damaging misconceptions about Paganism are held by Pagans themselves.

However, this essay is not concerned with dispelling the myths and misconceptions of witchcraft. Several writers and websites accomplish this task thoroughly and articulately (see Hutton, 1999; Noble Beyer, 2006; Adler, 2000a; Adler, 2000b). My intention to highlight the misconceptions that exist among Pagans and Wiccans in particular, is how these misconceptions can bring about disillusionment among fellow practitioners. To my surprise, I have heard of cases where Pagans who espouse a more historically-informed view of modern day Paganism that contradict Gerald Gardner’s contention that his practices are the surviving remnants of ancient witchcraft are nevertheless criticised by other Pagans as they are accused of ‘painting Paganism in a bad light’. I would argue that perpetuating misinformation about Paganism and denying the reality of Wicca as a youthful religion is far more unfavourable.

This essay shares some of the experiences I had with Wicca that marked my winding path. Beyond merely pointing out how practitioners can enter disillusionment, as I experienced myself, I would also like to devote some time on how I overcame them and found a sense of truth. In illustrating how illumination rather than denial broke down my disillusionment, this essay defends the writers who promote the more historically-accurate view of Paganism in practice as well as theory.

When I first identified myself as a Wiccan in my early adolescence, it was followed by six years of relatively dedicated practice. My fervour for magic was not exactly unwavering through those years, but I never questioned the religion—only my path. It wasn’t until I entered university and received my first taste of academic positivism that left me wondering how I could reconcile my scientific mind that on one hand ridiculed magic, with my spiritual mind that exalted it. Pagans whom I have been acquainted with either through social networking or the participation in magic workshops, for the most part, would speak about metaphysical practices such as astral projection, auras and meditation as taken-for-granted assumptions of what constituted Wicca. Not all metaphysics, but certainly a great deal of it through my academic study, became matters I viewed with apprehension and scepticism. Thus being such seemingly obvious components of Wicca, in turn led me to question its veracity.

To further damage the impression I received of Paganism, most of the Pagans whom I knew seemed to collect stories of ‘real magic’ and used them as anecdotal ammunition for the validity of magic and witchcraft. Everyone was so quick to point out the effects but no one cared to uncover the processes of magic. No one I met, nor the beginner’s books I read, spoke to me about where the symbol of the pentagram came from (yet many were proud to sport it) or how the idea of Elementals was conceived (yet we all called those creatures forth in the Circle). It was not until after several years of blindly utilising these concepts in my practice that I discovered they were borrowed from ceremonial magic. It is as if a Christian discovered that the Ten Commandments, a seemingly irrefutable, fundamental precept of their religion, were actually composed on the whim by an early follower while he took a bath. The unquestionable turns into highly questionable. Could we have a choice? Are they still relevant? Can we change them to be more appropriate for our modern day and age? During my undergraduate studies, my religious practices were shelved and marked a work-in-progress, as I spent three years suspended in uncertainty.

There is wisdom in acquainting oneself with the origins of witchcraft and magical practice. Firstly, Wicca and Paganism emphasise taking responsibility for your personal choice, particularly as an eclectic witch, where your beliefs and practices are shaped by a blend of traditions. In actuality, the same could be said about all Wiccans, as even British Traditional Witchcraft began as an eclectic blend of Gardner’s coven, Aleister Crowley, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Freemasonry. Imperative to choice is insight into the various beliefs you adopt and the rituals you perform so that your understanding, appreciation and execution of them may be all the more profound. Secondly, one of the thirteen goals of a witch proposed by Scott Cunningham (1988) is to “know thy craft”—a sage piece of advice I would not easily dismiss. On the journey to more meaningfully grow and develop ourselves as witches, turning a blind eye to the sources of your practice when symbols, spirits, and even the names of deities are thrown about carelessly as mere decorative additions to ritual will only inhibit your attainment of this goal. If we choose to practice magic, we must first strive to understand how it works. The process is just as important as the outcome. Without a knowledge of the Craft we exercise and the magic we are so eager to observe, we might find that we are ultimately studying the moon by its reflection, while overlooking the real mystery of magic altogether.

When I graduated from university, I decided that I could not allow what had once been a meaningful, spiritual aspect in my life fade into obscurity as I remained on the fence of science and religion. I had to consciously battle my feelings of uncertainty head on and the only way I could do that was through information. So for the first time in three years, I began to think about Wicca again. I scoured through the modest collection of occult books located in my university library and came across The Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton (1999).

Hutton’s work surprised me. Each taken-for-granted assumption I held about Wicca started breaking down before my eyes. It was an examination of the history of paganism, an exploration of the past, and yet it transformed my present. I had spent six years of my life practising a religion I never asked once from where did it emerge, and here, the whole sociocultural context was painted for me in a rich landscape that altered my perspective.

Myth #1: We are preserving the sacred remnants of an ancient practice, handed down to us by underground practitioners. Among the things to which I was illuminated included the contention that modern pagan witchcraft, unlike what Gardner (1954) and others had claimed in the 1950’s, was not the surviving remnants of a continuous practice (see Murray, 1921; 1931). Witches, at least the ones that fit our modern Wiccan and Pagan conceptualisations of them, never existed, despite one writer’s nice idea that not only were they alive and spiral dancing, but sported “wax pentacles made to melt in the Medieval hearth fire when the local inquisitor comes knocking” (Fey, 2004: 18). As I mentioned in my introduction, the purpose of this essay is not to reiterate the arguments brought forward by Hutton, but I would highly recommend you find a copy of his book as no summary I write can do it justice.

Myth #2: We witches were the victims of persecution during The Burning Times where 9 million were murdered. The real figure for those hanged or burnt is closer to 40 000 (Adler, 2000a). Furthermore, as the first myth already established, most of those victims are likely to have little to do with modern pagans.
So why did these myths become so widespread? In perpetuating the first myth of a continuous tradition, it inspired the imaginations of the Western world that had long romanticised a long-lost pagan lifestyle that could emancipate them from a comparatively oppressive one. Moreover, it was necessary in order to further enhance its credibility and validity as a religious practice. The second myth became an emblem for feminists to further validate their rage towards misogyny and the persecution of women (Adler, 2000a).

Rather than severing what was then the tenuously held relationship I had with Wicca with the scythe of this argument, it was precisely what I needed to reinforce it.

I considered for one moment the veracity of Hutton’s argument (it was difficult not to) and the potential of Wicca as a religion became evident. It can be seen as dynamic rather than fixed, inventive rather than restricted, and innovative rather than routine. Like the magical practices from which modern day Wicca sourced its inspiration, Wicca’s boundaries can too be pushed to greater possibilities, rather than the stale, repetitive motions we hold on to for the sake of a non-existent history. From truth, we can extend this legitimate and liberating religion into what will eventually be a rich history of innovators, artists and revolutionaries. From truth, we can equally find beauty in magic and witchcraft without denials or delusions.

In sum, I have shared my personal experiences with disillusionment along this winding path. The widely-embraced misconceptions that are pervasive among modern practitioners of Wicca and Paganism are one of the barriers that not only contradict a witch’s perpetual search for knowledge, but can also disadvantage their magical development, which inevitably remains stunted when their practitioner fail to understand their origins, relevance and purpose. In defence of the academics, historians, and Pagans who promote a historically accurate view of Paganism—one that does not involve romantic fantasies of a continuous tradition steeped in mystery and allure, this essay demonstrates that satisfaction with one’s practices begins with illumination. It argues that the reality of Wicca as a new religion is both legitimate and liberating. And maintains that truth is beauty.

REFERENCES

Adler, M. (2000a), ‘A Time for Truth’, Beliefnet. Retrieved 9 September 2007 from: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/40/story_4007_2.html.
Adler, M. (2000b), ‘New Traditions’, Beliefnet. Retrieved 9 September 2007 from: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/29/story_2909_1.html.
Cunningham, S. (1988), Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, Woodbury: Llewellyn.
Fey, B. (2004), ‘Witches, witches everywhere’, in Horne, F. (ed.), Pop! Goes the Witch: The Disinformation Guide to 21st Century Witchcraft, New York: The Disinformation Company, 18-19.
Gardner, G.B. (1954), Witchcraft Today, London: Rider.
Hutton, R. (1999), Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, New York: Oxford University Press.
Murray (1921), The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Murray (1931), The God of the Witches, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Noble Beyer, C. (2006), Wicca for the Rest of Us. Retrieved 9 September 2007 from: http://wicca.timerift.net/.