Marginal religions are no longer the territory of hippies and self-styled weirdos. Far from the days of dark, secret meetings in the shadows, today's witches are roaming the halls of some of the country's biggest businesses. I personally know two witches who work for magazines, one financial consultant, and one in a publishing house. Phyllis Curott, the trumpeted author of "Book of Shadows" and a NY lawyer, counts publicists, editors, and lawyers among her coven mates. Surprised? Don't be. Recent years have seen the Western world slowly swinging back towards its spiritual roots as its population feels more and more purposeless.Since innovations in science began to replace Christianity as the explanation for why the sky is blue and where the rain comes from, our world has grown increasingly secular. Within the last century especially, the earth has seen the biggest boom of technological advances and industrial growth in all of human history, and it isn't over yet. You can blame Darwin, but the outcome remains: people have learned that the Bible is not the answer to life's questions, and throwing the baby out with the bathwater has left us a mostly religious-less culture. We feel empty but Our Lady of Atoms lacks the means to tell us why.
Now, after decades of worshipping Science Itself, people are starting to feel their emptiness more acutely and have been actively searching to revive their starving souls. Take a look in your local bookstore- see the endless rows of New Age books on spirituality? The market is reacting to a huge demand for life-affirming knowledge and, more importantly, methods of practice.
Rather than moving backwards, a term that makes Westerners cringe and cower, the new trend has not steered us towards traditional religions but rather towards neo-paganism. Even Hollywood's fascination with Buddhism and other Eastern practices has not been powerful enough to capture the attention of the general public; compare the racks of books on paganism to those on Eastern studies wherever books are sold. The verdict is in: people are hungry for something new, and Witchcraft is it.
Why Witchcraft instead of a friendlier, more "PC" branch of neo-paganism? Perhaps because, while we crave nourishment for our souls, we also have an ingrained Western value of active living. One of the strongest Wiccan beliefs centers around the concept of magick, which is taking responsibility for your own life and happiness at its best. What is more active than molding the forces of the universe to your will? Even the law of karma, known to Witches as the "three-fold law," encourages a certain kind of living which warns that what you do in life will be revisited upon you three-times as intently.
Moreover, Witchcraft is highly fashion-friendly. One can actually dress like a Witch, and what's more, there are numerous accessories! Instead of wax pentacles to made to melt in the hearth fire in an emergency, elaborate brass plates are on display in store-front windows, next to athames and grimoires that weren't hand-copied from your great great grandmother. One can never own (or wear) enough pentacles and crystals, and incense and candles are extremely consumable and need to be replaced almost daily! Buddhism, on the other hand, can range from the usual Western style to Zen minimalism, a marketing nightmare.
Why else would Witchcraft be the spiritual path of choice for many of America's corporate bees? I'd like to say it has something to do with intelligence level. Because of its lack of centralization, Witchcraft forces you to think independently, unlike majority religions which follow the sit-stand-kneel format and pray as you follow along. Whether you work in a coven (small, close-knit groups which worship together and serve as a support base for everything from movie night to deaths in the family) or are a solitaire (single people practicing on their own or with a few friends informally), no one is telling you what words to use or how to ask the deities for help.
In fact, there is no one holy text in Witchcraft, as followers choose from a canon as colorful as the rainbow and growing every day. With no one telling you what to do, living as a Witch can be very difficult and often confusing. But, Witches say, the results are also the most rewarding.
Witchcraft also encourages the writing of new prayers and rituals, believing that words from the heart are most powerful. This befits creative-types, and such artistic personalities are often drawn to paganism and the trappings of Witchcraft in particular.
Beyond the business world, Witchcraft has attracted followers from many other professions. It has become more and more common to meet Witches who are teachers in our public and private schools. Education is vital to the Old Religion, as Witches consider themselves the inheritors of all the world's mystical wisdom. Witches are adepts at shamanism, divination, ritual technique, spellcraft, herbal lore, crystal healing, and many other fields of metaphysical science. They consider life to be an eternal classroom with Experience as teacher and master, and they continue to learn new skills throughout their lives.
As randomly placed throughout the culture as we are, aspects of Witchcraft are even more pervasive than the Witches themselves. Just the other day, my boss referred to a five pointed star as a "pentacle," and May Day festivals are on the rise. Movies such as "Practical Magic" and shows like "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Charmed" bring back the old friendly nose-twitching neighbor image, like "Bewitched," instead of evil old hags cackling their way through a baby stew.
The bottom line: We are everywhere, and there are more of us than you think.
