Because of the influence of Vivianne Crowley’s books and the lectures she has given in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia, this Jungian approach to Wicca has become popular. In 2008, Jean Williams and Zachary Cox, the High Priestess and Priest of Gardner’s old coven in Brickett Wood, published a book called The Gods Within: The Pagan Pathfinders Book of God and Goddess Evocations (Moondust Books UK). As the title suggests, they now see the God and Goddess in Wicca as archetypal images clothed in symbolic form by the human mind and imagination. The Lord and Lady represent universal forces existing within the human psyche, society, and the natural world. Their book consisted of evocations, as opposed to invocations, of deities from the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Celtic pantheons. In the sense they used the word evocations, it was to convey the psychological sense of evoking feelings, images, and ideas from within the psyche.
Another interesting development in the 1990s was the involvement of Wiccans in the new interfaith movement, as mentioned before. This was designed to break down barriers, encourage communication, and end intolerance between the different religions of the world. This was a development welcomed by New Agers who had always followed the Theosophical view that “all religions are one religion,” and all paths to God are valid. However it may not have been seen in exactly the same liberal light by some of the interfaith participants from Christianity and Islam. Considering the ideological gulf between Wicca and orthodox Christianity, the aim of the interfaith movement appeared to be overly simplistic and optimistic. In practice, it meant Wiccans at a local level joining interfaith groups and discussing their beliefs and theological differences with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists.
In 1993, the Parliament of World Religions was convened in Chicago and was attended by about two hundred Wiccans and neopagans. They represented such public organizations as the Covenant of the Goddess, Circle Sanctuary, the Earth Spirit Community, and the Fellowship of Isis. Additionally pagans dropped by the hospitality suite in the hotel where the assembly was held during the week-long session of the Parliament. Every day there were two to six Wiccan or pagan rituals performed, and one was held at full moon in a local park. At first there were problems with obtaining a permit from the parks department until a Roman Catholic cardinal attending the Parliament intervened on behalf of the Wiccans. Other sessions of the Parliament followed, and in 1998 representatives from the Covenant of the Goddess and Circle Sanctuary were officially invited to join as members. The next year, in South Africa, the proceedings led to the formation of a new interfaith organization called the United Religions Initiative, with an active pagan component and participation.
The Parliament of World Religions and other interfaith groups and projects tend to attract and reflect the more liberal elements in the established religions seeking contact and dialogue with other spiritual belief systems. However, as is to be expected, the more reactionary majority view is opposed to such developments. In August 1993, The Sunday Telegraph reported the Vatican was worried because allegedly “tens of thousands” of Catholic women were leaving the faith. Many, it claimed, were becoming involved in what it described as “the subterranean cult of neopagan Wiccan worship.” Margot Adler was quoted as saying she had recently attended a spring equinox ritual in Philadelphia where masked Catholic nuns had danced in front of an altar decorated with flowers and goddess images.
Other nuns attending the Women’s Church Convergence were said to have participated in a Dianic Wiccan ceremony. Catholic orders of nuns in the United States were also reported as having taken part in spirituality sessions where they discussed Jungian psychology and the evils of patriarchy and celebrated the “transcendent through female images.” During a recent visit to the United States, the pope condemned those Catholic women who had left the Roman Church to follow “forms of nature worship and the celebration of myths and symbols usurping the Christian faith.” The Vatican ruled that the worship of the “earth goddess” by some American Catholics was “an inappropriate blending of Christianity with the ancient pagan belief of animism.”
Despite the apparent progress marked by the active involvement of Wiccans in interfaith activities, in many countries the Craft was still not officially recognized as a legitimate religion by their governments. As we have seen in some countries, such as Australia, archaic laws forbidding the practice of witchcraft remained on the statute books until recent times. Even in some US states, local laws still exist prohibiting fortunetelling, and in Saudi Arabia anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft (sorcery) is executed by beheading.
In 1987, Wicca was legally accepted in Canada following a discrimination case fought by Charles Arnold, an American Vietnam veteran who moved to the country after leaving the US Army. Arnold was working at the Equine Centre of the College of Applied Arts and Technology, and made a request to his employer for paid leave to celebrate Beltane and Samhain. The college vice-principal refused and the case was referred to the Ministry of Labour’s Arbitration Board. Bizarrely, Arnold had been told his request would only be reconsidered if he could provide a statement from the Canadian Council of Churches that they recognized Wicca as a religion. The college also wanted a letter from the head of Wicca, saying the specified holidays should be observed by its practitioners.
Charles Arnold told the vice-principal he could not provide these statements because the Christian churches did not recognize Wicca and there was no central Wiccan leadership in Canada or anywhere else in the world. Supported by his trade union, Arnold gave evidence to the Arbitration Board about his personal Wiccan beliefs and practices without breaking his oaths of initiation. Testimony was also given on his behalf by the Reverend Donald Evans of the United Church of Canada, a teacher in religious philosophy at the University of Toronto. He told the Board in his personal opinion Wicca met all the criteria required of any religion.
In its defense, the college attempted to deride Arnold’s claim by misrepresenting Beltane and Samhain as merely parties, and not religious festivals. The Board disagreed with this view and ruled instead in favor of Charles Arnold. The members of the Board said it was obvious Wicca was a religion and “… the modern survival of the ancient pagan religions of western Europe.” This landmark ruling not only recognized and accepted Wicca as a legitimate religion, but also said Arnold was entitled to take paid leave twice a year so he could celebrate its festivals.
Although this case was successfully settled to the advantage of Wicca, a similar case was heard in the Green County School District of Tennessee twenty years later. Just before Samhain 2007, a school student named Angel Cogdill asked her principal if she could have the day off as it was a religious festival observed by her family. Her request was denied and at a meeting with her mother, Patti, the principal said his reasoning was based on the fact Wicca was not a real religion. Patti Cogdill had several more meetings with the school administrators, asking them to reverse the decision, but they still refused.
A family friend contacted the Lady Liberty League run by Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary and she spoke to the school authorities in an attempt to persuade them Wicca was a real religion. When this failed, attorneys from the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State were contacted. Following their intervention, in April 2008, the school finally gave in and said Angel Cogdill could be given an excused absence to celebrate Beltane with her family (news report in Circle magazine #101, Summer 2008 and #102, Fall 2008).
In 1998, a school student in Texas had faced another form of religious discrimination when she was suspended for wearing black clothing and a pentagram around her neck. The school board had tried to say the Wiccan symbol was “gang related,” and the student’s dark clothing violated the school’s dress code. Her parents decided to seek assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, and once they intervened, the school authorities backed down. They decided to change their policy on what students could wear (Ibid
., Fall 2008).
Discrimination against modern Wiccans takes many forms and often affects divorce proceedings where the custody of children is at stake. In 2004 a Wiccan couple in Indianapolis divorced on good terms and then the judge presiding over the case ruled that whoever got the custody of their son could not teach him witchcraft. The boy already attended a private Roman Catholic school and the judge decided teaching him the Wiccan faith would confuse him. The judge prohibited both parents from teaching their son anything apart from what he described as a “mainstream religion.” It was only when the Indiana Civil Liberties Union became involved that the judge’s ruling was reversed and the boy was able to participate in public pagan festivals with his parents if he so desired (Ibid.).
Only three years after the Charles Arnold case in Canada in 1987, US Senator Jessie Helms of North Carolina had attempted to introduce a bill removing the tax-exempt status of Wiccan and neopagan organizations. Helms had contacted the then Secretary of the Treasury, James Baker, and asked why such minority groups should be exempted. In his reply, Baker said any religious group that was sincere in its beliefs and conformed to the “clearly defined public policy” was able to claim tax relief or exemption. For that reason the law could not be changed.
Senator Helms was supported in his demand by Representative Robert Walker of Pennsylvania. One of his aides told the press tax exemption should not be applicable to people “praying for horrible things and sticking pins into voodoo dolls.” Many American Wiccans were outraged by this throwaway remark and saw the attempt to bring in the bill as a direct attack on their beliefs by the Christian Right, and an attempt to outlaw witchcraft by the back door. With the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, the proposed bill was actively opposed by various neopagan and Wiccan groups. They claimed the legislation would infringe the First Amendment and was a throwback to the medieval witch-hunt. Following their protests, the bill was not passed.
Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion in the 1990s, the events of 9/11 leading to the war on terror, and the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan led to another campaign for freedom of religious expression for Wiccans. As we have seen, several of the pioneers in the modern witchcraft revival had military backgrounds. However, from the 1970s onward, with the political changes in society and Wicca, its practitioners were more likely to express pacifist, anti-war sentiments. This was summed up by a surprising voice, Laurie Cabot, who wrote: “Witches must make peace an important goal. We must do magic to seek for a war-free [world] … We can do binding spells, using white light to neutralize soldiers, their weapons, and especially the military leaders who send them to battle” (1983: 293).
While many Wiccans and neopagans agreed with her, Cabot’s views were not so well received by the estimated ten thousand practitioners of Wicca who, according to the Military Pagan Network (MPN), serve in the US armed forces. In 1997, a group of military personnel at Fort Hood was allowed to conduct Wiccan rituals on the base with the approval of the Christian chaplain. Unfortunately the Pentagon disapproved and a local minister condemned the rituals as “satanic.” Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia urged the Secretary of the Army to ban the performance of Wiccan rites on all military bases, alleging they involved animal sacrifice. In response the American Forces Chaplains Board ruled the practice of Wicca by military personnel was protected under the First Amendment that guaranteed freedom of religious expression. The Board also pointed out that in 1996 the Department of Defense recognized Wicca as a religion that could be followed by its employees.
Three years earlier, writer Judy Harrow interviewed several Wiccans serving in the armed forces. One, named only as “Paul,” said he did not find it difficult to reconcile his beliefs with military service because he worshipped a “hunter-gatherer god.” He did admit, however, that several members of his coven were anti-military and anti-war. As a result of her studies into the subject, Harrow concluded that military service could be a valid initiatory path in the Craft as the way of the “spiritual warrior.” Dr. Isaac Bonewits disagreed, saying the Wiccan Rede taught “An ye harm no one,” and it was being contravened—he described soldiers as the US government’s “hired killers.”
Discrimination against Wiccans and pagans in the military also continues after their death. Veterans groups, supported by Circle Sanctuary and the Lady Liberty League, fought a long and protracted campaign to have the pentagram accepted as an official religious symbol on the gravestones of Wiccans and pagans who had served in the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in wars from 1941 to the present day. Finally, in April 2003, the US Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to add the pentagram to its list of recognized religious symbols that can be included as official military grave markers (Circle, #101, Summer 2008).
In a separate development concerning freedom of religious expression, prisoners were also campaigning for the right to practice Wicca behind bars. On October 17, 2005, The Times newspaper reported that “pagan priests” (i.e., chaplains) visiting Wiccan prisoners in British jails could now use wands and wine in the rituals they performed on their behalf. Presumably before this ruling wands were seen as potential deadly weapons, and alcohol is banned in prisons. Under instructions issued to prison governors by the Director of Operations for the Prison Service those inmates who were practicing Wiccans were also allowed to use (hoodless) robes during rituals and own one piece of symbolic religious jewelery. Prisoners would also be allowed to pray, chant, and read Wiccan texts without interference from prison officers.
In October 2008, The Times again reported that paganism was on the rise in the British prison system. In the previous four years the number of inmates claiming to be Wiccans had risen steadily from 138 to 328 in 2007. In the Albany top security prison on the Isle of Wight, the number had increased from twelve to thirty-four in eight months, making Wicca the religion most frequently named in the jail. Wiccan prisoners were allowed to select two days a year from their seasonal calendar of festivals when they can be excused from work duties. If they select Samhain, the Prison Service has decreed it cannot be celebrated with alcohol unless a pagan chaplain is present to administer the ritual. However an apple can be used as an acceptable substitute if the prisoner celebrates the festival alone.
In February 2008, in the United States the Reverend Patrick McCallum, a member of the Circle Sanctuary and the Lady Liberty League, and the statewide Wiccan chaplain for the Californian Department of Corrections, appeared at a Commission of Rights hearing in Washington DC. This was the first time a Wiccan chaplain had been invited to attend such a hearing, and he spoke about the religious rights of Wiccan inmates in the prison system. McCallum cited cases of discrimination suffered by both Wiccan clergy and prisoners. He called for an end to this, and religious equality that would prevent administrators and Christian chaplains from breaking the law by violating the religious rights of Wiccans (Circle #101, Summer 2008).
Another member of Circle Sanctuary, Jamie Hildebrand, was appointed as a Wiccan chaplain in the Massachusetts prison system in 2008. In a report to a meeting of the Lady Liberty League, she said she was working with eight facilities and was attempting to get Tarot packs approved for use by Wiccan prisoners. Hildebrand had also managed to get the prison authorities to recognize the pentagram as a religious symbol that could be displayed by Wiccan prisoners, the ankh by followers of ancient Egyptian pagan traditions, and Thor’s hammer by the adherents of Asatru and Odinism (Circle #102, Fall 2008).
If Wicca is represented in prison it also, of course, has its followers on the other side of the law today. In 1999, Corporal Tricia Mullensky (aka “Lady Kiara”) of the Massachusetts Police Department founded “Officers for Avalon” for Wiccan police officers. It is affiliated with neopagan officers in Canada and Britain, and has expanded to include employees of other emergency services. These include firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses, and even security guards. In May 2002, the
first international meeting of the OA was held and attended by several hundred emergency response professionals (Rabinovitch and Lewis 2002: 195–196).
In the 1990s, a new phenomenon was recorded in the form of “teenage witchcraft” and so-called “teen witches.” This was largely the result of the popularity among teenagers, mostly girls, of such television series as Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel; the Hollywood movies The Craft and Practical Magic; and, to a lesser extent, the best-selling Harry Potter books. The interest was so closely linked to the promotion of these series, books, and films that many Wiccan old-timers were doubtful it would survive and they dismissed it as just another teenage fad its devotees would grow out of eventually.
Reaction to this development was mixed because, as with the satanic ritual abuse scare, the introduction of underage children to the Craft was not welcomed. The Pagan Federation UK had restricted its membership to those over eighteen years of age, and attempts to lower this age limit met with resistance. However, until it closed down in 2008, the PF did become associated with a contact network for young people called Minor Arcana set up in the 1990s. The PF also appointed a youth officer to deal with enquiries and give support to young people interested in Wicca and neopaganism.
Others embraced the new trend for teen witches, including Silver RavenWolf, who wrote a book specifically aimed at this new audience. Although she admitted “ninety-nine percent of adult Crafters will not teach WitchCraft [sic] to minors,” her book contained love spells, which sadly is what most teenage girls who are attracted to witchcraft are interested in, and a “Back off Baby Spell” to be used when “a romance wrecker comes sniffing at the heels of our loved one” (1998: 141). RavenWolf translated some of the text into so-called “teenspeak,” and assured her young readers that “There’s nothing scary in the Craft” (Ibid., 19).
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