What You Wanted to Know about Witches *

* (but were afraid to ask)





Q.  What is paganism/a pagan?

A.  The words paganism and pagan come from the Latin "paganus," meaning "country 

dweller."  Neopagans hold a reverence for the Earth and all its creatures, generally see all 

life as interconnected, and tend to strive to attune ourselves to the manifestation of this 

belief as seen in the cycles of nature.  Pagans are usually polytheistic (believing in more 

than one god), and they usually believe in immanence, or the concept of divinity residing in 

all things.  Many pagans, though polytheistic, see all things as being part of one Great 

Mystery.  The apparent contradiction of being both polytheistic and monotheistic can be 

resolved by seeing the God/desses as masks worn by the Great Mystery.  Other pagans are 

simply monotheistic or polytheistic, and still others are atheistic.



Some people believe paganism to be a religion within itself; others see it as a belief system 

(such as monotheism) that can be incorporated into religions like Wicca or Druidism; 

others see it as a broad category including many religions.  The fact that we are re-creating 

religion for ourselves after centuries of suppression makes us very eclectic and very 

concerned with the "rightness" of a particular thing for the individual.  So when you see 

some people calling it a religion and others not, when you see it capitalized in some 

instances and not in others, don't be confused -- we're all still basically talking about the 

same thing.





Q.  What is Witchcraft/Wicca?

A.  Wicca was the first (or at least one of the first) of the neopagan religions.  As a result, 

it is the best known, and tends to overshadow its younger, smaller siblings.  This does not 

mean that Wicca is more valid than other neopagan religions -- just larger and louder.

Wicca, however, is only one of the things called W/witchcraft (or sometimes, the Craft, a 

term also applied to Masonry).  There are a whole range of styles of folk-magic around 

the world which are called witchcraft in English.  If the word Witch is capitalized, it 

indicates that it is being used to refer to a member of a pagan religion, not just to a 

practitioner of folk-magic.  There are also Witches who practice religions called 

Witchcraft which are not Wicca.  These religions tend to be more folk-pagan than Wicca, 

drawing on the heritage of a specific culture or region.





Q.  Are pagans Witches?

A.  Even among pagans and Witches, there is dispute about just how specific these terms 

are.  But the majority opinion seems to be that the question, "Are pagans Witches?" is 

about the same as the question, "Are Christians Catholics?" (or Methodists, Baptists or 

whatever).  Most Witches are pagans, but not all pagans are Witches.





Q.  Do you worship the Devil (Satan)?

A.  No, for three reasons.

First, we don't venerate evil in any form:  our chosen religion is a celebration and 

affirmation of life and living things, as opposed to their destruction or harm.  As we 

believe that good or evil done will return upon the doer, this does not encourage doing 

evil.



Second, Satan is a figure in Judeo-Christian beliefs -- originally not even an opponent of 

Yahweh, but more like his prosecuting attorney (as in the Book of Job).  Those who do 

worship Satan actually accept the later Christian theology, with Satan as Yahweh's 

opponent, but choose to support Satan's side of the battle.  We are not Christians or 

Satanists, and do not accept their theology or worldview, so we would no more worship 

Satan than, for instance, Christians would worship the Aztec God Quetzalcoatl; he simply 

has no place in our beliefs.  (We prefer the figure of Pan, who does have horns but is a 

much nicer fellow.)



Third, we think history shows that, if you invest belief and emotion in any idea or thought-

form, you give it strength and power in your own life -- it becomes more real TO YOU.  

We have no wish to invite hostile entities into our lives and give them such power over us, 

which is why we don't venerate any form we consider evil. That's also why we're shocked 

to see how much energy some Christians invest in Satan.





Q.  Then why do I hear those things about you?

A.  "Devil-worship", baby-killing, cannibalism and all that?  These are typical accusations 

made by one religion against another.  The Syrians accused the Jews of ritual murders 

long before Christ; then the Romans accused the Christians (who at least claimed to be 

eating someone's body and blood every week); then the Christians accused the Jews and 

Muslims and every other religion; today different Christian denominations 

even accuse each other.  Making wild accusations not only sells newspapers, and books, 

and movies; it helps drum up support for the Religion Of Your Choice.  This is a cynical 

use of hate, fear, and ignorance, but as long as it works, it will be used. (And there will 

always be psychotics willing to live up to the image -- then claim "the Devil made me do 

it.")





Q.  If not Christian theology, what do you believe in?

A.  Life.  We see the entire Universe, all matter and energy, as bursting with life, loving its 

own living parts -- including us -- and gathered in one eternal dance.  We try to catch the 

tune and dance to the beat.



Sometimes we call the leading dancers Light and Dark, or Sun and Moon, or the Lord and 

the Lady, Cernunnos and Ceridwen, Pan and Diana, or by other names.  These represent 

the duality in all things -- male and female, yang and yin -- neither side of which can be 

denied or ignored, even within ourselves.



(We hope this helps us avoid the error that some worshippers of a single deity have made, 

such as thinking that "since God is all good and God is male, therefore anything female or 

feminine is evil.")



Our feeling about the Gods is that they are teachers, family members, and fellow dancers:  

not some untouchable abstraction infinitely distant, but an intimate part of our own lives.  

Our feeling about other religions is that they, too, are part of the universal dance:  not 

enemies, but fellow strugglers seeking as we do, to live and learn to keep time with the 

music.





Q.  What ceremonies do you perform?

A.  It depends on the occasion.  One of our basic religious ceremonies is "casting a circle".  

When we "cast a circle", we mark off a space as dedicated and protected for our use, 

rather like Christians consecrating a church. (The difference is, we don't need a building, 

and we let the space go back to normal after we've used it.)  Within this circle, we ask for 

the protection of guardians -- call them the four elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, 

or the four archangels Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel -- again, the names may vary.  

Then we invite the Lord and the Lady to be with us for a time.  We have a nice visit, a 

little snack of cookies and wine (or fruit juice), and then everyone goes home.  It's very 

friendly.



Along the way, sometimes we ask for help with our problems, such as healing an injury or 

illness; if you believe in the power of prayer, it's the same sort of thing -- but we try to put 

our own energies into the task, rather than asking someone else to do all the work.





Q  How does one/do I become a pagan?

A  Most followers of pagan beliefs feel that, if someone is meant to find the pagan path, 

s/he will eventually.  Usually, it is not a case so much of "becoming" a pagan as it is of 

finding a vocabulary for ideas and beliefs that you have always held.  Good ways of 

investigating if this path is for you is to frequent pagan or new age bookstores, attend 

open pagan gatherings when the opportunity arises, and look for contacts.  Most 

importantly, read read read!  There are plenty of good books out there, as well as 

periodicals.  The latter especially might be useful in the way of making contacts in your 

area.





Q.  Do all Witches practice the same way you do?

A.  There are about as many "denominations" of Witches as there are of Christians, and 

since no-one is forced to keep One True Orthodox Way, even a single group may do 

things differently from time to time.  The two mottoes that apply here are "If it works, use 

it" -- and "AN IT HARM NONE, do as you will."





Q.  How can I find out more about you?

A.  Ask one of us.  We're easy to talk with.  Or read some books.  Good books include 

Scott Cunningham's "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner", Margot Adler's 

"Drawing Down the Moon", and Starhawk's "The Spiral Dance".



There's also a lot of shocking nonsense and pulp fiction out there -- notably in movies, 

paperback thrillers, and the sort of newspapers sold at supermarket cash registers; we can 

only ask you to take anything you find there with a skeptical pinch of salt.





Q  What one thing would most pagans probably want the world to know about 

them?

A  "We are not evil.  We don't harm or seduce people.  We are not dangerous.  We are 

ordinary people like you.  We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams.  We are not a cult.  

This religion is not a joke.  We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V.  We 

are real.  We laugh, we cry.  We are serious.  We have a sense of humor.  You don't have 

to be afraid of us.  We don't want to convert you.  And please don't try to convert us.  Just 

give us the same right we give you -- to live in peace.  We are much more similar to you 

than you think."

-- Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, p.453.





copyright 1995, ULC Church of Amazemen