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Subject: A LITTLE LESS MISUNDERSTANDING

                    (What Christians Don't Understand about Neopaganism)

                                      by J. Brad Hicks

          Q:   Are you a witch?
          A:   That's actually a  tricky question to  answer, so let me  g
o
          about it in a round-about way.  What I am is a Neopagan.
          Neopaganism is a beautiful, complex religion that is not in
          opposition  to Christianity in any way - just different.  Howeve
r,
          some of the people that the Catholic church  burned  as  "witche
s"
          were people who practiced the same things that I do.  In
          identification with them and the suffering that they went throug
h,
          some  of us (Neopagans) call ourselves witches.    One expert,
P.E.I.
          Bonewits,  says  that there are  actually several  kinds of grou
ps who
          call  themselves "witches." Some  are people whose  ancestors we
re the
          village   healers,   herbalists, midwives, and such,  many of wh
om had
          (or were ascribed to  have) mental, psychic, or magical  powers,
 which
          were passed  down through the  family in the  form of oral  trad
ition,
          and  Bonewits calls them "Traditional   Witches." Some  are peop
le who
          have deliberately used the term to oppose themselves to  Christi
anity,
          are  practicing  "Satanists," and practice (deliberately)  most
of the
          practices invented by the  Inquisitors.  Bonewits calls  them "G
othic"
          or "Neo-Gothic Witches."  Of a different kind are some radical
          feminist groups, who call themselves witches because they believ
e
          that the original Inquisition was primarily anti-female;  some o
f
          these also practice magic,  many of them do not -  Bonewits  cal
ls
          them "Feminist Witches." 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 th
e
          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 th
at
          probably isn't  enough.   Devil   worship  (including   Satanism
)   is
          really a Christian heresy.  (If you don't believe me,  ask an ex
pert -
          say,  any well-read pastor or theology professor.) In order to w
orship
          Satan, you  have to believe  in him - and  there are no  referen
ces 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 Chr
istian
          Bible, then identify yourself with God's Enemy, proclaim that yo
u
          are "evil," and then try to "fight against Jesus" or similar
          nonsense.  Neopagans do not accept the Christian Bible as  a sou
rce 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 d
estroy
          God,  the world,  man, or whatever.  So it is non-sensical to sa
y that
          Neopagans worship Satan.   Of course, many people insist  that a
ny 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  t
hat 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 con
fident
          that  they worship  the True God as  you are, and resent being
called
          devil worshippers.  So do I.



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   329

          Q:   What do Neopagans believe about God?
          A:   Neopaganism is a new religion with very, very old roots.  I
t
          harks back to the first religions that man ever practiced (based

          on the physical evidence).  Neopagans worship a variety of symbo
ls
          from the Old Religions - the practices of the ancient  Celts,  t
he
          Greeks, the  Egyptians, the Romans -  and differ with each  othe
r over
          what those  symbols  really represent.    What I  (and   many  o
thers)
          believe is that they are all aspects of  God (or maybe, the  God
s)   -
          some  kind of beautiful, powerful, and loving being or force tha
t ties
          all of life  together and is the origin of all  miracles  -  inc
luding
          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 Bo
ok
          of Shadows, which is a  sort of notebook of legends,  poetry, hi
story,
          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  mo
rality
          (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 Neopagan
ism is
          that no  one,   not Pope   nor  Priest   nor  Elder, has the  ri
ght to
          interfere  with your  relationship to  God.   Learn from  whomev
er 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 t
he
          time.  Neopagans as a rule don't "believe in the occult" - we
          practice magic.  Magic is simply a way to focus the   mental abi
lities
          that   you   were  born  with,  and  use them  to change the  wo
rld in
          positive ways.  Magic can also be mixed with worship; in which c
ase it
          differs very little from Christian prayer.

          Q:   But I thought that you said that  you weren't a demon-worsh
ipper?
          A:   That's right.  Magic and demonology are two different thing
s.
          Magic you also know as "psychic powers" or "mentallics" or even
as
          "the power of positive thinking" - in essence,  the magical worl
d
          view holds that "reality" is mostly a construct of the human min

d,
          and as such, can be altered by the human mind.  That's all  ther
e
          is to it.















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   330


          Q:   How do you become a Neopagan?
          A:   In  a  very  real  sense,  nobody every "becomes" a Neopaga
n.
          There are no converts, as no conversion is necessary.  Neopagani
sm
          is  an attitude towards worship, and either you have it or you d
on't.
          My case  is not atypical.  All  of my life, I  have been fascina
ted by
          the  old mythologies.   I have always found  descriptions of the
 Greek
          Gods fascinating.  If I had  any religious beliefs as a child, i
t  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 thro
ugh an
          odd  combination  of circumstances,  I because convinced that hi
s Name
          was Jesus.   But   seven years  later, I had  to admit to  mysel
f 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 believ
ed was
          little  or no  different that  what they believed,  I called  my
self a
          Neopagan, too.  The common element for nearly all of us is that
nearly
          all of  us already believed  these things,   before we found  ou
t that
          anyone else  did.  "Becoming"  a pagan  is never a  conversion.
  It's
          usually  a   home-coming.  No  one ever  "brainwashed" me.   I f
inally
          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  th
e
          crap that you've heard about "witch orgies" is nonsense made up
by
          the National Enquirer to sell magazines.  But I shouldn't  be fl
ippant
          about this,   because it underlies  a serious question -  what k
ind of
          morality do Neopagans hold to?

                           "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
                            An it harm none, do what thou will!"
                                        from an old Book of Shadows

          That about sums it all up.  Neopaganism teaches that it is
          harmful  to  yourself  (and  dangerous)  to  harm others.  It al
so
          teaches that trying to impose your  moral  standards  on  somebo
dy
          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 sai
d,
          "There   are   no  commandments  because  there  is  no  Command
er
          anywhere," but Neopagans do have ethics - standards for  behavio
r
          based on honor and mutual benefit.













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   331


          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 Germa
n
          National Socialist Party used an equal-armed cross with four fla
gs
          attached to it as their emblem.  (Yes, I know - that's a swastik
a.
          Well, before the Nazis made the word common knowledge, people ju
st
          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 ma
ke
          the Nazis good Christians, and it doesn't  make  Christians  int
o
          Nazis.  In the same sense, Satanists (and some rock groups) use
a
          type  of pentacle as their emblem.   That doesn't make them Neop
agans,
          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 wh
at
          they perceived as attempts to control their minds.  Further,  ma
ny
          Neopagans are suspicious of the Church, because it was in the na
me
          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  mea
ns
          that Neopagans as  such are not opposed to  you.  Do you work  f
or the
          benefit of mankind, are you  respectful to the  Earth?  Then  it
 makes
          us allies,  whether or not either of us wants to admit it.

                                    - - - - - - - - - -

                    There  are manyother misconceptions in the popularmind
 about
          the Neopagan religion.  Unless  you've   studied  it,  read  abo
ut  it
          from sympathetic sources,  then you really  don't know anything
 about
          Neopagan history,  beliefs, practices, customs, art, science, cu
lture,
          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   co
nverts
          (despite   what I've said  above).  If you  are curious and will
ing 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_.