"The Issue of Witches and Devil Worship" (1965 words)

an article by Stormm

Invariably in the course of contact or exchange with the Christian world, as well as other fundamentalist sects, the topic emerges, if not just blatantly thrown in our faces about witches being in league with Satan or into some form of devil worship. As a straight, up front, hereditary witch I feel I need to set some things straight about this ignorance.

Firstly, there are as many kinds of witches as there are kinds of Christians. Most of the forms of Wicca one sees observed in this day and age are what we refer to as "reconstructionists." In effect, much of the craft has been all but wiped out over the last couple dozen centuries and a whole slew of different people from different walks of life sought to restore their roots. What they had done is gather all the various forms of arcane wisdom they could find and try to put them together to reconstruct the Old Religion. There sources were from a lot of very non-pagan tomes including Kabala (Jewish mysticism), Masonic Rites (Christian mysticism), surviving Roman, Greek, Egyptian and local Celtic mysticism as well as Taoist magick and Eastern mysticism. This is in a sharp contrast from what we were, but there are a few deep down similarities.

For a few of us, there is hereditary witchcraft that has been handed down in family teachings and traditions over the centuries from generation to generation. Even for us, it has been my personal observation that various aspects are emphasized or even cast off from one generation to the next so that what survives in even such a closed society as this has changed somewhat from the original craft that was the main religion of the European races since the Bronze Age. But without getting super dogmatic about issues that cannot be forced upon us as a whole, let me point out some common ground we all seem to observe as witches.

Wicca in it's root form means "wise, wise one, or even craft of the wise". It promotes the learning and practicing of "wisdom" as a lifestyle. The word "witch" comes from this root form. Now, for reasons of survival and self preservation, this word was not even allowed to be spoken in our homes as we (hereditary witches) were growing up. It was a horrible death sentence and meant public ostracizing if it became known. The word "witch" has carried for us for generations the same venom that the word "nigger" has carried for African- Americans. It is not a pain relegated to the distant past that anyone who has ever experienced can simply get over it. There are good and bad in every society known to man, but it has not stopped some really GOOD people from dying at the hands of the angry, ignorant masses to this very day, just because somebody pasted THAT awful label on them. Take your pick of "w" or "n" because it won't take much research to find you recent news of someone suffering from it. The difference being that it is easier to hide my identity as a witch than as an African-American. But aren't we BOTH guaranteed certain inalienable rights under the same law as the White Anglo Saxon Protestants? To slur one of us or the other, for crimes not committed IS a crime, and a great evil.

Wicca is a generally pagan, shamanic path that holds Nature or Mother Earth in reverence. Witches are generally pagan, but not all pagans are witches. These days that issue is further complicated in that some witches actually become Christian, but retain their Celtic or ancestral identities. For those of you who are Judeo-Christian in ethnicity let me put it to you in these terms. If God created the Heavens and the Earth (without question) and He created man out of the dust of the ground, or even clay (again without question). That truly makes God out to ultimately be your Father. But WHO is your Mother? Of whose womb were your kind brought forth from? Genetically speaking, if we break down everything our bodies are comprised of, we are left with a few handfuls of common "earth". So, in the commandment to "Honor thy Father and thy Mother, that it may be well with thee, and thy days be long upon the earth," a pagan's reverence for Mother Nature (whatever name one will identify Her by), is not out of bounds. If everybody had treated Her with such respect, much of what plagues us this very day would not be an issue in our daily news (without question). Where differences apply, is what we make of a Father figure, and that is another topic entirely.

The Threefold Law is also known among us by a variety of titles is much as the Judeo-Christian Golden Rule. It states that anything we do, be it good or bad will find us and return upon us THREEFOLD. Some of us believe this will happen in the "sweet by and by", but most of us believe this happens in the "right here and now." So, here we are. Wise men and wise women who know we will reap what we sow. Who, in their right mind, would dare cast a curse, knowing that it will ultimately hurt themselves more than the person they want to curse? Who would knowingly worship or serve anyone or anything inherently EVIL? We KNOW this to be self destructive. Even if there was no Bible to tell us, we have history as proof that this is so. When one points their finger and identifies a known witch as a devil worshiper or as one who would traffic in any evil thing, they are literally barking up the wrong tree. As much as a religious practice goes, most witches are big on "blessings" and doing good works in their lives so that good things may return upon them. Among ourselves, most of us will judge the power of another witch by the amount of good they are known to bring into being with their craft. My great grandmother was considered a very powerful witch because of her healing abilities, which were unsurpassed in our family.

Now there are varieties of Satanists and Luciferians in occult practices, but they are not "witches" or Wiccan. Their craft is not shamanic, nor is it nature based, Mother Earth, Sister Moon or any variety of such. In the craft religions, there is no devil or evil to be desired or worshipped. The idea is too ludicrous to even consider among our kind. There are those who proudly take this name and theology, but they are not "witches," nor do they arise out of our ethnic culture. There is no Celtic king, queen, chieftain or wise one who was ever known to be a Satanist. These arise out of the ranks of Judeo-Christianity and not true pagans. Even so, among their numbers, to assume that each one would espouse evil might be pushing things, but I will leave that for their own people to refute or embrace. I am not of their number and have no place taking up that challenge. But I have life long experience as a witch to know my topic intimately and argue effectively.

Witches do not, as a rule proselytize or look for converts. In a traditional family such as mine, it is a closed society or clannadh and even then only certain family members will have any real aptitude to learn the craft to any reasonable degree. It is extremely rare that anyone is accepted from outside of the extended family. I am one of only a couple of us that will actually speak out on this subject publicly as a known witch. If you’ve ever met me personally, you would understand why I have little or no fear of the reprisals. Most pagans deplore even the issues of proselytizing. There are two main issues that stand head and shoulders above all others as to why this is so, and neither has to do with any affinity for Satan.

First, is the blatant ignorance we catch full in the face of the negative assumptions that are insisted upon by those who have absolutely no knowledge of who or what we are. Firing off an insulting broadside that those such as we would ever consider aligning ourselves with anything evil will never entice us to want to stay and listen to any more ignorance or help gather firewood for the big weenie roast and book burning that usually follows. We respect knowledge and wisdom. Loudly proclaiming one’s love to win over the pagans of Papua, New Guinea and in the same day demonizing the pagans of Europe and North America tells us expressly where we stand. Who would choose to stand there with this?

The second issue involves a religiously dysfunctional family. Pagans know that we are not separate from the Earth. We don’t live and breathe apart from Her. There is no Moon or another planet that will reach out and nurture Gaia’s brats. We see Mother desecrated and abused as an expendable resource to the plight of our own children by Patriarchal Judeo-Christian and even Muslim societies. People talk of equality, but do not practice it other than lip service. To become one with this society, we have to denounce our attachment to Mother Earth and laugh at our brothers and sisters as “tree huggers” and accept the second class citizenship of women in society and the workplace. We KNOW this is wrong. For all the touting of Christian values in America, it has proven itself to be three thousand miles wide (from coast-to-coast) but only an eighth inch deep. More than half of those most holy vows to love, honor and obey wind up on the rocks in less than a few years. It speaks loudly of itself but is not to be believed by its very demonstration of its excesses and inequalities. Let me end this article by telling you explicitly that I personally espouse the teachings of Jesus Christ, as found in the Bible. But the way I got to this point was inspite of Christianity and not with its help. I was not raised so, and saw nothing to inspire such a belief in the people around me. It was a deeply personal experience. What would shock witch and Christian alike would be what I found in how they do not truly contradict so much as one might believe. There are only a couple things that I have ever practiced as a witch, that I find inappropriate as a Christian. I would not go to witches with the purpose of proselytizing mainly because there is no church that I have found that will accept them as they are, as Christ has accepted me. because there is no church that I have found that will accept them as they are, as Christ has accepted me. Nor do I have any desire to found a church of Christian witches, as the foundation for the church as established by Christ is whole and good in itself. No other foundation need be laid. What IS required is that its current practitioners return to it and forsake their sins of racism and bigotry. Remember that those First Century Christians were NOT Methodists or Catholics... they were PAGANS. The magi or "wise men" who sought out the Christ child when no one else had a clue, were not Catholics or Jews, they were PAGANS and witches (mages) of the highest order. If Christians were TRULY as Christ-like as they would like to believe, none of these things would be issues now or ever.