Oh, Salem

The relationship between the witch and the western world has changed considerably over the last fifty or sixty years. There is still a tendency sometimes to fall back on the old stereotype of the wizened and wart-bedecked crone - enveloped in black, committing the unspeakable, and denying the true God - but it’s becoming rarer. We have now moved away from invoking the alleged commandment that ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’ We are much more tolerant these days; we don’t execute them any more.

And yet there are still places in the west where followers of any pagan tradition, but especially those who call themselves Wiccan, continue to be reviled and ostracised. The religious fundamentalists continue to peddle the lie that Wiccans worship Satan, and they claim that the general tolerance towards paganism is one more symptom of the western world’s descent into ungodly decadence. In saying this, what they are actually doing is distorting the facts to suit their own prejudices. That’s what fundamentalists do.

For it does seem to be an inescapable truth that decadence is now running rampant in the ‘developed’ world; but it isn’t being driven by the growing acceptance of alternative spiritual roads. It’s being driven by the big money interests of global capitalism. It is true, I’m sure, that part of the reason why paganism is tolerated is that a high percentage of people simply don’t care any more. We have developed a highly materialistic society, and materialism has no place for spiritual searching. Any nod of acceptance towards ‘spirituality’ is confined to the harmless dogma and superficial practices of the regular churchgoer.

But there’s another, much better, reason for that growing tolerance. Increasing numbers of people are searching for some meaning beyond the material. Unfortunately, the New Age movement has attracted its own set of commercial hangers-on, but there is a core of real substance within it, and that core is moving us towards a more enlightened future. Or so I fervently hope.

I’m not a pagan; I’m not an anything; I’m not even an atheist. But I have encountered a fair few pagans in my time, and I’ve found them to be among the best of people. They are far more likely to honour and nurture ‘God’s creations’ than the fundamentalists are; and they usually embody more ‘Christian values’ than a good many Christians I’ve known.