Wicca, witches, paganism and the search for personal spiritual freedom

By Janet Marugg | FāVS News Columnist

It’s not my way, but there is a soft spot in my heart for witches — the casters of spells, burners of candles and incense, celebrants of Yule, crystal cleansers, herbalists, imaginative effigists, ritualists, astrologers, tarot card players and just plain doers of no harm. I like the stories and the idea of claiming personal power over chaos. Witchcraft and occultism is the human story — the one where people somehow contain the knowledge it takes to get through things. 

For encyclopedic convenience, some witches adhere to religious principles of Wicca and refer to themselves as Wiccan. Covens can form, but group participation is not required. Sole practitioners are common. I like this part. The most sentient a person can be is when they are alone. From birth to death, there are things we must do alone. 

Reclaiming personal spirituality is making a comeback. People are discarding the baggage of institutions or patriarchal structures in favor of inner direction. Witchcraft and occultic practices are popular with women with nothing between themselves and the divine, queer people and survivors of religious trauma, but anyone willing can do it. Anyone can claim their personal orientation to the cosmos. And maybe everybody should. 

Wiccan, pagan and occult practices and beliefs are varied. My youngest child dabbles in ideas wrapped in the paranormal, symbology and natural, almost nativist, wisdoms. As far as I can tell, he’s turned out happy and healthy and doing good things in the world. Maybe he’s on to something. 

For me, it’s just fun to think of celestial cycles, flowers that mean “I love you,” or quite the opposite, and having the ability to harness the power of the elements. I am able to recognize the paganistic symbology in my psyche, and this can make a person feel like they have some ancient wisdom. 

There’s some good entertainment mileage considering horoscopes, numerology, dreams and serendipities. I like story themes of magic and cosmic meaning without institutional moral policing. And I am all in for the gumption of people getting along without depending upon outside authority. 

Finding magic in humanism

My humanism nods to a witch’s moral maxim to “do no harm lest it come back to you threefold.” It makes a person think about consequences to their actions and the power of their words. That kind of thinking can point a personal moral compass in a harmless direction. But compasses are 

useless if they stick, and the best orientation in an ever-expanding universe cannot be stasis, and harmless beliefs can still be false beliefs. 

Witches and occultists prefer intuition to institutions, goddesses to gods and self-direction over authority. They don’t shy from the supernatural. They have no choice but to feel their way through things — and I think that’s fine if what you’re feeling is friction. If a spiritual practice is about growth and transformation, it should be hard. Going it alone is not for seekers of comfort without anyone to challenge their feels.

I applaud the witches for rejecting the violence and oppression found in fundamentalism and patriarchal religions. But like anything we practice with this kind of devotion, occultism is best paired with critical thinking. 

It’s often too easy to bypass rationality when it’s all high vibes, “alignment” and divining prophecy. Humans are very good at fitting patterns —  especially in hindsight, making it easy to be deceived. Spirituality should be hard sometimes. Faith is nothing if unchallenged. 

I’ve also noticed that if witches, pagans and occultists aren’t careful, they can go broke chasing “manifesting” and magic, the right tools for rituals, retreats, crystals, chakra cleanses, psychic readings, herbalism, etc. It’s big business, and a witch can get a lucrative gig going on social media if they read tarot cards or divine a future. 

This is the part I can’t understand because monetized spirituality is inherently transactional and institutional — the very thing anti-establishment practitioners should be avoiding, the built-in blind spot. 

Blind spots in every belief

Every religion I can think of is prone to blind spots, prone to being dismissive of moral complexities, and prone to being slippery with the truth. It is natural for people to seek freedom from chaos, to seek answers to the questions of the universe, to aspire beyond their limitations, but this is exactly why we need limitations imposed by healthy rationality. 

Religious delusion is still delusion. If we care at all for truth, we must learn to think critically about truth claims. Intuition-based spiritual beliefs can deceive a person as much as institutionalized and adopted spiritual beliefs. Feelings and “vibes” are not sufficient evidence for truth, and it makes me wonder what kind of moral person goes around deceiving herself? 

Field note: I claim personal insight and value from trying the Wiccan “do no harm” practice for myself, and caught myself habitually cursing people with a “shame on you” for which I am now ashamed threefold. It’s shocking how much I go around blessing and cursing without conscious awareness.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.

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