Throughout our lives, we have been exposed to the plethora of religions that the world culture has to offer. We have been dragged by our born-again Christian friends to Bible study meetings, Jahovah’s Witnesses have knocked upon our door spewing literature, and we have sat through public school lessons during to holiday season hearing lectures of the different religious denominations and their celebrations of Christmas, Hanukkah, Tet, and otherwise. As world citizens we are exposed to the beautiful culture of our neighbors. However, there is one religious group that we always neglect to mention: the Fairweather Pagan.
We see a lot of these folks in high school, especially today with the accessability of the Internet. These teens will be normal people, with boy/girl problems, grade problems, and parent problems. The problem is, that like normal teens, they don’t want to be SEEN as normal. A few hours of research on the Internet and they find that there is a whole other religion out there...a mysterious religion, one that is oftem misunderstood. They access page after page of poorly written commentary by likeminded teens. Many of the pages start out like this; “I’m Wiccan and thats ok because wicca is a really cool religion that have a goddess and a god...NEwayz, wicca is all about how were all supposed to be close to nature and stuff so dont pollute because its bad for nature.” This language speaks to the teen, and he or she becomes a “Wiccan.” These teens believe that being Wiccan means that you can cast a love spell on an old boyfriend to make him come back, that being Wiccan gives you power over that mean old algebra teacher, that being Wiccan makes you more “interesting” and “mysterious.” Suddenly the teen stops shopping at The Gap and starts shopping at Hot Topic [a store that sells gothic-style clothing and accessories], the teen wears dark eye makeup, and the teen begins sporting a pentagram around her neck.
What makes these teen Pagans “Fairweather Pagans” is their tendency to abandon Wicca when the basic tenents of the Religion tells them “no.” For example, if this person happens to stumble upon a reliable webpage with information contradictory to the teeny-bopper pages that she has been accessing, she is very likely to disregard it completely. Most often, when a teen reads something about Wicca that they do not neccesarily like, perhaps that they should “Harm none,” that person is very likely to “convert” to what she calls “Black Magic.” (Which, when taken from an image point of view, seems much more mysterious that calling yourself Wiccan.)
These “Pagans” do not necesarily worship any diety, and perform a kind of “self worship”...casting spells to make another person fall in love with them, casting spells on themselves to make themselves more athletic, better looking, or otherwise. They spend a great portion of their money on ready-made “spell kits” and at Internet shops selling “magick” candles. These persons, unlike a person seriously considering converting to a religion who would take it in piece by piece, buy themselves into Wicca with a complete set of Wiccan tools, none of which they know how to use.
By now, there are many a 14 year-old sneering at me and claiming that they DO have magickal powers and that it IS right to entrap a loved once in a spell, and if any of those young people have read this far, they are planning with a vengence to post a message or sign the guestbook with a hearty “You suck and i know more about Wicca than you and i cast an evil spell on you so now you cant ever do anything right so fuck you.” Children, Wicca is not a religion meant to be met with hostility. If you take your spirituality seriously and wish to be taken seriously as well, follow a few of the Thirteen goals of a witch: “Keep your words in good order”, and “Learn.” Remember, an athame and pentacle do NOT a witch make.
