Scott Cunningham was properly initiated into several Craft traditions. In 1973, he was accepted into the Standing Stone tradition, and in 1980 became a member of the Aridian tradition, a mixture of Gardnerian Wicca and Italian witchcraft created by Raven Grimassi. A year later, he received initiation into the Reorganized Traditional Gwyddonic Order of Wicca and the Ancient Pictish Gaelic Tradition, and also became an American Traditionalist witch. He went on to write several books. His most famous book, on solitary Wicca, sold over 500,000 copies between its publication in 1988 and 2003. It has probably been responsible for introducing thousands of people all over the world to modern witchcraft.
In the United Kingdom, the recognition that most witches were solitaries led to the founding in the 1990s of the Association of Hedgewitches, named after the modern concept of a “hedgewitch,” as defined by feminist writer Rae Beth. The AHW was founded in response to a perceived need for a contact network for Wiccans and witches who were solitary practitioners, or couples working outside of the coven system. It gave those who felt isolated and just wanted to meet up with others a chance to meet like-minded individuals. Though it was specifically founded for those who preferred to work alone, as a contact organization it is open to all. Initially people writing to the AHW’s post box address in London were directed to their nearest local area coordinator, who was the main contact point for putting members in touch with each other. Some also ran local AHW meets or social get-togethers.
In 1997, it was decided to publish a magazine called The Hedgewytch to act as the public voice of the association. Today the magazine is very much a medium for solitary witches to share personal experiences and “what works for us,” rather than acting as a how-to manual. It was and still is aimed at the beginner or novice and all those just finding their way into the Craft. Over the years, as its readership has grown in experience, this caliber of learning has become reflected in its articles. As times and needs change, so has the association. Currently (2008) there are no longer any regional coordinators or specifically AHW meets. It has now downsized to a nationwide contact list open to all subscribers, with a small contacts page in the magazine.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many Wiccans embraced the new computer technology, taking their first steps on what was at first called the information superhighway, and entering the strange realm of cyberspace. They began using the Worldwide Web or Internet as a handy means of exchanging information, knowledge, and even gossip. It might be thought that witches and neopagans, as followers of an ancient belief system, would have been resistant to this new form of technology, but not only do they use it, many actually work in the computer industry. The Web is supposed to have originated in the 1970s when US military and intelligence agencies created a computer communications network for their own exclusive use. In fact, as far back as 1962, T. C. Lickinder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was appointed to the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, and put forward the idea of a pan-global computer network for accessing and exchanging data between terminals. Two years later the Rand Corporation published a report on the setting up of a computer network for military use. In the next five years research was carried out at the Stratford Research Institute, MIT, the Universities of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. This led to the creation of ARPANET, an electronic communications link between scientific, educational, and military establishments. Electronic mail, or e-mail, was introduced in the early 1970s and this led to “internetworking,” or the Internet, so named in 1974, and ultimately to the creation of the Worldwide Web for general use.
Despite the fact that Wiccans belong to a nature religion that honors Mother Earth, and are supposed to be traditionally anti-technology, they eagerly accepted this new form of electronic communication. Possibly this is because many of the early Wiccans were employed in the military-industrial complex and the emergent computer industry. In 1999, referring back to the early Wiccan users of the Internet, the Australian witch Fiona Horne said: “Witchcraft is evolving and one of the most magickal places to go is cyberspace, the ramifications for human communication and education contained therein are astonishing” (from “An Interview with Fiona Horne” in Panthology magazine Vol. 13 No. 1, Summer 1999). This view has been confirmed by Macha Nightmare who has said: “Witchcraft is a living, evolving spirituality—it is organic and, like any living thing, it requires nourishment. The Internet provides an endless source of sustenance—for our minds, our souls, and our spirituality” (2001: 17).
In the 1980s, Margot Adler did a survey for the second edition of her book Drawing Down the Moon that revealed many top professionals among Wiccans were computer programmers, systems analysts, and software developers. In her survey, Adler asked these professionals what the link was between computer science and the Craft. She was told that the symbolic way of thinking and patterning used in computer systems was also essential to magical thinking. There was also a belief that computers were in some way the “oracles of the future,” and provided the Craft with a new way of communicating knowledge, information, and training. Also many people attracted to Wicca were natural-born rebels, educated and highly intelligent, although often lacking in social skills and the product of dysfunctional families. They were therefore looking for alternatives to ordinary ways of communicating and normal society. The Internet with its virtual reality provided exactly what they were seeking (Adler 2006: 413–414).
Of course the terms “Worldwide Web” and “the Web” have helped Wiccans to accept this new technology more easily then they might have done otherwise. This is because on a metaphorical and symbolic level the WWW can be compared to a spider’s web woven by the spider goddess, to the “Web of Wyrd” (fate or destiny), and to the archetypal motif of spinning and weaving associated with the witch goddess. Subjects discussed on Internet forums or chat rooms also are commonly referred to as “threads.”
The concept of an electronic web traversing the planet fits neatly with neopagan beliefs about holism, the unity of humanity with nature, the oneness of spirit and matter, and the Goddess as Gaia, Terra, or Mother Earth. As one witch commented: “This medium [the Internet] is suited to witches because it is truly magical, since it is all energy. Data on a server is only bits of digital code that when sent to another computer via a phone line or satellite in an energy form is translated into something that is pleasing to the eye. What is magic but the transmission of energy from one person or thing to another?” (quoted in Nightmare 2001: 67).
The interest in and widespread use of computers by modern Wiccans and neopagans has now created the phenomenon known as “Internet pagans.” These are a new breed of computer users who are not affiliated with any specific or physical group, coven, or organization in the real world. Instead they have become online Wiccans or neopagans through membership in chat rooms, discussion forums, or as subscribers to e-zines. Some of these armchair witches even hold rituals in virtual reality temples or in cyber-worlds such as Second Life. Obviously such nonphysical activities are a contradiction of the principles of a nature religion that claim to bring its followers closer in touch with the natural environment.
In the early 2000s, the most popular website on the Internet was The Witches Voice, or Witchvox, and it still holds that position today. In 2001, it was reported the site had over 1.5 million hits and its networking and contacts section listed over 40,000 pagan and Wiccan events, groups, and stores worldwide. TWV was founded in 1996 and originated because its two founders posted three pages on the Internet for Laurie Cabot’s Witches’ League for Public Awareness. Their aim was to promote tolerance between different and differing traditions and groups and correct the misinformation relating to modern Wicca and neopaganism. In 1997, they moved to Florida where they acquired the Internet domain name Witch.Vox.com and launched the TWV website into cyberspace. Although it was founded to support the human rights and protect the civil liber
ties of witches, today most of its users are attracted to the site because it provides news, information, and contacts.
Although the most important and widely read Wiccan and neo-pagan magazines are still published in printed hard copy, the spread of the Internet in the first decade of the twenty-first century has led to the publication of e-zines, or electronic magazines. Some of the conventionally printed magazines also have electronic versions. In the early 2000s, the Wiccan Pagan Times (WPT) was launched as an online e-zine with a mission statement of promoting the pagan community through art, literature, and music. It was founded by a husband-and-wife team who wanted to create a place on the Internet where pagans and Wiccans could share ideas, express opinions, and disseminate information relating to all paths and traditions.
The WPT publishers said: “… we feel it our right to express our feelings and opinions on and about those things we like or dislike about the current state of affairs within the Wiccan/Pagan community. We will do this in a positive and constructive manner, so that we are fostering growth and learning within our respective communities’” (quoted in Nightmare 2001: 125). While these are worthy sentiments, in practice there has always been a downside to the expression of strongly held opinions and feelings on discussion forums and e-zines. The negative aspect of the new medium is so-called flaming, or personal attacks. These have become a new weapon in the armory of the combatants in the so-called “witch wars” raging on the Internet between individuals, groups, and traditions. Another less-than-positive aspect of the Internet is the amount of misinformation that is circulated, and also the opportunity it gives to pretenders and imposters to promote their cause and spread disinformation to a receptive global audience.
Chapter Sixteen
Wiccans in the 21st Century
Since the 1970s, neopagans had been organizing what American writer M. Macha Nightmare described as “the occasional conclave of Witches and pagans … [where they became] acquainted with one another, made magic together, shared skills, built trust and solidarity to support one another” (2001: 103). These early events were held in hotels or motels, and later at camps in rural areas. In 1972, more than a hundred and fifty people attended one such gathering organized by Nemeton, the ecopagan group founded by Gwydion Pendderwen of the Feri tradition and Alexandrian Wicca. Another was held four years later under the auspices of the Midwest Pagan Council in an attempt to bring together the different Wiccan traditions who belonged to it. One of the earliest and most influential, and now long-established, neopagan festivals was the annual Pagan Spirit Gathering run by Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary.
As Macha Nightmare said: “Pagan gatherings were taking place every weekend from May to October. Some of us created a lifestyle of going from one festival to another, weekend after weekend, all summer long. We had good camping and cooking gear, campers and RVs, and elaborate tents adorned with colorful banners or flags bearing the emblems of our traditions and covens. We erected festive temporary villages, which inspired in us a feeling that we belonged to a tribe” (Ibid., 105).
This sense of a tribal feeling attached to the festivals had a significant impact on the established Wiccan community. In the 1970s, it was still fairly insular and enclosed, even though the books by writers such as Starhawk and Scott Cunningham would later create a new form of “eclectic Wicca,” drawing on New Age concepts or based on the solitary practice of witchcraft. One Wiccan told Margot Adler she had been working in a coven where you were forbidden to talk to people from other covens or traditions. When she went to her first neo-pagan festival it changed everything. She said, “The kind of gurudom that tries to censor sources of information is totally destroyed by that kind of event” (Adler 2006: 435).
Because chants, songs, magical techniques, and rituals were taught at workshops and shared and discussed at these large gatherings they spread into Wiccan covens and altered their fundamental nature. Added to this trend came the increasing number of Wicca 101 or do-it-yourself books, often based on the Gardnerian Book of Shadows that was now out there. They were largely written by self-initiates or solitary witches who had not been through the closed, often dogmatic, and authoritarian coven system. As the Wiccan quoted above told Margot Adler, “Meetings [of her coven] became more fluid, there was more playfulness … Our ritual style loosened up. Our ritual garb changed.” Traditional aspects such as skyclad working and the use of the scourge for ritual flagellation were also dropped as belonging to the past. In fact, what was happening was the first signs of the sanitation of witchcraft and the creation of what its critics disparagingly described as “fluffy-bunny New Age McWicca.”
Another Wiccan High Priestess told Margot Adler the public pagan festivals were changing the basic structure of covens. She said, “The coven is losing its magic” (1979). This was because the coven was ceasing to be the primary source of training and teaching and the only entry point to the Craft. People could turn up at festivals and participate in rituals and magical practice without having to undergo a formal initiation ceremony, join a coven, or commit themselves to the Craft in any structured or organized way. This eclectic and liberal approach challenged the old structures and strictures of Wicca based on one-to-one training, loyalty to the coven and its fellow members, and group-based activities.
The Wiccan High Priestess said the festivals also undermined the leadership of covens and their authority. The new leaders of the Craft were the media witches and pagan celebrities who facilitated workshops and gave talks at festivals to hundreds of people. Once just names below the title of a book or images on the television screen, now those who attended festivals could actually meet and interact with their heroes. Wicca had always been dominated by strong personalities, but now the cult of personality was creating new faces and reaching out to embrace people who were not Craft initiates. Wicca would never be the same again.
Part of the sea change in Wicca in the 1980s and 1990s was indicated by this rise of the public pagan festival and also the introduction of ideas, concepts, and techniques of the New Age spiritual movement that emerged from the alternative counterculture of the Sixties. Wiccan High Priests and Priestesses trained as Reiki masters, covens practiced crystal healing and balancing chakras, and introduced urban shamanic techniques into their magic making. As one Wiccan told Margot Adler with some surprise “… our group got exposed to new psychic techniques like Bach Flower Remedies.” Such developments were either warmly embraced by some of the old-school Wiccans or criticized by many as the slippery slope to witchcraft becoming sanitized and whitewashed. They frowned on the nouveau covens who preferred velvet robes to ritual nudity, and abandoned scourging to raise power as an archaic practice that could lead to abuse.
One aspect of this new approach was an alternative and unconventional way of looking at the God and Goddess in Wicca, based on the theories of the Swiss psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. When Vivianne Crowley’s book Wicca: The Old Religion In the New Age was published in 1989, she presented the deities as Jungian archetypes. David Waldron has said, “The entire text … is replete with references to the work of Jung and the utilization of Wicca as a manifestation of Jungian analytical psychology in practice” (2008: 149). Dr. Crowley was one of the initiates of Eleanor Bone’s coven and she now lectures on the psychology of religion at the University of London. She has written extensively about the group-mind of a witches’ coven or “the level of awareness at which human psyches can communicate directly with one another without the intervention of the usual modes of communication” (2003: 71).
Another important aspect of Wicca, according to Dr. Crowley, is Jung’s concept of the anima and animus, or the female and male parts of the human psyche, in relation to initiation. This is also described in Robert Bly’s classic and groundbreaking book Iron John: A Book about Men (1991), which jumpstarted the men’s movement. The anima and animus can also be related to the God and Goddess in contemporary Wicca in their roles as archetypal ima
ges or symbols of the dual cosmic male-female principle in the universe. In contrast to the sexist and misogynistic attitudes Doreen Valiente experienced in her early days in the Gardnerian movement, Dr. Crowley said in present times in Wicca “… women learn to reject beliefs and philosophies that oppress women and to seek roles through which they can function as whole human beings realizing all and not just part of their inner qualities” (1989: 147). However, unlike some of the feminist witches, Dr. Crowley also recognized the significance of the Horned God as both a symbol of male sexuality and the animus (the ideal male) within the female psyche.
An Australian Wiccan, Cassandra Carter also commented on the psychological and feminist significance of Wiccan mythology in a talk given to the C. G. Jung Society in November 1992. She said that in Jungian terms the mythical story of the Descent of the Goddess into the underworld in Wicca taught the need for women to journey on a quest to discover their own animus. Instead of waiting for “a knight on a white charger” to rescue them, women need to make their own life choices and confront the Dark Lord, and solve his mysteries. Carter said women could do this by going, of their own free will, deep into the realm of the unconscious mind. Men in Wicca had to enlist the help of the Goddess (psychologically represented by the animus) to explore their own unconscious. Once this has been achieved the male and female witch can be reunited in the underworld of the unconscious (quoted in Waldron 2008: 156).
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