Progressive Witchcraft

The 1970s saw the rise of Dianic (women only) forms of witchcraft coming out of the feminist movement. These reached their height in the 1980s with the publication of books by Starhawk²⁰ (The Spiral Dance) and Z. Budapest (The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows). The feminist witch movement sought to reclaim the word witch as a word of feminine power.  Their non-hierarchical, eclectic approach clashed with the English Traditional (Alexandrian and Gardnerian) approach of a fixed doctrine. Their works and views heavily influenced the development of Wicca, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Feminist Wicca also assertively pushed the ideals of environmentalism as being an integral part of Pagan spirituality, as well as political involvement in the anti-war movement. This was considered not only desirable, but also compulsory (many in feminist Wicca had been activists at the time of the Vietnam War).

By the time Gavin joined the craft in 1986, The Spiral Dance had become compulsory reading with its ideas of "power from within" rather than "power over" (see page 154) from those who had bad experiences with the more dogmatic covens. This was to result in the first Pagan contact networks in the United Kingdom, Pagan Link, which rejected "Wicca" as "old hat". Regardless, there were those who stayed true to the ideas of Wicca but in a non-traditional way, questioning the systems of training, the need for degrees, and the hierarchical structure that had sneaked through the back door from Freemasonry into witchcraft practice.

One of the most obvious things that stick out in this short history is the importance and influence of books in the growth of modern Wicca. Gardner would never have got the new movement off the ground with out them. The main reason for this was that, even in US culture up until the 1990s, information on witchcraft was hard to come by. When Janet joined the craft in the early 70s there were less than a dozen books specifically about Wicca and modern witchcraft. Some books claiming to be about the subject were in fact about Ceremonial magic or even demonology. By the mid-1980s, we see a change. A more liberal attitude towards religion meant more books were being published on the subject, but still there were few. Gavin remembers having to specifically order books, and the mainstays were Gardner’s, Valiente’s, and the books by Janet and her late husband, Stewart. There were of course other works, such as A Book of Pagan Rituals²¹ by Ed Fitch and as previously mentioned, The Spiral Dance. Most other books were heavily Cabalistic in their influence. Technology was soon to change everything.

The rise of modern witchcraft is noticeably riddled with paradoxes, but there is power in paradox (see Appendix III). The major influences on the Neo-Pagan movement and Wicca in the 1990s was not only the same film companies and media that had been portraying lurid images of witchcraft since the 1950s, but also something that had come out of the United States military industrial complex, the very thing feminist witchcraft was aimed at bringing down. This was the Internet.²² While books were available forms of information, the Internet—first through bulletin boards, then e-mail, mailing lists, chat rooms, and websites—offered a two way, easily accessible form of communication and information for witches that cost almost nothing. It was also completely anonymous if you wanted a free exchange of ideas without fear of reprisal, regardless of age, an important point we come to later. Very soon the terms cyber-witch and cyber coven began to appear. This resulted in a boom of interest in witchcraft, something quickly noticed and exploited by the producers and film moguls of Hollywood.

The growth of Neo-Paganism, with interest from a younger generation, combined with an ever-increasing number of books on the subject, caused the media to look at ways of exploiting this new trend. Initially, it was rather badly portrayed, such as in films like The Craft, then represented on television with good witches such as Sabrina The Teenage Witch and mentioned as a positive spiritual tradition in The X-Files. Unfortunately, the urge to turn the witch character Willow into something evil became irresistible to the producers of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. There had of course been positive portrayals prior to these, such as the film of John Updike’s novel The Witches of Eastwick, which if you examine carefully is a pro-feminist statement of the reclaiming of women’s power. But the link between witchcraft, rebellion, and teenage angst had been firmly made by the film and television producers. By the end of the 1990s, witchcraft had become the new outlet for teenage rebelliousness.

The result was a sudden growth of interest caused by media and the Internet. The interest from a younger generation, particularly from under-18-year-olds, caused Wicca to reel as it tried to cope with the influx of teenagers asking questions about what witchcraft is. This became a difficult period for many of us in Wicca who were brought up with the idea that you had to be 18 or older to be a witch, particularly when encountering a 16-year-old running a coven from the school playground. It also begged a question: If Christianity can teach its young, why can’t we? The issue is still being debated today as many Wiccans try to put into place mechanisms for dealing with these future witches.

Now that we are into the new millennium, witchcraft has started to enter its own renaissance. It has moved from the tribal village to the online communities of the World Wide Web. We are now seeing a new breed of witch not influenced by the figures of the immediate past, but the culture of the present. This has left witchcraft facing several questions that need to be addressed before it moves on. Is it a Religion or a Craft? Is it old or is it something new? Where is it going, and more importantly why has it become resurrected in this new technological age? We try to answer these questions in the next chapter as well as the questions of why it is important that Wicca should realize its past failings, if it is to evolve and survive into the new millennia. We will also show that the future of Wicca is already here if we but look.