Spyrit Dancers' Musings On All Things Wiccan

I have heard this for a long time, and read it in many books. But this recent article in the digital journal shows that Wicca is growing faster than I thought.

While Jews, Muslims and Christians fight among themselves, one religion has darted in front of all the others to become the America’s fastest growing faith.

The religion of the witch trials becomes religion of the future with the membership exploding, according to experts. This is bringing consternation to believers in the Big Three of faith.

One expert claims that the number of Wiccan experts is doubling every 30 months. A recent book entitled “Generation Hex” by author Marla Alupoaicei declares that it will be the third largest religion of faith by the year 2012. This explosion of membership in Wicca has come about because of social estrangement, loneliness and the need to belong according to Dillon Burroughs co-author of the book. Although the West Coast and Salem, Massachussets is experiencing the most rapid growth, groups can be found all over the country, including the South and Mountain states.

Its about time is all I can say. Like a lot of Wiccans, I attended church regularly when I was younger. I was a member of the Methodist faith, Missionary Church, and have attended everything from Catholic to Pentacostal services. I always believed in more however, I felt that God was everywhere, in every rock, tree, person and flowed in energy that I could feel ever since I was young.

But it wasn’t until I was in an anthropology class in the 1980s, and read about tribes found in the 50s in the Brazalian rain forest that had never had outside contact with other humans that I really questioned Christian religion. How could this tribe, who had its own heirachy of Gods, be dammed to hell by virtue of never having been exposed to Christianity? The God of my understanding wouldn’t do that.

I was lucky, because it was within a few years of this I was exposed to Wicca through, of all things, a sci-fi book. Because of it, I got my hands on Scott Cunningham’s book, guide to the Solitary Practitioner, and my path has been Wiccan/Native American ever since.

I think a lot of people are questioning their faith. They see elaborate, expensive churches, evangelists begging for money on TV. The church getting richer, and the common folk getting poorer. Tithing that is required in some religions, despite incomes dropping. And those same evangelists, pastors, and fathers; who are supposed to be their spiritual leaders; charged with all kinds of sins and crimes.

Then along comes a religion that doesn’t require an expensive church. In fact, it is better practiced outdoors in natural settings. It doesn’t require a pastor or father as a channel between you and God, but shows you how to ask the God and Goddess (and numerous other deities) for help directly. Instead of going to a service and listening to a sermon, you create sacred space and create your own rituals and ask the God and Goddess to come and listen and help.

My God and Goddess are very personal to me. I talk to them on a daily basis, and ask them for help and guidance in all aspects of my life. I don’t eat animals, because my belief is harming none. And I follow the threefold law, and try to treat others as I want to be treated, and not put harm out into the universe, but love and understanding.

I hold rituals in sacred space to better attune myself to the Gods, to concecrate items I sell to other Wiccans, to celebrate the Sabbats and Esabbats, and to honor the Goddess and God.

It is not surprising then that others want to follow this path. It is also not surprising as more and more do, the organized religions of the world might use scare tactics to “bring people back into the fold”, trying to paint Wicca as one step away from worshiping Satan.

Please, I don’t even believe he exists, let alone worship it! I believe Satan was a construct of the church to help bring the pagans of the time “back into the fold” and was based on the Horned God of my understanding, the God of the hunt, fields, and forest. If there is anything even remotely “Satan like” it is evil people who do horrible acts against others.

I think Wicca is here to stay, and I celebrate the fact is is growing and there are more and more people out there that feel as I do. We are all free to worship whatever deity we feel closest too, and do as we will as long as it harms none (including ourself).

Time will tell how this will all pan out, but as our numbers grow, and we become more in the majority, I see mainstream religions having to accept us, or find themselves fading in popularity. Hopefully, we can all learn from each other, and learn tolerate each others beliefs.

I will always remember that word. A local radio station when I was growing up, every Friday the 13th, would have a contest for all the people who suffer Triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13 or of Friday the 13th. The 13th caller would win 13 pounds of 45 records (shows you how old I am, lol) which happened to be 169 of them which is (insert spooky music here) 13 x 13.

From the site Wikapedia, the origins are murky.

Some Christian traditions have it that at the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table, and that for this reason 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts.

Triskaidekaphobia may have also affected the Vikings—it is believed that Loki in the Norse pantheon was the 13th god. More specifically, Loki was believed to have engineered the murder of Baldr, and was the 13th guest to arrive at the funeral. This is perhaps related to the superstition that if thirteen people gather, one of them will die in the following year. This was later Christianized in some traditions into saying that Satan was the 13th angel. Another Norse tradition involves the myth of Norna-Gest: when the uninvited norns showed up at his birthday celebration—thus increasing the number of guests from ten to thirteen the norns cursed the infant by magically binding his lifespan to that of a mystic candle they presented to him.

The Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC) omits 13 in its numbered list. This seems to indicate a superstition existed long before the Christian era. Ancient Persians believed the twelve constellations in the Zodiac controlled the months of the year, and each ruled the earth for a thousand years at the end of which the sky and earth collapsed in chaos. Therefore, the thirteenth is identified with chaos and the reason Persian leave their houses to avoid bad luck on the thirteenth day of the Persian Calendar (a tradition called Sizdah Bedar).

In 1881, an influential group of New Yorkers led by U.S. Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler came together to put an end to this and other superstitions. They formed a dinner club, which they called the Thirteen Club. At the first meeting, on Friday 13 January 1881 at 8:13 p.m., 13 people sat down to dine in room 13 of the venue. The guests walked under a ladder to enter the room and were seated among piles of spilled salt. All of the guests survived. Thirteen Clubs sprang up all over North America for the next 40 years. Their activities were regularly reported in leading newspapers, and their numbers included five future U.S. presidents, from Chester A. Arthur to Theodore Roosevelt. Thirteen Clubs had various imitators, but they all gradually faded from interest as people became less superstitious.

But 13 is also a number that was attributed to Witches, which added to the superstition. Many covens limited membership to 13, because anything larger started to become unwieldy, so they would “hive”. Basically a newly ordained High Priest or Priestess in the coven would leave an start their own. Since witchcraft was only written about by an actual witch after the 1950s however, by Gerald Gardner after Brittan repealed its last witchcraft law, this seems to be a more modern superstition.

For me, the 13th has always been a lucky day. It seems I’ve had more good things happen on a Friday the 13th, then bad. I hope none of you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia and have a very lucky Friday the 13th.