Witchy Semantics

Mike Nichols, author of the book “The Witches’ Sabbats”, discusses the current trend of separating the term “Wiccan” from “Witch” in an essay for The Witches’ Voice. Nichols argues that the current trend of linguistically separating the practice of witchcraft from the religion of Wicca would be harmful to the future of Wicca/Witchcraft.

“…it seems that the current drive to separate Wicca from Witchcraft, to say that one refers to religion while the other refers to magic, is full of “Frazerian residue”. It appeals to those who are uncomfortable with the thought that religion and magic can happily co-exist…Maybe too many people have too often repeated the newborn platitude, “Wicca and Witchcraft are not the same thing.” Perhaps it is already too late to turn the tide of opinion. Nonetheless, supporting this view would be a catastrophic mistake for a religion like ours. And more to the point, it could be politically dangerous. It wasn’t long ago that Witches were sometimes arrested for the “crime” of “fortune telling”, e.g. for reading Tarot cards, etc. In many such cases, Witches were able to mount a successful defense by arguing that such magical practices were part of their religion. However, I can envision a scenario in the not-too-distant future where the prosecutor will counter with, “That’s not true! Her religion may be Wicca, but she was merely practicing Witchcraft!” In a culture like ours, in which all magic is seen as suspect by the increasingly political majority religion, it is perilous to allow a dark line to be drawn between religion and magic.”

In the essay Nichols’ also argues that we should consider modern Witchcraft as part of a (somewhat) unbroken continuity with pre-Christian European religion, and that Gerald Gardner was hardly the originator of religious Witchcraft. Could this article be part of a new backlash against the dry historic view of modern Witchcraft that some have adopted? A call to return to a more visionary and poetic view of the faith and its history?

ADDENDUM: Daven has a rebuttal to Nichols’ view of the subject.

“Therefore, this trend to reclaim the word “witch” for the Wiccans, and some Wiccans claiming that unless you are Wiccan you cannot call yourself a witch is patently false. It is likely that Wiccans can be witches, and many witches are Wiccan. If a group chooses to call themselves witches and they happen to be Wiccan it does not follow that only Wiccans can call themselves witches. It does not even mean that all Wiccans must call themselves witches or that all Wiccans are witches.”

Tags: Neopaganism