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Forget the hocus pocus, witchcraft is all about focus and philosophy
By: CARLY CHYNOWETH
Teenagers who want to become witches will be disappointed to find
Wicca is more about deep thought than love potions, as CARLY CHYNOWETH
reports
THE pagans and witches howling at the moon in Rotary Park at Seven Hills aren't interested in converting anyone, but somehow it just keeps happening. Paganism's Earth-based belief systems are generally private, often introspective, and sometimes closed off completely to all but the initiated few.
Despite this, the number of Australian witches -- one of several
pagan traditions -- has increased from 2000 in 1996 to almost 9000 at the last census. With this increased interest has come a new market for spellbooks aimed at teenage witches. Beat pimples, find love, make friends -- there's even a spell for how to find the best deal on a shopping trip.
But for every teenager looping herself with pentagram necklaces and
calling herself a witch there's an adult pagan wishing she'd go away and come back if she's still interested at 18. It all started with the movie The Craft, says witch and pagan leader David Garland.
``When that came out it caused us no end of trouble with 12-year-old girls wanting to change the colour of their hair and eyes, which can't be done, obviously, but they didn't believe that,'' he said last week.
He noticed more and more teenagers coming to Seven Hills for the monthly public celebration of the full moon, but he also noticed they only came once. Wicca and other pagan paths are belief systems which require a lot of meditation, reading and learning in order to find a personal connection with the Earth, the seasons and the deities. Spell-casting is only a tiny part. ``All those books are just Wicca with all the hard stuff taken out,'' Mr Garland said.
``It turns out to be too much hard work for most of them. You can sit and go through the spells but unless you know what's underneath it's not going to mean anything.''
Eventually he had to ban under-18s from attending because the vast
majority of signed parental permission notes were forgeries. Last Thursday night about a dozen of those at the full moon celebration were in their late teens and early 20s. The majority of them conformed, visually at least, with the dark-and-dangerous image. Multiple piercings, hair and clothing black, and none of them looked like they'd be Ned Flanders' first choice as a babysitter. Five minutes of chatting later and they're just a group of talkative, friendly young people looking for a spiritual path. One of them, 21-year-old Dominique Wilson, became a practising pagan three years ago.
``I just knew there was something out there and I was trying to find out what it was,'' the religious studies graduate said.
Unlike many young pagans she started out by investigating the philosophical underpinnings of the religion. ``I'm still slowly getting into that now. I do believe that such things are very powerful and you need to understand the background.
``Too many of these teenage books are showing paganism with spells as a quick fix but the whole idea is to focus your energy.''
She estimated up to 60 per cent of young people who call themselves pagan are interested because it's a fashionable form of rebellion. ``I worry because I think a lot of the books are showing it as a quick fix but it's not,'' she said.
The Daily Telegraph, Edition 1 - State WED 28 AUG 2002, Page 028 |
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