You’re the only one who can estimate the risk, because it will be different everywhere. Some people choose to avoid the W word entirely, except in their own heads, and present a very ordinary mask to the world. Others find a church that’s pretty open-minded and make do. A few go to the opposite extreme and play “Public Witch” to the hilt, with black robes and TV talk-show interviews and enough mascara for six opera stars.
There are other risks, less dire but still serious. There is always a risk of joining the wrong coven. Now, “wrong” can be as simple as realizing “I don’t like their classes, this is boring,” or possibly “I don’t really click with these people,” or even “That person is a real jerk, and I just don’t want to be in the same group with him.”
“Wrong” can also mean that the “coven” and leaders are a scam to part you from your money, get you into someone’s bed, or feed the giant ego of a tyrant looking for minions. There is no simple way for genuine Witches to eradicate bad apples who use the glamor of the Craft for their own unsavory purposes. However, there are warning signs you can watch for, and we’ll cover these in chapter 11.
More common than the nasty ones are coven leaders who are just immature or inept. Anyone can start a coven, and they don’t all have training from wise and experienced elders. Someone can read half a book and declare themselves “Grand High Witch Empress of the Totallyclueless Tradition.” So before you join a coven, it’s a good idea to chat with the leaders about their teachers, lineage, and number of years in the Craft.
Finally, there is the possibility that you’ll get involved and discover that Wicca just isn’t working for you. We have known people who thought they wanted to be Witches, and tried it, and finally realized their heart wasn’t in it. They thought it would be a good path for them, the principles made sense to them, but there was no heart connection.
Well, that’s okay. You don’t sign any blood oaths to stay a Witch forever, and any Witch of good will and common sense would want you to find whatever religion is best for you. So reflect on what you’ve learned, thank your teachers for their efforts, and go find what you need.
Blessings
The Rewards
Now that we’ve been brutally frank about the potential risks, let’s cover some of the good stuff.
First, there is a great deal of intellectual and spiritual freedom in the Craft. Generally, Wiccans are averse to dogma, creeds, and must-believes or must-dos, and very open to different experiences and ways of thinking. If you go into a mainstream church and say that rocks talk to you or that you tried being Aphrodite in a ritual last night, you will get funny looks—or worse. Among Witches, you’re more likely to get, “Oh, yeah? I did that last week. How did it go for you?”
Second, we live in a rootless society, where ancestors, traditions, and connections with the past don’t seem to count for much. But some of us miss those roots, that sense of being grounded and part of something that has endured over time. Witchcraft provides one way to have that. Our roots and our inspiration go way back, and when we dance around the bonfire or call the Hornéd God or perform a healing spell, we know that our ancestors are smiling because they did the same.
Wicca offers the chance to learn subjects that are not part of your average college curriculum. You can develop skills in magick, divination, ritual, healing, shamanic drumming, animal communication, and more, with others who are lifelong learners. These skills may come through a coven’s training classes, workshops at festivals or metaphysical stores, Pagan schools, or online programs.
Community is important to most of us; even Solitary Witches like to come out and socialize or do rituals from time to time. What kind of people will you be meeting and befriending in the Craft? The only thing that holds true 99 percent of the time is that Witches are very individualistic. Fitting into the crowd is just not on a Witch’s radar, unless they live or work someplace that’s dangerously intolerant.
In general, Witches are intelligent and more highly self-educated than average. They’re scrupulously honest: at festivals, some merchants will walk away and leave a sign: “Take what you need, leave money in cashbox.” Their goods are safe. A high proportion of Witches have some kind of skill in healing, music, or computers. Most have animal companions: dogs, cats, snakes, whatever. They wear what they please, and some go skyclad whenever they can.
Many of them are the friendliest, kindest people you’d ever want to meet. And some are cantankerous, opinionated, prickly, or just very strange.
Witchcraft will quickly introduce you to a more colorful reality than you’ve ever known. Most people know the customs and worldview of the place they live, and not much more. Witches are interested in how other cultures view the world, think, and do things, and want to learn about the religions and mythologies of other nations and other times. They also do past-life regressions, visiting incarnations in distant times. They mindshift into other species to learn what it’s like to be a wolf, hawk, or frog. They interact with spirit beings, devas, power animals, and faery folk. They work with chakras and energy fields and earth currents.
If you feel claustrophobic in the standard Western fast-food-slow-think-one-size-fits-all consensus reality, you may like the much bigger universe that Witches live in.
Wicca gives you tools for improving your life. Magick, ritual, and spells. Holistic, natural, and alternative healing techniques. Methods for controlling, releasing, channeling, and enhancing your thoughts, emotions, and energies. Ways to relax, tune in, connect, ground, and center yourself. These are
