Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 5:21 AM
Sun Nov 29
17 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Email
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/27/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
The Craft is a totally guilty pleasure for me. I also give it shout outs on the regular and NOBODY gets it. I guess "Mannon, take my scars!" is not an ironic enough pop culture reference for my crew.
09/27/09
09/26/09
No, it's not necessarily your fault--Witches are by nature a rather reclusive lot and it's not your fault you didn't know we were "real", and those of us who identify that way chose to shoulder the burden of pop cultural mess when we claimed the word--but it really is a form of privilege, and people like you made it very, very difficult for kids and teens who were (and are) legitimately trying to explore and practice genuine occultism, not to mention patently getting on the nerves of the legit practitioners who inevitably had to clean up the messes of dabblers. Yes, Hollywood "witchcraft" is nonsense for the most part, but in the case of The Craft, there was enough genuine stuff mixed in with the horsepucky (the film had a respected Wiccan consultant) that some kids found themselves in situations they had no idea how to deal with. I worked at a very well-known local occult shop at the height of the 90s' teen witch fad and I can't tell you how much BS we put up with on a daily basis from girls who'd seen The Craft one too many times and wanted to know what "really" went on in the ritual area out back, or decided they were going to steal, or generally treated us like we were Hogwarts instead of a goddess-oriented business and community center.
I will say this, though: as a non-Wiccan Witch who has been practicing for close to 14 years, I cherish every opportunity I get to set teenage dabblers straight. Some went on to be serious students, some just learned a deeper appreciation for what it really was even if they eventually grew out of it. Magic is fun, yes, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing make believe or having a sense of whimsy. I actually have far fewer problems with The Craft than a lot of practicioners, if only because it did drive home an important message along with the flashy Hollywood BS (one that 99% of its teen viewers failed to grasp, sadly). I'm not trying to shame anyone at all. However, keep in mind that when you commiserate about that sort of thing, it can come off as disrespectful. Sorry if that was overly harsh, and for the wall of text, but I really felt it needed to be said.
09/26/09
I think it only comes off as disrespectful if you assume any of this is commentary on actual practicing Pagans. Which it isn't, and says so. It's about a phase certain types of adolescents go through that doesn't, in any way, really reflect on Paganism at all. It's no more disrespectful than people who go through a Buddhist phase in college, or other world religions, where people dabble but don't really inform themselves. Spirituality is one of those things that lots of people struggle with, and if any group is allowed some leeway, it's teens.
I think things would have been difficult for teens who identified as witches regardless of whatever anyone else was doing. Our culture has a negative connotation associated with it due to the both the witch trials in Europe, and our own sordid past. No teenager who wears a pentacle from Spencer's is responsible for that. I can see why it's legitimately frustrating, but it's not the root of the problem.
I think there is, like with any religion, people who will be skeptical of legitimate practices. That's not inherently wrong. I'm personally skeptical of any and all religions. That doesn't mean I'm being disrespectful. Plenty of people don't take Paganism seriously...but they might also not take Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, or any other religion seriously either. And they aren't really required to. I can see the difference...Paganism is, I would imagine, taken far less seriously routinely than those others. But it's not exempt just because there's history involved.
09/26/09
being 12 and having lost faith in the judeo-christian tradition i was raised in, i wasn't yet willing to abandon the idea of spirituality all together. that, combined with the fact that many pagan religions celebrate female-ness (as opposed to my traditional southern baptist upbringing that marginalized and demonized women's power), i found wicca to be EMPOWERING. but i just couldn't cut it as a spiritual person regardless of the classification and eventually abandoned seeking existential meaning from a higher or mystical authority all together. but i still consider that time to be important in the path towards my current identity.
any fad that takes elements from an existing community is bound to cause misunderstanding and im sure that the girls who came into your shop may have acted with disrespect, but that does not mean their intention's were always direspectful (although im sure there were some instigators, there always are).
but my short-lived flirtation with paganism gave me a respect for the community that a lot of people with no exposure do not have. im sure i dont have to tell you about the widespread misconceptions about practicing pagans. but adolescence is about experimentation, trying on different identities and roles until you find the one that fits and that includes spiritual exploration.
09/26/09
Honestly when I was really earnest about being a Pagan at 14, I was REALLY turned off by people making comments like these about how these kids just ruin everything. When it certainly wasn't my fault that the most popular Pagan books are fluffy ones and every time you ask for help (ahem Mysyicwicks) you get a snooty reply.
09/26/09
Also, it sounds like Hortense and other girls like her were not operating from a position of "privilege," as you put it. Rather, they felt marginalized and saw witchcraft as a way to claim their power as budding young women in a male dominated culture. Misappropriating a little-understood religion may not have been an effective way to go about it. But their quest seems innocuous enough. They clearly had no intention of hurting or insulting anyone.
BTW, as someone who never went through a "witch phase" I'm wondering what it means to be a non-Wiccan witch. I would have assumed that Wiccan and witch were synonymous.
09/26/09
But at with most Pagan terms what it means depends on who you talk to.
09/26/09
In both cases, we've just to remember that young people try on a gajillion different identities- sexual, political, religious, fashion-wise, and so on- identities that they sometimes stick with through time and others which they abandon pretty quickly. Their experimentation doesn't de-legitimize anything.
09/26/09
09/27/09
I've dabble in magic, pranic healing, and all sort of esoteric arts, and I must say Hortense does come of a bit uninformed or ill-experienced. Her teenage witch period (which I remember several girls I know going through) is a far cry from real witchcraft, but by tampering with some of these tools, the young are getting in over their head.
Magic is only for those who are ready for it.
09/27/09
09/27/09
But, Wicca is truly a denomination of Paganism, a term that is a enormously wide umbrella and holds about a million and a half of different types of pagans within it.
Me, I am a solitary practitioner goddess worshiper "kitchen witch". But generally I just call myself a witch.
09/27/09
I just try and rise above it and I imagine that is what you do too, but I just wanted to say "I hear you" and what you are saying and I thank you for saying what you did.
09/26/09
This is definitely the better Fairuza Baulk witchcraft film.
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/27/09
09/26/09
I sort of looked at it from the periphery. Most of my friends who found it appealing were Christian or Catholic, struggling with how completely alienated they felt from the faiths they grew up with, and trying to find a new way to connect to something spiritual. One of the appealing things about Paganism for young women is that it doesn't exclude them, using many goddesses and earth mother concepts. When you're 15 and trying to figure out who you are, something that makes you feel special and important can be really powerful.
I was brought up atheist with some meditation and philosophies of Tibetan Buddhism. So I've never really had a struggle with my spiritual side, nor had any religious inclinations at all, really. I thought the mythological aspects of Paganism were really interesting, but aside from learning a bit about Tarot cards, and a brief interest in past life/reincarnation concepts...I'm still the same old atheist I was before.
I do, however, know what happens when people in a small town find out you don't believe in god and weren't raised in one of the two acceptable religions in that town (some form of Christianity/Judaism). You get branded a devil worshiping witch and, minus the burning at the stake, you become a social pariah for the rest of your time there with rumors about how you sacrifice animals (I've been a vegetarian since I was 11), you're into death (the comic book, yes, and I did wear a lot of black), you're a slut (I had my first boyfriend at 15. We are now married). And all kinds of other stupid crap that is very painful and difficult when you're that young.
09/26/09
(Seriously. One of my classmates once asked why Dante wrote works that used Christian symbolism if he was a pagan. My teacher patiently explained that Dante was a Catholic. She responded, "But they're pagans!" It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so scary.)
09/26/09
09/26/09
They encouraged my exploration of Wicca, which wasn't meant to be exploitative at all, but a serious study. I had a ton of books and went to the local pagan group. It was a way to fit in with adults when I didn't fit in at all with my classmates.
Turns out that I still didn't have any religious inclination, was faking it all the time, and think it's about as silly as any other religion, now. I experienced a lot of the same general harassment that you did; at one point I had a large cup of water dumped on me at school "to see if [I] would melt."
09/27/09
This all means nothing to the topic of the article (I meander terribly in comments), except that people interpret things in very different, and often times divisive, ways, and I don't think the teen "witches" misinterpreting Wiccan culture are nearly so bad (as alleged by someone upthread) as someone who has been taught from birth about a religion, and still castigates people within it for having different rituals while still worshipping the same thing. It's actually pretty cool that someone would take the time to try something different and new out, rather than being derisive of it for no other reason except that it was foreign to you.
Being young is hard. But figuring out who you are on your own, rather than following the lead from the generation predating you simply because it's the path of least resistance, is rewarding, and small-town experiences create big city personalities.
09/26/09
Yeah, other kids were definitely afraid of me.
09/26/09
09/27/09
09/26/09
Still, despite having all the trappings of being a stupid phase, I really was- and still am- interested in all of it, and I was lucky enough when I was young to find really good books and online information, and I was far more into the spirituality and ritual aspect than using spells to get what I wanted. I simply stopped wearing it on my sleeve when I got into high school and beyond.
Still, those were heady days. I remember casting my first spell and having it work (still gives me lovely shivers), the exhilarating rush of information and that feeling you get when you [think you] are knowledgeable, of having heart-to-heart chats with the Goddess, and the most erotic moment of my 13 year-old self, anointing the forehead of my boycrush with rosemary oil while he offered up his face, eyes closed.
Ah, nostalgia.
09/26/09
One thing I did quit doing was making scornful predictions about people who annoyed me. "Oh, she's such a bitch, she's gonna..." I began to feel that I was right a non-random amount of times. Someone I hated in high school, who was about universally beloved by everyone else, but had always been a snob to me, died in a skiing accident when we were about 20. I have never again had a sound relationship with my own personality.
And no, I was nowhere near her at the time. Nerds.
09/27/09
And sad.
09/26/09
09/26/09
09/26/09
I'm in my mid20s and STILL in that phase.
09/26/09