A Brief (A Very Brief) History Of Wicca

[poliphilo]

Religious movements swiftly go out of date. They begin by challenging the status quo, then, once society has caught up with them, slip into conservatism as they defend their aging insights against the onrush of the new.

Wicca began as a challenge to the mores of the 1950s. It was always a little old-fashioned- with a whiff of geriatric naughtiness- and was soon overtaken by the sexual revolution of the 1960s. It was reinvented in the 70s, by Starhawk and others, as a vehicle for left-wing protest and feminist assertion. Now, unless I'm missing something, there's nothing much left in it except a nostalgia for ye olden dayes.

Charmed is the monument erected over its grave. If the US entertainment industry thinks something is safe for the mainstream, you can be pretty certain it's no longer prancing and kicking.

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Don't forget - Wicca (in a very strange and completely inaccurate form...not that it's any more accurate on "Charmed") showed up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer before Charmed was around, unless I am getting my timeline confused.

I'm not sure I agree with you about Wicca no longer being prancing and kicking because it's on mainstream TV. If you think about it, it could be called progress. After all, is it really that much fun to be persecuted?? At least pagan religions are becoming somewhat more acceptable; no more burning people at the stake, or automatically assuming that they are worshipping Satan. Sure, there are still Christian fundamentalists out there who haven't a clue, but I think that more and more people are at least becoming knowledgeable enough to know that pagans aren't immediately equal to "evil."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was one of the guys who worked to get paganism accepted as a "mainstream" religion. And now that it's respectable I no longer want to know. What a contrary old cuss I am!

That's not entirely true. I still subscribe to a spirituality that is part Pagan, part Christian, part Zen- I just don't belong to any organization these days.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

We've a bit in common in that respect. I hate to admit it because I don't like the label "buffet spirituality" when it comes to what I believe, but I am nevertheless inspired by the wisdom of several paths: Buddhism, Christianity, Paganism, Yoga. But something seems to happen with all of them when they're placed in an organized, institutionalized setting, and as a result I've been on the sidelines so to speak for some time now. There's a damned if you do, damned if you don't predicament that's presented to any revolutionary message the moment it's about to be co-opted by the mainstream - remain outside and be forever relegated to an impotent fringe, or be co-opted and lose your fire.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You're exactly right. That's the dilemma.

Mao tried to create "permanent revolution". It didn't work- and millions of people got hurt in the process.

I don't think the fringe is impotent though. It's at the fringe that the discoveries are made- which the mainstream then assimilates.

In some ways things like Charmed make me happy. It's nice to see those ideas being absorbed.