Why pagans are stupid

Search form Search. You are here Home. Jacob Latham University of Tennessee. Awards and Fellowships. Conferences, Lectures, and Meetings. Conference: Re Ordering the Gods. The Mythographic Web through Times. Re Ordering the Gods. Calls for Papers. SCS Announcements. Upcoming Deadlines. As noted by Tara Isabella Burton in The American Interest , many young progressives began to take up Neopagan magic and witchcraft as a response to conservative evangelicalism. There is, because of this, a link between activism and Neopagan spirituality, which has led to pseudo-religious protests that blend progressive politics with folk magic.

Likewise, there is a movement among members of the alt-right towards other forms of paganism, with one of the most popular variants of it being revivals of the Old Norse religion, or Heathenism. The draw that many alt-right members have to Heathenism is partially due to the idea that Norse paganism is solidly identarian, whereas other religions such as Christianity are universalist.

Many progressive pagans practice their paganism not out of a firm belief in the superstitious and magical. As noted by Burton, much of progressive paganism, such as the Church of Satan, is openly atheistic, and much of their public practice is to mock religion and government attitudes toward religion.

It sounds odd, and very time-consuming, but not dangerous. There are no witch Jihadis, and few witch proselytisers. But I have seen Kate West, author of The Real Witches Handbook, harangue an audience at the Witchfest convention in Croydon to bully politicians into action on global warming, long before it was fashionable.

But do we stick up for her when she is in trouble? Witchcraft is also a religion that venerates the female. During the witch trials, odd, different or freethinking women — outsiders — were tortured and murdered; it's all in the Vincent Price classic Witchfinder General Many female witches told me they were drawn in for this reason: there are no shaven heads in witchcraft, no shrouding of the female, no submission to the male.

I suspect even Jedis think men are superior to women — the worship of the lightsaber is a telling clue. But don't witches believe in the devil? I spent an evening with a witch in Hastings once. We watched Inspector Morse while he told me that "witches do not believe in Satan and they do not believe in the devil" every five minutes, like a malfunctioning witch-themed robot. But don't they practise dark magic?

Well, they claim they can but most don't, because they believe any evil spell will rebound three times on them. It is true that witches often like to practise naked — they call it being "sky-clad". Isn't this a bit dodgy; more fuel for the salivating Sunday papers?

When I asked another witch about this, he freaked out. It is absolutely untrue. You exude power from the body. And when you are sky-clad, there is no rank.