Bewitched: When An Old Religion Meets Pop Culture

Published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on October 30, 1999

Popular culture is under a spell.

On prime time television, hip suburban high school student "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" struggles with supernatural talents. Armed with special vampire slayer powers and a fabulous wardrobe, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" dispatches snarling vampires - and manages to go to college and have a social life, too. And the older - but only slightly - Halliwell sisters are "Charmed" and charming as they keep body and soul together with the aid of a Wiccan "Book of Shadows".

On the large screen, "The Blair Witch Project," "Practical Magic" and "The Craft" pull viewers into movie theaters.

And in the book stores, the wildly popular "Harry Potter" series about a wizard-in-training is practically levitating off the shelves.

From Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to the '60s TV sitcom "Bewitched," writers have found audiences for tales of witchcraft, magic and the occult. But their popularity reflects particular currents in American culture in the '90s - a connection to the earth, a desire to see women empowered and a belief that worship can be personal rather than communal - says Thomas Robisheaux, an associate professor of history at Duke who teaches a course on magic and witchcraft. "If they didn't, no one would watch."

Modern witchcraft, or Wicca, has become increasingly visible for just these reasons. A nature-based religion that claims roots in pre-Christian Europe, Wicca sees the divine as a creative life force in everything, and recognizes both masculine and feminine deities. Wiccans put great store in magic and the supernatural, but see apparently miraculous occurrences as the result of getting in touch with the cosmic life force.

"It's dissonant. It's different. It's powerful. It's outside the mainstream," says one of Roisheaux's colleagues, Wesley Kort, a Duke professor whose focus is religion and modern culture. "It's not necessarily evil anymore."

On TV, witchcraft can be a force for good, says Nancy Eiesland, an assistant professor of religion at Emory University. the sisters of "Charmed" and Buffy - like the heavenly stars of "Touched by an Angel" - often protect the weak.

"I think of them not unlike I think of the cop shows and rescue shows that were so popular a couple of years ago," she said. "They show that somebody's watching out for us. They fill that need for a little security.

Especially for teenage girls, who keep the programs near the top of the ratings.

Nikki Stroub, 17, of Woodstock, is a big fan of the television series "Buffy" and "Sabrina." She's even read about the Salem witch trials.

"They just seem really neat and different," Nikki said of the supernatural TV characters. "They have superpowers that we don't have in real life. Most of it's good and sometimes they use it for bad. But in the end, they triumph over evil."

At Llewellyn Publications, a New Age publishing house, the 1998 how-to manual "Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation" scored the highest number of pre-publication orders of any Llewellyn, said publicity manager Lisa Braun. To date, about 88,000 copies have been sold. The book claims to give "practical advice for dealing with everyday life in a magickal way... from homework and crabby teachers to parents and dating."

Because of popular demand, the Grove of the Unicorn, an Atlanta Wiccan coven, recently began offering classes for teenagers - with parental consent required. Most of the six students are "of Catholic or Baptist background, and they're all very dedicated," said High Priestess Lady Galadriel, whose given name is Jodi Yokell. "They've been doing their homework, and they show up every week." The students declined to be interviewed.

Atlanta now has more than 20 Wiccan - or closely related - groups, and many other "solitary witches" who construct their own rituals. Nationally, a survey being conducted by the Covenant of the Goddess, an international group of 200 covens, has turned up 50,000 witches, according to Galadriel, who, as of Sunday, will be its head, or first officer. But, she said, the numbers could reach into the millions.

Raised Southern Baptist, solitary witch Ginger Wages, an Atlanta technical writer, said she appreciated Wicca's reverence for the earth. "People who are green, who really care about the environment - rain forests being depleted, old woods being cut down - are happy to find a faith system that empowers and even hallows those concerns." said Wages, who runs an online newsletter for witches and pagans called the Magickal Cauldron.

Christian groups are aware of witchcraft's increasing appeal. The October issue of Charisma, a magazine for Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, features a report on "Witchcraft in America." It includes articles such as "Inside the Gates of Darkness" and "Going online With the Devil," and suggests readers pray for the subjects of the report, that they find their way back to God.

But the Rev. Rob Arp, an assistant pastor at Atlanta's Mount Paran Church of God, said he doesn't believe most teens are seriously interested in witchcraft.

"A lot of it's just people acting out, people riding the wave of something that's counterculture and crazy," said Arp, a former youth pastor. He is concerned though, about those "few pockets" of kids that delve into witchcraft seriously. "They're going to open themselves up to larger spiritual forces that will hinder their life," he said, but noted parents shouldn't overreact: "As long as there's love and support in the family, the kids are going to be fine."

"We're living in a society with more religious options than ever before," says Harry Partin, associate religion professor emeritus at Duke. "A century or so ago, there were very few. You were a Christian or a Jew - or known as the town atheist. You really didn't have any other options. Now people do."