A hundred thousand elephants, A hundred thousand horses, A hundred thousand mule-drawn chariots, Are not worth a sixteenth part Of a single step forward.
- Buddha, “The Connected Discourses of the Buddha”
The above quotation makes me really think about the state of the world today and how many members of society still perceive Wiccans and pagans. Even today, after hundreds of years, we often remain marginalized members of society. There are some of us that have difficulty telling our own parents about who we are and what we believe in our heart to be true. There are some teens that want to learn the Wiccan faith but fear talking about doing so with parents that simply do not understand or that do not want to understand what the Wiccan faith system is all about. Meanwhile, there are some of us that may only tell a few select friends that we have chosen the Wiccan path, that we practice an earth-based religion, and that we believe in a god and goddess, a divine polarity that has created and courses through all things. In the year 2010 some of us still fear the social and familial ramifications of what it is to be Wiccan, and, in some ways, the fear that many Wiccans have about revealing who they are is completely understandable and justifiable.
For anyone that has been Wiccan for any length of time, it happens; we’re out in public, minding our own business, doing our own thing. We are probably wearing a symbol of our faith on a piece of jewelry, a ring or a necklace, or maybe we are wearing attire that might indicate our religious choices. At that moment we stand proud of who we are and nothing can tarnish that moment. We are then approached by some stranger who asks us with seeming innocence, “isn’t that a sign of the devil,” or “do you worship the devil?” We look back at this stranger and, while remaining very proud of who we are and what we believe in, we try to educate him or her about the Wiccan faith, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The moment where we falsely believed that the world has progressed so much that we can walk out in public anywhere we want to and we can proudly display the fact that we are Wiccan without fear or repercussion disappears. Our illusions of a religiously free world where people respect the rights of others to worship the divine the way we feel is right vanish into thin air.
It may even happen at work, in school, or in the office, you are singled out based on preconceived notions and misconceptions about what it is to be a witch. Some of us lose friends because of our choices, and even worse, some of us lose relationships with our family members. For some of us, the issue follows us home and we become victims of hate crimes and vandals who mar our homes or our centers of worship with their words and sentiments of hate and ignorance. Often times, we get strange confused looks and we have really not made any kind of progress in educating the world about who Wiccans really are. Inside we are angered, frustrated, aggravated and fed up. We are tired of being misjudged, stereotyped, and outcast just because the system of belief we have chosen may not be the perfect faith system for every individual. We are tired of our religious centers of worship being vandalized, we are sick of being called irreverent, and we are exhausted by the seemingly endless stereotypical questions that often come our way like “where’s your broom,” or “are you going to put a curse on me?”
Sure, we have it better now than we ever did. At least we’re not being burned at the stake, hanged, pressed to death or swum as a witch. At least we’re not being cast into prisons because of our faith. So, in that regard we’ve made progress. But progress is so very slow, and we still have to worry about how our faith will affect us in our daily lives when we interact with the outside world. We remain liminal, marginal, on the edge. We are called “charming eccentrics,” “bizarre,” or “weird,” and we are often judged by people that know absolutely nothing about the Wiccan faith whatsoever. Sometimes the prejudice we experience is subtle: it might just be a strange look, a glance, a glare, or a sideways glance. Other times the prejudice we experience is blatantly obvious as people shove pamphlets in our face and tell us that we need to come to Christ to be saved. In this day and age there are books about how to tell your family and loved ones you are Wiccan. Even now, books about destroying the misconceptions associated with the Wiccan faith are offered because so many people still do not understand what Wicca is and what it means to be Wiccan. In this day in age we still have books on Wicca that talk about “when’s the best time to come out of the broom closet.” My thoughts are that it is a deep shame that we still have to fear “coming out of the broom closet at all. In fact, the mere suggestion that we have to “come out of the broom closet,” suggests that we have something to be ashamed of as Wiccans and that we should hide in the dark. We shouldn’t.
To make one step of progress in terms of religious tolerance is to achieve success, no matter how small. If we never work toward making the step we will never achieve the level of religious tolerance we deserve. Let’s face it, we will never change the minds of everyone about what they believe when it comes to the Wiccan faith, but we may change the minds of a few people and that will have to be good enough. Small steps forward, that’s all we can do. If you are Wiccan and “still in the broom closet” the time to come out and speak your mind is now. Of course, you’ll have to ready yourself for the onslaught of questions, the looks, the judgments, and the reactions. Or, maybe you will be one of the lucky ones that have managed to surround themselves with open-minded, intelligent, understanding individuals. Nevertheless, we need to acknowledge that being Wiccan is nothing to be ashamed of, and while we may have to stand up to ignorance on an ongoing basis, at least we will be making a stand.
