Lately it seems Wicca & Paganism are becoming popular. "Cool," if you will. Witchcraft has become the latest in trendy ways to annoy the older generations. Most of the people who are getting into it this way are teenagers, though there are a few adults who are getting into the scene to look hip and young. You can find every bad stereotype you can come up with in this group-- goth-babies, new-age-crystal- witches-on-prozac, dances-with-bunnyrabbits, party pagans... the whole gamut. Not all of them are like this, of course, but those that are can get vocal.

Frankly, it reminds me of a few years ago, when Malcom X attire was the latest trend for the African American. Everywhere you looked, you saw a big X emblazoned on T-Shirts, baseball hats, fannypacks, necklaces, earrings-- and mostly worn by people who didn't have a clue why Malcom used "X" as his last name, much less what the man stood for or why he died. A historical figure was reduced to the latest fashion.

The fact is, we live in a commercial age. Items and ideas become trendy and chic without any respect for the notions behind them. So how does this affect us? That all depends on how we handle it.

In the first place, we need to see how it can affect us. The only real drawbacks I can come up with are the fact that we have to put up with some of these Fashion Witches (which we can't do anything about), and the risk of people not taking us seriously because of the fad element. Little Janet was doing it just to be cool, so obviously we're all poseurs. I've seen a little bit of this-- in fact, I've been told several times that I was just into Wicca as a form of rebellion. I don't hear that as much, but then again eight years is a long time to follow a fad.

How do we minimize the impact of this one? I don't think we can. I think this is one of those things we're going to have to live with. Even Christianity has its followers who are there just for the social atmosphere, and eventually people will learn to see that the trendy people do not make up the whole of Wicca. In the meantime, though, they'll at least find out what Wicca is.

There are a number of good things about this situation. First of all, there's money. Our pagan shop proprietors, authors, herb suppliers, and the like are not known to be the richest people in the world. These trendy people are putting money into their pockets, allowing them to stay open and provide service for us.

Second of all, there's the fact that it gets the truth out. I don't really care if any of these trendoids stick with Wicca for life (and in fact I doubt they will), but the fact of the matter is that they-- and their friends-- will know something of the truth. At my last job, there was a woman who had been into Wicca as a trend for a while. She outgrew it, but in a discussion that she and I were having with someone else, she defended us. And thus we were strengthened again, by having an intelligent and kind person who wasn't a Wiccan stand up for us.

As for the Fashion Pagans themselves-- don't give up your diginity to them. When the nineteen-year-old wannabe starts talking about getting naked, getting drunk, throwing a circle and screwing like minks in heat, point out that he's got it wrong! You probably won't be able to get him to "see the light", but maybe you'll bore him into avoiding something he doesn't care enough to understand. And certainly you can correct any misapprehension that they may have left behind.

But all in all, the annoyance of the Fashion Pagans is acceptable when you consider that we have a crowd of thousands of people-- many high-school or college age-- supporting our causes, buying from our vendors, and voting the trend. And think of the cool t-shirts we can get because they're the latest style!

© 1999 by Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp