Return to Information Return HomeIf you find that your teenager is "dabbling in witchcraft", you will naturally be alarmed.
The first thing is to determine what kind of witchcraft is involved. Is it an excuse to dress in black, impress peers and shock parents? Most teenagers go through a rebellious stage — it’s part of detaching from family and discovering who they are as individuals in the wider world. Dressing in black and playing witch may be the equivalent of dying one’s hair pink and getting a tongue stud. (Remember your long hair and tie-dye clothes?) Ignore it and, in time, it will go away.
Many teens are attracted to Goth and/or to vampires, which also involve dressing in black and indulging a morbid turn of mind common to young people distressed by the state of the world we’re bequeathing them. This interest is usually quite harmless, and in fact provides a sense of community and identity for people going through a difficult stage of life.
Other young people get involved in a more sinister scene, which they sometimes label witchcraft, harking back to the old ideas that witches are practitioners of evil. This is usually alluring only to the most disturbed young person; however, teenagers are susceptible to peer pressure and anyone can get drawn into things he or she will regret. Symptoms of this kind of practice involve secretiveness, cruelty to animals, and obsession with hatred towards other individuals or groups. In order to help your child, you probably need professional advice.
Many teens, having rebelled (possibly temporarily) against their traditional Christian, Jewish or other faith, but still possessed of the natural human need for spirituality, will find alternative religions, of which witchcraft is currently the best known, appealling for much the same reasons as adults do. If your teen is in that category, read the following and be reassured.
You may be alarmed if your teen-ager talks about “witchcraft”. TV programs like Sabrina and movies like The Craft are aimed at young people, who may fantasize about acquiring the mystic “powers” portrayed. Satanism, with promises of yet greater “powers”, has appeal to some people in the turmoil of adolescence. However, if your child is reading about, practicing or attending circles having to do with Wicca, they have moved out of the area of fantasy and into that of religion.
The first thing to do is find out just what aspect your child is into. Teen-agers are at a stage of burgeoning independence, which frequently involves secrecy, so this may not be easy. You might read and try offering to them our Information Sheets called What Wicca Is, What Is A Pagan and Cult and Occult.
If your teen is under 18 and wants to join a coven, any responsible group would want to make sure you give your permission. They would probably suggest you read THE SPIRAL DANCE by Starhawk for an explanation of the ideas and perhaps DRAWING DOWN THE MOON by Margot Adler for background and history. Both of these books are available at New Age and “occult” bookstores, and frequently also in the New Age section of regular book stores. An excellent overview of the Pagan scene, by an English university lecturer in religion, is CONTEMPORARY PAGANISM, by Graham Harvey, New York University Press, 1997 (ISBN 0-8147-3549-5). If teenagers get together and form their own group, they are probably using the books of Scott Cunningham, D.J. Conway or “Silver Raven Wolf”, also available at the same places, and reading them will give you an idea of what they’re up to.
You may read some things that worry you. Wicca talks about sex as metaphor, but seldom actually does anything about it. Robes rather than nudity is the general rule. Drugs are not part of the practice. “Mind-altering” techniques of chanting and visualization are done very moderately (comparable to hymn-singing and hearing a sermon). Recruitment and charging money are forbidden.
You may find aspects of Wicca rather silly, but — unless you are deeply committed to a conventional religion — not terribly alarming. Keep in mind that people in their teens are looking for exciting and novel things as opposed to the stodgy doings of their parents, and this is likely a passing fad. Most of the people who come to Wicca (or other kinds of neo-Paganism) and stay for the long haul do so in their 20s and 30s.
If you would like more information, or would like to speak to someone about your concerns, contact us at:
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