Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani via Pexels
by Christopher Penczak, edited by Tina Whittle
Being an open and non-dogmatic tradition, modern Witchcraft should have no problems with dogma, fanaticism, or extremism, right? Well, compared to the violence found in the history of many mainstream religions, even those extolling the virtues of love and compassion, we are doing okay.
We have had no crusades or jihads in our name, but if you think we are not capable of it, think again. The main reason we haven’t is that our relatively new contemporary movement lacks the resources and greater social status to do such harm. While our ancient Pagan ancestors did not necessarily go to war for religious reasons in the ways we think of today, they were capable of the evils we still see today, the evils of empire—violence, control, and persecution. Despite our romance with it, the ancient world was far from a peaceful society. The karma of the past unfolds in those who claim spiritual descent from Pagan, Heathen, and Witchcraft ancestors, and while we embrace the blessing, we have to work through and resolve the ancestral burdens. Our magickal inheritance is twofold.
As we grow as a community, hopefully evolving and seeking new ways while rooting ourselves in ancestral wisdom, it could be helpful to talk about what could go wrong. It’s easy to see the same potential problems in the Neopagan and polytheist resurgence. I see both dogmatic trends in theology holding hard lines and the reaction to it as dissolving all lines and breaking down all magickal traditions as inconsequential. Many seek to unconsciously recreate the religions of their childhood with Pagan aesthetics, while others reject everything in the course of rejecting dogma, even the very things they seem to be seeking. From this we get the non-magickal and non-theistic branches of modern Paganism, cut from the tree of their root traditions.
Though they are not always overt, we do have our Pagan zealots. While historically the Zealots were an ancient Jewish sect that resisted Roman rule but ultimately sought a theocracy, today a zealot is considered an individual with fanatic devotion and enthusiasm (though the word “zeal” isn’t used with the same religious or political overtones). Such figures are considered extremists or radicals in their activism and can be dogmatic, militant, or sectarian in their views and actions. I’m sad to say I’ve come across that in Pagan community.
Zeal can be a normal phase in any passion, whether religious, social, or political. We can become possessed by a fervor in our hobbies—music, art, movies, and games. We can cross from appreciating them to creating them ourselves, or creating something about them, like the fanzines of days past and the podcasts and YouTube channels of today. This is sometimes the definition of “geek” or “nerd” when not used pejoratively. I’m a magick geek. I’m a Star Wars nerd. Though my fellow herbalists are less inclined to say they are herbal nerds, we are herbal nerds. Magickal training even takes advantage of our zeal for magick.
Yes, you read that correctly. The magickal process will use our zeal and channel it towards a greater good. Most of us enter into this path because we have an attraction to the occult. That can grow into a love of it and a deep desire to know. We seek to learn everything we can. For some, this leads to the armchair occultist, knowledgeable about all things and experienced in very little. For others, we want to put into practice all that we learn.
When we don’t have a path, school, mentor, or group, we can either become easily distracted by all the things (more now than ever before) and never gain proficiency in anything, or we become overloaded and burn out. We experience too much too fast with too little context or support.
In the Golden Dawn system of training, the first degree after neophyte is the Zelator, aligned with the earth element and the sephira or emanation of Malkuth, the kingdom. Malkuth is the tenth realm and lowest, and the degree is sometimes written as 1 = 10. 1 is usually in a square and ten in a circle. One must use their excitement and enthusiasm to build a strong foundation to prepare for what is to come. Those who lack passion, are easily discouraged, or just find this a passing fancy are said to be weeded out. The initiatory ritual of the Zelator is based on the Hebrew Tabernacle in the Wilderness as described in Exodus.
So our key as a magickal community is to inwardly channel the natural zealous inclinations people have to their study of the mysteries rather than the outward manifestation of dogma or militancy. Through the process of seeking spiritual growth, we can hopefully transmute other tendencies they do not serve for our own good and the good of all.