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What's wrong with PEN's "Modern Witchcraft" document

by Diane Vera


Copyright © 2003 by Diane Vera. All rights reserved.



Here's what's wrong with PEN's Modern Witchcraft document in its current form, as of October, 2003 C.E.


  1. The not-Satanists disclaimer is the lead sentence in a paragraph of other disclaimers, thereby making those other disclaimers appear to be elaborations on the not-Satanists disclaimer, thereby insinuating various accusations against Satanism.

    For example, most Satanists do not consider Satan to be "a personification of (what to us is) evil." "Evil" is a subjective value judgment. (See Satan and "Evil" in Christianity and Satanism.)

    Also, most Satanists -- like most Pagan Witches -- do not proselytize or recruit. This is a point of commonality, not difference, between Pagan Witches and Satanists. (I'm not suggesting that the PEN document mention that this is a point of commonality. Just don't insinuate, via the placement of that statement, that Satanists do proselytize.)

    As for Witches being healers, the very idea of the "Witch as healer" had its historical literary origin in La Sorciere by Jules Michelet -- a work of literary Satanism. (I'm not suggesting that PEN mention this, just explaining why the stuff about Witches being healers should be separate from the not-Satansists disclaimer.)

    It would be much better if the not-Satanists disclaimer were in a paragraph by itself, separate from all other disclaimers. After all, the paragraph that begins with the not-Satanists disclaimer is part of a whole several-paragraph section of disclaimers ("Setting the record straight"), so there's no reason not to give the not-Satanists disclaimer its own paragraph.


  2. "Satanism is a Christian heresy." Calling Satanists "Christians" or "Christian heretics" is an insult to both Satanists and Christians. Neither Satanists nor Christian theologians consider Satanism to be "Christian" or a "Christian heresy." A Christian heretic is one who identifies as Christian and worships the Christian God but holds unorthodox theological beliefs. Satanists neither identify as Christian nor worship the Christian God.

    Furthemore, the vast majority of theistic Satanists do not derive their theology solely from Christianity but look to various non-Christian sources too, both more ancient and more modern. Many theistic Satanists are polytheistic or pantheistic, for example. And, for those who remain Satanists for more than a few years, Satanism is much more than just rebellion against Christianity.


  3. In its attempt to distance Pagan Witchcraft from Satanism, the PEN document contains some outright falsehoods. One of these is the statement that "Witches are not anti-Christian or against any other positive faith," insinuating that Pagan Witches consider Christianity to be a "positive faith."

    In reality, Pagan Witches vary quite a bit in their attitude toward Christianity. Some Pagan Witches are even more fiercely anti-Christian than the average Satanist. The majority of Pagans probably consider liberal Christianity to be a "positive faith," but certainly not traditional Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity. The PEN document need not say this, however. I would suggest that the PEN document simply avoid the topic of how Pagan Witches feel about Christianity, rather than dishonestly kissing up to Christians as a way to distance themselves from Satanists.


  4. The PEN document (like many similar Pagan documents) purports to define "Witchcraft" in general, rather than "Pagan Witchcraft" (capital P) in particular.

    Wiccans and other Pagan Witches do not own the word "Witch." There do exist Satanist Witches too, like it or not. Again, as far as I am aware, the first modern literary writer to present Witches in a positive light was Jules Michelet in La Sorciere. There have also been many Christians who called themselves witches -- such as my great grandfather, a "water witch" (dowser).

    I'm not suggesting that the PEN document explicitly acknowledge the existence of either Satanist Witches or Christian Witches. I'm suggesting that the document define only "Pagan Witchcraft" rather than claiming to define "Witchcraft" in general. A global replacement of the term "Witchcraft" with either "Wicca" or "Pagan Witchcraft" would be a big improvement.


  5. The wording of the not-Satanists disclaimer, "Witchcraft has no relationship with Satanism" is an exaggeration, historically speaking -- even if you replace "Witchcraft" with "Pagan Witchcraft." (See Satanism and the History of Wicca.) It would be far more accurate just to say "Pagan Witchcraft is not Satanism. Satan is not part of the Wiccan pentheon."


  6. "Some Pagans feel the inversion of the pentagram by Satanists is as much a corruption of the Craft as is Satanists' inversion of the cross a corruption of Christianity."

    Satanism's use of the point-down pentagram was inspired by its use in Eliphas Levi's book Transcendental Magic, which long pre-dates the advent of Wicca. So, it's not a "corruption of Wicca." It is a reclaimng of what pre-Wiccan Western occultists called the "Left Hand Path," which Levi associated with a point-down pentagram. (By the way, I prefer the terminology "point-down" and "point-up" rather than "inverted" and "upright.")

    I'm not asking PEN to discuss this history. Just don't claim that our pentagram is a "corruption" of yours.


Above, I've commented only on those inaccuracies that are relevant to Satanism in one way or another. The document also contains a few other points that would probably be disputed by the more scholarly Pagans.



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