When I first converted to Wicca back in the mid-1980s I can admit, while looking back through the refined hindsight of adulthood, that Wicca at that time was attractive to many people my age because of its essentially libertine morality. Or I should say that because Wicca had only the vaguest moral instruction (…and it Harm None Do as Ye Will) a person in his early teens at the peak of the glam-rocking 80s could easily find a religion compatible with the lifestyle he imagined he could lead.
The most obvious example of how Wicca was perceived (rightly so it turns out) as a creed amenable to drug fueled debauchery was the Wiccan Sex Kitten, a kind of Wiccan which was ubiquitous in the 80s and pushed to the very fringes of Wicca by the joyless scolds of the “Women Studies” Wicca movement led by people like Starhawk. Women like this (often themselves damaged and lonely) were attracted to both the commercialized sexuality of Wicca and the promise of intimacy that the comes from a religion that organizes itself into small circles or covens of no more than 13. In these surrogate families the free with their bodies and usually stoned or drunk women found more acceptance and support than the outer world (the so-called cowans) ever gave them and more importantly they found non-judgmental validation of the ever escalating addictions and self-destructive behaviors they displayed.
What they never received was help for their underlying problems, encouragement to be anything other than a drug and sex partner.
As an adult this seems an obvious recipe for a failed and miserable life. At the time frankly no one thought much of it, but the adults involved in Wicca certainly saw, as I see now, where these women would end up. The drug using Wiccan party girl is no more immune to the ravages of addiction and psychic turmoil than her non-Wiccan counterpart, something I learned by seeing Wiccans’ downward spiral firsthand. As most people grow out of Wicca, at least the Wiccan sub-culture that encourages such behavior, these women (and men often enough) dwell in perpetual puberty, never maturing beyond the point in their lives when they believe that anything that feels good momentarily is good for you.
Which is why I wasn’t surprised to see that Brandy Albright, a 27-year-old Oxycodone user who I suspect is an addict, was a Wiccan. While Albright was babysitting her friend’s two year old one Saturday afternoon, police found the toddler wondering dangerously close to a canal where alligators where observed. The toddler was clothed only in a feces-encrusted tee-shirt. Police canvassed the area and found the child’s house, where Brandy was snoring loudly while asleep on the toilet. Her pants were down indicating that she simply fell asleep while using the toilet, a behavior anyone familiar with people who use heroin or opium derived drugs will have witnessed many times. Here’s a .pdf of the arrest report.
Brandy Albright took enough Oxycodone to put herself in a drug induced stupor. All while watching her friend’s baby. As an aside, this story would have been no different had she smoked pot or drank whiskey, but I get many commenters and emailers who claim that certain drugs are better for you than other drugs, and all the assorted nonsense that addicts and people who won’t grow up and stop getting high tell you in an effort to convince you that they are somehow different than all the other drug users you’ve met.
And I’ve met dozens of Brandy Albrights. Some were literally hooked on pills, some were chronic pot smokers and some were alcoholics. What they all had in common was that there were people in their life cheering on her self-destruction for their own selfish reasons. In this case the almost victim wasn’t just Brandy, but a two-year-old who the mother foolishly entrusted to her Wiccan party girl friend.
Legalization advocates always claim decriminalizing drug use would end crime, but never admit that the only crime it would end was possession of drugs. Brandy Albright still would have endangered this child. At some point when she runs out of money and the drugs have made it so she can’t make enough money stripping to support her habit she’ll prostitute herself. And eventually she’ll die. I’ve seen this show before and unless she gets help that is a guaranteed future. Only the most heartless individual would consider this victimless.
And the first step to her recovery is avoiding the people, places and things that help her use. I say the modern Wiccan subculture is one of those things, and the people that tell her there’s nothing wrong with “partying” at 27 is another.
But legalization advocates and others will claim this is an anomaly. It isn’t, drug users are what they are and none can be trusted to watch a child. Drug use isn’t victimless, and to say otherwise is a dishonest glossing over of what is at the core of anyone’s desire to get high.
h/t Dreamin’ Demon
Yeah we are all drug users. lol What about the mother not doing a better job at picking who was going to watch her baby? What is the deal with this person ? There are Wiccan police officers and Wiccan layers,. there are teachers and doctors that are Wiccan. All kinds of people are Wiccan all over the world from working class to drug addicts in the streets. The same as any other religion. I have never taken drugs myself yet my very Christian ex- boyfriend was a heroin addict and i wasted my life trying to save his. Drug abuse effects people everywhere. Sorry to say i couldn’t help him.
You didn’t read the whole thing did you? I was talking specifically about Wicca as it was practiced among people I know at a certain time. The woman above is a throwback, but I knew 30 girls just like her when I was a kid. None became lawyers or police officers.
By the way, name 3 Wiccan lawyers. My point is that Wicca is the bush leagues of occultism, the minors so to speak and anyone who doesn’t outgrow the Wiccan sub-culture is usually a water treader. Not to say the the ritual structure (cobbled together from bits and pieces) isn’t good. I myself still use the Seax-Wiccan Esbat, but Wicca is what it is, a magnet for underachievers.
I understand that you are speaking of your own viewpoints and how you perceived Wicca as a teenager and now. I just can’t get past the sense here though that you are judging the whole rather than the few. I’m fairly certain that there are a lot of Wiccan’s out there that are in no way shape or form like the woman mentioned above. If you want to be taken seriously why not stop attacking just ONE group and concentrate on DRUG ABUSERS as a whole? Would the child being left neglected and abused be in any less harm whether the abuser was Pagan,Wiccan,Christian or Buddhist. Okay I get that you don’t like the whole Wicca culture. That’s fine and you are entitled to your views. I just think it is ridiculous to say that because these things have happened in one group by a few then the entire group is like that. It happens EVERYWHERE. No matter what religion you happen to be. I find it extremely hard to believe based upon your arguments in this blog alone.. no matter how well written and typed out it may be.. that it is easier for a Wiccan teenager to follow the path of drugs than any other teenager of any other faith. I happen to think it comes from the environment and qualities that were instilled in them as children. I may not like most of the average Wiccan’s views out there but that doesn’t mean i think they are raising nothing but drug abusing teenagers or that any teenager who happens to be Wiccan is a drug abuser. I guarantee that for every Wiccan drug abusing teenager you can find out there there will be 10 more of them from any number of the different faiths I listed above standing right next to them. It all comes down to the individual and how they were raised and how well they are prepared to make the important choices in their lives.It is the individuals responsibility and the parents responsibility to educate themselves and their children to the level of making responsible decisions. It is not any one groups fault if an individual or parent refuses to learn for themselves or teach their children how to make the best choices in their life.You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. I just do not believe that being Wiccan alone will bring them any closer to making the wrong choices than if they were from any other faith.
“I just can’t get past the sense here though that you are judging the whole rather than the few. I’m fairly certain that there are a lot of Wiccan’s out there that are in no way shape or form like the woman mentioned above. If you want to be taken seriously why not stop attacking just ONE group and concentrate on DRUG ABUSERS as a whole?”
Well Lori that’s what the Victimless Crime File category is, an indictment of our drug culture that claims drug abuse is a victimless crime. This one happened to feature the almost extinct old school “wiccan sex kitten” who was an integral part in not just the growth of Wicca throughout the 60s up until the 90s when doleful academic feminism took over and replaced degenerates like this with professional victims who run around the Internet claiming every criticism of Wiccan sub-culture is pure bigotry.
“I may not like most of the average Wiccan’s views out there but that doesn’t mean i think they are raising nothing but drug abusing teenagers or that any teenager who happens to be Wiccan is a drug abuser.”
O.K. but that’s not what I said. My points about Wicca here and elsewhere are that Wicca SHOULD be a first step into metaphysics and those that dwell in Wicca indefinitely can be judged the same way a40-Year-old with lifetime subscriptions to WOW and no girlfriends can be judged. I also think Wiccans tend to react strongly to being judged because they knwo that this is in essence true. You and I both know Fionna Horne, Silver Ravenwolf and Starhawk couldn’t use Witchcraft to make a tomato plant grow much less do all the things they claim. They are magical frauds propped up by an entire “religion” of Harry Potter fans who don’t know who Gerald Gardner is.
I’ve made similar criticism of many religions (Christian tolerance for evildoers leads to crime, Muslims are misogynist imperialists, Hindu nationalists are basically Nazis) and aside from Wahhabi Muslims it is Wiccans who react the strongest, Wiccans who threaten me, slander me and call me a Christian. This immaturity is what I believe produced people like the mother above, and will continue to do so.
However you’re right that there will always be more Christians, Atheists and others who use drugs than Wiccans, but only because there are always going to be less Wiccans than those groups.
“You and I both know Fionna Horne, Silver Ravenwolf and Starhawk couldn’t use Witchcraft to make a tomato plant grow much less do all the things they claim. They are magical frauds propped up by an entire “religion†of Harry Potter fans who don’t know who Gerald Gardner is.”
You are likely right but I couldn’t say one way or the other. I refuse to clutter my brain with books by any of those authors especially Fionna Horne. I have one book by Ravenwolf but it’s just her Halloween book and I bought it because at the time I thought some of the crafty stuff ( and not crafty as in witchcraft crafty.. I’m talking making stuff in the kitchen crafty) would be fun to do with my kids. Other than that I won’t read her stuff. It’s a load of tripe. Anyone who endorses lying to a parent is not my cup of tea. She is a sell out. She teaches kids there is a “spell” for everything rather than taking personal responsibility.
As far as Gerald Gardner goes.. well.. there are some who think he was just a little old pervert who wanted to get naked in a forest with a bunch of women.. who’s to say. I liked the stuff I read of Dorothy Valiente though.
I frankly agree with you about Gardner, but he did in fact create Wicca and the useful ritual structure it maintained (until eclectic Wicca came around) and should be respected as the progenitor of modern Wicca. Leo Martello made a similar criticism of Gardener in the 70s which I think is the best representation of the difference between Wicca and The Old Religion or Witchcraft in general.
well both veiws here are valid,i myself have been wiccan since 14 (now 27)
and i do not agree with the veiw of “wicca is only the gateway because theres better past that” and to the comment about the 40 year olds playing WoW at least they arent out drinking doing drugs and commiting crimes.
That aside i also agree with both points above…..the lady could have chosen her babysitter more carefully,and that drug use is not allways a victimless crime.
((i by the way will read anything but i will not take advice or believe much of a book labeled “spellbook” or that teaches not being responsible for ones own life and actions. that is one of the basis of Real wicca …and what the rule of 3×3 is meant to teach….))
How can both be valid if they are diametrically opposed? Look, I was a Wiccan from 13 until my mid twenties (I’m 38 now) and I’m not saying that “there’s bigger and better” out there, I’m saying literally that modern Wicca is a fraud and most people who stay in do so for social reasons.
Wicca may not have started out a fraud (even though it did start out with a lie and some plagiarism n Gerald Gardner’s part) but most Wiccans know nothing about either the gods or Witchcraft. Many I have met explicitly DON”T BELIEVE IN EITHER. I don’t want to spoil your fun, but this is the bush leagues AmberWolf, and if you assessed the scene you’re in honestly you’d see that.
Read Paul Huson’s Mastering Witchcraft and Leo Martello’s The Old Religion. Both were classics that were excised from the Wiccan corpus in the 90s by the people who drive Wicca today-poseurs who want a live action role playing community.
As for the woman, no she couldn’t have chosen a better baby sitter until she left behind her immature lifestyle. That’s the point. Users are incapable of doing things right, and the more users you associate with in the next few years the more you will come around to my way of thinking, I guarantee it.
Wiccan attorney here and just for your info my husband is a Wiccan police detective. Neither of us are drug users nor are our many Wiccan friends, many who are fellow officers, lawyers and one is a pediatric cardiologist. Nice try though.
I never claimed Wiccans were all drug users but I do maintain now, as a former Wiccan and a current Pagan, that very few actually read articles before commenting on them.
I’m sorry but I don’t belive morden Wicca is a fraud. We just have different branches and belifes of Wicca now and days. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s different branches of Christianty but that doesn’t make either one a fruad. Belifes about the religion will change over time. That’s how its always been. I also don’t belive Garnder started Wicca. I belive he was just the first to write about it. As for saying that Wiccans are just in it for social reason; I disagree with that. I’m not in it for social reasons. None of the people I know are in it for social reasons either. Just as Marlene said, not all Wiccans do drugs. I too have an ex boyfriend that was christain who was hooked on drugs no matter what i tried to do to stop him and i never once touched any drugs. None of the Wiccans i know do drugs either. I know plenty of christains that do drugs though. No offence to Christans. I’m not saying anyone is beter than the other. I’m merely saying that religion has nothing to do with who is and who isnt a druggy. As for wiccan lawyers, my friends father is a Wiccan lawyer.
The article is nicely writen though. I just don’t side with your outlook on all of it.
I appreciate your politeness but allow me to disabuse you.
A) If you read Gardner you will see that much of his material was stolen from a book by folklorist C.G. Leland called Aradia. Many Wiccans claim this strengthens the idea that Wicca is an ancient religion, but they haven’t read the book. In Aradia Witches worship Lucifer, pray to Cain, poison people and venerate Diana as “The Queen of the Wicked” including thieves, assassins etc. It is interesting that none of this was passed to Gardner’s supposed coven.
B) Gardner admitted (or was forced to really) that many of his rituals were cobbled together using OTO rituals.
C) Gardner claims covens went skyclad. Outdoors. In Europe. During the little ice age. In the winter. Leo Martello (a witch whose books you should read) points out that prior to forming Wicca Gardner was a nudist. It is clear to me that Gardner put nudity into the religion he created because it’s part of his interest.
I will also point out that as we are both Pagans it follows that we would believe Christianity IS a fraud. I tend to be an actual polytheist so I believe in a god of the Jews and a god of the Christians but I do not accept that those gods are universal in the sense Christian claim.
I doubt you know NO Wiccans that do drugs but that’s not my argument anyway. My point was that, when I was Wiccan, this was what Wicca was. I’m telling you my personal experience to illustrate a point about the Wiccan culture and the changes it’s so-called leaders should be looking to make.
I’m not sure why Wiccans don’t read articles before commenting, I assume this was linked by ome sight and the person linking simply told you what was in it and you decided to have at it. I never said there were not Wiccan lawyers, I know several Wiccan professors. They were outnumbered however by the amount of Wiccan strippers I knew, or the ones that were unemployed etc. I’ve known Wiccans who run stores, I know Wiccans who have bounced checks at those stores.
Wicca has adopted a non-judgmental morality that encourages people who are up to no good. You know that as well as I do. You also know many so called Witches DON”T BELIEVE in magic, the literal existence of the gods etc. That being the case, why are they Wiccans?
For social reasons.