I ran across an article that covers the “decline of Christianity” as millennials turn away from organized religion and seek out new (old) forms of spiritual enlightenment.
Turn back the clock by twenty years and the article would have been met with glee. But with my experience, knowledge and views today the article made me a mixture of sad and mad. It is just another instance of millennials looking for instant gratification and self-service. They are looking for spirituality that will give them something NOW so they are turning to alternative religions thinking that they will find better answers than what Christianity is giving them.
I have seen a rise in Paganism not only from everyday people but from celebrities as well. I even got myself banned from the instagram of a popular semi-well know singer because I posted a reply that her using pagan icons and references was a distasteful marketing practice. Paganism is now “cool” and the “in thing” that millennials are doing; unfortunately most of them are not going further than reading some books and wearing pentacles so they are making a mockery of beliefs I have studied for over thirty years.
I have had a few notice my pentacle/tree of life necklace and attempt to engage me in conversation. At first I took it as a chance to teach/mentor a new generation but after being met with blank stares and a couple of blatant “No man, just teach us some spells/hexes” I now just ignore any questions/queries I might get when I am out and about. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink and unfortunately the focus is not about the deities, the rituals, the beliefs or the lore. It is somewhat about the rituals and a lot about the spells. They seem to learn just enough to be annoying.
I would like to say it is contained to the younger generation but it isn’t. With the resurgence of interest in Pagan beliefs there are shows/movies that are being made again and this has cause all sorts of commotion with older practitioners. A good example is a Netflix series called “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” which is founded on a coven of Satanic witches who sign a book dedicating themselves to Satan, there is cannibalism, murder etc.
Friends and associates I have were in an uproar about this! Look at this horrible depiction of witches! We don’t worship Satan, eat babies or do any of this stuff! How dare they do all this hollywood witchcrap!
Seems to me that most of them have forgotten there is a right hand path and a left hand path….
For those of you who might not be in the know, a right hand path is the “good” path and a left hand path is the “bad” path. Those who run rituals and work spells that are cast by the dark of the moon, do things that harm others or do works that benefit no one but themselves are considered bad; or walking the left hand path. If you practice chaos magic and the beliefs that go along with it you are left hand….
In other words yes Virginia there are such things as Satanic Witches and who knows, some of them could do all the foul things that the show says they do.
To each their own and all that. I don’t push my chaos on them, they don’t throw their laws of eleven on me and I am all good! In other words as long as I am not being forced to follow their suit and I am free to worship/study/practice as I feel fit I don’t care what they do. Granted I still think Christo-Pagans are a contradiction but I am getting more accepting every day I age.
In the end it really does seem that we need more outspoken members in our community that can communicate clearly and intelligently about our practices and beliefs. While we have many great authors and individuals within the community, every time I have seen them appear on a show for an interview or profile they push the “witchy” image…. which in turn makes them stand outside of society norms. There are a great deal of us that unless we let you know, you could never tell we belonged to an alternative religion.
Anyhow enough ranting for today, I felt like adding something to the site and figured this was a good topic.