Why Did I Get Involved In a Silly Fringe Religion? Ironically, Good People…
I’ve been spending the last couple of years kicking myself in the brain for being involved in a fringe religion for most of my teen and adult life. The process of deprogramming myself has been somewhat painful and I finally reached a milestone last week when I packed up all of my old books, in three huge boxes, and am ready to give them away to someone.
One of my big questions to myself has been why, as an intelligent individual, I was involved with Wiccans for so long. The best answer I could come up with is that at every stage of the game except the last one, in which I had the misfortune of getting tangled up with really the lowest forms of humanity you can imagine, I had great friends who were good people who were also Wiccan.
Reconnecting with one of them on Facebook has shown me just how awesome she still is. She rescues puppies, writes books about animal behaviour, and is just generally one of the coolest women on earth. Another does exceptionally cool work in the tech field and is a pure pleasure to be around. Another was my best friend growing up and I have to say that I miss him terribly and all of the crazy stuff we used to get up to.
In the end, it isn’t Paganism or Wicca itself that is evil. It is just that it attracts people who are polar; either very good or very bad people. The very bad people feed off of the very good people, and so goes the dynamic of really any organized religion. Like it or not, that is what Wicca has become. It has self-organized into this weird hierarchy that doesn’t make any sense, and nearly always puts the very bad people in charge. I believe that good can exist outside of that structure and that faith in the human condition rather than faith in pretend deities is really more of what life is all about.
So to all my Wiccan and ex-Wiccan friends, I know I’ve been harshing your mellow in the last couple of years. I just ask you to understand that what happened to me was bad enough that I just painted the entire group with the same brush for a while, and I am well aware that some of you are beautiful and unique under all that stuff. I still think Wicca in southern Ontario is composed of a nest of vipers, criminals, and pedophiles but those of you that don’t participate in the drama or stupidity are awesome.
