APOLOGIAreport

> trac ki n g s p i r i t u a l t r e n d s i n t h e 2 1s t ce n t u r y
v o l u m e 2 1 : 1 ( 1,2 7 4 ) / J a n u a r y 6 , 2 0 1 6

In this issue:
WITCHCRAFT a sympathetic survey
of popular occultic religion in America,
and an important account of the Salem
witch trials.
CULTURE - most conservative
Christians inevitably acquiesce to
secular cultural demands often by
reinterpreting the Bible
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WITCHCRAFT
Witches of America, by Alex Mar2
The Witches: Salem, 1692, by Stacy Schiff3
This joint review by Peter Manseau
<petermanseau.com> finds that as cartoonish as the figure of the witch has become in
popular culture, it periodically manages to
regain its potency. Reflecting on the term
witch hunt, Manseau equates it with the
Internets mob mentality [which] sometimes makes McCarthyism look tame.
Manseau explains that Mar provides
a view of contemporary witches and the
mostly Mugglish lives they lead, while Schiff
digs deep into the dark arts of our frequently
haunted past, [and] together they suggest
that the common caricatures of witches are
much less interesting than reality. ...
By exploring similarly uncanny landscape from the perspective of the present
rather than the past, the journalist and filmmaker [Mar] offers a bookend to Schiff s history. Like a colonial witch-hunter convinced
of diabolical doings, Mar insists witches are
everywhere provided you know where to
look. ...
The only difference might be that circa
1692, the notion of receiving communications from the other side was a deadly serious matter, whereas today it is more often
met with a smirk or a shrug.
The overriding culture trains us to dismiss these stories as New Age babble, signs
of wayward fanaticism, rather than greet
them with a healthy dose of curiosity, Mar
notes, but Americans are compelled by the
mysterious more often than we feel permitted to admit.
Much as Schiff acknowledges that folk
magic seems to have played a role in the
Salem witch scare, Mar proposes to take contemporary witchcraft seriously as a sincere
religious pursuit albeit a highly decentralized one that is often difficult to define.
Today when people talk about witches
living, practicing witches theyre usually talking about Pagans, [Mar] writes.
Paganism evolved here over the last fifty
years as an exotic, counterculture religious
movement imported from England, where
a new witchcraft religion called Wicca had

been introduced to the public in the early

fifties. ...
As Mar explains, any given pagan tradition, known as a trad, can give birth to
a number of lines, which in turn are further broken down into covens. All of these
might claim to be part of an ancient lineage, but more than likely they are at most
decades old. ...
Mar became interested in the frequently woo-woo world of modern paganism while filming a documentary on mysticism <www.goo.gl/OoobY7>. Watching a
gathering of California witches perform a
ritual within a circle of stones, she was surprised to discover that she longed to move
out from behind her camera and become an
active participant in the ceremony. ...
In early chapters, [Mar] takes the reader
on a tour of various trads, from Dianic
Wicca, also known as goddess worship, to
the impressively named Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Oriental Templars),
founded by Freemasons in 1906 and populated by the eccentric British millionaire
Aleister Crowley after World War I.
Midway through her odyssey, however,
[Mar] announces her intention to train in
Feri, a Craft tradition that, according to its
twentieth-century founder [Victor Henry
Anderson], was first practiced tens of thousands of years ago, by a small-bodied, darkskinned people out of Africa, the first Fairy
folk not to be confused with the winged
nature spirits of the same name. Bookforum,
Sep/Nov 15, pp22-23.4
In Library Journal (Sep 15 #2, p82) Janet
Tapper (Univ. of Western States Lib., Portland, OR) notes: Former Rolling Stone
editor and filmmaker Mar deftly weaves in
her own story of agnostic searching as she
chronicles the various threads of American
pagan belief systems, creating a narrative
equal parts diary, history lesson, ethnographic study, myth buster, and pagan gossip. After spending time filming the Feri
priest Morpheus for her documentary, Mar
found herself drawn to a course of study and
exploration of the various pagan sects and
magical practices, far exceeding the safety of
(continued on next page)

witchcraft (continued)

suburban Wiccan covens. Her experiences

and observations, some inspiring, some a
tad disturbing, are fodder for reflection on
what faith and belief actually mean and how
they are influenced by cultural expectation
and conditioning. The chapter on Satan and
the melding of occultism to devil worship
in the mind of the public, fueled by a sensationalist media, is an eye-opening expos of
the effects of damaging religious ignorance
and intolerance. VERDICT A top-notch
read for pagans and open-minded seekers
curious about the fascinating beginnings of
American witchcraft and some of the various directions its form is taking.5
Publishers Weekly (Aug 15 #4, n.p.) adds:
The books only flaw is an abrupt ending,
leaving many unanswered questions: Does
Mar stay involved with the New Orleans
branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis? Does
she find the revelation she is looking for?6
In a joint review of the same two works
in the Wall Street Journal, Felipe FernndezArmesto <www.goo.gl/rBWH84> writes
that, as portrayed by Mar, the adepts of
Wicca seem led by a mix of tricksters and
genuinely self-deluded eccentrics, whose
followers are after a life of sensation, not
thought. They do little harm except to themselves to their bodies by sexual excess, to
their minds by corrosive drivel.
Of The Witches, he writes that Schiff
provides a trial narrative unsurpassed for
detail and impressive for her mastery of the
fragmentary and frustrating sources. The
effect, however, is unsatisfactory. Although
she takes us through the twists and tergiversations of the main characters, she
uncovers no new clues to understanding,
for instance, the ditherings of some officials
and the impassivity of others, or the ebb
and flow of zeal among the witch hunters,
or the complex networks that might explain
how the sides in the trials aligned. ... The
explanations Ms. Schiff offers are familiar:
The key witnesses were pubescent hysterics
or vengeful opportunists. Amateurism or

APOLOGIAreport

v o l u m e 2 1 : 1 ( 1,2 7 4 ) / J a n u a r y 6 , 2 0 1 6

ignorance duped most of the persecuting

pastors and judges, while uncritical erudition misled armchair witch hunters who
knew everything about witchcraft except
that it did not really exist. An atmosphere
of terror of hunger, cold, and French
and native enemies nourished suspicion.
Accusations were cloaked vendettas and
property grand. <www.goo.gl/8ffkHu>
CULTURE
Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped
Religion in American Politics, by Mark A.
Smith1 <www.goo.gl/a2JwkB> according
to the publisher, Smith argues that religion
is not nearly the unchanging conservative
influence in American politics that we have
come to think it is. In fact, in the long run,
religion is best understood as responding to
changing political and cultural values rather
than shaping them. Smith makes his case by
charting five contentious issues in Americas
history: slavery, divorce, homosexuality,
abortion, and womens rights. For each, he
shows how the political views of even the
most conservative Christians evolved in the
same direction as the rest of society perhaps not as swiftly, but always on the same
arc. During periods of cultural transition,
Christian leaders do resist prevailing values and behaviors, but those same leaders
inevitably acquiesce often by reinterpreting the Bible if their positions become no
longer tenable. Secular ideas and influences
thereby shape the ways Christians read and
interpret their scriptures.
So powerful are the cultural and societal norms surrounding us that Christians
in America today hold more in common
morally and politically with their atheist
neighbors than with the Christians of ear-

lier centuries. In fact, the strongest predictors of peoples moral beliefs are not their
religious commitments or lack thereof but
rather when and where they were born.
<www.goo.gl/KKv09r>
In the Chicago Tribune, reviewer Kevin
M. Schultz <www.goo.gl/bT71F2> writes
that Smith is after something bigger than
just thumbing his nose at those who claim
to have The Answer. Instead, Smith wants
Americans to take a step back from the
culture wars. He wants us to realize that,
despite apocalyptic pronouncements that
Americans are more polarized than ever
before, we actually agree on quite a bit.
<www.goo.gl/LXjQ07>
SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Secular Faith: How Culture Has

Trumped Religion in American Politics, by
Mark A. Smith (Univ of Chicago Prs, 2015,
hardcover, 288 pages) <www.goo.gl/fsjEzc>
2 - Witches of America, by Alex Mar (Sarah
Crichton Books, 2015, hardcover, 288
pages) <www.goo.gl/WptMQi>
3 - The Witches: Salem, 1692, by Stacy
Schiff (Little, Brown, 2015, hardcover, 512
pages) <www.goo.gl/4ocKwB>
SOURCES: Periodicals

4 - Bookforum, <www.bookforum.com>
5 - Library Journal, <www.libraryjournal.
com>
6 - Publishers Weekly, <www.ow.ly/lBcRE>

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