Challenges The Risks Let’s say for the moment that you feel irresistibly drawn to Wicca, and you are determined to become part of it. You have a right to know what risks are involved. (More on this in chapter 13, “The Witch in the World.”) God may be loving and open-minded, but of course that doesn’t mean human beings are. Probably the greatest real risk is that somebody is going to find out you’re a Witch, take offense, and try to do something nasty to you. This could include: •• Spreading lies about you •• Firing you from your job •• Trying to get your children taken away from you •• Vandalizing your home or property •• Evicting you from your apartment •• Driving you out of town •• Assaulting or murdering you These are worst-case scenarios, and they are becoming less and less likely as we educate people about Wicca and the Pagan faiths. But they’re still possible. People get hurt or even killed for being different. Of course, people also get hurt or killed for being American, or female, or Methodist, or gay, or whatever, but that won’t be much consolation if you get dead for being a Witch. You’re the only one who can estimate the risk, because it will be different everywhere. Some people choose to avoid the W word entirely, except in their own heads, and present a very ordinary mask to the world. Others find a church that’s pretty open-minded and make do. A few go to the opposite extreme and play “Public Witch” to the hilt, with black robes and TV talk-show interviews and enough mascara for six opera stars. There are other risks, less dire but still serious. There is always a risk of joining the wrong coven. Now, “wrong” can be as simple as realizing “I don’t like their classes, this is boring,” or possibly “I don’t really click with these people,” or even “That person is a real jerk, and I just don’t want to be in the same group with him.”
8 introduction