Why Do People Become Wiccan

Question: Why Do People Become Wiccan?

patriarchal community.
* A need for acceptance. Wicca has no restrictions or

A reader writes in, "I'm not Wiccan, and I'm trying to
understand why people are leaving Christianity to follow

injunctions against homosexuality, bisexuality, or being
transgendered. Someone in the GLBT community needing

Wicca. What is it that makes people turn their backs on a
God of love and peace to worship Wiccan gods?"

spiritual fulfillment may be drawn to Wicca because they
know they'll be accepted without any regard to who they

Answer:

sleep with.
* A sense that there's something else out there. For

This answer is going to come in a couple of different parts
here, so bear with me for a minute. The first, and possibly

many people, the idea of one single god seems illogical.
Many people are drawn to the polytheistic aspects of

most important, thing to remember is that not everyone was
Christian to start with. There are many, many people in the

Paganism and Wicca.
* A need to reconnect with nature. In our fast-paced

Wiccan and Pagan community who have never been Christian.
Some were raised agnostic or atheist, others in Jewish

society, more and more people are becoming aware of a need
to get outdoors, away from the city, and reconnect with the

families, etc. So let's try to set aside the concept that
all Wiccans are simply dissatisfied Christians.

earth the way our ancestors did. Wicca embraces the
connection between man and nature, and encourages people to

The second thing that needs to be mentioned is that for the

find the Divine in all of nature's creations.
* Paganism and Wicca are pretty flexible. There is no

majority of Wiccans and Pagans, it's not a question of
running away from something, but instead moving towards

set doctrine, no universal big book of rules, and no church
hierarchy. This means that people can practice their faith

something. Those who were once Christian didn't simply wake
up one morning and say, "I hate Christianity, I think I'll

go be Wiccan." Instead, most of those people spent endless
years knowing they needed something other than what they

Pagan paths put a lot of emphasis on personal
responsibility. If someone makes a mistake, they must learn

had. They spent time seeking and searching, until they found
the path on which their spirit was most content.

to live with the results, and they can't weasel out of
things by saying it was the will of God.

Now, that having been said, why do people become Wiccans?

Regardless of why someone has become Wiccan or Pagan, it's

Well, the answers to that are as varied as the people who
are part of Wicca. Some possible reasons for becoming Wiccan

not uncommon to hear people say that finding their spiritual
path gives them a sense of "coming home," as though it was

include -- but are not limited to:

where they were supposed to be all along. They haven't
turned their back on another faith, but simply opened their

* Wicca has polarity between the male and female. Some
people find that this balance is more to their liking than a

spirits to something more.