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Review of : Witchcraft and Wicca (Issue reviewed #8, Samhain to Imbolc 2003/2004) A5,  88pages. £2.99 from Children of Artemis, BM Artemis, London, WC1N 3XX.

This is the glossy A5 full-colour house magazine of the Children of Artemis, a British Wiccan organisation which is successfully turning a religion into a commodity. I’ve read four issues so far and they’re all pretty much of a piece. In fact so similar are the issues, that Issue 8’s Problem Page, “Aunt Tabatha’s mailbag is identical to the one in issue 7 apart from the photograph of “Aunt Tabatha” who has morphed into somebody completely different. This is indicative of the attitude to illustrations throughout the magazine. They may feature attractive women, but there’s no guarantee that the person photographed has anything to do with the surrounding text.

Another feature of the magazine is that it is used extensively and exclusively for the promotion of “Children of Artemis” events, including their increasingly popular “Witchfests”, educational courses and membership benefits. Anyone looking for information about any other Wiccan groups, events or periodical publications will be find nothing of use here. This also applies to certain articles, including “Cyber witch” which can only find space to talk about CoA’s own web site. No guide here to the immense number of pagan and Wiccan sites that you can find on the web these days.

To be fair though, the magazine does also features quite a few informative articles, all colourfully illustrated. For example Prof Ronald Hutton starts a short series on C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein with a discussion of Lewis’s early paganism and later Christian “conversion” and the strains this gives rise to in his writing. There’s an introductory article “What exactly is Wicca?” by Fred Lamond. There’s a guide to Wiccan ritual tools and an article on the festival of Samhain, together with suggestions for a suitable ritual. All very good practical advice for those who feel the need to do such things. Another practical article is on Cord Magic, whereby tying knots in a cord or piece of rope is supposed to have magical effects.

On a personal level, there is an article on how differences in religious belief (i.e. if your partner isn’t a pagan or Wiccan) can impact on close relationships. The advice here is actually quite sensible. Another personal item is Becky’s account of her coming out as a witch at school and at home. Whether the young people used in the photograph accompanying the piece are those in the article is not made clear. They could just as easily be “models”. Which cannot be said of Galatea’s interview (and cover photo). Galatea does belly dancing though the photos show her in full dark blue velvet faux medieval drag. Interesting interview though!

There is a whole section “Art Gallery” devoted to adverts / notices for pagan artists, where you can play “spot the stereotype”. The visual emphasis is reinforced by an article on “Alternative Fashion “ by Rachel Van Asch, who also contributes a full-page advert for her garments.

The religious aspects of Wicca is discussed in several articles including Iain Lowe’s on the Morgans of Avalon, and in particular “The Goddess of the Western Isle”; Mary Rands writes from a personal angle on “Aspects of the Crone” and Kala Trobe goes into the relationship between “The Witch and Hinduism” with a focus on the god Siva. A more rational approach is provided by Mani Navasothy’s “Magical Empowerment in a God-less Universe”, which highlights the problematic aspects of a practice which, however indirectly, appeals to some form of higher power for its effects  - which is even more problematic if that higher power doesn’t even exist!

There’s also some other bits and pieces, a page on runes for example, two pages of book reviews, which are uniformly positive, but for some reason have no indication of the r.r.p. (I know the Internet means you often don’t have to pay the full price but printing it is helpful.) There are also some music reviews and a review of three Tarot packs, including a revisionist pack based on Wiccan themes called the “Tarot of the Old Path”. (I once toyed with the idea of a Tarot based on the class struggle but could never be bothered to do much about it.)

And then there’s all the adverts. I suppose it is a sign of the success of a magazine that about 25% is taken up with adverts (even if half are from the publishers in one form or another!) The range of goodies available covers most of the “needs” of a witch – cauldrons, athames (knives to you), capes, herbs, broomsticks, “Essential” Oils (and probably plenty of not so essential ones),  runes, wands, bondage gear, spell kits, jewellery, costumes, “shamanic supplies” (including reindeer’s piss no doubt!), CD’s books and all the rest. How medieval witches coped without spending a small fortune on their gear is beyond me. As I said at the beginning, this magazine can be seen as turning a religion into a commodity and doubtless someone somewhere is making a fair bit of dosh doing it. (About the only thing L. Ron Hubbard got right was saying that if you really want to be rich, start your own religion.)

At £2.99 the magazine is actually not badly priced for what you get and back issues are even cheaper. (3 for £7.00). If you are a real sucker for this sort of material you can sign up for a year by paying £12.00 and then you get two magazines, 4 newsletters and various other bits and pieces. And discounted entry to the Witchfests (where you buy even more of this stuff.)

There is certainly a gap on the market for a well-produced Wiccan / pagan magazine, but this one isn’t it, as it is too-closely tied to one firm. I look forward to a similar magazine which isn’t meant as a promotional tool for its publishers but is genuinely aimed at servicing the pagan / Wiccan community and making it more accessible to a wider audience without diluting it. 

Not bad, but could be so much better.

 6/10

 Richard Alexander