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Techno vs, Traditional Witchcraft

© Christy Huelsenbeck

With the beginning of a new millenium Witches are re-evaluating beliefs and practices that we have held and cherished. As we head into the next thousand years the question of technology vs. tradition is one that challenges us to grow beyond what we have known while still clinging to those things that we hold dear

Tradition is what binds us to the past and holds us steadfast in an ever changing world. It gives us comfort and trains our mind to anticipate what is to come. Tradition in ritual builds up energy. It's repetitious nature lulls the mind to higher states of awareness and allows the participant to become one with the ceremony. Witches who consider themseles strict Traditionalists take joy in the order that shines though in their spiritual life. With the dawn of the computer age, a new tool has opened up the average seeker to a wealth of information that otherwise would have been unobtainable. I believe it has been the computer that has forced many of us into a new age of techno-paganism. At one time a Book of Shadows, the book that describes a witches spiritual journey, was hand copied with great care. It contains all those things that are sacred to that witch such as dreams, spells, recipies and the like. A coven member would have copied their coven's Book of Shadows by hand upon initiation, and added their own things to personalize it. A solitary witch's book would contain all of their own rituals that they have compiled during their journey. But now it is not uncommon to hear of a 'Disk of Shadows' where all information is upon the disk, copied to a new disk for each coven member and printed out for use!

The World Wide Web has been a pivotal force in the growth of Witchcraft around the world. Fifty years ago the only way to become a witch was to find a coven to initiate you. Ten years ago when I began my journey one could find a few good books to guide you. Today, all one need do is open your browswer and you have a fount of information to choose from. Some of the informatoin is less that accurate and some is right on the money. But all is valuable in the fact that it is open to anyone who wishes to read it.

A techno-pagan may indeed use a 'Disk of Shadows' and have acquired a good bit of their knowledge from the World Wide Web while a traditionalist would have a hand copied Book from their coven and from other sources, The question that arises from this is how much tradition is good and how much technology is bad.

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