By Jake Pitre
Roman Catholic, but she never felt that she belonged or even that she was welcome.
“There was no place for me,” she says. “There was no room for women, for conversation, for debate. I think I became Wiccan because I was looking to be an active participant in my spirituality,” says Dalessio, who also feels that Wicca “chose” her. She now holds the position of high priestess of a small Ottawa-based coven, or group of witches. “We’re accountable to ourselves and our gods, nobody else, when it comes to deeds and morals — but the law of the land overrides.”
As high priestess, Dalessio organizes their rituals, which sometimes take place outdoors and include nudity, because, as Dalessio says, it is how they come into the world, so it is how they stand before their gods. The Ottawa group is small and mostly keep to themselves.
Wicca is an unorganized religion with ancient roots. It typically involves worshipping a mother goddess and a horned god. It is a form of modern paganism — an umbrella term for polytheistic spiritualities that embrace interconnectedness and, usually, a deep respect for the Earth.
Chief among those embracing that sense of interconnectedness are Millennials, those born in the 1980s and 1990s, says Sabina Magliocco, an anthropology professor at California State University and author of Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America. Her research focuses on modern pagan religions.
“Millennials are finding community online — on blogs and social networks — as more people want to practise as solitaries, unaffiliated with any group and, at most, coming out to attend public festivals,” Magliocco says.
In Canada, the pagan population grew from an estimated 21,085 in 2001 to 25,495 in 2011, according to Statistics Canada. But people such as Magliocco and Dalessio suggest the numbers are even higher because the individualistic faith doesn’t emphasize formal affiliation and includes many casual practitioners.
Data aside, one only has to look at pop culture to see the growing interest in paganism.
“Paganism has become fashionable and on-trend. You can buy tarot cards and crystals at Urban Outfitters, for goodness sake! That commercialization ends up attracting even more young people,” says Emma Paling, an editor of the style blog Witchslapped.
Aside from the influence of popular culture from such movies and television shows as The Craft and American Horror Story, the attraction to paganism may also be rooted in Millennials’ desire to explore spirituality outside mainstream religions, which have tended to exclude women from religious practices and have been accused of being indifferent to environmental issues.
“Someone may have moved from a mainstream religion like Christianity if they are an environmentalist or a feminist,” suggests Bart Cormier, a lawyer and Wiccan living in Ottawa. “From what I have read, in other religions, there’s no real space for women, and I think that bothers a lot of people. In a Catholic church, there’s no female priest. There’s something missing.”
But those in the Catholic Church strongly disagree with this evaluation.
Michelle Miller, coordinator of the young adult ministry at St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish in Ottawa, suggests that young people who are unsure should explore all possibilities, even traditional ones, before making the jump. “If community, ritual, and belonging are what people are looking for, we have that here,” she says.
Whether people find paganism through movies, books, or online forums, practitioners say they now share a sense of belonging in their new, alternative communities — a feeling they didn’t experience in traditional religious institutions.
“It’s a laissez-faire religion,” Cormier says about paganism. “If it works for you, it works. It’s an incredibly accepting environment. You really can come as you are.”