The Power Trippers

Author: By Weatherlight

Having and maintaining a site that aims to help practitioners, learners and researchers will have its downsides. One of those are having inquiries and calls from people who the genuine practitioners often label as the ‘power-trippers’ as I have just learned. It has been quite popular that not all Wiccan practitioners are of genuine spiritual intent. Some of those are just in to be cool and different. And some are fanatics who are unable to separate fantasy from reality. Going back to my psychology books, I will try to classify them into the following groups and maybe the reader will be able to tell which kind of witch their friends are.

The Authorities
Probably why the word ‘power-tripper’ came about. When you meet these kinds of people, they tend to say and ask: “Oh you’re Wiccan too! Do you have these? And that? Or these? You know you should have these and that and those…” and sometimes followed by “…you’re doing it wrong, it should be like this…” and, “…in order to be a true witch, you must ____ and ____ and _____...” and then they go “According to (insert favorite author here), you must _______”.

Like who gave these people authority to dictate what must be or not? These people kind of reminds me of Silver Ravenw… forget it. A fellow Wiccan had this experience with a popular name lady witch here and that so-called authority-lady told my friend that she ought not to eat pork because they are the lowest form of mammals. Like who gave her the right to rank animals? Being Wiccan, I would think nature and the animals are equal. What kind of cult propaganda is she trying to inject to the public here? She and Silver Raven**** and their bigotry are the major reasons people who get into the craft are less enlightened.

The Persecuted
A probable match for the person with the holier-than-thou attitude is the person with the more-persecuted-than-thou complex. These are the paranoid wiccans who seem to feel that everyone’s else who isn’t wiccan are out to persecute them. They tend to attract attention ironically by openly proclaiming that they are a witch and when they are asked difficult questions, they get the opportunity to lash out with: “Why are you persecuting me?” or “You’re just persecuting me!”.

Reality check, this is the 21st century and the Christians (assuming they are the usual suspects) aren’t going to get anything from persecuting “pagans” anymore – since they themselves practice a lot of pagan-styled traditions anyway. Still, people with persecution complex still feel like they are part of a big divine plan as they tend to develop the revolutionary idealism prevalent in totalitarian movements of the 19th century.

The Messianic
Another example of those who fail to divorce reality from fantasy - even more than the persecuted, these few individuals really get the feel of being part of a big divine plan or design. They get visions or whatever you call it that they are somewhat “chosen” to fulfill some destiny or even worse, they are convinced that the deities manifest themselves into their beings. Ironically, they are the ones who most lack in knowledge and history regarding their faith. Personally, if I were to have a leader, I’d like my leader to be able to quote Kant, Gardner or even Hitler at least to prove their knowledge of philosophy or the religious movements.

Basically, a leader cannot be a leader unless he or she has matured, gained the knowledge and worked for it over years of study and research.

The Illusioned
Opposed to disillusioned – they are not necessarily un-enlightened. The problem is, they might have taken things over zealously bordering on fanaticism. Usually the young brainwashed individuals tend to have this complex because of their lack of ability and/or opportunity to live in the real world yet. For them, it is a game turned into faux-reality.

Ever got this line? “Ei, you can’t perform a spell, I did a binding spell on you… let me unlock it first…. There it’s unlocked, you can go cast a spell now…”

Sounds very familiar with “…I’ll go slice you with my light-saber and will your sword to come to my hand using the force…”

They tend to dream every single night and have these interpreted on a daily basis. Like every dream has a meaning other than just random visions. They are convinced they will soon be able to shoot fire balls through their fingers.

Once they mature, the reality sets in and that they are not the all-powerful beings they thought they were. And they become disillusioned. They soon get the feeling of meaningless-ness. Imagine how it feels believing in something all your youth and suddenly have these beliefs proven wrong or even worse, those beliefs fail you. The betrayals of faith these individuals will imminently face are a much more dangerous prospect than their current “brainwashed” state.


These people will definitely need help at some point before they cause harm to themselves or to others. A simple binding spell will not be enough since the issue needs to be acknowledged internally and they have to go through some sort of acceptance of reality. A psychologist or an equivalent priest or priestess may do the job but it will not be a light undertaking that anyone can take as a joke. Should you have a friend who has such tendencies, just keep him/her in touch with reality and the way we must properly live in it.


About the Author: WEATHERLIGHT is a designer working as a project manager for an IT development company. He has always been fascinated by magic and illusions (stage magic) and since high school, he has been a collector of magic effects, props and paraphernalia and has performed for events. Also, he writes for and maintains www.thestorycircle.net, an online magic shop and community and a portal to his researches in Wicca and natural Magic.

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