Hawk’s Cry

Witches on TLC

The TLC cable channel aired a new episode of My Unique Family last night, featuring a family of witches. My wife (Bella) and I watched it, wondering how a relatively mainstream television channel would portray modern witchcraft.

We were pleasantly surprised. The show’s producers did an excellent job of showing what witches did without sensationalizing or exaggerating as most media does. The show followed the family of Rev. Kendra Vaughan Hovey, founder and pastor of the First Church of Wicca in Duxbury, MA.

Though I feel Rev. Hovey is more blatant in her community (which she admits is small and Christian conservative on the show), she does present a very good face for Wicca and witchcraft. She, through the show, demonstrates how witches are ordinary people who simply practice another religion, not something to fear.

I really liked how the show interviewed non-Wiccans in her community too, including people who think her family is evil, along with her Christian neighbor. The neighbor really showed me how Wiccans can work to be included in communities. She said that Hovey’s family, though they are witches, are good neighbors who have helped her and their neighborhood. It shows how if one is a witch, being a good neighbor is very important.  Your neighbors might think your religious practices are strange (or even evil), but they will tolerate you and accept you if you act as a good, responsible neighbor.

I also found the church’s Samhain ritual/party to be interesting. Though I am not a fan of watering-down witchcraft, especially solemn holidays as Samhain, but their inviting and including the non-Wiccan community and religious leaders is an excellent way to help witchcraft be more tolerated. Many non-Wiccans at the party said that they were surprised at how they previously misunderstood witchcraft after they saw the Samhain ritual. We should work to invite more non-Wiccan community members to rituals to help them learn about us in a positive way. I just personally would not do it as a party at Samhain, unless there was a separate ritual that was more solemn.

If you can catch the rebroadcast of this show, I highly recommend it.