Paganism's culture war: The white supremacists versus the liberal left
The year is 1940.
Germany has already launched an invasion of France; the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg follow soon after.
Political tension crackles in the air and Britain is a nation holding its breath.
There are whispers that Hitler, leader of the fascist forces in Europe, is an occultist.
And so, Gerald Gardner looked around him - at the invasions, the bombs, the chaos, the death - and attempted to take things into his own hands.
He led his coven of witches into the woods.
Deep in the forest, the coven danced naked under the blue moonlight, casting a spell to prevent Hitler from invading Britain.
Over and over, they chanted these words into the darkness:
"You cannot cross the sea, you cannot cross the sea;
you cannot come, you cannot come."
With Gardner - and some argue, with that spell - the practice of Wicca, a form of modern paganism, began.
Dr. Ethan Doyle White, a historian and researcher, said originally, witchcraft was defined through its malign influence: "Historically, it was primarily associated with the negative or the malevolent use of supernatural powers: cursing, hexing, this sort of thing."
In the present day, witchcraft has taken on a more positive association, helped along by hit TV shows, like Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
But, just as the Wicca can trace their origins to a spell cast in the Second World War, another sect also finds its origins in the war - one with similarly malign purposes to the original medieval witches.
Their purpose is white supremacy.
According to Amy Jefford Franks, whose research focuses on white supremacy within Viking studies, a glance at recent white supremacist terror attacks sheds some light on how deep this supremacy goes.
Anders Breivik, the man responsible for the 2011 terror attack in Norway, named his gun after Odin's spear - Gungnir.
At the 2017 Unite the Right protests in Charlottesville, many alt-right protestors carried flags depicting Thor's hammer.
The man responsible for the 2019 New Zealand terror attack wrote at the end of his manifesto: See you in Valhalla.
More recently, the insurrection of the Capitol in Washington DC depicted one character who was hard to ignore: the QAnon Shaman, covered in tattoos of Norse symbology.
The strands of white supremacy in Norse Paganism weave their way back through time - back to Hitler.
Jefford Franks said: "You can trace the right-wing white supremacist ideas of Vikings being our 'true heritage' back to the 18th century.
"A lot of the ideas around Aryan culture are very, very closely linked to Vikings, and [there was] kind of a sense that the ancient Germanic people were very much based on Vikings."
Jefford Franks said, in this sect of Norse Pagans, there is a belief that Norse Paganism is Europeans' 'true heritage'. This idea is strongly linked to the belief that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are 'imported religions', that have come to Europe and 'destroyed' the native culture. These beliefs, in turn, have strong ties to the anti-Semitic rhetoric seen within many conspiracy groups, like QAnon.
According to Doyle White, the 2016 election did mobilise a lot of witches on both sides: "The Donald Trump election, mobilised a lot of people, pro- or anti-, it should be noted.
"There are quite a few magicians for Trump, who are performing rites to kind of reinforce Donald Trump and to protect Donald Trump."
As Doyle White said, there are two sides to the Pagan political coin. The other side are left-wing witches and Pagans, who identify strongly with feminism and have a large queer community.
According to Doyle White, unlike most religions, paganism, witchcraft, or Wicca, has almost no unifying beliefs: "There's not anything that's central to the belief. I think there needs to be self-identification of one as a witch, and identification of one's practice as witchcraft."
Claire Slack, a Master's student at the University of Hertfordshire, is researching modern witchcraft herself and identifies as a pagan.
She said: "Witchcraft covers a whole range of different kinds of practices, religious beliefs, all kinds of things. I identify as a pagan but not all witches will do. And just because you're pagan doesn't mean you practice witchcraft."
Paganism, then, is inclusive to its core: to qualify as a witch or pagan, all you need to do is believe that you are one.
In a survey conducted by the SWLondoner of 13 witches, 76.92% said they were more satisfied with their lives since they took it up.
In the same survey, 30.77% of witches surveyed used a spell to protect against the coronavirus.
From the historical persecution of witches, it is easy to see why witchcraft today is attractive to those who identify with the non-conformist struggle.
Jefford Franks, who is also host of the podcast Vikings are Gay!, said that there is also a large queer community in Norse Pagan religion.
They said: "You'll have a lot of trans individuals, you'll have a lot of generally queer individuals, quite a few asexual individuals who are very much drawn to generally the queerness of Old Norse religion. It is inherently a very queer religion."
According to Jefford Franks, sprinkled through the Norse myths and legends, there are hints that the Vikings were a gender-bending bunch.
"Odin, for example, practices a specific type of magic called Seid. It's primarily practised by women, but when men practice it, they are deemed to be queer and unmanly."
Jefford Franks also details legends where Loki, the trickster, changes into a female horse and becomes pregnant.
@sneakykev ##witchesoftiktok ##witch ##witchcraft ##witchtok ##witchcraft ##witchy ##witchtokrising ##spell ##witchy ##witchtiktok ##fyp ##foryou ##foryoupage ##fy
♬ original sound - Kevin
A witch conducts a 'mass-casting' on TikTok to cast a protection spell over the US election.
Credit: @sneakykev
A British Witch (The City Witch UK) teaches novices how to do a protection spell in these unprecedented times.
A British Witch (The City Witch UK) teaches novices how to do a protection spell in these unprecedented times.
The politics of these two groups - one, obsessed with the concept of white superiority, the other committed to anti-racism and inclusivity - could not be more different.
Slack, a practising pagan and folklore researcher, said seeing the Norse Pagan symbols at the Capitol riots was extremely upsetting for some pagans: "The symbols that are sacred, and mean an awful lot to you, are in the mass media as a real negative - storming the Capitol. That's really upsetting and shocking for a lot of people."
The witches, however, are fighting back: "There's also a massive movement to counteract that movement; to reclaim our traditions back from something that doesn't represent racist views."
According to Slack, there is a growing movement on Twitter to reclaim Pagan symbols back from the depths of supremacy.
Their slogan? Re-enchantment is Resistance.
The man who penned this slogan, author David Southwell, wrote of the movement:
"Our treasured territories of land and lore are now both haunted by spectres more terrible than even the best ghost story can conjure.
"How do we fight this? How do we fight monsters?
"As in the best stories: with magic."
Built with Shorthand