The hooked-nose, wart-wearing, poison-toting, green-complexioned witch is passe. She's now a midriff-bearing, lip-gloss-wearing, good-deed-doing witch.
Thanks to television shows such as "Charmed," "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" and "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," and such movies as "Practical Magic," good witches are casting a spell on teenagers.
And witchcraft's intrigue will get another boost this fall as the "Harry Potter" movie hits the big screen.
The Wicca religion that embodies the traditions of witchcraft is based on the belief that the divine is present in the world, in ourselves, and others. The spiritual focus of Wicca is to experience and to know the Divine and to have communion with that divinity. The practices of witchcraft enable Wiccans to commune with the Sacred.
"Wicca is the fastest growing religion in the U.S.," says Phyllis Curott, a high priestess and author of Book of Shadows, and the just-published Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic, (Broadway Books, $25). ''Today, there are over 4 million practitioners.''
Curott says the explosive growth of Wicca is due to pop culture's positive portrayal of witches and witchcraft as well as women's desire to find a religion that does not oppress them and does not preach that only the male is divine.
"Wicca is of great interest to teenage girls and young women because it is empowering to women. It is a religion that empowers them rather then demeans them," says Curott.
"Wicca has largely been formed by women in the past 20 years. It is a natural outgrowth of the feminist movement. Women went looking for a spiritual home and couldn't find one in the existing religions, so they found it in the ancient religion of the great Goddess and created an image of the divine that is not exclusively male."
Curott came to Wicca in her early 20s, when she was looking for a religion. "I didn't believe that God rewards when humans are good and punishes when we are bad," says Curott. "I believe that everything is in our capability, and I wanted a religion that supported this idea."
Curott, who is in her mid-40s, has a law degree from New York University.
"Initially, I thought magic seemed preposterous. I was raised on the negative stereotypes of witches, but then I started to do a lot of reading and I saw that the struggle that women had over 500 years ago during the witch craze was similar to the struggle I had today as a woman--desire for equal pay, control over my own body, and respect in the courtroom," says Curott.
"Once I saw all those stereotypes evaporate, I realized I was a witch. It was the affirmation of the lost power of women. I started to see the stereotype for what it was--a projection of the fear of women and their power and sexuality."