Pagan Misconception #5

Pagan Misconception #5 – Pagans are trying to lure minors to Paganism through popular books such as Harry Potter.

With the release of each Harry Potter book, comes a media storm of people claiming that Pagans are using these books to “recruit” new followers by showing how “cool” magic is. This, of course, isn’t true. While there are a few Christians that argue that Harry Potter is full of Christ symbolism, there are many more that point to them as examples of how kids can learn magic, including ceremonial magic. To me it seems that if parents didn’t think that these books (or any other books) were inappropriate for their kids they would not let read these.

Pagans, themselves, do not have anything to do with this particular series. In fact, the author J. K. Rowling, states that she is Christian. So how are these books being used as recruitment tools? Indirectly, according to people that like to push this misconception. They are saying that kids are reading these books and getting ideas, especially about magic.

These books do not represent Paganism as a religion and are not being used by Pagans as recruitment tools. Yes, these books have a few pagan themes, but so do other books such as those of the Narnia series. If a child becomes interested in learning, and tries to seek out a teacher based on these books, they will have difficulty. The truth is that Paganism is a religion that doesn’t recruit and many Pagans, individuals or groups, will not teach minors.