Witchcraft has cast a spell on 10,000 Scots

Witchcraft is Scotland's fastest growing religion with more than 10,000 followers, a tenfold increase in the past decade, according to new figures.

Despite being outlawed for most of the past millennium, paganism and the occult are now casting a spell over thousands of Scots, particularly among the middle classes.

Last week Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England, said Christianity had been "vanquished" and replaced with the occult and new age beliefs.

While the worship of Wicca continues to rise north of the border, the Church of Scotland's share of the population has fallen from 40% to 35% in the past two decades. Those attending Roman Catholic mass have almost halved from 22% to 12% in the same period.
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The rise in alternative beliefs was recognised in this year's census, with two new voluntary questions, allowing people to indicate if they practised witchcraft and paganism.

The Pagan Federation, which has 5,000 active members, claims witches come from all backgrounds and social classes and include magistrates, doctors, police and lawyers.

"There are an awful lot of us about," said Andy Norfolk, spokesman for the Pagan Federation. "There has been a tenfold growth in the past decade. We believe there are now 225,000 pagans in Britain, of whom 108,000 are witches. And there are at least 10,000 witches in Scotland. The fastest rise has been among women, attracted by witchcraft's appeal to the feminine Earth Mother."

He added: "Surprisingly, there are a lot of people involved in IT industries who are witches. Quite why, I don't know. We don't all look unusual with hooked noses or warty features. Many people are pagans without their neighbour realising it.

"Witchcraft is not just about spells, it is a serious, nature-based, mystery religion in which the natural world is seen to be sacred."

He claims television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sabrina the Teenage Witch have had an impact in popularising the occult.
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Rev Dr Geoff Scobie, a lecturer in psychology and religion at Glasgow University, said more people were turning to alternative forms of worship because materialism did not always satisfy their spiritual needs. "Experiences which are not met by the material world - the death of a loved one or the birth of your first child - reveal there is a lot more to life than possessions," he said.
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