Many, if not most, Wiccans are fairly private and secretive about being
Wiccan. Why? In the past practitioners of magic, both good and bad,
were persecuted, forcing them into secrecy. After years of
secrecy very little is publicly known about Wicca, leaving it very
misunderstood. Though this is changing public misconceptions can make
it rather inconvenient, and sometimes rather dangerous to make your
faith publicly known. Most of the time it is not dangerous to be
publicly known.. but it is a hassle, because people will constantly be
asking you questions, looking at you strangely, etc. Occasionally it
can be downright dangerous, and nothing can make this clearer to you
than your first encounter with someone who seems to believe that you
are the devil incarnate, and stand there screaming loudly at you about
how whatever god they believe in is going to strike you down before you
can even open your mouth to say 'wait a second!'. This gets
truly dangerous when the person believes that they are the means by
which their god intends to strike you down and proceeds to start trying
to kill you... fortunately this is a rare occurrence, but many people
don't want to take the chance and keep their religion secret.
This leads to the expected (very much so) courtesy of not revealing the
fact that they are a Wiccan to others. Unless you know a particular
Wiccan friend is "public" for a fact (like I am public).. don't go
around telling other people. Them telling you that they are a Wiccan
is a matter of them trusting you...
-Matt
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