I came across “Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies” today. It’s difficult to look at any neo pagan online community without finding frequent references to Joss Whedon’s television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” One of the most often used quotes about wicca, for example, is this exchange between the characters Willow and Buffy after Willow has attended a meeting of her college wiccan group:

Buffy: So not stellar, huh?
Willow: Talk. All talk. Blah Blah Gaia. Blah Blah Moon…menstrual life force power thingy. You know, after a coupla sessions I was hoping we could get into something real but . . .
Buffy: No actual witches in your witch group?
Willow: No. Bunch of wanna-blessed-bes. You know, nowadays every girl with a henna tattoo and a spice rack thinks she’s a sister of the Dark Ones.

The effect of films like “The Craft,” “Practical Magic,” and the television series “Charmed” and “Buffy…” is far reaching. Social networks, retail suppliers and bloggers adopt a posture either in favor of or opposed to these depictions and construct identities in line with or opposed to them. There seems to be very little terrain online that hasn’t been touched by “slayage.”

My research this summer has been focused on NRMs. Most recently, I’ve been looking at Neopaganism. This includes the general new age-isms, the 2012 movement, some UFO religions, Druids, Ásatrú, Ceremonial Magick and Wicca (in no particular order).

Many of these NRMs reside at an intersection of religion and technology. Witchvox, a “neopagan news/networking” web site, lists “Wicca: A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner” by Scott Cunningham as the “Top Choice” book on Wicca for all age groups based on member voting. One of Cunningham’s follow up books discusses how Wiccan magic is a kind of technology, comparing magic to an operation on a calculator:

“Disbelief also isn’t a satisfactory reason for magical secrecy. The disbelief of others has as much effect on magic as does an unschooled person’s doubt that a calculator can add 2 and 2 to equal 4. The calculator will work, regardless of the observer’s doubt. So, too, will magic.

There are other possible reasons why the calculator won’t perform this simple operation: faulty microchips; low battery power or a lack of batteries; an operator who pushes the incorrect buttons, or a button turned off. Still, observer’s disbelief alone can’t be the case. The same is true of magic. Properly performed, magic will be effective. If energy is raised within the body, programmed with intent, and projected toward its goal with the proper force and visualization, it will be effective.”

From “Living Wicca,” Scott Cunningham