The Witches’ Voice: Comprehensive Online Pagan Services
The internet’s most popular pagan resource, The Witches’ Voice, has an online presence established more than a decade ago. The aim of the site is to foster local pagan community development by way of business, social, spiritual, and romantic relationships.
The Witches’ Voice strives to serve “Pagans, Heathens, Witches, and Wiccans,” welcoming all tolerant pagan voices.
Aside from serving as a directory to local services, The Witches’ Voice, or WitchVox, also houses user-generated content. This content includes spiritual news items, calls for action, essays, poetry, and lyrics.
The easily navigable site features content submitted by users on the front page. All users are allowed to submit essays, and there is a special section for teen voices. The site editor and poetry also hold their own content areas, respectively.
Unlike other websites and communities focused on discussion, the essay content format of The Witches’ Voice causes users to think out an article before posting. Submissions about hate or users that slander other beliefs or religions are not allowed at The Witches’ Voice, allowing the new user to feel comfortable about expressing his or her opinions.
This is particularly important, as users frequently stumble upon The Witches’ Voice to connect to other pagans or to find more information. A large variety of beliefs and lifestyles are represented here, as well as within the term ‘pagan,’ and The Witches’ Voice does a very fairy job of allowing each its own opinion.
While the overall control panel feel of The Witches’ Voice might seem daunting at first, try to rely immediately upon the menus to the upper center of the page. The information menu will link you to information about holidays, festivals, culture, books, and other resources. The world menu directs you to groups, shops, and services of local interest. To keep up to date, check out the news link, which lists news articles relating to freedom of speech and other pagan issues. To read what other pagan writers have to say, peruse through the voice menu. The TWV menu offers a site search and general FAQ information about the site; ‘shop’ will help you locate what you’re looking for, and ‘you’ will allow you to create and customize your own profile.
At any time, a user can click on his or her ever present state flag. The flag will redirect the user to his or her state’s website, where the user gains access to local events and services. From here, users can connect with others via WitchVox email. As with any social site, always use extreme caution when contacting others for the first time.
The moderators of The Witches’ Voice accept donations for running the site. They explicitly refuse any business partnerships and they forbid banner advertising on their site. Instead, local businesses receive links at the top of community pages for sponsoring the site.
Because The Witches’ Voice is intended as a resource and community gathering space, contributors do not receive payment. However, The Witches’ Voice is an excellent place for the pagan writer to develop writing skills, a fan base interested in pagan topics, and loyal readers that may follow writers elsewhere.
Site registration is simple and free; many users display craft names or pseudonyms, and a photo is not required.
