Texts
Both Christianity, Neopaganism, and Charmed place great emphasis on a spiritual book of worship. Christians worship the teachings of the Bible; the sacred scriptures of the Christian religion. Neopaganism have a book of shadows that contains information on their magic, beliefs, and tradition.The witches of Charmed possess a Book of Shadows; a scared book that contains not only witch guidelines, spells, potion recipes, and incantations, but is also a source of heritage passed to others connecting future generations to their ancestry. Similar to a Neopagan book, the construction of it is completely individualistic. It is created by locality without a lineage of witches, rather than one centre doctrine that is dispersed between its followers like Christianity. The sisters’ power and allegiance to witchcraft stems from their Book for Shadows. Christians honour their religious text through worship, such as weekly mass congregation at a Church. Charmed rarely show worshiping, whereas within Christianity it can be a intricate part of their lives, it is how you experiences your faith by worshiping the teachings. The sister witches also normally do not participate in mass congregation with fellow believers. This parallels Neopaganism as worship can be a solo act or a group activity. However, Charmed differs because outside their love lives, they only really interact with other magical beings for greater good crusades, not for worship. Once a threat is terminated, they integrate themselves back into a “normal non-magic life.”
Christians live by following the Bible’s teachings, more specifically by the Ten Commandments. These are guidelines to living a proper Christian life, such as belief in one God, do not take the lords name in vain, etc. Within Neopaganism, focus is more on “ethic of personal responsibility. In Charmed, there are guidelines as well, but the vital one that emerges in every episode is do not act for personal gain. Personal gain is using magic solely for the purpose to better yourself. This is not allowed in their belief system, as it a slippery slope into evil. Similar to Christians who stray from a commandment and must repent to learn their lesson, in Charmed when the sisters have used magic for themselves there are always consequences. For example, when Paige uses a spell to make a co-worker’s, who degrades women, behaviour turn back on himself, but the consequence was that Paige’s breasts double in size making her an object to be leered at. Neopaganism more focuses on living life in harmony with nature and other humans, and to focus on one’s own personal connection with the faith.
