Commonly Asked: Are Witches/Wiccan/Pagans associated with Satanism or Devil-Worship?

Witches and Wiccans are not Satanists, have nothing to do with anything Satanic. Why, you ask? Here are 2 reasons:

Reason #1. Witches have a whole different set of beliefs than Satanists. Witches and Wiccans have a group of spiritual laws they abide by, some use the Wiccan Rede, some use the Rede as a base and expand upon it, but the laws read like this:

The Wiccan Rede: 

The Wiccan Pentagram

"Bide within the Law you must, in perfect Love and perfect Trust.
 Live you must and let to live, fairly take and fairly give. 
For tread the Circle thrice about to keep unwelcome spirits out.
 To bind the spell well every time, let the spell be said in rhyme. 
Light of eye and soft of touch, speak you little, listen much.
Honor the Old Ones in deed and name,
 let love and light be our guides again. 
Deosil go by the waxing moon, chanting out the joyful tune.
Widdershins go when the moon doth wane,
 and the werewolf howls by the dread wolfsbane. 
When the Lady's moon is new, kiss the hand to Her times two.
 When the moon rides at Her peak then your heart's desire seek. 
Heed the North winds mighty gale, lock the door and trim the sail.
 When the Wind blows from the East, expect the new and set the feast. 
When the wind comes from the South, love will kiss you on the mouth.
 When the wind whispers from the West, all hearts will find peace and rest. 
Nine woods in the Cauldron go, burn them fast and burn them slow.
 Birch in the fire goes to represent what the Lady knows. 
Oak in the forest towers with might, in the fire it brings the God's
 insight. Rowan is a tree of power causing life and magick to flower. 
Willows at the waterside stand ready to help us to the Summerland.
 Hawthorn is burned to purify and to draw faerie to your eye. 
Hazel-the tree of wisdom and learning adds its strength to the bright fire burning.
 White are the flowers of Apple tree that brings us fruits of fertility. 
Grapes grow upon the vine giving us both joy and wine.
 Fir does mark the evergreen to represent immortality seen. 
Elder is the Lady's tree burn it not or cursed you'll be.
 Four times the Major Sabbats mark in the light and in the dark. 
As the old year starts to wane the new begins, it's now Samhain.
 When the time for Imbolc shows watch for flowers through the snows. 
When the wheel begins to turn soon the Beltane fires will burn.
 As the wheel turns to Lamas night power is brought to magick rite. 
Four times the Minor Sabbats fall use the Sun to mark them all.
 When the wheel has turned to Yule light the log the Horned One rules. 
In the spring, when night equals day time for Ostara to come our way.
 When the Sun has reached it's height time for Oak and Holly to fight. 
Harvesting comes to one and all when the Autumn Equinox does fall.
 Heed the flower, bush, and tree by the Lady blessed you'll be. 
Where the rippling waters go cast a stone, the truth you'll know.
 When you have and hold a need, harken not to others greed. 
With a fool no season spend or be counted as his friend.
 Merry Meet and Merry Part bright the cheeks and warm the heart. 
Mind the Three-fold Laws you should three times bad and three times good.
 When misfortune is enow wear the star upon your brow. 
 Be true in love this you must do unless your love is false to you. 
These Eight words the Rede fulfill: 
 'An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will' "
Satanists have their own set of principles, and read thus:
The Nine Satanic Statements: 
1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence! 

2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams! 
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit! 
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates! 
5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek! 
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires! 
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all! 
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification! 
9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years! 
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the two are completely different  spiritual sects with VERY different belief systems; Wicca/Witchcraft is a wholly nature-based religion that is polytheistic at it's core, representing both the dark and the light, male and female aspect of everything in nature while Satanism represents the opposite of Christianity--emphasis on the carnal wants and desires free will gives us as a species, the human side of religious belief, the metaphorical use of deity instead of the literal.

Reason # 2:  Early Christian missionaries created the image of the "Devil or Satan" from the Early Pagan God in order to convert people to Christianity, whereas Satanists have recognized this, and many Christian groups haven't, and have chosen to remain Atheists or Agnostics.

Early Christian Conversion of Pagans

Wiccans/Witches/Pagans believe in the old gods, one of whom is known as the "Horned-God" and by a variety of names given to it by pagan tribes throughout history, (for more details on this topic as I explore it, see Raymond Buckland's book Complete Book of Witchcraft). In the early days of Christianity, it was believed that the only way to convert heathen tribes was to show them that Christianity wasn't all that different from their own beliefs, impressing upon them the idea that Jesus Christ was their representation of the Male Good Deity and Virgin Mary, the Female Good Deity, and their Almighty God was the same as their "All-Encompassing Spirit", but worshipping the Male God as a Horned Beast was evil and so unless you wanted to die a horrific death you would change the names of your deities, destroy your old temples and build new ones in the name of the Christian "deities". This is one of the biggest reasons that so-called taboo Christian belief systems (like the Jehovah's Witnesses) do not celebrate any traditional Christian holiday other than Passover, because even they

Anton LaVey, the Founder of the Modern Church of Satan

recognize that Christianity ripped off the pagans thousands of years ago and choose to not celebrate any traditions with a pagan beginning.

Satanists, however, view Satan as exactly as I have described in Reason #1, and it all boils down to one thing-- Satan, for Satanists, is not a horned god of old, but all the things in humanity Christian, and even Wiccans at times, suppress. They turn away from the Christian devil and the Wiccan horned god and look for the ideal of deity in themselves.