Wicca is a religion cloaked in mystery, and practitioners typically like to keep their worship to themselves — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of them out there, and even celebrities like to get a little witchy.
A couple members of the Hollywood elite have been pretty open about practicing Wicca, while others just seem to allude to it. Which, of course, leads to plenty of speculation and gossip.
We found some loud and proud Wiccans and Pagans (basically, people who worship a god or gods that don’t fall under a mainstream religion) and dug up some quotes from other celebs who just really make it seem like they are.
Originally published December 2015. Updated June 2017.
Cybill Shepherd
In 1996, Shepherd famously thanked the Great Goddess at the Golden Globe Awards.
“Thanks to the Great Goddess in all her guises. May she bring us peace, joy and righteous anger. Blessed be,” she said in her speech.
She has said she considers herself “a goddess-worshiping Christian Pagan Buddhist,” but in 2014, she came out and said she has turned back to Christianity. However, this was also for part of a Christian-themed film, so who knows what was for Hollywood and what Shepherd is actually practicing in real life. All I know is that she got away with saying “Blessed be” in front of millions of people without being trolled. If Twitter had been around in 1996….
Carlton Gebbia
Back in 2013, Housewives fans got to peek into the glamorous life of a Real Housewives real Wiccan.
Carlton Gebbia said during an interview with Bravo that she was excited (and nervous) to show off what it’s like raising her children, practicing magic and showing her Halloween (Samhain) rituals. She said she considers herself a “sole practitioner” and would label herself a Celtic Pagan witch who has practiced her entire life.
Fiona Horne
Horne was the lead singer of Def FX, an Australian-based industrial-dance-rock group (think Prodigy meets Garbage from the mid-’90s) and is very open about her beliefs.
She has actually written several books on her practice, including titles such as Witch: A Personal Journey, 7 Days to a Magickal New You and Witchin’: A Handbook for Teen Witches.
Gabrielle Anwar
The Burn Notice star was giving an interview, discussing how she would never get married again, when she let fly that she was Pagan.
She said, “I’m doing this work. I’m making dinner. I’m being a wife, trying to be as attractive as I can, trying to put out with my sexuality to the degree that will keep my husband interested in me and not in other women. I’m pulling my weight financially. I’m doing all this stuff, and I’m feeling this incredible inequality… And I’m a Pagan. I’m a… Pagan, and this isn’t for me. This institution that was invented to control women, and I’m not willing to be controlled any longer.”
Björk
We’ve always been in awe of Björk’s ethereal presence, so it’s not super-surprising that she’s into the occult.
“I think she took me to all the occult creatures of Iceland… I think I probably believe most of it, actually,” she said in a 1995 interview, via Rebel Circus. “I’ve got Pluto in a very important place, and that’s what I’m about. I have to re-create the universe every morning when I wake up. And kill it in the evening, which is a bit outrageous, but there you go.”
Björk’s first band was also called Kukl, which is the Icelandic word for “witchcraft.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
One of the beloved architect’s most famous quotes is, “I believe in God, only I spell it, ‘Nature.'”
We don’t know if Wright would consider himself Pagan, but that sentiment is at the heart of what it is to be Pagan or Wiccan. First and foremost, Paganism is a nature spirituality because Pagans regard nature as the physical manifestation of Spirit (God, Goddess, or both).
Viggo Mortensen
Mortensen might not be a full-blown Pagan, but his beliefs sure are full-blown agnostic pantheism.
During an interview, he was once directly asked about his religious beliefs. His reply was, “My answer would be what Walt Whitman said in Leaves of Grass, something to the effect of ‘I hear and behold that God is in every object, and yet I understand God not at all.”
Fairuza Balk
Balk has become somewhat of a Wiccan urban legend.
While largely known for her witchy role in The Craft as well as her goth looks, Balk has starred in many not-so-dark films (hello, she played Dorothy Gale in Return to Oz. OK, that was admittedly a pretty dark tale, too).
Balk actually became so intrigued by Wicca that she bought an occult store in Hollywood called Panpipes (which claims to be the nation’s oldest occult store). While there is wide speculation about her own actual practice, Balk has, at the very least, led folks to believe that she practices Wicca IRL, even if she has just become a keen supporter following her big-screen character’s affiliation with the religion.
Stevie Nicks
If there is anyone more witchy than Stevie Nicks, I just don’t know who it would be.
Nicks has come out several times and denied being a witch, but that isn’t to say she doesn’t believe in and/or follow a Pagan or alternative religion. After all, something keeps fanning these rumor flames, and it just might be Nicks herself. She’ll claim she’s not a witch but then turn right around and release a song called “Rhiannon,” giving everyone witchy whiplash. She’ll wear Wiccan-inspired jewelry, but she still maintains she is not a practicing witch.
You stay in the broom closet, Stevie. It’s OK. You are the Goddess of Rock no matter where you are.
Leave a Comment