The media loves the word ‘evil.’ There are evil yobs, evil hoodies, evil thugs… you name it and somewhere or other they will have designated it evil.

But what is evil? And is there more of it about now than there used to be?

Some Pagans, particularly Wiccans, really get into a bit of a tizz when you mention the word evil. The root of the problem is that traditionally – well, for the past 1500 years in the UK, give or take a weekend or two – evil is associated with the Devil. And Wiccans, together with many pagans (including myself) don’t actually believe in a devil.

The reason for this is that when Christianity ousted the earlier pagan faiths (of which there were many strands, not just one) it appropriated sacred sites, even some deities (Brigid the goddess became St Brigid for example) and Christianised them. But some deities weren’t so easy to appropriate. So the Christian missionaries took the view that what you cannot appropriate must be demonised. And the pagan Horned God (who goes by many names, but the most popular are Herne and Cernunnos) therefore became the Devil (Satan, Lucifer. Beelzebub etc.)

So far so good. Pagans and Wiccans don’t usually believe in a ‘devil.’ My own view is that the devil is an easy cop-out for people who don’t or won’t take responsibility for their own actions. When someone has committed a horrible crime and says ‘The Devil made me do it,’ it’s just a way of denying their own culpability. And a way of trying to portray themselves as a basically good person who yet did something evil.

This is where the problem gets a bit sticky. Can a good person do something evil? Or does doing evil mean you are an evil person? The answer – as with so many things – is yes and no. It all depends what you mean by the word evil. And by dishing out the adjective to all and sundry you make its meaning considerably less clear.

For me, doing something evil means doing something outside the normal realms of ‘bad.’ In the confessional, children kneel and say ‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned,’ then often go on to confess a load of trivial nonsense which really doesn’t deserve the name of ‘sin’ at all. Evil however is something so alien to our natures that it shouldn’t come easily to us.

There was a case in the papers yesterday of a woman who collapsed and died at the door of her home and while she lay there dying (or dead) some youths tipped a bucket of water on her, sprayed her with shaving foam and urinated on her. This may not have ranked as evil in the sense of murder or kidnap, yet it was so far outside society’s norms that it was indeed an evil act. People’s normal response to someone in need is to help. Yes, I am an old cynic but I see it every day. Someone trips over a paving stone and people where I live hurry to help, they don’t spit on them.

And for me this is a good definition of evil – it is way outside our normal reaction to everyday occurrences.

But unfortunately, many Pagans and Wiccans are so terrified of being named ‘Devil Worshippers’ that they go a step further. For them, not only does the Devil not exist, nor does evil itself. And that I think is delusional. Evil has always existed. There have always been acts that are so far outside the norm they are impossible to justify. That’s why oppressive regimes first begin by demonising and dehumanising the enemy, because then the normal rules of society no longer apply.

Denying the existence of evil is just the other end of the spectrum from applying it to all and sundry!

Seeking the Green by Tylluan Penry, published soon by Capall Bann. For more info please watch this space!