Thank you for your candor. My experience w/ wiccans has been limited to rebelious teenagers. Your 4th paragraph wasn't exactly what I had in mind re: alternative ( a bit extreme) but would it be fair to call it non-traditional religion?
"...but would it be fair to call it non-traditional religion?"
According to some, Wicca was invented in about 1957 by an English perv/occultist named Gerald Gardner. According to others, it has existed in an unbroken line since Europe's pagan days. Then there are the Heathens, who usually bitterly resent being lumped in with Wiccans and pagans, who research ancient texts and try to recreate our ancestral religions as they were 1,000 years ago or more. I tend to believe the Gardnerian-invention theory.
Nevertheless, it does work (if "work" is defined as "giving people something to believe in and providing a moral code" or "asking your gods for something and they give it to you".
Believe me. I'm as tired of meeting high-level magicians that work in the video store as you are.
;-/