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All about irreverand-hugh - who has written 21 posts on Erin's Journal.
Posts by irreverand-hugh:
What Pagans Believe
A response to Keziah Thomas’ What Pagans Believe page.
When I originally wrote my response to Keziah Thomas’ “Ex-Pagan 4 Christ” site, I thought I had found nothing particularly offensive or wrong about her “What Pagans Believe” page. Upon revisiting, I have found many errors. The following are my responses to the entire article, here printed in full for ease of reference, in the hopes that Christians would stop being so sloppy with their research. As a practitioner of Neo-Paganism for several years, I feel it is important to counter such pages and publications as these with the facts. Enough is enough. Some of us Pagans are getting tired of the prejudices of those certain very vocal fundamentalist Christians who exhibit abject discomforts over the idea that other religions and ways of thought exist. To those types of Christian, I can only say that I hope you take your own moral injunctions seriously and stop bearing false witness against your neighbor.
What Do You Think?
Breaking Craft Stereotypes:
I recently overheard a bit of conversation that was surprising in its ignorance. It made me think “has it gotten this bad?”
I heard a couple of people talking about a mutual acquaintance or friend. One person said this mutual acquaintance had gotten in trouble with the law. Some sort of felony. We’ll leave off the details of the alleged offense as that is not here the issue. The issue is what came out of the other person’s mouth upon hearing of the crime allegedly committed.
“That’s impossible. He is Wiccan. They don’t do things like that.”
I shit you not. That’s what I heard and it made me sort of do a double take and start to really concentrate on my eavesdropping. It was easy enough to do, since I was sitting in a coffee shop with the conversation taking place at a table right next to me at my left. I merely kept staring into the book I was reading and pretended to concentrate while listening to them.
Wearing It On Your Sleeve
Breaking Craft Stereotypes:
I know you. Bunny.
You wear a bright new shiny silver pentacle proudly. You challenge anyone who even looks at you without smiling and tell them to stop persecuting you. You like donning all sorts of spooky and occult-looking accoutrements and talismans and then spit and cuss up a storm when the evil patriarchal bastards on the street look at you and ask you where the Halloween party is. You buy all sorts of books with crescent moons on the spine and pictures of scantily clad ‘witches’ on the covers and read them in public places just hoping someone will come up to you and ask you if you are Satanic so you can shoot them down with your “Bunny Witchcraft Catechism.” (You know the one. It goes “Wicca is not Satanic. Witches are good people. Our religion is older than yours.”) You go through extreme lengths to stage your proper “Coming out of the Broom Closet” event so that the maximum amount of people will now know that you are one of “those people.” And then when they dislike you for being one of those people, you rant and rave about tolerance and acceptance and how much their evil Xtianity has destroyed your people.
Stop Blaming Wicca
Granted there are a lot of fluffy writings published by writers trying to cash in on the rapid growth in numbers of people interested in Wicca. But have you ever stopped to look at some of the so-called druidic writings out there? (21 lessons of Merlin and books of that ilk, anyone? There are some more recent offending books, but I will leave those off for that supposed future time when I do book reviews, if I get around to it.) I have read a lot of spurious history, fanciful accounts of imaginary Celts, and gross mis-readings of surviving native Celtic cultural evidence, and a misunderstanding of the professional institutions that the Celts once included in the druidic rubric. How come only Celtic scholars and members of the native cultures ever seem to have anything to say about the fluffiness of many Neo-Pagan druids?
Polytheism
Some Thoughts and Ideas
Neo-Pagan Witchcraft / Wicca 101 Glossary Part 1
Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, and Pagan religions in general have undergone some startling changes and growth in the past few years. I used to laugh about the idea that Neo-Pagan expressions of
spirituality would become the dominant set of religious practices in any society. Now, due to the rapid growth in the number of people involved in Neo-Pagan religions, led by the popularity of Wicca, I still laugh but only
because such an impossible idea is being realized before my very eyes. Due to the rapid influx of newly identified Pagans, usually of Wiccan or (Neo-Pagan) Witchcraft traditions, many of us who can write have started doing so with an aim to share our spirituality with others who may need an introduction of sorts.
The following is such a work. There is a key difference however. In this work
I am attempting to clear up a lot of preconceptions and oft repeated stereotypes that even people in “the Craft” have. I also
wish to demolish some of the stereotypes and unfounded assertions that many so-called occult writers have about Neo-Pagan Witchcraft; Wicca in particular.
To start with I will list a glossary of sorts dealing with the most common terms. It is important that such common terms be defined
as clearly as possible. Remember that not all will agree with everything I have to say, but I will present explanations that are generally
agreed upon with the caveat that sometimes there is an exception or two.
In the history of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft (that is, Wicca and other Pagan Witchcraft traditions), three texts have been published which are absolutely essential reading for anyone who wants to form the most balanced
outlook. The first was Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon (original ed. 1979; 4th ed. 2006) which contains a wealth of information regarding Gardner’s ‘revival’ (most likely his creation) of Wicca, which is
definitely the first version of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft. The work also contains information on other forms of Neo-Paganism which contributed to the broader community at large.
The second work is Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon (1999) which is the most scholarly and detailed account of this phenomenon. Hutton’s work proves beyond any reasonable doubt that
Neo-Pagan Witchcraft is an absolutely modern creation and a lot of cherished assumptions held by both Wicca’s supporters and detractors are laid to rest.
The third work is Bonewits’s Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca (Citadel Press, 2006). Isaac Bonewits has been working on this book for decades and he was one of the first American Neo-Pagans to challenge some
of the assumptions and myths about Wicca that were being told and retold as fact by many who should have known better. He effectively demolished the “Old Religion” and “Burning Times” myths and was not well liked because of it
way back in the halcyon days of the 1970′s. His work is important in that it contains a concrete account of the creation of Wicca, the various strands of Witchcraft, definitions of Witchcraft terms, and
common ritual structures. If you are stressed for money and can only afford one of these books, Isaac’s is the one to buy and read. (Go to his site at Neopagan.net for it.)
Miss Family Witch
“I may have only been born yesterday, but I was up all night.”
The twists and turns of today’s Pagan “community” sometimes never cease to amaze me, or rather, piss me off. Since I happen to worship a Goddess of Discord (let’s not name any names here as I feel that today She is not in a good mood), when I get pissed off or irked/irritated, I let it all out. I try to be constructive about it, since discord is best used in creatively chaotic ways (though I will admit there are times when destruction is called for as well; this is also part of creation).
Impress Anti-Fluff Bunnies
An Irreverent Look at Ourselves and Our Supposed “Movement”
Which Degenerates into a Discussion of Theology.
The first rule is that you must bash the threefold rule and the Wiccan rede. This is essential in proving your anti-fluffy status. Once you can learn to parrot the correct words and cliches regarding the fluffiness of these two Wiccan concepts, you have proven to yourself and to others what a real serious Pagan you are, especially if you are an Asatruar or a Celtic Reconstructionist, but really especially if you consider yourself a Witch but not a Wiccan.
An Eclectic Discussion
Before we start. I want you to go get a dictionary and look up the word “eclectic.” I’ll wait.
Found it yet?
Good.
There has been some controversy with this word and with people going around calling what they do Eclectic Wicca. There are still a few hung-up British Traditional Wicca types who wrongly equate Eclectic Wicca with fluffy-bunnyism. This is far from the truth, even though many Bunnies hide behind the word ‘eclectic’ as a blanket excuse for their “Wicca-is-anything-I-want-it-to-be” ethic. Some people would go so far as to blame the fluffy-bunny phenomena on Eclectic practitioners. That is also not true. The fluffy-bunnies come from the spurious writings of certain authors and webpage creators.
Breaking Craft Stereotypes
An Army of Solitaries
