When the discussion topic of “can I charge for the reading I did” comes up in most forums, it really turns into a free for all fight. There are the proponents of “yes you may” and the opponents who say “no you may not”. I can see both sides of this discussion and I offer my own humble thoughts here.

First, the side that opposes payment.

Most often they point out that you are using a gift from the deities and that, as such, you will “contaminate” it by having money change hands for using it. They point out that since the future is always in flux and you could be wrong, that it is impossible to guarantee that you are accurate or that what you state will happen. They also (if they know their craft history) might point to the “ardanes” and show that Gardner didn’t want the Arte being sold, meaning that by his rules that one could not take money in exchange for the casting of a spell. They also point out that it’s traditional.

Next the side that proposes payment.

The proponents will point out that it’s only fair to exchange money for the work of readings or spells. I mean, they worked for the money; therefore it’s an energy exchange, them giving their energy (money) for yours (spell). That in those who have used their spells or their readings to make a living, that it didn’t corrupt them or make them less of a priest or priestess. There are assertions that you can exchange service for service, mowing a lawn, cooking a meal or what have you.

My opinion?

I will accept money for my service. I may not do it for religious services, like a Handfasting or a Wiccaning, definitely not for a Sabbat or Esbat, but I will take money for a Tarot reading (as shown by the ads I have for just that service). My reasoning is simple.

One goes to a lawyer to have legal documents drafted. It is his skills that create a binding legal document that says what you want done after you die, or that you have now set up a trust fund and so on. You pay him. You go to a doctor for medical treatment. You give your money to him, he gives you medicine and he tells you if you need to lose weight. You take your car to a mechanic. You give them money, they repair your car and give it back to you. You buy food from the grocer who takes your money and gives it to a farmer who gives him the fruits of his land, which the grocer gives to you so you may eat.

Where is it mandated that these professions must give away their skills or their knowledge or their components? Why should the doctor fix you for free? Should the mechanic expend several hours of work on your car and use many, many parts to correct a problem in your car for free?

It would be nice to have a communistic society where that happened, but it’s not reasonable. Greed and sloth, many human failings as well as the need to acquire all conspire to make most communistic groups fall apart fairly quickly. But this is neither here nor there.

Selling professional skills is a normal part of society. An author would count it theft if you took their words and republished them without his permission and without royalties being paid to him, after all, he wrote those words. The Music Industry has a long history of going after people who take their work and who don’t pay for it. So why should I, as a Tarot reader, be expected to give away MY professional skill?

It is a skill. I may have a talent for reading the cards, but there still has to be a connection to the Universe, an intuitive link, that will help me interpret the card correctly when they come up in a reading. I also must study and learn not only surface meaning of cards, but their deeper symbolism, expending my time and energy, something of value to me at least. I have to be aware of the cards, I have to be aware of the client, I have to be aware of the connection to everything, and I have to know when to depart from the “book standard” reading. I also have to supply my cards, replace those cards when necessary and invest in books to give nuances in meaning and so on. This is a pursuit that could take quite some time and significant amounts of energy and money.

Shouldn’t I be reimbursed for all that?

Gypsies certainly were. They would refuse to do a spell or a Tarot reading without an exchange of money first. Temples did this also. There were some temples in the past that would do oracular readings for money (or other service) for the clients. The Witches of the past did this too, taking their “payment” in many forms, just one of them being cash.

It is true that in a village, one can do a reading for someone in need and let the community take care of you in exchange, that the reading would be your contribution to the whole. I can see this happening in a coven situation where there are only a few members and each of them contributes to the health and welfare of the whole. I can see the one who is talented with the Tarot cards giving readings to the rest of the members of the coven, just as the High Priestess gives her home for the Covenstead, the High Priest supplies the candles and other alter items, the Maiden prepares the feast for everyone. I can see that and understand it totally.

I can also see in the “brotherhood of card readers” one that is skilled at doing readings being generous and allowing another who has a similar set of skills to do a reading for them. I exchange my Tarot readings for a rune reading or a dowsing. That is an equal exchange of effort and energy.

Those special cases are fine, but to believe that because I am Wiccan I must give my skills (which have taken me a lifetime to learn) to whoever asks, for nothing more than a smile, is asking me to bastardize my skills as nothing more than a sideshow trick.

Part of human nature is to value little what comes for no cost. The car that Mommy and Daddy gave to their child has little intrinsic value to a teen; therefore it is of no consequence when it is wrecked. But the car you bought for yourself is taken care of, it is pampered, it is treated like it was a one of a kind vehicle. Because YOU paid for it. It was your talents, your skills and labor that gained you the money to purchase that vehicle and therefore you prize it. That is the way it should be.

A reading or a spell is one of the most personal things one can do. A spell to protect, a spell to bring revenge, a spell to help someone over come an inhibition are all very personal and the person requesting them MUST hold them in value, pamper them and so on. But more often than not, if the spell is cast for free without the expectation of return, then they will go “Oh, pretty lights” and do nothing more with it, negating the spell in its entirety and thus “discovering” that magick is nothing more than mystic passes with the hand and chanted phrases.

But if you ask money for it, then they pay attention. They have ritually infused themselves into the spell or the reading. They have taken their labor and their effort, their sweat and blood, made physical by the money, and they are now completely and totally tied into that reading. They pay attention to each word, each hesitation and they hold onto that reading. They invest their soul and their energy into the spell, and by god they want it to WORK, therefore they believe in it. After all, they gave MONEY for that, they can’t buy that carton of cigarettes or that tank of gas. That’s a valuable reading now.

Because of this personality infusion in the process, because of this energy exchange, I believe that more people should charge for readings and spells. That any time a Tarot card is turned or a prophesy is spoken or that a stick of incense is lit, there should be an energy exchange of SOME sort, be it in labor, food, or cash.

If Priests, Monks and ministers in the churches (including Buddhist and Hindu) are willing to take money for prayer (through the medium of tithing or donations, which pay for their upkeep), then why can’t we for the same reason? It doesn’t make sense.

Oh, you can say that it cheapens the gift that by charging and that the person will feel ripped off. To that I say the only person who can cheapen it is the person who refused the money. When you are giving it away, you are inclined to do less than you may normally do, simply because you are getting no reward. So, asking for and receiving money is a way to make you work harder to give good value to others.

I know when I started Tarot readings, I gave them away. I did readings and I didn’t take any money. It was easy for me and my talents to do so. I did the minimum I could to answer the question, never really delving into the problem the person came to me with. And I did regret it.

When I started taking money, I knew the value of a dollar. I know what *I* would expect were it me paying for the reading, and I make sure I give value for that money. One reading I do costs $90 and takes about an hour. I had one lady purchase one from me, and I didn’t feel that I had given her full value for her money since one HUGE question went unanswered in my mind. So I did another reading for her while she sat there, answered that question and did some more explaining. That I felt was good value and I performed to my best. She commented later that she was satisfied with the first reading, and that the rest was icing on the cake, unnecessary but really good.

This philosophy can be applied to any discipline, not just to Tarot or divination or even spells. It can be applied to writing, singing, playing an instrument, teaching, computer work, secretarial work or anything. ANY professional skill and manual skills can be seen in this light. Paying for something makes it valuable, if SOLELY for the fact that one has given money for it. That is the textbook definition of value. That which has value is treated differently and is treasured. That which is free is treated as less and with no value, thus is treated with contempt.

I know that when I get done with a reading, I feel a sense of satisfaction in the reading, that I did my best. I want the other person to value that reading as well since I worked my backside off. To see my effort and energy treated with contempt makes me mad. To see them take what I have said to heart and believe it, to see them put what I advised into practice, well, it makes me very proud.

And if I have to take a few shekels or tuppence for that, so be it. I’ll take it gladly and use that money without shame.

Originally posted 2009-11-11 22:21:07.

I follow a lot of people here (on Tumblr), and most apparently don’t understand that it’s not just the outside package that is beautiful, but the internal personality, attitude, love and joy that shine out that combine to make someone beautiful.

Yes, the outside package is what people react to first.  Yes, it is the one that most will judge you on first.  But just like a Christmas Present, sparkly gold paper and nice ribbons do not make the Popeil Pocket Fisherman any better.  Just like wrapping an iPad in the comic section of the newspaper doesn’t detract from the present.

However, since humans are visual oriented, presenting an attractive outer casing is what seems to be important in the very short term.  Yes, beautiful people are more desirable to be around, they are more envied, but that is ONLY because people who look at them ONLY see them as the outer casing.  Just as if you only saw the gold wrapped package or the comics wrapped package.  The casing would be what you would judge on first.

And we are even warned against this.  ”Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  ”Beauty is only skin deep…” and many other such sayings warn us that it’s not the casing, the package, the wrapping that is important, but the contents of the mind, soul and spirit.

So I see people worried about their appearance to the exclusion of all else, and I get very sad.  I get upset when I see someone who only thinks that attractive appearance is what is important.  Hey, I like looking at pretty things around me too, but to stay around those pretty things there has to be more than just pretty appearance.  Because beauty fades, the nicest flower in the world will whither, and the most gorgeous gown will rot with time.  But the personality and the internal qualities are what will last.

I’ve known many girls in my life.  The beautiful ones are very rarely the ones who stay “beautiful” and “thin” and “tanned” and “fit” and “skinny” three or more years after I come to know them.  There are a few like that, but most understand that while their looks may have initially turned my head and had me look at them, the contents of their character are what kept me around.

And I’ll tell you something else.  It’s the “sad, weird” people I enjoy spending time around.  Cookie cutter personalities like are shown on Mean Girls or Bring it On are not anything that interests me.  But the girl with an armful of books, the one who wears spiked hair or a collar, the girl with the black makeup and the pale complexion, THOSE people are interesting.  They have a persona they want to show, and they apparently are willing to show it and be contrary to society rather than trying to conform and blend in.

Those people are worth the time to get to know.

So, ladies and gentlemen, no matter who you are, please revel in yourself.  Yes, put on an attractive appearance but understand it is not the appearance that will keep someone around.  The gestalt of you is what keeps someone.  And understand that even if this person over here left you, it is their loss due to you being a beautiful creature.  Someone else will be with you and the others, well, they have to content themselves with the Pocket Fisherman.

> I was just wondering has anyone gone to their local churches or
> communities and educated people about the Wiccan religion and the danger
> of doing spells with no knowledge of how and why to do it? Like a goddess
> or god invocation, and what it means to do an invocation. Or the
> unforeseen consensequences that doing spells can cause? The law of
> returns, ending a spell and closing a circle correctly. There are alot of
> young people drawn to doing witchcraft that don’t properly research or
> have the knowledge of what they are setting into motion. I am thinking
> about doing it because there are people who are interested, but want
> privacy, and not getting proper guidance from the massive contradictory
> internet about where they should start. So they jump right in and end up
> doing something unknowingly, like inviting then trapping a spirit in the
> house, without proper knowledge of what they did and how to fix it. And
> how to keep it from happening again.

What makes you think that we have not been doing this all this time? Many of us have been trying to educate the public about the dangers/rewards of magick, it’s just that you fluffy canars don’t seem to get the point. Let me illustrate for a minute…

I’m teaching a class online in magick and part of the course requires the student to be familiar with different schools and philosophies of magick. So far, I have been teaching this class for about 9 months and I’m only half way through it. This is an enormously complex subject and you can’t learn it by sitting in the Circle with your HPS and chanting for a bit. You cannot call yourself a witch because you make one potion of relaxation bath salts successfully ONCE. You don’t know everything when you walk into someone’s home and ask a benevolent ghost to leave. When you have walked into a house and forcibly ejected a malevolent spirit bent on destroying the occupants of the house and you have kept it from coming back, when you have successfully conjured the elemental ruler of Air, made him obey you and had him assign one of his dukes to be your personal servant, when you have cast enough spells to bring money to you that you realize that the Threefold return and the Rede are simply known as “cause and effect” THEN I will let you call yourself a mage and a witch. Until then you are a fluffy canar, and depending on the severity of the affliction you may even be a fluffernutter.

Has it occurred to you that 90% of humanity doesn’t WANT us sticking our nose into their business on a regular basis? Has it occurred to you that a Christian being told that by praying to God that he’s casting a spell doesn’t WANT to know that, even if it is true? Has it occurred to you that you would be so totally insulted and you would go immediately into “persecuted witch” mode if a Jew came in and corrected your pronunciation of the chants Gardner added from the Key of Solomon, and that you would be ready to hit something if a Catholic Priest decided to teach you how to conduct a ritual correctly? Has any of this crossed your puny pea brain? No? Why not?

Could it be that according to you, it’s good and correct for you to stick your nose into everything in the universe, but no one better stick their nose into yours? Guess what…. THAT’S CALLED KETTLEITIS IN MOST PLACES.

Oh, and by the way, can I watch as the Goddess slaps the crap out of you for breaking the Rede? How you may ask? Causing harm to these people by going in and condescendingly telling these people what they are doing wrong with spells and such you are causing so much mental trauma to them that you deserve to be bitch-slapped by Kali or the Morrigon. I want to watch it. After all, this could be their way of learning, through trial and error.

And what makes you think you are qualified to tell them that their spells are wrong in the first place? Don’t you fluffy canar realize that most of the spells you are going to be “correcting” came from the RCC in the first place, or at least from those who were members of the RCC? In fact, there are several Popes and Cardinals who were rumored to be magickians that could blow away those like Crowley. Did you know that Elphias Levi, one of the huge magickal minds of the 19th Century was a Catholic Monk for most of his life? Ever heard of the Grimoire of Pope Honorous III? Do you even know who Elphias Levi was?

In short, fluffy canar, you are doing to them what you have accused them of doing to us for centuries. Besides, if the infestation of the ghost is too severe, they can always call in an exorcist to drive it out. Yep, there is a whole section of the RCC that deals with JUST driving out malignant spirits that infest people and places, the difference is that they actually STUDY the problem before leaping in and deciding that THIS is the problem. Ya know, like they do some experimentation and actually use Occam’s razor to see if there is another explanation before chiding the occupants of the house for summoning a spirit they can’t control.

Ever walked into a chapel? Ever felt their Wards? What?!?!? You don’t even know what a ward is? Then how does that qualify you to chide these people for miscasting spells they don’t know how to control? They seem to be better magickians than you.

In short, silly fluffy canar, back the hell off and cast the beam from YOUR eye before touching the mote in theirs.

Why do people have to endlessly reinvent the wheel?

Is it that there are no original ideas left? Is it that if we stop speaking, the world will cease to function? Is it that we have been so inundated with chatter that we cannot stand to hear silence?

Let me relate this to you in a real life scenario. I do reviews of books. Some of you have seen my reviews, and you may have come to this site because of them. Well, I review a narrow range of books in an attempt to keep my focus on the topics I know and can comment intelligently about. It would do YOU no good for me to comment on a book about quantum physics when I don’t know a thing about the subject in the first place. It would mean that my review was worthless since I have no foundation to base it on.

Because of that I get a selection of books that I understand and most of which relate to the material I have on this site. Books on magick, Wicca, Druidism, Shamanism, healing and ritual are what I keep reading. I do this for several reasons, one of which is to educate myself.

Why then do many authors think that we have to be endlessly, mindlessly reintroduced to Wicca, as if we can’t read one of the hundreds of thousands of books introducing us to Wicca ourselves? Why does everyone who decides to write a book on a topic, like how to write a spell on paper, feel the need to talk endlessly about Wicca and the basics of Wicca? Why can’t they simply refer us to the books they used to gain an understanding of Wicca?

I talk endlessly on this site about things, mostly my spirituality. I have been told that I go on a LONG time in places. However, you will not see me going over the same Wicca 101 information that has been covered in other places. Yes, I have a copy of the Rede here on my site. You will not hear me talking about what it means nor the ethical constraints that bind one if that path is followed. I assume that you are intelligent enough to do a search for the words “Wiccan Rede” if you want to read more about it. Research is a good and necessary thing since it keeps the mind focused.

So, why do certain publishers think that we must be told over and over and over and over that the Rede is THE ethical statement of Wicca? As sure as a clear sky follows the rain, comes the “Threefold law”. It’s like the two are joined at the hip, and we can’t escape them.

Here’s a book dealing with Magick and it’s applications, talking about magickal activities and help for the budding magickian. Throwing out the above statement says to those who are reading it that it’s a rule for magick too, and that means that they can’t use magick to get what they want! What’s the point of the book then?

I would honestly like to see a book, written by someone in which the original sources for THEIR spirituality are referenced not regurgitated intact. That should send the reader to the books the author discovered Wicca from. The book would then fill in the sections between the knowledge contained in those books, like mortar. Ultimately, it leads to the reason that the book was written. That should take about one chapter at the front of the book. Instead, most books these days take up to 8 padded chapters to do this, leaving one or two chapters at the very back for whatever topic the book is suppose to be about.

Why reiterate the same thing others have already written about?

This is my dream. A book, level 201, 301, 401 or higher, in which Wicca is not mentioned anyplace after the first chapter. A book in which a subject is studied in depth without assuming that the reader is too stupid to make a few research material choices that will lead them to this knowledge AGAIN by repeating it AGAIN. I don’t know why this infects Wiccan books and metaphysical books over and over again. You don’t see texts on physics going into the basic laws of gravity and light again and again. They assume that because you purchased that book you already know the basics. Stop haranguing all us with the same material over and over!

Is anybody else as frustrated as I am? Is anybody there?

Time for another rant from yours truly. The theme this time, boys and girls is common courtesy.

Or should I say “Uncommon Courtesy”. I mean, if it were common, everyone would have it right? Everyone would think about other people. Everyone would hold the door open for someone with full arms and let others in front of their car during rush hour. More people would have good days because others would be thinking about how to reduce the stress on them through random acts of kindness, right?

Oh, sorry… < /sarcasm >

I don’t know why this is so extraordinary. My wife thinks I float above the water and earth simply because I went one night at 1 AM to get her Orange Juice when she was sick and this would bring her comfort. Now, it was Winter as well, and pouring rain, but you know what, her comfort and happiness meant more to me than my sleep. But she raves about this act to this day, 11 years later, because I was kind and considerate. (*Wife’s comment in an informal poll for the last 11 years, no one could honestly say their partner be they male or female would do the same thing the Daven did.)

What the hell happened to people saying “Good Morning”? What about “please” and “thank you”? My parents would have flayed me alive if I forgot “Sir” or “Ma’am” when speaking to an adult, and I demand that my daughter is courteous to others herself. Why is it society says casual rudeness is all right?

Think about this for a few moments…. What is your reaction when you are waiting in line at a store and someone cuts in front of you? Why is it okay for you to do the same thing? Why do people with full carts force someone with 2 items to stand there in a long crowded store line? Why can’t those people that are NOT at the cashier say “You only have 2 items, why don’t you jump in front of me.” And why is it such a big deal to say “Thank You” for doing that? Will it take any money from their pockets to do that? Will they become less of a person by doing this act? Will they be diminished by this and belittled, or will those nearby ridicule those who do this?

These are rhetorical questions, I don’t expect answers. I am truly confused by this, and I’m a normal person. But because I’m courteous to others, because I let someone who is trying to merge in traffic get in front of me, there are a lot of people who think I’m great. I got an award once for being the most consistently courteous person at a job I was in. What do you think a commendation for customer service is based around?

The impetus for this rant is my job, again. I had replaced the computer for one of our managers and the computer was pretty important. It had software on it that was necessary to bring cash into the company from a bank (electronic transfer of funds). So, I replaced it, and there was some problems. I had a modem there, but it was the wrong one and the software would not work with it, so I had to look for an older modem to replace this one. Frankly I didn’t think that it would work or that I had one, and I said so to the Manager. But I found one and replaced the newer one. Once I had the older modem in place, things went right and it worked as it should.

I get into work the next morning, there is a message on my phone where the manager called me and made a huge deal of my replacing the modem. He was so appreciative of my doing that, I was actually surprised. I sent him a quick e-mail saying “no problem” and he praised me to my supervisor, my manager and my Vice President in charge of Information Technology. The only person he didn’t mention this to was the owner/CEO. And I thought, “All this for doing my JOB?” This is what I’m paid to do, this is what brings in the money for the company, and ultimately myself. But simply doing my job with a cheerful attitude gets praise from everyone in the chain of command. This is from the one man in the company who always knows the glass is half empty and someone will drink the half that’s there.

So I started thinking about it, and looking for courtesy in life, then I discovered that common courtesy is really uncommon.

So, here’s what I’m going to ask you all. If you gained anything from my site, don’t tell me about it, don’t send me anything (well, okay if you must…). Take the time out to hold a door open for someone with full arms and to say “thank you” to someone who did something for you. That will pay me back.

Who knows, perhaps if this reaches enough people, courtesy will become fashionable again.

The theme of this rant is “the Universe is NOT a friendly place.“

I understand why many people think that the Universal Consciousness is kind and gentle, willing to take care of all of us and make sure that we all have what we want. It’s because we are scared. It’s comforting to think that we have a creator up there that wants the best for us and makes sure that we are completely happy in every aspect of our lives. No matter how adult, we all long for “mommy and daddy” to take care of us, allowing us to continue to play.

Let me tell you now that it just ain’t so.

I’ll illustrate this with a joke I know of….

A good man, who tithed, gave to charity, was humble, honest and kind, a saint of a man prayed every night to God, “Please Lord, I love you so much and I NEED to win the Lottery.” Every day for 50 years, he said this prayer, and every night he didn’t win.

Finally in the latter days of his life, he prayed a mighty prayer, “God, I have asked you and begged you every night to let me win the Lottery. That’s all I ever wanted. Now, I’m in the latter stages of my life, and I’m going to die soon, and I need to win the Lottery to pass this along to my children. Please let me win the Lottery, and I love you.”

That night, he heard the voice of the Lord and it said to him, “So meet me halfway already…. buy a ticket.”

Which illustrates the point, we have to do what we can to help the Universe help us. The Universe does not care that we are here, it does not care that we are on the Earth, it does not even care that the Earth is here. What it cares about is itself. That’s all. So, it behooves us to take care of ourselves, and ONLY when every other option has been used up and discarded should we put our trust in the Universe.

Now, yes, the Universe may be able to take care of us ONCE WE HAVE DONE EVERYTHING WE CAN, and we will actually succeed. At that point, we can and should put our trust in the Universe, God, the IS, whatever to allow the outcome we want to come to pass. That is the essence of every spell, after all. Putting trust in Magick, in ourselves and in the Gods that we have done everything. But, NOTHING will happen unless we have done the preparation work.

Here’s another example:

I have a bowling ball at the top floor of a 50-story building. I have to get this ball from the roof to the ground floor. Now, I have several choices at this point. I could just drop the ball off the roof, trusting the Universe to catch the ball and lower it gently to the ground, but I’m going to be really surprised when it takes a 5 story bounce and kills people at the bottom and destroys cars, so forth and so on. However, if I build a scaffolding, balance ramps and rails to channel the ball in specific directions, and THEN drop the ball into the beginning of the “route” I constructed, it will probably stay in that route and THEN I can trust the Universe to keep it in the channels and that route, and I can see the way it falls. However, I still had to do something in the beginning to have this outcome occur. I had to do a LOT of prep work FIRST in order to get the most out of trusting the Universe.

Can you see what I’m driving at? Can you see what I am trying to point out? It’s fine to trust the Universe and have faith, it’s alright to believe in “invisible men” who care about you and want what is best for you, but you HAVE to do everything you can do to take care of yourself before putting your trust in that universal energy.

I have been messed up in my life, here is a whole essay on that very subject, and I can say that the only times I have been messed up the worst was when I stopped working for myself and trying to do for me, and put all my trust in the Gods to do everything for me. What I don’t say in that essay is that I bought a Lottery ticket and BEGGED the Gods to let me win it, and I didn’t. I came to depend on that money, to the point of spending it before I had the check. I trusted that it would be there, and when it wasn’t, I was devastated in every way imaginable.

However, now that I know better, I put my trust in the Universe and the Gods to take care of me and my needs, and I still do everything I can to take care of myself first, then I am never disappointed. I DO have what I want, and what I need, and I do have a lot of lucky breaks, which I capitalize on quickly. But I do make sure that I have done everything I can to make things better before I put my trust in the Universe.

Mercedes Lackey, in one of her books, makes this point as well.  There was a man who was very lucky, who had come to depend on that luck to keep him alive and prosperous.  One day, his luck deserted him.  He went to the shaman of his tribe and asked if the Goddess would hear his pleas to help him live and prosper.  To which the shaman said “no, you are not dead yet.”  Meaning that he had not done nearly enough to help himself first.

Sometimes I get really frustrated at the level of education that some people exhibit.

I mean, I understand how not everyone can be a computer whiz, and need to be shown just how to turn on a PC, I understand that there being two separate power switches for the computer is confusing (one for the “hard drive” or “cpu” or “that box” and one for the TV screen). I can get behind this and somewhat accept it.

But how can someone who pays attention to the media, watches movies, TV, and other media outlets not know about basic things, like how a nuclear blast happens, why the US is really careful to give other countries an out or why an asteroid 100 miles across is known as a “Planet Killer”.

I mean, these topics have ALL been dealt with in the recent past, the media. Armageddon, the movie with Bruce Willis and the space shuttles, you know that one? It dealt with the concept of a “Planet Killer” asteroid in depth. It was the basis of the entire movie’s plot. There would be no way they could skip over this piece of trivia if someone was paying attention. EVEN CAUSAL ATTENTION WOULD HAVE GIVEN THIS PERSON THE INFORMATION I SPENT 4 HOURS EXPLAINING.

Sorry to be yelling, but I’m frustrated as hell. I have had to explain everything to this person who is supposedly writing an entire movie based on the book of Revelations and the final destruction of the Earth.

He is taking this section of the Bible, and trying to transpose it to a movie which he will make. He does pictures and CGI work, and it’s really good the work he puts out. But he should leave the scriptwriting to someone else. Someone with a brain.

Having to explain spacial mechanics and how centrifugal force and gravity work, how it’s highly unlikely that an asteroid would crash into the Earth, how the Japanese cultural mindset works, how a nuclear bomb will not affect the SUN at all, what a Supernova is, how Chernobyl affected him (and he lived through it) and he didn’t remember Three Mile Island either.

I really wanted to scream.

Since I’m in the office with 5 other people, while I was explaining this to him, they were throwing in their comments as well. All of them showed more knowledge than this idiot. If it were not for the fact that he kisses ass well, he would not be working here.

So, raise your glass to the stupid people of the world, the ones who don’t know who is buried in Grant’s Tomb, the ones who think a Water Closet is another word for a busted pipe, the ones who don’t realize that pantaloons are not filled with helium. Raise your glass for all those poor souls who will spend the majority of their lives going “Huh?” to everything, and most especially raise your glass in toast to those who make the rest of us look smart.

It’s sad sometimes to realize that half of the problems I have on a day to day basis are caused by these people. And my friend, the one I work with who started this diatribe, he screams and yells about stupid drivers on the road. Talk about kettleitis….

Okay, here is something that is hitting my “piss-off” buttons. Not listening.

I recently posted a theory that I have dealing with Druidism and Wicca, stating why I believe that Wicca=Goddess and Druidism=God. Here’s the text in full:

“I have a theory, but absolutely nothing concrete to back it up other than meditation and inspiration. I’ll share it, but can’t do more than share it.

I think that the trend springs from valid sources. Wicca is based on female worship, and in some cases, very few, direct traditions passed on in the form of teachings from mother to daughter, like herbalism.

It is my theory that when Druidism/Feminine worship were common, in the 200′s CE or so, that there were the Male Druids (with some few female practitioners) and the Female Priestesses (with a few male practitioners). That the mysteries of the male were shared among the Druids, and the feminine mysteries were shared among the priestesses. This was not to divide, but what the heck would a male care about the celebration of a young girl’s first menstrual blood?

This can be seen in some native magickal practices, like among the Native Americans, but once again I have no concrete references. I know that this happens, but I can’t cite examples.

Anyhow, when the Romans came in to the Isles, they saw the Druids as the visible representatives, and wiped them out. The female contingent saw what was happening and decided to hide rather than fight, and went underground. The practices and folk practices were passed down, and I have a past life where I saw my wife then continuing those traditions in 850 CE. Once again, subjective.

So, these traditions get mixed up and thrown together and homogenized until we now have superstitions and folk remedies, but enough can be extracted to make Wicca, with anthropological evidences showing a female worship cult and so on, and the records we have of Druidism, we now have Wicca = Female and Druid = Male.

Besides, look at the general gods of the respective practices. How many times does a Druid call upon the Goddess, and how many traditional and hidebound Wiccans credit the God with anything other than being a living dildo for the Goddess?”

Please note that even though I wanted to change this text, it is untouched.

Okay, everyone read that? Read it again. Now, that you have read it twice, can you tell me why anyone would think that I’m saying that Wicca is ancient? I am very clear in my statement that elements of Wicca go back that far, but that only those elements. I am very clear in stating that this is a personal theory, with no proof, so why would people start demanding that I prove it, and dismissing me as a know nothing because I have read the wrong books? What the hell is going on here?

Is it Mercury? I don’t think so, that retrograde action was over Feb 18 and I posted this March 6. Is it that people just aren’t reading what I’m saying? Probably. I have seen multiple emails stating that I’m wrong, that there is no evidences of this, that Wicca is NOT ancient, that there were Female Druids, that dividing spirituality like this did not happen, and so on. That Druids called upon the Goddess too, and still do.

Where the HELL did I say that they didn’t???? Can someone point this out to me?

The point of this rant is PAY ATTENTION. If someone is giving you something, money, their time, the benefit of their thoughts, their opinions, whatever, they are giving you something they have, and you, out of respect, should pay attention back. Make sure that you understand what they are saying, instead of jumping on them for being wrong. Make sure that you have some kind of mutual lexicon of terms so that there are no misunderstandings as to what the other person is trying to say. To do this, you have to pay attention.

Yes, you may still disagree after hearing them out, listening to them and understanding what they are saying, but at least you won’t be jumping to conclusions. Too many times these days, I see a statement posted on a Newsgroup or an email list stating something that can be taken multiple different ways, and it’s ALWAYS taken the worst way by the most people. Stop it. Listen to what the other person is trying to say FIRST, then figure out what they are trying to say in the context of your thoughts and opinions, THEN disagree with them if it is merited.

That’s the problem with the Western World. No one listens to anyone else. We all talk at each other, hardly anyone talks TO each other. We tune too much out as a matter of course. This is a trend that needs to get reversed desperately.

Okay, time for another “duh…”

If you know someone is having a lot of trouble in their personal life, why do you take advice on YOUR life from them?

Example: Don’t take advice on how to diet from someone who is 5 foot nothing and weighs 250 lbs. Obviously they either don’t know or don’t care about weight on them, and they don’t care about the health risks involved with high weight. Why should they care about your weight? If they DO care and know, then they are probably using their own techniques, and you can obviously SEE how much help it’s been to them….

The theme, in case you missed it, is “Don’t take life advice from someone with a messed up life.”

You wouldn’t go to a Doctor who has a reputation for killing all his patients, would you? You wouldn’t go to a “hair stylist” who can’t keep their own hair in any kind of pleasing style. You would not even think of going to a broke banker for financial advice.

So why would you go to a “Spiritual Counselor” who has a completely messed up life?

Point in my argument: “Miss Cleo”. Here is a woman who graces our television sets and harangues us about “love, life and money” and who (according to the ads) has a 100% accuracy rate, even to pulling facts such as “he’s tall and skinny with a wart on his cheek” out of thin air, to the telephoned amazement of callers.

However, this is the same woman who has been charged with violating the “Do not call” list in one state more than 100 times.

One wonders if her tarot cards showed her THAT.

(Details go here: http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/psychic1.htm and do a search on the Web for “Miss Cleo”. You WILL get a lot of hits on this one.)

So, now Miss Cleo has a messed up life. Do we still call her? Not this witch. I didn’t call her in the first place, and one wonders why anyone would.

Taking advice from someone who’s own life is a shambles is like asking Fate to kick you in the head. It’s stepping in front of the Mac Truck of Karma and letting it run all over your Dogma.

In other words, think first. Ask yourself a few questions before you ask everyone in your life for their advice, or listen to their unsolicited advice.

Ask yourself “What makes this person more qualified to run my life than I am?” Ask yourself, “What would I do in this same situation?” Ask yourself “What AM I going to do now?”

Start taking responsibility for your own life, rather than allowing someone else to run it for you. Let yourself be entirely responsible for your decisions as well as your mess ups. Don’t find someone to blame for the problems you are having, if it’s your fault, own up and view it as a learning experience.

And as a corollary to all this, don’t start giving advice that no one asked for either. One of the most irritating habits that some people have is to run around and start telling everyone else what they need to do when they can’t make their bills this month. If your life is in the toilet, you have no right to start telling others how they should be living/doing/being in whatever situation you see them in, even if you know exactly what they should do in this situation.

The only qualification that you have to have to be allowed to give advice to someone else is successfully coming through it yourself. In other words, if you have gone through a divorce, from either side, THEN and only then do you have the right to tell someone who is going through a divorce what worked for you. You do not have the right to tell them what they SHOULD do, but rather what you did.

I honestly believe that if everyone in this world started living their own lives as well and as accurately as they tend to live everyone else’s, then this world would be a much better place.

( 4-2-02) For more information on this scam, please see With Psychic Friends like these…

Okay, the theme today is “Paying for your Education“.

You pay out money to the colleges and Universities for them to teach you their knowledge on whatever topic.  You pay for books, you pay for supplies, you pay for the expertise of the instructor and so on, why don’t those in the Magickal and Pagan Community pay for their education too?

Is it fear?  “If I pay for this, it will cheapen the information”?  If that were true, then all the instruction from educational institutions would be valueless.  Saying that paying for information will invalidate that information is making all the classical instruction from the dawn of time to now worthless.  If this is true, we should only be giving degrees to those who go out and on their own time study Law and Jurisprudence, Anatomy and Physiology, so that they get their degrees sometime in their late 40′s so we have experienced doctors and lawyers getting those degrees, rather than these young pups who only study for 8 years or so to become what they want to become.

But, wait, that doesn’t make sense.  What do they do in the meantime?  How do they make a living?  And how many would fall into the “trap” of “there’s time, I can put off these studies until later” and then later never comes?

So, what then?   We honor the PhD holders because they have devoted themselves to this course of study to the exclusion of all other things, so that they can share their professional expertise with the rest of us.  In fact, most of society looks down upon those who do the same job, but don’t have that degree, and the only way to get the degree is to pay for it.

So, will the information and knowledge disappear when we fork over money to acquire it?  If we are giving money to get information, I don’t think it will ever disappear.  In fact, we are perpetuating it.  Let me make this assumption about you, the reader.

If you spent your time looking up facts and learning those facts, paying out money each time to get those facts, be it a quarter, a dime or whatever, you would value that information more.  This is information you got from another source with your sweat and effort and your means of income.  Because it has the price of giving up something you produced, you will automatically value it more than you will something that was given to you.

Think of the gifts you have gotten over the years to see this point in action.  The super-expensive gifts that you got were not that important to you, but the items you paid for were more important than something you got for free.  Right?

The same process applies to knowledge.  You have to pay for it in some manner in order to value it and cherish it.  If you don’t, then it’s just clutter in the vestibule of your mind.  This is why the teachers and mystical men of the past made their students go to great lengths just to get into their class, so that the student would pay attention and value the information.

Besides, having the dollar to give for information puts the power back into your hands.  If the information has no value to you, don’t pay for it.  This is the same consumer right that has been exercised since the founding of the Consumer mindset.  The quality is worth the cash.

But if you think that the effort of the researcher and teacher is worth it, sending a dollar won’t break you or make you any worse a person.  Mowing their grass won’t invalidate your education, cooking them dinner one night won’t make you teacher’s pet.

I will make this prediction, if people are unwilling to pay for the information they want to have, then there will be little reason for authors to write, researchers to look up facts, scholars to pontificate and teachers to teach.  They have to make a living too, and if no one is willing to pay them for knowledge and learning, then they will find other occupations where they will be paid.

(See the update to this article at the bottom)

I sit here and write this and think “Goddamn lady, just blow your brains out and get it the fuck over with.”

I type this because it is currently 2 AM, and I’m listening to some drunk lady next door crying over how bad her life is, and I’ve been listening to this for the past 6 hours. Every minute, I hear this whine about how no one loves her and blah blah blah….

I can’t tune it out either, it’s one of those cutting, piercing whines that go right through things like earplugs, cotton balls, pillows, music, noise and snores. I want to pound on her door and tell her to shut the fuck up, but you know what, that would only prove to her that her life IS really as bad as she says it is and how everyone is out to get her and no one loves her…

Why am I so pissed that I fervently wish for the death of a fellow human being to stop it? Because I’m sick of listening to her go on and on and on about how SHE is the one being put out and how SHE is the abused one here.

Mind me, I have been living next to her for the last week, and the walls are so thin that I could hear a fly crawling on the wall in the other room. So I have been an inadvertent eavesdropper on everything that has been going on in her room for the past week. I have yet to hear her being sober, I have not heard anyone do anything other than talk to her in a reasonable tone of voice. In short, she’s whining and having a pity party simply because she’s spineless.

Take this past weekend for instance. On Saturdays I get to sleep in for a bit. So, at 11 AM, my wife got me up so we could watch a show that has come to be a pretty good one for us, and a time of bonding. The drapes were closed and we were not partying. Why on a bright Winter day would we have the drapes closed you may ask, because we were all (including my daughter) stark naked.

Who should hear our voices and decide to pay us a visit? Yep. Her. She comes trotting over without so much as a by-your-leave, knocks on our door. I (being the trusting fool I am) step up to the door, pull the drapes back just enough to see who it is that is spoiling my Saturday. She stands there, viewing of booze fumes (I had not opened the door yet, so I can’t say “reeking or smelling”) drunk as a lord, holding a dollar in her hand. In the boozy condition she was in, she asks if she can come in and use our phone.

Okay, let’s back up for a moment here. We are in a hotel room. It has a phone in every room. It costs 35 cents to dial out on a local call. She has a phone in her room, she has a dollar in her hand…. Everyone with me here? Can you see my train of thought yet? Why didn’t she trot down to the front desk and get her own phone turned on?

I know it worked because I had been in that room with other former neighbors and helped them with their computers and hooking them up to the phones. So it’s not something that is wrong with her phone. I KNOW it works.

So, she’s standing there, with me in my skin and only my face visible through the window, and I say “Not right now…” and she wanders off in some sort of boozy haze with this look like I just kicked a crippled puppy because it is in my path. Like I’m abusing her. Let me lay a few facts out for her perusal.

My grandfather died almost two years ago, and we moved out of his house because it was being sold. We moved in here to live and we have been here for about a year and a half now. It sounds horrid, but we decided staying here was in our best interests for several reasons; a) we pay no utilities, b) there is a maid service 3 times a week c) the rent is lower than in most apartments in the area, d) you have bills to pay off, old debts that need to come off your credit report before you can get a house or apartment, e) we are saving money to allow us to get a house.

So, given that, the fact that I work a full time job, my daughter goes to school, my wife just got released from her job because they dissolved the position, I have little pity for her. I dropped the curtain back in place and forgot about her. Until that night when she started going on and on and on about how terrible her life is.

Mark my words, I would help her if she needed it. In my opinion, from what I have heard and overheard she is no where near that point yet. She does not leave her room except to go to the liquor store, she goes no place, has groceries delivered to her and whines. She is drunk 90% of the time. So she obviously has money to afford all this, it’s because she does not want to do and help herself.

It could be that she needs a friend. I will grant that I am not behaving in friendly manner, but I have had a LOT of negative experiences in the past with drunks and lushes, and I will not get into that type of co-dependant relationship again. I’m just getting my life straightened out, I don’t need another leech.

Come back and talk to me when you have been betrayed by everyone you counted as a friend. Come back when you have been sleeping in your car for two weeks along with your spouse and child. Come back when your spouse has lost track of both of her children by her first marriage and is almost frantic with worry because she has no idea if they are even alive anymore. Come back when you had to make the solemn decision whether to eat that day or get a room so you can have a shower for the first time in a week. Come back when you have nothing of value anymore to sell to raise money and you are waiting on your paycheck to try to make it through another week. Talk to me when you have decided to commit suicide simply so the stress and pain will end. THEN I may have some pity for you and help you out.

Until then, either get the balls to do something or stop fucking whining about how horrid your life is. Whining does not solve any situation. The most it will do is drive those away who MAY be in a position to help you.

This rant is dedicated to all those who were in bad situations, and who had the courage to do something about it, rather than sit around and feel sorry for themselves. Some sorrow is natural, good and normal. However, feeling pity for yourself to the exclusion of doing something constructive to get yourself out of this situation is insane.

In short, grow up, get a life, get a clue and start behaving like an adult, rather than a 50 year old child who can’t have the toy they want.

Update Jan 31, 2001 This woman is with us no more.  She was evicted several days after this was written.  There had been multiple complaints against her, and the manager had begged those of us who were complaining (and I was one) to not call the police on this matter (due to there being one too many complaints and her job being on the line).  Probably stupidly, we agreed not to call the cops.

The manager, good as her word, evicted the drunk lady three days later.  The drunk had not been home too often in the ensuing days.

I found out some of the back story in this matter, and it’s not that sympathetic.  She was drying out (supposedly) from Alcohol.  She also had someone with her, either a husband or a lover or someone.  He brought the food and such into the room, but I think he was enabling her to continue to act in the manner she was doing.  I personally don’t know how he stood it.  If someone had been whining at me for that long a time period, I think I would have either killed her or myself just to get it over with.

Anyhow, we moved rooms as well, and so things are going alright now.

One thing that must be stressed, Wicca, Druidism, Celtic Spirituality, and Paganism are NOTHING like each other.  To say that a Wiccan is a Druid and that what the Druids are now is how the Celts believe, is to say that the the sky is purple and pink and yellow.  There are bits and pieces that are correct and accurate between the different groups, but that’s all.  Go here to see an article dealing with this subject of how Celtic Spirituality and Wicca not being the same thing.  And to equate a Pagan with any of the others is to make such a gross understatement that it boggles the mind.  A Pagan is any of many different religions, and individually they are all Pagan, but all Pagans ARE NOT Wiccan.  This is a misconception that has started creeping into common usage, and it must be stopped.

Paganism is “any religion that is not Christianity” to quote many different dictionaries.  That means, if you are Hindu, you are Pagan.  If you are Islamic, you are Pagan, if you are Buddhist, you are Pagan.  None of those religions are Wicca, so to say that ALL Pagans are Wiccan makes me wonder just where the author got their information.  Wicca is a specific religion, usually British Traditional Wicca (see, I’m not even Wiccan anymore), with it’s own set of rites and practices.  While all Wiccans are Pagan, not all Pagans are Wiccan.  All Druids are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Druids.  All Celtic Reconstructionists are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Celtic Reconstructionists.  All Asatru are Pagans but not all Pagans are Asatru.

This misconception needs to be stopped as soon as possible.  It’s a bad trend, and many Elders of the various Wiccan/Pagan communities are getting tired of being equated to something they don’t believe in.  And to be frank, so am I.

Originally posted 2009-11-05 19:23:48.

(Note from Daven:  This is another resource used in a class I was taking at one time, but this touched me enough that I decided to put it here as well.  I hope you all see what I saw in this the first time I read it.)

The Tale of the Seeker and the Crone

From:  The Properties of Life
by Maragano

The Seeker traveled many miles to a temple high in the western mountains.  There, in the outer court, sat a Crone.  The Seeker went up to the Crone and said, “Old Mother, I have come from far to study at this temple.  How may I gain entrance?”

The Crone did not look up from where she sat, but simply said, “You have three questions to ask, Seeker.  If they are the correct questions, you may enter.  If not, you must go elsewhere.”

“i am tired and hungry.  I need sleep and food,” protested the Seeker.

The Crone raised her hand and cut short the Seeker’s protest.  “Your first question, Seeker, or leave now.”

The Seeker sat down and was quiet for a while.  Then the Seeker said, “Old Mother, what would be the three best questions to ask?”

“You have asked your first question, Seeker.”  The Crone nodded.  “The three best questions to ask are:  First – ‘What is our theology?’ – so that you will know what we believe is what you believe as well.  Second – ‘What are your responsibilities to us, and our responsibilities to you?’ – so that you will know what sort of bargain is being made.  Third – ‘How do I know I have been called?’ – so you do not spend your life in illusion.  Now, Seeker, for your second question.”

“Old Mother, what is the answer to those three questions?”

The Old Mother told of the beliefs of the temple.  She told the Seeker the outer names of the Goddess and the God the temple was built to honor.  She told of the rites and the reasons for them.  As day passed into night, robed figures came into the courtyard and lit fires at the four quarters to dispel the darkness.  As the moon boat crested the horizon, the Crone began to answer the Seeker’s second question.  She told of the blessings of the High Ones and all that they had given to us and what they asked in return.  As dawn cleared the darkness from the sky, she looked up for the first time, and looking deep into the Seeker’s eyes, she said, “Seeker, only you know if you come here to run away from a world that has battered you, or because all the world is here.  Now, Seeker, for your third question.”

Mother, I have heard all that you have said.  I have trod many false paths in search of this temple.  I am tired and hungry for all that you have to offer.  I fear that it is too much for me to learn.  But, Old Mother, may I come in and try?”

The Old Mother stood and helped the Seeker to stand, and said, “Come, Seeker.  We will both go in and learn together.”

(from January 1982 Georgian Newsletter)

Originally posted 2009-11-14 23:10:11.

I was thinking about a snark I did yesterday on Persecution, then a friend posted about persecution on her LJ and it got me thinking:

Pagans really don’t have a candle to hold to anyone on the persecution scale.

I heard this piece coming into work this morning on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6349532

One of the things that struck me is that the fighting between the Suni and Sheite groups is causing diversified communities to be one or the other. Steve Inskeep, the comentator on that piece said “in some communities, the clensing….is complete.” Meaning that one sect KILLED OFF the entirety of the other sect, or forced them out.

Part of the process is to grab people off the street, call their homes and ask relatives to confirm that their loved one is Suni or Sheite. It’s a crap shoot as to whether or not they get home at that point.

Consider this for a moment. You as a pagan are sitting in your house. You get a call. On the other end of the phone you hear a voice you don’t recognize who tells you they are with the “Freedom Feris” and they have your loved one. They then demand that you confirm that your loved one is Black Forest Tradition. You know that if you say the wrong thing, then you are never going to see that loved one again, until you identify the body. What do you say?

You say something and the phone goes dead in your hand. Now comes the worry time. Does your loved one get home, or did you sentance them to being shot in the street like a dog?

And this is not an isolated incident, this HAPPENS EVERY DAY in Iraq. Multiple times a day. AND if they don’t kill the Suni they picked up, they may ransom him back, so now these people are pauperizing themselves to buy the freedom of those they love.

And little playgans are bitching about having “Happy Samhain” erased from the campus whiteboard?

Listening to the stories that came out of WWII and the Jewish Holocaust, listening to these horror stories coming out of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan (where the Taliban executed people in the street because they weren’t dressed right) is eye opening.

I read in National Geographic about the Taliban when December rolled around in 2001. I knew nothing about them. This was a philosophical movement among college students to return to some of the roots of Islam. It got so hemmed in with rules that men’s beards were measured for length and they could be jailed if the beard wasn’t long enough. That’s like Fred Phelps having the authority to execute anyone that didn’t have the right brand of hat on.

Stories about a school being on fire, and THE STUDENTS NOT BEING ALLOWED TO ESCAPE BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE THEIR VEILS ON. So those women and girls DIED in screaming, flaming agony while the firefighters forced them back in to either get their veils or die.

But little Wicletts think they are persecuted.

Repost this. As soon as I can I’m going to open this up to the Public, but I want these idiots who think that being Pagan is as hard as it gets to go spend some time as a white person in the Congo, or to have to dress in a burqua and walk the streets of Saudi Arabia to learn what persecution REALLY is.

Originally posted 2006-10-20 08:41:31.

PantheaCon has no personal effect but I feel the need to contribute to the discussion of the issues that have been made public.

The comment on the Wildhunt by Z Budapest that follow prompts my response.

“This struggle has been going since the Women’s Mysteries first appeared. These individuals selfishly never think about the following: if women allow men to be incorporated into Dianic Mysteries,What will women own on their own? Nothing! Again! Transies who attack us only care about themselves. We women need our own culture, our own resourcing, our own traditions. You can tell these are men, They don’t care if women loose the Only tradition reclaimed after much research and practice ,the Dianic Tradition. Men simply want in. its their will. How dare us women not let them in and give away the ONLY spiritual home we have! Men want to worship the Goddess? Why not put in the WORK and create your own trads. The order of ATTIS for example, (dormant since the 4rth century) used to be for trans gendered people, also the castrata, men who castrated themselves to be more like the Goddess. Why are we the ONLY tradition they want? Go Gardnerian! Go Druid! Go Ecclectic! Filled with women, and men. They would fit fine. But if you claim to be one of us, you have to have sometimes in your life a womb, and overies and MOON bleed and not die. Women are born not made by men on operating tables.”

It is on this comment that I want to speak out.

I am a transwoman myself. I was born in a male body, but I have always felt that I was a female, born in the wrong body. This has been a condition of my life. This means that in all likelihood my brain is wired like a female’s brain, and I can and do empathize with many female issues of the day.

• I fear being raped.
• I fear being attacked by those who don’t understand me and my life.
• I wish to have children of my own body.
• I have raised my daughter when she was younger.
• I have taught her to be proud of herself as a woman.
• I have helped and tried to talk to her about female issues, including telling her about her period and other such “female-only” topics.
• I have given her much advice on relationships, and reveled in her relationship with her lover.

Do these make me a woman? Probably not.

However, having the internal plumbing of a female doesn’t either. Here’s what we can look at:

1. Am I genetically a female? No, I’m not.
2. Do I have a period and bleed from my uterus? No I don’t.
3. Do I have the biological ability to give birth to children from my body? Not yet.
4. Do I have hormones of a female in my body? Yes I do.
5. Do I have the mood swings associated with estrogen and other female hormones? Yes I do, and I have for long before I had HRT.
6. If I take a pregnancy test, will it be positive? Yes, it will.
7. Can I lactate from my breasts? Yes, I can.
8. Do I have to worry about HPV and Breast Cancer? Yes, I do.
9. Will I have a subcutaneous layer of fat, making my skin softer and a bit more squishy? Yes, I do.

However:

1. Do women who have a hysterectomy bleed from their uterus? No they do not. Are they considered women? Yes.
2. Are infertile women considered women? Yes they are.
3. Do women who have mastectomies still have access to “women’s Mysteries rituals”? Yes, they do.
4. Do women who have had their cervix removed still have access to a women’s bathroom? Yes, they do.
5. Are people who go to work in paying jobs outside the home, who have two X chromosomes considered women? Yes.
6. Are AFAB who put on a tuxedo and boxers considered to be female? Yes.

Yes, these lists are a bit scattered. See, assigning gender to a person is slippery.

I can have all the sexual organs of a female, transplants work. I can have someone’s uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries implanted in myself, and I can have things redesigned, cut and changed around so that I can have all the same equipment to carry a fetus to term and give birth to it.

That is, if I had the money for it.

Does that make me more of a woman? Does it allow me to enter the “sisterhood of the bloody week”? Will that give me access to “feminine mysteries”?

I worship a goddess. Does that make me a girl? My wife worships a God, does that make her male? Is it that my wife has a female name, and I have a name that is typically assigned to a male?

What standard are you using to define who is and is not a particular gender? Is it ultimately genetics that tell you which you are?

If I can find a AMAB who has two X chromosomes, can he enter into the Sacred Sanctums of the Goddess? Or will he be denied too?

See, in my mind, the problems is not “who can participate”. The problem is “What defines gender” and that has ALWAYS been the problem.

I don’t have a problem, really, with those who want to have a AFAB ritual. I truly don’t. But when an intersexed person comes in who has a vagina, uterus and all the equipment, along with a penis and tries to participate, and they are turned away, is that truly what the Goddess wants? Will only lesbians be allowed into those rituals next?

Z. says that women are born, not built on a table. I can see and I actually agree with that. However, a woman who has an extra appendage has it surgically removed still a woman? If they have a rhinoplasty, are they women? If they have a facelift, are they still a woman? What if they have a “Vaginal Rejuvenation” as in getting a facelift for the lower lips? What if they are in an accident and have to have a complete Vaginoplasty? Are THEY still considered women?

Is the difference a matter of what we grew up with? How we were taught? Do I have to be beaten up by boys who don’t like me to be a woman? Do I have to learn how to cook and sew, how to put on makeup? How to walk with a book on my head? What about having a relative molest me, or a stranger who wants to grab my “private parts”? Do those make me a woman? Do those experiences make me closer to the Goddess? Will I commune more successfully with the nurturing mother, and the self-centered maiden or the wise crone if I have been abused sexually?

Here’s the central question: If a person who was assigned male at birth, who has had ALL of the above happen to them, rape, abuse, being beaten for being gay, for being too effeminate for being too swishy, for not liking to play football, a person who has studied how to provide a loving and happy home, who takes care of children, who looks and acts and has the hormones of being a female, if they tried to declare “I am Woman, hear me roar!” and stood out and asked to be allowed to be with her sisters, is it right and the Will of the Goddess that those who were assigned female at birth continue to abuse them by saying “no”, or would the Curse of the Goddess fall upon them?

A drag queen who revels in being a parody of a woman? Sure, deny them. Someone who does it for humor? I can see that too. Someone who only crossdresses because they get a sexual thrill out of lacy underwear? I can get behind those who want to deny them a place in the Circle. But someone who has had every, EVERY thing happen to them that you think makes a female, other than the genetic accident of XX instead of XY, why do you insist on continuing the abuse? Have they not suffered enough? Will YOU, Z., will you personally stand before the Goddess with them and say “They are not a woman”?

I think that is the central problem here. You say you speak for the Goddess, that you are Her representative on the Earth. Yet, you are spewing EXACTLY the same discrimination that the other Churches and religions out there do in denying this person the ability to be who they are. Hell, the Muslims don’t have a problem with TransGender people, they are commanded in the writings of Muhammad to be whom they are, and those who feel they are female should be female, living that way, even if they don’t have the equipment.

You are right in that there were groups in the past who would change themselves to be more like the Goddess. They would keep to enclaves where they could be with their own kind. But I want you to think of something for a minute: How do you know about them?

The men of the day wrote down about these deviants and about the weirdoes who cut their balls off so they could sing female parts. They told stories about men who dressed and acted like women, as they derided and made fun of those deviants. There was no place for them in any aspect of “Western” society. The Native Americans treated the berdache people as the sex they wished to be. The Japanese did the same. They weren’t hunted and hounded. They were allowed to live their lives as they chose, identifying as they chose.

So how is what we have now progress?

To those who have problems with these “men” being included, I say to you; Yes, I can see your point. Men should not be part of those rites of femalehood. But when someone goes through two, three, four and more years of effort to be female, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct a genetic mistake, all to be simply who they are, if you can HONESTLY say that they are mocking the Goddess in that effort? Will you continue to kick them when they are asking you to treat them as a Sister?

I can tell you that it has been my experience that many male groups would welcome FtM transsexuals with open arms. Why are you so threatened by a person who wants to be treated as a woman being included in your rituals? Shouldn’t women be allowed at all rituals that celebrate womanhood?

I would think that you, as a true Goddess-loving female, would want to celebrate any form of womanhood. That to have a ritual dedicated to bringing a new woman into the fold would be something to bring joy, not something to be disrespected.

Or do you plan to stop having “coming of age” rituals for girls who start their menses too? After all, they aren’t women but they want to be women, and a little blood does not a female make. After all, I can bleed.

And think about this: Here is a male, someone who has male privilege, who you allege has a lot of power in our society, is VOLUNTARILY deciding to become a minority, a female. They are giving up their “place in society”, as you seem to suggest, to move down the ladder of empowerment, right to the bottom as a transwoman. They will have no rights to anything, they will get the short end of being female, they will get the hate of being a “failed male”, the bad parts of being gay, all of it, heaped together. They will be denied the use of ANY bathroom in public, because the women don’t want them in their bathroom and the idea of being forced into a men’s bathroom is repugnant. They will live with fear EVERY DAY that someone will spot them as a transwoman, and that they will be killed with sticks and bricks. They will be killed and the cops won’t do anything. They will be beaten by the cops too and no one will believe them.

Why all the hate and rejection? Because they are the person they were meant to be.

And you will be adding to that. Think about it.

Originally posted 2011-03-02 00:07:09.

It’s hard living in the grown-up world of life like this. Compromises and times when your pride and honor are called into question, you are assaulted and insulted and there are times when a self-evaluation will make you truly believe that you are a coward.

There is a hope however. There are many kinds of courage.

It’s easy to yell and scream at some one who calls you a coward and implies that you are a gutless spineless good-for-nothing. It is one kind of courage, the courage of a stung pride. But it takes an entirely different kind of courage to stay right where you are, take the abuse because it means you will be able to retain your job and
bring home another paycheck and save your home and allow your family to eat.

I call that the Courage of Consequences.

The impulse in the human being is that you retract and hit back when attacked. It is the ability of a reasoning person to be able to look forward to the future and see the results of actions. Logic is not something that an animal is able to do and they may be able to understand that there are consequences after having them occur multiple times, but that’s simple learning. But to be able to notice that your family may be affected by your actions and to allow someone to demean you to prevent your family from coming to harm, that’s real coruage.

There is the courage to stay silent when you are in pain or ill because there is nothing that anyone can do about it, but you don’t want to mess up other’s enjoyment of whatever activity is going on. Like when Grandma doesn’t talk about how much the winter weather is hurting her joints while the family is gathered together for the Thanksgiving meal. That’s a very different kind of courage as well.

Just becuase you don’t run ito situations that angels would avoid does not mean you lack courage or that you are spineless and a wimp. So don’t think that again. You HAVE courage, it is simply determining which kind you have.

Originally posted 2005-12-23 15:25:44.

This time I’m going to rant about Honor.

Why is it that people seem to think that just because they don’t want to, they are not obligated to keep promises made? Why do they think that Honor is something that can be spat on with impunity? Why is honor used as a punchline?

Honor is your personal integrity. It is the ONLY measure of a man or a woman. It is the yardstick used to ensure that society functions. It is what keeps us from devolving into anarchy and “only the strong” kind of mentality. Culture is not what keeps us from barbarism, only Honor is.

Let me float a few scenarios to you. You find a bag of money and notice that it fell out of a woman’s purse while she was getting a pen out. You give it back. What does that make you? Trustworthy? A Good Samaritan? Honest? Each of those can be replaced by Honor and it still be correct.

If you kept that money, what would that make you? Mean? Dishonest? A bad person? What if you deposited it into your account while you watched her frantically looking through her purse for that money? Once again, each of those can be replaced by Honor.

You are in a fight, and you knock your opponent down. They are helpless before you. Do you kick them again? No? Why? It’s not fair? It’s not right? You simply don’t do that? Once again, that’s honor.

We live in a society that puts a lot of credit into the forms of honor, but which despises honor and personal responsibility itself. A lot of laws are enacted to enforce morality and honorable behavior, but when you talk about having personal honor and living up to that, you are laughed at. When you say it’s dishonorable to take advantage of a coworker, you are looked at like you have grown a new head on your shoulders. When you do not run around and tell everyone how great you are (refusing to brag and being humble), you are asked “why not”? When you try to explain why, most times you can’t without using words like Honor.

Honor permeates society. Not just ours, but EVERYONE’s. Honor is the glue that holds that society together. It is why everyone doesn’t go around and steal cars or take money from old ladies at the ATM, it’s why you pay the check before you leave and after a meal. It’s why you leave the tip on the table instead of pocketing it as you walk out. It is why you demand right behavior from others and it is why we act in the way we do.

Words have grown up and now get in the way of speaking. Words like “integrity”, “responsibility”, “chivalrous”, “polite”, “kind”, “generous” and many others have come to be to give shades of meaning to “Honor”, but the use of honor has fallen out of favor for the words which give that shading. So Honor as a word has become an anachronistic expression referring to the SCA or to knights in England.

Warf on Star Trek, The Next Generation was a beloved character, but everyone thought he was odd because he was so concerned with his Honor. He behaved according to a set of moral codes and ideals and rarely violated them, and he felt horribly guilty when he did violate them. But everyone (the viewers) and many of the cast of the show made some (backhanded) fun of him. He was thought of as “odd” because of that code. He lived it and I saw how he was treated at Star Trek Conventions, he was thought to be strange.

I could wish EVERYONE in the world had such a code and rigidly adhered to it. The world would be a MUCH better place.

The Samurai were seen as “sticks in the mud” or “tight-assed” because of their code of Bushido, which is the Code of the Warrior, their code of Honor. The Military is looked at as fanatics because they adhere to a code of honor. Many other groups out there, like the police, are hated because of their honorable behavior. But it is a necessary element in life.

What kind of a world would it be if we all just did whatever we wanted? No restrictions, no governors, nothing to keep us from feeling bad when we took that lollipop from that 2 year old. What would life be?

This would mean that I could shoot anyone in the head I wanted to. I could walk up to anyone who had something I wanted and simply take it. If they couldn’t take it back, then it was mine. People would die, I would be hurt, others would be maimed. What about the sociopath who was on the loose? He would be able to get away with anything he wanted simply because there would be no laws and no one to say “this is wrong”. Children could be raped in school simply because the teacher was horny. (Yes, graphic, but it’s what could happen.) Talk about slavery, anyone who wanted something from someone else and could keep them oppressed, could very easily.

But Honor prevents that. The laws of the Government are only really words in a book. They can’t make you do anything. They can’t force you to behave certain ways. All they can do is list out the punishments and consequences that are possible for betraying that rule. “Don’t do drugs” is nice, but when there is a laundry list of penalties to go along with it, you STILL have to make a personal decision not to do drugs. And there are those who choose to do drugs anyhow and when they are caught they pay the penalty. But the choice is dictated by your personal honor and integrity.

It’s Honor that keeps us behaving in a human manner.

So obeying the dictates of honor is a good thing. Don’t be so quick to dismiss that simply because you think it’s archaic.

And start behaving in an honorable fashion. The world will be a MUCH better place. Really.

Originally posted 2006-01-23 11:46:32.

It’s starting again, the debate about the term “Wicca” between the Traditionals and the Solitaries/Eclectics.

I’m so sick and tired of seeing this debate.

I’m writing an article on it.

Originally posted 2005-11-21 12:57:29.

(Note from Daven:  Let me state that I do not agree with these views expressed in this document. It is only in this file to illustrate the way MOST Christians view us. It is not to advocate one view over another or to give the Christians press. Just read and see just how paranoid those who don’t know are. The comments in brackets and also in Italics are comments from another Wiccan who put this document on the Internet. I have no idea who this Pagan is, but the comments made are very insightful.

This is a well-researched document. The author’s description of who we are and where we came from is accurate as far as that goes. If you can ignore the hate mongering in the second part, it is a good read.  It also is valuable to show us a way into the mind of those would hate us.  “Know your enemy”.

Daven@davensjournal.com)

Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.

COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS:

This data file is the sole property of the Christian Research Institute. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as “freeware, “without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain the copyright notice (i.e., “Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute”). This data file may not be used without the permission of the Christian Research Institute for resale or the enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its content with the exception of a few brief quotations not to exceed more than 500 words.

If you desire to reproduce less than 500 words of this data file for resale or the enhancement of any other product for resale, please give the following source credit: Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 500-TC, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693.

“The Modern World of Witchcraft: Part One of Two” (an article from the Christian Research Journal, Winter/Spring 1990, page by Craig S. Hawkins.

The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot Miller.

*A threatening storm is brewing on the religious horizon: the winds of occultism are blowing ever more strongly across the land. In the past two to three decades, America and much of Western Europe have seen a resurgence of paganism and witchcraft. Paganism is attempting a resurrection from the dead, a revival of the old gods and goddesses of pre-Christian polytheistic nature religions and mystery cults (e.g., Celtic, Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and other traditions of the Western world). Additionally, Sumerian mythologies, extant tribal religions (e.g., Native American religions and shamanism), new religions largely inspired by science fiction and fantasy, and amalgamations of diverse occultic traditions join the list as well. Astaroth, Diana, Hecate, Cernunnos, Osiris, Pan, and others are being invoked anew, feeding an intoxicating discovery of and journey into a universe inhabited with gods and goddesses.*

*Glossary of Key Terms*

*Divination:* The attempt to obtain information regarding the past, present, or future through occultic methods, such as astrology, channeling, crystal balls, tarot cards, and so forth.

*Magic:* The ability, real or imagined, to cause changes to result in conformity with one’s will or desires by invoking or utilizing mysterious and/or invisible forces, {unclear – referring specifically to Wicca, and generally to most other Pagan religions, there is nothing mysterious about any of these forces. They originate from God/dess, and are readily accessed and recognized by any person who will take the time to study} and thereby influencing, controlling, or manipulating reality for one’s own purposes. Magic is synonymous with sorcery and, as used here, is to be distinguished from mere sleight-of-hand. In some occultic circles, it is frequently spelled “magick” to distinguish it from sleight-of-hand.

*Coven:* Sometimes also referred to as groves or circles {Incorrect. Covens and Groves are absolutely different entities, and “Circle” generally refers to smaller, less intimate gatherings. A coven is the basic unit of worship, like a congregation, while a Grove is a collection of Covens and Solitaries, analogous to a Diocese} coven is the basic social unit of witches who regularly meet in groups (as opposed to solitary witches), numbering anywhere between 3 and 30, {Incorrect. Covens never number more than 13, the number of lunar months in the year, and therefore a number sacred to the Goddess}with 13 being the ideal.

*Metaphysics:* In the philosophical (not occultic) sense, metaphysics pertains to questions of ultimate reality — in both the sensible and insensible realms. Such questions include: What actually exists? What is its nature or essence? What is its origin?

*Occult:* From the Latin _occultus,_ meaning secret, hidden, or esoteric knowledge and practices. It is comprised of three basic categories — divination, magic or sorcery, and spiritism. Though there are many theories today as to how or why it works, according to biblical theology it originates from, and constitutes interaction with, demonic spirits. Hence, it is expressly condemned.

*Sex Magic:* The use of sex (e.g., intercourse — actual or symbolic) within a ritual or spell-casting session to facilitate or augment the efficacy of a given magical rite. That is, sexual activities are used to accomplish the desired goal of the occultist.

Although their practices and beliefs diverge significantly at points, many of these individuals and groups proudly identify themselves as pagans or Neopagans. Among them can be found a diverse group of people who style themselves as witches or Wiccan: followers of the “Old Religion” of the great Mother Goddess and her male consort, the Horned God.

*THE PAGAN NEXT DOOR*

Many of today’s witches want to remove their traditional cloaks of secrecy, dispel the confusion that surrounds their religion, and address the hostility and suspicion they perceive as directed {Perceive? Oh, please. I suppose articles which discuss how awful we are aren’t hostile?} toward themselves and their craft. They desire that their views and practices be considered an alternative religion, a viable world view. At the very least they seek the right to follow their chosen path without being hindered, harmed, or discriminated against.

*Pagan PR*

Indeed, with increasing vigor, witchcraft is coming “out of the broom closet.” Many witches are actively seeking public understanding and acceptance, cultivating an image as the “pagan next door.” After all, they claim to embrace a life-affirming, family religion. From media materials to books for children, such as The Witch Next Door and The Witch Family (which portrays witchcraft in a positive family setting), the campaign is on.[1] The cover of one book on witchcraft has an attractive female witch dressed in a fashionable, well-tailored business suit – as if she were walking down Madison Avenue.[2] This is far removed from the stereotypical image of witches as ugly old hags with warts on their noses, decked out in black capes and cone-shaped hats, riding their favorite broomstick on a moonlit night.

This two-part series is presented with a view to (1) understanding, analyzing, and critiquing contemporary witchcraft, and (2) promoting biblical and thoughtful evangelism of people involved in this religion. It is not presented as a complete treatment and refutation of witchcraft, much less of the larger and more diverse Neopagan movement. However, much of what is said about witchcraft herein can also be said of the Neopagan movement as a whole. Likewise, the refutations applied to witchcraft doctrines apply to Neopaganism as well. (The differences between witchcraft and the various other religions within Neopaganism are important, but not so significant as to negate most of the critique presented here.)

The background information on modern and contemporary witchcraft that will be found in this article is necessary because so few “outsiders” understand what it is. This material should clear away many misconceptions and help bring the issue into proper focus. We will not spend time on the disputed ancient or medieval history (“herstory,” as most witches like to call it) of witchcraft, as this will not necessarily promote an accurate understanding of contemporary witchcraft. Besides, there are numerous works available touching these concerns, and a world view’s validity does not depend on its longevity (this is the fallacy of argumentem ad antiquitum); it depends on whether it is internally consistent and “fits the facts.”[3] After giving a brief history of modern witchcraft, we shall proceed to examine its contemporary expression.

*WHICH IS WITCH?*

It is extremely difficult to define with precision the beliefs and practices of contemporary witches. This is because of the elasticity of the terms “witch” and “witchcraft” as they have been applied to people and practices both today and throughout history. It is also due to the great diversity that exists within the contemporary movement itself. Witches disagree among themselves as to what constitutes a witch.[4] Muddled thinking, misunderstanding, and confusion have been the result of Christians, witches, and others not adequately defining their terms. For instance, it is not just believing in and practicing magic and divination (the occult) that makes a person a witch. There are millions of people who do this but are not witches. Contemporary witchcraft involves these practices, yes, but others as well (e.g., the invocation and worship of the Mother Goddess).

An oft-suggested definition for what constitutes a witch is, Anyone who is involved in some form of the occult (e.g., palm or tarot card readers, ritual magicians/sorcerers, Satanists, Voodoo practitioners — everything from alchemists to xylomancers and astral projection to visualization). The primary reason for this is that the English words “witch” and “witchcraft” are variously employed in the most commonly used English translations of the Bible to designate different types of occultists and occultic practices. However, in accord with the meaning of these words in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, and in light of the changing definitions of these words throughout history, we shall use the terms “witch” and “witchcraft” only for the particular religiomagical belief system delineated below. (This should in no sense be seen as an endorsement of other types of occultism, as they are equally condemned in God’s Word, the Bible.)

Witchcraft (also known as wicca {this word should be capitalized}, the craft or the craft of the wise) is a generic term covering differing approaches to the subject. And the terms for followers of witchcraft — “witch” or “wiccan” — apply to both genders. The widely believed notion that a female is a “witch” whereas a male practitioner is a “warlock” or “wizard” is a misnomer. {True. “Warlock” means “oathbreaker”, and it is an insult applied to those who have betrayed their religious oaths and – in ancient times – delivered their covenmates to torture and death.}

To help set the stage for our discussion of contemporary witchcraft, it will be beneficial to take a brief tour of the modern history of this fascinating phenomenon.

*ONCE UPON A TIME*

Many people contributed to the growth of modern witchcraft in Western Europe and America, such as folklorist and occultist Charles G. Leland (1824-1903) and novelist and occultist Robert Graves (1895-1985). As much as we might like to discuss these interesting personalities and their part in the forging of contemporary witchcraft, space compels us to limit our consideration to a few key individuals.

*The Murray Myth*

The ideas of anthropologist, Egyptologist, and occult dabbler (and perhaps witch[5]) Margaret Murray (1863-1963) were popularized in two of her better-known works, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1933). The latter eventually became a best seller in England.

The “Murrayite theory” stated that witchcraft could be traced back to pre-Christian times, having been preserved through the centuries by witches. Not only does witchcraft predate Christianity, Murray affirmed, it was once the ancient pagan religion of Western Europe.[6] It supposedly survived in small scattered groups who practiced the “Old Religion.” But by this time it was fragmented due to persecution from the dominant Western religion — Christianity. Thus, the “Old Religion” was the surviving pre-Christian religion of Western Europe, still practiced by the faithful — but only clandestinely.

The history of ancient witchcraft and witchcraft in the Middle Ages (and Satanism for that matter) is a very convoluted and confused subject.[7] Still, there is little doubt that small pockets of various types of paganistic beliefs and practices persisted up through the medieval period, particularly in rural regions. Thus, by way of local familial agricultural/fertility traditions and superstitions, numerous folks really were involved in forms of occultic beliefs and practices.[8] However, these medieval remnants of pre-Christian paganism were not the remains of an elaborate, matriarchal Mother Goddess mystery religion, as many contemporary witches would have us believe. The Murrayite theory is thus unsupported by the facts.[9]

Contemporary witchcraft is quite different from its medieval and “enlightenment” period counterparts. That is, the agricultural/fertility traditions that survived from ancient times through the Middle Ages and into the early modern era are not the same as modern witchcraft, except that they are both forms of the overarching category of occultism. Nonetheless, Murray’s views influenced many — including one Gerald Gardner, to whom we now turn our attention.

*The Gardnerian Garden*

Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) almost single-handedly revived (invented) and popularized witchcraft for the modern world. Based on his associations, experiences, extensive occultic background, studies, travels, and familiarity with magical texts (grimories) and Margaret Murray’s works, he “crafted” modern witchcraft.

Indeed, Gardner was a man with many occultic connections. He was a member of Freemasonry, the Rosicrucians, and a VII degree initiate of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.). He was an acquaintance of Mabel Besant-Scott (daughter of leading Theosophist Annie Besant) and of the infamous Aleister Crowley.[10]

A British civil servant, Gardner spent much time in Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) and worked and traveled throughout India and Southeast Asia, as well as visiting the Middle East. While in Ceylon he was initiated into Freemasonry and became a nudist. An accomplished amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, Gardner’s interests gravitated toward the religions and religious paraphernalia of native societies. He even wrote a book on Malaysian ceremonial weaponry, and participated in an archaeological excavation in Palestine of a center of worship of the goddess Astaroth.[11]

Upon his retirement and return to England, Gardner became involved with the Corona Fellowship of Rosicrucians, founded by Mabel Besant-Scott. Here he contacted numerous occultists and allegedly some witches, including Dorothy Clutterbuck (“Old Dorothy”), who supposedly initiated him into witchcraft (the “Old Religion”). He revealed some secrets of the coven to which he claimed to belong and its Mother Goddess in a novel entitled High Magic’s Aid in 1949. This was written under a pseudonym (i.e., his magical name, “Scire”).

Gardner’s Witchcraft Today was published in 1954, after the witchcraft laws in England were rescinded (in 1951). The Meaning of Witchcraft followed in 1959. In Witchcraft Today Gardner further unveiled his Goddess religion as he described the survival of this “old pre-Christian religion” (Murray’s theory) and his initiation into it.

In his writings Gardner drew upon his occultic experiences, travels, the writings of Murray, the help of Aleister Crowley, and his knowledge of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Western ritual/sex magic, magical texts (e.g., the Greater Key of Solomon), and various native Asian and near Eastern religions and their occultic paraphernalia. Borrowing from these and other sources, Gardner invented his own religion — founding it upon the Mother Goddess. To this witches’ brew he added the doctrine of reincarnation {Incorrect. This belief was and is widespread among Pagans; Gardner certainly didn’t invent it or summarily deposit it in Wicca}. Thus, rather than merely revealing and reviving an ancient Goddess religion as he claimed, the resourceful Gardner actually created modern witchcraft.[12]

Ironically, the purported purpose of Witchcraft Today was to describe an allegedly dying Goddess religion. Instead, it birthed one, resulting in the rise of a generation of would-be witches who looked to Gardner for initiation. A new form of “Goddess worship,” modern witchcraft (wicca) grew as people became familiar with and initiated into the teachings and rites of this exotic faith. From this concoction sprang what is now known as Gardnerian witchcraft, and with it all or nearly all of the contemporary witchcraft movement.[13]

Among the early converts who fell under Gardner’s spell and who became influential in their own rights were Alex Sanders (d. 1988), Sybil Leek (d. 1983), and Raymond and Rosemary Buckland. {Left out Doreen Valiente,(d Aug 1 1999) who actually scripted much of the best-loved Wiccan liturgy, and who has had an amazing impact upon Wicca}

*Witchcraft Goes West*

Sybil Leek was greatly influenced by Gardnerian witchcraft, although she modified his rituals and teachings. She brought these with her and popularized them when she moved to the United States in the late 1960s.[14]

The persons primarily responsible for the introduction and growth of modern witchcraft in America, however, were Raymond and Rosemary Buckland. They traveled to England during the mid-1960s to be initiated into Gardner’s Goddess religion, and after obtaining their desire, brought their religion back to America with them.

*THE CONTEMPORARY CRAFT*

Stemming from the ideas and persons described above (and, of course, other relevant persons and factors), witchcraft has proliferated into the variegated expressions and traditions that comprise the contemporary scene. It is a highly decentralized, eclectic, creative, mix and match (use what exists or make your own as you go) movement. This is evidenced by the numerous covens, associations, and types of witchcraft to which individual covens belong: Algard, Alexandrian, the American Order of the Brotherhood of Wicca, Church and School of Wicca, Church of Circle Wicca, Covenant of the Goddess, Cymry Wicca, Dianic (feminist), Gardnerian, Georgian, Seax-Wica, and the Witches International Craft Associates.[15] Some of these covens are feminist, others lesbian or homosexually oriented, and still others a mixture of males and females.

The major spokespersons for witchcraft today are even more diverse than the types. Besides Raymond Buckland, predominant voices in the witchcraft (and neopagan) world include Margot Adler, Jim Alan, Jessie Wicker Bell (Lady Sheba), Zsuzsanna (or simply “Z”) Budapest, Laurie Cabot, Scott Cunningham, Selena Fox, Gavin and Yvonne Frost {While they call themselves Wiccan, the Frosts do not actually practice any form of Wicca, merely another type of Paganism}, Judy Kneitel (Lady Theos), Leo Martello, Miriam Simos (Starhawk), and Doreen Valiente.

Aside from the various covens and solitary practitioners of witchcraft, there are too many of the following to list individually: associations, centers, festivals and gatherings, newsletters, magazines, journals, books, bookstores, and shops. All of these are devoted to teaching, defending, and networking the ideologies of witchcraft (and/or neopaganism).[16]

For various reasons, it is difficult if not impossible to assign a number to the witches in North America. “Ballpark” estimates on the conservative side, however, would place the figure approximately between 5,000 and 10,000. More liberal estimates range between 30,000 and 50,000 for witches, and upwards of 70,000 to 80,000 for all neopagans. The actual number is probably at the lower end of the conservative scale {Incorrect. There are upwards of 2,000 in the Tampa Bay area alone – this from informal censuses taken by local religion professors and from my own experience.}. But witchcraft is growing at a steady pace, and unless something drastic happens to reverse the spiritual climate in America and the trend toward occultism, the witchcraft community will become an increasingly significant minority — a sobering possibility the church cannot afford to ignore.

*PAGAN PRINCIPLES*

Witches do not view their religion as a reaction to or reversal of Christianity, as is the case with much of Satanism.[17] Rather, they prefer to see it as an independent tradition, an alternative religion or faith — like Hinduism or Taoism. Indeed, they see witchcraft as being pre-Christian and not arising as a backlash to it. Witches view themselves as fun-loving, life-celebrating and affirming folk who worship the Mother Goddess (in all her many facets of revelation via creation) and her consort, the Horned God.

Contemporary witchcraft is so diverse and eclectic (as we shall see presently) that it is extremely difficult to accurately identify and define. In fact, it is almost impossible to state that all witches believe “this or that.” No sooner will this be uttered then someone will speak up and assert that they are a witch and do not believe what you just stated.” There are, however, commonalties shared by most who appropriate the word “witch” for themselves. It is important to keep in mind that the following tenets do not necessarily apply to all witches, but on the whole they are valuable general guidelines for defining witchcraft.

*The Creed of No Creed*

First among the beliefs of witchcraft is the “creed of experience.” Experience is exalted dogmatically above, and often set in opposition to, creeds or doctrines. In short, experience is superior to doctrine. Aidan Kelly, who was formerly involved in neopaganism, noted: “What really defines a witch is a type of experience people go through. These experiences depend on altered states of consciousness. The Craft is really the Yoga of the West” (emphasis in original).[18] The witchcraft experience is often expressed as a mystical experience, “that feeling of ineffable oneness with all Life.”[19] Witchcraft is therefore a religion based first and foremost on the sense of being one and in harmony with all life.

Tolerance is another highly-touted value among witches. Diversity of belief and practice is viewed as not only healthy but essential to the survival of humanity and planet earth, and to spiritual growth and maturation as well. Independence, autonomy, and the freedom to experience, believe, think, and act as one desires are defended as if they were divine rights. Witches do become intolerant, however, when they perceive intolerance and authoritarianism in other individuals and faiths (which they would term “religious imperialism”). So we have statements like number 10 of the Council of American Witches’ “Principles of Wiccan Belief”;

“Our only animosity toward Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy-of-life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be ‘the only way’ and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.”

These beliefs stem from the notion that ultimately there is no right or wrong religion or morality. Relativism in all areas of life, including ethics and metaphysics, is the rule. Truth is what is true for you; right what is right for you; but neither are necessarily so for me. The only absolute is that there are no absolutes. Thus, all have the right to believe and practice “what they will.” In this context, one often hears the story of the three blind men who have all grasped different parts of an elephant (tusk, trunk, and tail), and, in describing it, each man thinks he alone has the truth.

This view of life derives from an “open” metaphysical concept that “reality is multiple and diverse.”[20] There is no single logic or view that is complete or adequate to handle the complexity and multiplicity of reality. Therefore, we should not limit ourselves to the narrow purview of one person or religion, but be “open” minded and tolerant of differing views. This understanding of reality is closely associated with three key concepts: animism, pantheism, and polytheism.

*World Alive: Three Pillars of the Witches’ World View*

Animism is an important pillar of the witches’ world. As by them, the word means that the “Life Force” is immanent within all creation: rocks and trees, deserts and streams, mountains and valleys, ponds and oceans, gardens and forests, fish and fowl; from amoeba to humans and all things in between. All is infused with and participates in the vital Life Force or energy, and therefore the entire earth is a living, breathing organism. All is sacred; all is to be cared for and revered. The earth is a (or the) manifestation of the Goddess (and God). “Sacredizing” the world and animating nature, witches view all reality as a continuum of consciousness and being. Thus, they seek to live in harmony and be psychically in tune with nature. (Incidentally, whatever else witches may believe and do, because of these views they are not involved in animal or human sacrifices. {Well thank you for that acknowledgement that we aren’t all bad.})

For many witches, the second pillar of their world — implicit in their version of animism — is pantheism. Not only is the Life Force pervasive throughout our world, but all the world is divine. Divinity is inseparable from, and immanent in, nature and humanity. Since most witches teach that we are divine (or potentially so), it is clear why someone like Margot Adler, a witch herself, approvingly quotes a particular neopagan group’s greeting to its female and male members respectively: “Thou art Goddess,” “Thou art God.”[21] Most are not this brash but nevertheless hold that we, like nature, are divine.

The third pillar is polytheism. As defined by many witches, however, polytheism is not merely the belief in multiple deities — a pantheon of gods and goddesses — but also the belief that there are multiple levels of reality (i.e., the “open” metaphysics referred to earlier). According to this view, there are an infinite (or at least incomprehensible) number of levels of meaning and explanations about our world. These allow not only a multitude of gods, goddesses, and religions to exist simultaneously, but also views of reality that would otherwise appear to be mutually exclusive; all are true as far as they go.[22] Hence, witches can align themselves with a particular Goddess and/or God, or group thereof, and still grant the validity of other “alternative” religions.

*The Mother Goddess and the Horned God*

Most witches experience, believe in, invoke, or worship the Mother or “triple Goddess” and her male consort, the Horned God. Both are believed to be immanent deities accessible to humanity.

The Mother Goddess — whose three primary roles are mother, maiden, and crone — is represented by and associated with the moon and its three phases: waxing, full, and waning. She is invoked by a variety of names: Aphrodite, Artemis, Astaroth, Astarte, Athene, Brigit, Ceres, Cerridwen, Cybele, Diana, Demeter, Friga, Gaia, Hecate, Isis, Kali, Kore, Lilith, Luna, Persephone, Venus, and more. She is believed to be eternal.

The Goddess’s consort, the male Horned God, is associated with the sun. According to most witches, he dies and is reborn every year. He too is called and invoked by many names, including Adonis, Ammon-Ra, Apollo, Baphomet, Cernunnos, Dionysius, Eros, Faunus, Hades, Horus, Nuit, Lucifer {Lucifer is not a used God name in the United States. There are Pagans in Europe which use this name in connection with the Strege story of Diana and Lucifer, but this name, being from the Christian pantheon, is not often employed}, Odin, Osiris, Pan, Thor, and Woden.

Different witchcraft traditions and solitary practitioners diverge in the importance they attach to the Mother Goddess and the Horned God. Some emphasize the Goddess, some the Horned God, while many seek a balance between the two.

*Differing Views of the Goddess(es) and God(s)*

How do witches themselves view and experience the Goddess(es) and God(s)? Do they really believe they exist? As one might expect from an eclectic religion that highly values autonomy, there are multiple views as to who or what the Goddess and God are.[23] Be that as it may, there are some commonalities. Let’s look at the six primary views.

First (but not foremost) is the idea that the deities of witchcraft are simply symbols: the personifications of universal principles, or of the life forces and processes of our world (e.g., the ebb and flow of life as seen in the seasonal changes), and nothing more. They are symbols used to help conceptualize the cyclical pattern of birth, life, death, and birth again.

Second, they are Jungian archetypes: universal symbols of processes and events of nature and of actual potentialities within all humans, springing from the common pool of the “collective unconsciousness” from which we all allegedly drink. Therefore, they exist in the sense that any archetype exists. They are more than “just” symbols, but do not exist externally to, or independently of, humanity.[24]

Third, they are dissociative or dislocative psychological states. That is, they are a split or spin-off from a person’s own psyche or being (like a multiple personality state). They have a “life of their own” in that sometimes they can seemingly manifest themselves outside of the person: reasons, talk, give advice, travel about, and so on. However, they are dependent on a given person’s psyche for their existence.

Fourth, and apparently the most predominant view, the Goddess and Horned God and/or other gods and goddesses are personifications of the monistic, genderless, universal, and eternal Life Force — the divine primal energy or principle. This source of all life and consciousness, which in this life and mode of existence is unknowable and incomprehensible, is personified by the Goddess and Horned God. They are myths, legends, or metaphors that are used in an attempt to explain or grasp the ineffable absolute One that is all, and gives life to all. This ultimately indescribable Force is primarily manifested in polarities — female and male, light and darkness, Goddess and God, and so forth. Scott Cunningham tells us that “in wiccan thought the Goddess and the God are the twin divine beings: balanced, equal expressions of the ultimate source of all….They are dual reflections of the power behind the universe that can never be truly separated.”[25] Thus, according to this view, they can be described either as personifications of the ultimate Life Force or emanations from or manifestations of it, but they nonetheless can be literal conscious entities. (That is, as literal as you or me.)

Fifth, multiple combinations of the above views are often held, depending on the individual’s orientation. For example, some believe that the above four views are all true at one time or another.

Sixth and lastly, we have the agnostic “who cares” view. That is, in working magic or just in everyday life, invoking the Goddess and God seems to work_ Thus, because of pragmatic and aesthetic reasons, some who are skeptical about (or even flatly deny) the Goddess’s and God’s existence still practice witchcraft.[26]

In addition to these varying views of the Goddess and God, some witches believe in good and bad extra-dimensional or intermediate beings, including other goddesses and gods, higher life forms, spirit guides and teachers, elemental spirits, and departed human beings who exist as manifestations of the One and/or are individual literal entities in their own right.

While some witches may be skeptical about the existence of the Goddess and God, they all emphatically deny the existence of the Devil and hell. Therefore, they vigorously reject the charge that they worship the Devil, which many Satanists would admit to.

*MAGIC MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND*

Magic is another key component of the witches’ world. The working of magic and diverse techniques of divination are part-and-parcel of their religion. Astrology, astral projection (out-of-body experiences), incantations, mediumship (channeling), necromancy, raising psychic power, (for many) sex magic, spell casting, trance states, and so forth, are all tools of their craft. Indeed, “psychic” development (i.e., training for proficiency in magic and divination) is a critical concern.[27]

Altered states of consciousness are another integral part of many witchcraft practices and rituals; these are induced to facilitate the working of magic and divination. Much of a witch’s training is with a view to enabling him or her to enter these states at will. This is done by means of chanting, (for some) drugs {Incorrect. Witches do not use drugs, as we are striving to control both our own minds and the natural forces. Drugs in any form lead to a loss of control (although there are some covens who are getting into this dangerous practice. I have seen them and met members who had drugs given to them at Circles, but I would not call them Wiccan. Daven)}, ecstatic dancing, hypnosis, meditation, rituals, sex magic, visualization, or a combination of these and a host of others. [28] For many witches, trance states are the high point of their religious practice. Especially important are the type termed “drawing down the moon [Goddess]” or “drawing down” the Horned God. These involve the Goddess or God entering or possessing a priestess or priest respectively during a ritual with mediumistic utterances given or magic worked.[29]

As elsewhere in the kingdom of the occult, the old occult has been given a new face-lift in witchcraft. The occultic realm is now described as simply beyond-the-physical, but still a part of nature. Thus, Sybil Leek is able to affirm: “I can see little difference in Magic and science, except to have the opinion that Magic is one step ahead of science.”[30] Leo Martello says that as a witch he makes no claims to “supernatural powers,” but he does believe in super powers that reside in the natural.[31]

Many witches share this view: divination and magic are not “supernatural,” but supernormal or paranormal, because the processes by which they work are contained within the nature of the universe. This is as opposed to the view that occultism works through the intervention of supernatural beings — the Devil, demons, or spirits.[32] The current sentiment is conveyed in the attitude that “yesterday’s occultism is today’s science.”

Moreover, witches maintain that magic is a “neutral” power. Like electricity or a gun, it is not morally good or bad in itself. Its moral quality depends on how or for what purpose it is used — good or evil.

*Working Magic*

Just as there are many explanations as to who or what the Goddess and God are, so there are various views among witches as to how and why divination and magic work. We’ll survey the four most common.

First is the belief that the ability to work magic or perform divination is due to latent psychic abilities or powers that we all have. Some either have more of these natural gifts than others, or else they have developed them to a greater degree. Others may not even realize they have them. But they are nonetheless inherent within us all.[33]

The second view of magic appeals particularly to those who espouse the fourth view about the Goddess and God mentioned above (i.e., the view that the Goddess and God are personifications of the monistic Life Force). It holds that the working of magic is much like tapping into an electrical current. The “current” is the monistic universal energy or Life Force. Since this primal energy composes, interconnects, and flows through all (though manifested in myriads of forms), one merely has to learn how to “plug into” and harness some of this power for his or her own purposes. Thus, it can be manipulated toward the desired goal of the witch.[34]

The third view is that divination and magic are accomplished by the intervention of interdimensional entities such as gods and goddesses, higher life forms, spirit guides, departed humans, and so forth. They can be communicated with, and will supposedly aid us in our quest for “spiritual” growth, knowledge, and all things occultic.[35]

Fourth, the above theories can be found in varying combinations, such as one and three; one, two, and three; and so forth.

In the second and concluding part of this series, we will look further at the beliefs of witches, including reincarnation, their view of sin, and their ethic or “Wiccan Rede,” “An it harm none, do what you will.” A critique of the witches’ world view and practices — on biblical, metaphysical, logical, and ethical grounds — will also be presented.

*NOTES*

1 See Raymond Buckland, Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1988), 210.

2 Scott Cunningham, The Truth About Witchcraft Today (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1988).

3 References concerning this point are available on request.

4 See, for example, Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, rev. and expanded ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 66-72, 99-107; J. Gordon Melton, “Witchcraft: An Inside View,” Christianity Today, 21 Oct. 1983, 24; and Marcello Truzzi, “Towards a Sociology of the Occult: Notes on Modern Witchcraft,” in Religious Movements in Contemporary America, ed. by Irving Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974), 633-45.

5 Alleged by Leo Martello in Witchcraft: The Old Religion (Secaucus: Citadel Press, n.d.), 59.

6 Actually, she was not the first to formulate and advance this thesis, but her views had the most impact.

7 For information on the background and development of witchcraft and Satanism, see J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, 3d ed. (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1989), 142-47. Though we do not endorse all of his conclusions, he provides valuable background and bibliographical material.

8 Ibid, 142.

9 See Adler, 45-56, for a refutation of, and specific information on, Murray’s theory; and 45-72 for other theories and general information on the history of witchcraft. For additional argumentation against Murray’s theory and other pertinent information, see: Norman Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons (New York: Basic Books, 1975), 107-20; Mircea Eliade, Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 57-58, 71-73; J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia, 142; Elliot Rose, A Razor for a Goat (Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1962), 14-21, 40-53, 56-79, 130-31, 200; Jeffrey B. Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 36-37

10 Doreen Valiente, An ABC of Witchcraft: Past and Present (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973), 184-89.

11 Melton, Encyclopedia, 144; see also Melton’s Biographical Dictionary of American Cult and Sect Leaders (New York: Garland Publishing, 1986), 96-97.

12 See Adler, 62-66, 81-85, 93, 560; T. M. Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 42-43; Martello,69-71; Melton, Biographical Dictionary, q.v., “Gardner, Gerald Brosseau,” 96-97; Melton’s Encyclopedia, 144; and his Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (New York: Garland Publishing, 1986), 212; and Truzzi, 636-37. For even stronger charges, consult Francis King, Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism, revised (Dorset, Great Britain: Prism Press, 1989), 179-80.

13 Melton, Encyclopedia, 144-45.

14 Ibid., 144, 789; Encyclopedic Handbook, 212.

15 For additional information on various types of witchcraft, see Adler, 68-80, 113-30; Melton, Encyclopedia, 777-801; and Buckland, 225-28.

16 For a detailed list, consult Adler, 475-544.

17 See the author’s article, “The Many Faces of Satanism,” in Forward, Fall 1986, 17-22. For instance, if a Jehovah’s Witness believes what the Watchtower teaches, they cannot be saved. Likewise with a Mormon who subscribes to what Mormonism teaches. Nonetheless, the Mormon does not believe what the Jehovah’s Witness does, and vice versa. The same is true with witchcraft and Satanism and/or other forms of the occult.

18 Aidan Kelly, quoted in Adler, 106. For further material on this point and other beliefs, see 99-135.

19 The Covenant of the Goddess information packet, Northern California Local Council Media Committee, n.d., “Basic Philosophy.”

20 See Adler, 25, 29, 172.

21 Ibid., 25, 166.

22 Ibid., 24-38.

23 Ibid., 20, 112.

24 Ibid., 28, 160, 172.

25 Cunningham, 76, 117. Also see 4, 62-64, 69-77.

26 See Adler, e.g., 169, 173.

27 See, e.g., Buckland, 101-34, 155-74; Justine Glass, Witchcraft, The Sixth Sense (California: Wilshire Book Co., 1974), 20, 94; Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979), 37, 108-58.

28 See, e.g., Adler, 106, 153-54, 157, 163; Starhawk, 7, 18, 46-53, 110.

29 See Adler, 109, 142, 166, 168-69; Buckland, 101; Cunningham, 91; Farrar, 67-68; Leek, Diary, 151, 159-60, 202-206; Starhawk, 46-54, 139-58.

30 Sybil Leek, Diary of a Witch (New York: Signet Books, 1969), 144.

31 Leo Martello, 12.

32 See, e.g., Adler, 7-8, 102, 153-75; Cunningham, 23-24; Leek, 13-14; Truzzi, 630-32, 635-36; Simos, 132.

33 Buckland, e.g., 101; Cunningham, 19.

34 See, e.g., Cunningham, 3, 17-25, 105, 109, 111; Simos,

108-38.

35 See, e.g., Buckland, 155, 157; Stewart Farrar, What Witches Do: The Modern Coven Revealed (London: Sphere Books Limited,1973), 81-84, 141-43, 151-52, 156, 158-63; Leek, The Complete Art of Witchcraft (New York: Signet Books, 1973), 43, 45; Valiente, 152-58.

Craig Hawkins is currently president of Apologetics Information Ministry (AIM, 921 South Birch, Santa Ana, CA 92701) and the author of two new books due out in early 1996: Goddess Worship, Witchcraft and Other Neopagan Movements from Zondervan (an intro- ductory level work) and for an expanded treatment of the article contained in this file, Witchcraft: A New Look at an Old Religion from Baker Books.

End of document, CRJ0064A.TXT (original CRI file name), “The Modern World of Witchcraft: Part One of Two” release A, October 2, 1995 R. Poll, CRI

(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.)

Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.

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“The Modern World of Witchcraft: Part Two” (an article from the Christian Research Journal, Summer 1990, page 22) by Craig S. Hawkins.

The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot Miller.

In Part One of this series we briefly examined modern and contemporary witchcraft, discussing some of the major beliefs of this syncretistic movement. The present article will further expound on witchcraft, and also critique it from a biblical, metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical basis.

It is essential to keep in mind that this movement encompasses a wide range of practices and beliefs. Consequently some of the critiques presented in this article may require some adaptation or modification in order to be applicable to certain variations of belief within the broader system of witchcraft and neopaganism. Nonetheless, the body of critiques presented here apply substantially to most witches and neopagans.

——————————————————————-

*Glossary*

*epistemology:* The study of the origin and nature of knowledge. Deals with questions like: What can we know? How do we know it? How do we know it is _true?_ To what extent can we know it? And so forth.

*ontology:* As used here ontology is a branch of metaphysics (which in turn is a branch of philosophy — _see_ Part One) and, more specifically, is the study of the nature or essence of Being the One — and its relationship to creation and vice versa.

*panentheism:* The view that the world is contained in and is a manifestation of the divine. Although the divine is immanent in and to the world, it still transcends the universe to some degree. As the human body is to the soul or mind, so the universe is to the divine.

*problem of evil:* The origin and existence of evil in the world. Traditionally, there are three main categories of evil: metaphysical, moral, and physical or natural. Blindness, deafness, and lameness are examples of metaphysical evil; cruelty and malevolence are examples of moral evil; and earthquakes, droughts, and tornados are examples of physical evil. All moral evil is the direct or indirect result of moral agents’ free wills or ability to choose. Physical and metaphysical evil may or may not be the result of moral agents’ choices.

*syncretism:* The combining or merging and synthesizing of religions or religious beliefs, practices, and philosophies. This results in new or hybrid religions that are composed of diverse elements of the religions from which they were derived.

*MAGICAL MANIPULATION*

Many witches do not believe in spirits, and most if not all reject belief in a literal Devil or demons. Naturally, therefore, they reject the idea that sorcery and divination are accomplished by the agency of evil spirits. Many offer naturalistic explanations for the working of magic and divination and other “psychic technologies.” On the whole, the occult community today has expanded its definition of “the natural” to incorporate elements that were earlier considered supernatural, placing them in the category of the super- or paranormal instead. Yet, they are still involved in the “old ways” — that is, the occult.

*Now You See it, Now You Don’t*

What has happened in the occult world in the past two or more decades is just what C. S. Lewis described in his classic work, The Screwtape Letters — which portrays an experienced demon (Screwtape) writing letters of advice to a novice demon (Wormwood):

I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalize and mythologize their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy [i.e., God]. The “Life Force,” the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work — the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” — then the end of the war will be in sight.[1]

Lewis’s insights on the insidious strategy of Satan – the archenemy of our souls — appear to have been right on target in regard to modern occultism.[2]

When observations like Lewis’s are made, however, it is not uncommon to hear remarks to the effect that Christians attribute to the supernatural everything they cannot comprehend — if it cannot be understood, it must be the Devil. However, this charge is unwarranted. (If the shoe fits… Daven)

While it is unfortunately true that some Christians tend to hyperspiritualize events and exclaim “the Devil did it,” or “the Devil made me do it,” this is certainly not the case with all. Many Christians have pointed out alleged demonic (or divine) occurrences which were — in fact — instances of fraud, anomalies, psychosomatic phenomena, auto- or heterosuggestion, and so forth.[3] Such Christians have demystified baffling occurrences and accounted for them by their natural causes.

*Black, White, or Neutral?*

The critical question is, What is the actual source or causal agent(s) of the occult (i.e., of divination, sorcery, and spiritism)? Some witches like to make a distinction between black and white magic/sorcery and divination. They claim that sorcery or divination performed for unselfish and/or “benevolent” purposes (to help others) is good. Thus, magic done with good intentions and desired results is classified as white magic. Conversely, sorcery performed with selfish and/or malevolent motives and means (to harm others) is classified as black magic. {Actually, most Witches refer to “ethical” and “unethical” magickal workings – just as we refer to “ethical” and “unethical” physical actions. }

Other witches deny the validity of this distinction or find it useless. Since they regard magic as a natural force they view it as morally neutral (i.e., not intrinsically good or evil). Like electricity, some say, magic can be used for good or evil — but just as one would not speak of black or white electricity, one should not do so with magic either.

Christians too deny the validity of a distinction between black and white magic or divination, albeit for entirely different reasons. Whether called black, white, negative, or positive — any such distinction is illegitimate. Where the Christian and all witches disagree is on the ultimate source, the actual identity, the who or what behind the scenes of the occult.

It is the Christian’s conviction that despite all their magical theories, witches (and all other occultists) have failed to grasp the true source of the occult. I therefore offer the following biblical perspective on their beliefs and practices.

Continued –>

Originally posted 2009-11-14 22:02:34.