Do you care about history?

I love reading a bit here and there. I studied history in high school. I would have taken it in college but it wasn't available among my optional courses.

Mostly I like reading about women in history ancient history and old cultures and customs. Being a Pagan/ Witchy type person I tend to read about superstitions and old traditions connected to nature and ceremonies too. I once spent several hours in the public library reading about wedding traditions and omens. That was long before my own wedding.

When I first heard of Wicca I went to the library to read about it. I wanted to know where it came from and who was involved. How did they feel about the things that matter most to me? That's all history too. Most, of the people who created Wicca are no longer here to tell us their side of things. If you go even farther back, the first Witches and Pagans are hopelessly lost to us. We couldn't even come up with a reliable source to know who the first Witch really was. Just some woman gathering herbs and helping people I would guess. But, you can't know. That's something lost to history.

History gives us a past, an anchor. Whatever else you learn about, it's all current or in the future. Nothing but history teaches you about mistakes, conquests, people and possibilities that have come before you.

Not everyone appreciates history. Some think of it as just dusty old books that don't matter any more. But, I think differently. How can you follow your path if you don't know where you've been and what you've passed along the way?

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, March, 1, 2003.

What do you do with Pagan kids?

I think kids are too young to get started on the more serious side of being Pagan. Partly because they are too uninformed to make the decision to be Pagan versus something else. Also, calling themselves Pagan could become a problem with other members of the family or kids/ teachers at school. Most people don't understand Paganism and thus they don't trust it. Kids are a bit too defenseless in that situation.

That doesn't mean kids can't be Pagan too. Calling yourself Pagan is not being Pagan. What is being Pagan about, at it's heart? To me it's nature, the Earth, life, history, science, traditions and environmentalism. Is there any reason kids can't be involved in those things, of course not. Kids just love to talk about the supernatural too, few kids don't enough the spooky element of Halloween. You can add the facts about ghosts, Witches and such to their ghost stories.

Teach kids to appreciate nature, take them on walks outdoors, show them how to recycle and make it a priority to learn about history and science. Involve them in your rituals. Take them on a nature walk to gather leaves, stones, etc. Let them know what your altar is for, don't make it a big mystery, but don't make it sound too "weird" either. Get them started writing a journal, they don't have to know it's a Book of Shadows. Spend time with them, that's the most important thing for any kids, Pagan or otherwise. Remember, they learn from you. What you do is what they see and what they believe.

You can introduce kids to the Wiccan Rede, the basic ideas behind Paganism and what you believe about Gods, Goddesses, life and death. But, make sure they understand not everyone shares your same beliefs. For one thing you want them to make their own decision about being Pagan. For another you don't want them to be confused when they discover people who disagree with Pagan ideas.

Kids haven't lived enough to have a deeper understanding and they don't know how to protect themselves from those who think Pagans are evil, devil worshipping types. That's the main reason I think I would just let kids see the heart of Paganism and introduce them to the body later. Likely, they will have had a life of living like a Pagan and it will be a very smooth transition to become Pagan officially.

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, February, 20, 2003.

A list of quotations, witch related. What Witch quotations have you come across?

"Rebellion is like witchcraft. That's what it is, it's like witchcraft." - Missouri State Rep. Jean Dixon, on labeling "offensive music". USA Today, March 20, 1990

"It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." - Pat Robertson, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1993

"After ages of transmitted prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in twenty puts any real heart into the harrying of a witch. And yet apparently everybody hates witches and wants them killed. Some day a handful will rise up on the other side and make the most noise _{perhaps even a single daring man with a big voice and a determined front will do it} and in a week all the sheep will wheel and follow him, and witch-hunting will come to a sudden end." - Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger", 1922

During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumb-screws, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry.....There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain. - "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice," Europe and Elsewhere -Mark Twain

Wicked Witch of the West: I'm melting, melting! Who would have thought a little brat like you could destroy such beautiful wickedness.

Wicked Witch of the West: I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.

Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch? Peasant: Well she turned me into a newt! Bedevere: A newt? Peasant: I got better. Crowd: Burn her anyway!

-Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail

Bedevere: And how do you burn witches? Crowd: With more witches! Bedevere: No,no,no...And why do witches burn? Peasant: Because...there made...of...wood? Bedevere: Precisely, so how do we know if she's made fo wood? Peasant: Biuld a bridge out of her! Bedevere: Ah, but can you also not build a bridge out of stone?

-Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail

WITCHES: The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about: Thrice to thine and thrice to mine And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace! the charm's wound up.

-Macbeth, I, iii

When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet. . . indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman. - Virginia Woolf

I will show you a love potion without drug or any witch?s spell: If you wish to be loved, love. ~ Hecato

Whether they admit it as much or denied it, they all without exception in the depths of their hearts believed that there was a doctor, or a herbalist, or some old witch of a woman somewhere, whom you only had to find and get that medicine?to be saved?. It just wasn't possible that their lives were already doomed. However much we laugh at miracles when we are strong, healthy and prosperous, if life becomes so hedged and cramped that only a miracle can save us, then we clutch at this unique, exceptional miracle and--believe in it! -Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1968

From the Bible:

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (Ex. 22:18)

Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them. (Lev. 19:31)

All that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. (Deut. 18:12)

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers. (Mal. 3:5)

Thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness. (Acts 13:10)

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, February, 13, 2003.

Are superstitions rituals in disguise?

I have a superstition passed on from my Mother. Don't turn the calendar page before the first of the new month. So, I always wait till the first to look at the next page in the calendar. Why, I'm not sure. I don't think I believe I'll jinx the fresh month, but it doesn't hurt to be safe, right?

Could this habit, this superstition be based on a ritual? Yes, of course it is. Isn't it a pretty common ritual to buy a new calendar for each new year and flip the pages once a month? Sure, so that's a ritual. It may not include anything extravagant like being skyclad during the middle of a hailstorm, trying to keep all the pretty green candles from blowing out in the gale force winds... but it's a ritual all the same.

Think of other superstitions, you likely follow a few yourself. Do you avoid stepping on cracks, do you toss salt over your shoulder, do you always pick the inside copies of magazines on the bookstore shelf?

What makes one a ritual and the other a superstition? I think at some point every superstition was someone's ritual, we've just outgrown them. Some of them.

Get a book of superstitions next time you're at the library or bookstore. Take a look at some of the superstitions for every day things. I'm sure they all have a reasonable basis. Take into account that the people were not in the technology age and the church still held everyone caught in fear for their souls. Make note of some superstitions and think about how they could be added to your own magick rituals. Give fresh life to rituals from the past.

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, February, 2, 2003.

What do you tell people who ask you what Pagan means? How do you explain being a Witch? If you choose to explain at all, of course.

Religion is not a news item for public consumption. It's a personal thing.

But, if someone does ask you and you decide you want them to understand, what do you say?

I start by telling them it's an Earth religion. I do not mention hell or devils or any of that Christian claptrap. Of course, it comes up. Usually they are politically correct enough to say "But don't you believe in God?" rather than "But don't you think you will go straight to hell?"

This is a good time to remember the Wiccan Rede. It's also a good time to remember to be tolerant of other belief systems. Do not try to convert someone to your ideas. That's not what they asked you for.

Instead take time to explain what being a Witch, Wiccan or Pagan is all about, to you. Make it personal. I'm not saying you need to show them your Book of Shadows, let them play with your altar or anything else you have stashed away. But, let them see what being Pagan means to you, on a personal level.

Tell them about the history, traditions and culture. Show them how Pagans care about life, nature and people. Personally, I do not talk about God and Goddess or spells. I don't make those a part of my belief system. For me it really is about an Earth religion, my focus is on nature and culture. So, when I tell someone about being a Witch I am talking about caring for the environment, following old traditions, being interested and curious about living things in general. I have some focus on women, but more because I am one than any Dianic influence.

I am quite eclectic and fairly solitary and that's just how I like it. I tell people that too. Some have asked if I dance naked with other women under the moon, but those were mostly horny net geeks on IRC.

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, January, 25, 2003.