V Sebastian Page

A Lucid Consideration Of The Ground Zero Mosque

 

My Father-in-Law, no radical he, pointed this video out to me. This pretty much nails everything right on the head, from the insult against Americans to the weakness of Americans. And unless we alter our course radically, ditching our penchant for politically correct lunacy and self-inflicted blindness, we can also clearly glimpse the future of America. Watch it (more than once). Absorb it. Do it for the children...

I am of the mind that if our political class cannot get something as blatantly obvious as Islamic terrorism right, particulalry given the far less than subtle hints provided throughout history and the very texts of the Quran, then the whole lot of them need to be expunged for the dangerously useless bunch that they are. Democrats and Republicans alike. Here's hoping that the Tea Party serves to this very end...and that it's only round one.

-VSP

Note: Usually I disable related videos, but I took such a liking to so much of this guys no-nonsense reason based approach that I figured I would leave the option available. Consider the other viddies along the lines of early Christmas presents...enjoy.

A. C. McCarthy - Imagining Islam

I found this article by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online. In it the author points out our suicidally dangerous delusions about the nature of Islam (my words), a sentiment with which I have long agreed.

"Imagining Islam - Wishful thinking will not bring success or security.

If only the fantasy were true: If only there actually were a dominant, pro-American, echt moderate Islam, an ideology so dedicated to human rights, so sternly set against savagery, that acts of terrorism were, by definition, “un-Islamic activity.” Imagine an Islam that, far from a liability, proved an asset (indeed, an indispensable asset) in combating the threat against us. Imagine that we could accurately call the threat mere “extremism” — no “Islamic” (or even “Islamist”) modifier being necessary because the “extremists” truly were a tiny, aberrant band, fraudulently “hijacking” a great religion.

If the fantasy were true, who among us would not be proud to mark the annual observance of September 11 by breaking ground on a $100 million Islamic center cum mosque at the site of the most horrific attack in American history? In the nine years since the atrocities that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pa., such an Islam — if it really existed — would have spearheaded the defeat of America’s enemies.

Such an Islam, over nine long years, would have risen up and made itself heard. It would have identified by name and condemned with moral outrage the imposters purporting to act in its name. It would have honored America’s sacrifice of blood and treasure in the liberation of oppressed Muslim peoples. It would have said “thank you” to our troops. It would have joined America, without ambiguity or hesitation, in crushing terror networks and dismantling the regimes that abet them. It would not have needed trillion-dollar American investments to forge democracies; it would naturally have adopted democracy on its own.

What excruciating truths have we yet failed to grasp on this ninth anniversary of 9/11? The first is that such an Islam does not exist. The second is that, despite this fact, American foreign and domestic policy continues to proceed as though it does exist — and as though it were the only real Islam. That is, nine years after Islamists made their commitment to our destruction as unmistakable as possible, nine years after the non-occurrence of all the wonderful things that would certainly have happened if the Islam of our dreams were the Islam of our reality, our national-security strategy is still steeped in fiction.

Self-delusion is a convenient policy. It resists defining missions with anything but the most detached, politically correct loftiness. Serial attacks by readily identifiable enemies seamlessly become a nebulous “war on terror,” then a “long struggle against violent extremism,” then an “overseas contingency operation.” If you stubbornly avoid saying whom you’re fighting and why, pretty soon no one remembers — the better to define down success — don’t say victory. So we gradually slide from “You’re with us or you’re with the terrorists,” to “draining the swamps,” to “the forward march of freedom,” to the creation of “democracies” that are reliable American “allies in the war on terror,” to “democracy-lite, and please pass the sharia,” to “shoot for stability,” to “Why not negotiate with the Taliban? Look how well the engagement with Iran is going.”

We may succeed in kidding ourselves, but our enemies aren’t fooled. By 9/11, Iran had been braying “Death to America!” and matching word with deed for over 20 years. The mullahs heard all the “You’re with us or with the terrorists” banter, but they also saw it followed up with a policy of entreaty, appeasement, and capitulation. So they did what any jihadist taking our measure would do: They spent the ensuing nine years helping other jihadists kill Americans. The only difference now is that they’re about to be a jihadist nuclear power — a status they must have known was a shoo-in once the chorus of American politicians began pronouncing it “unacceptable.”

In the two new “democracies” we’ve built, sharia reigns, as it was bound to do when the State Department wrote it into the new constitutions — Islam being one of our purported weapons against terrorism. One result is that homosexuals and religious minorities are brutally persecuted.

In Iraq, where half the public still sees attacks on U.S. troops as legitimate, democratic elections are now contests in which candidates vie to show who is most anti-American. To the new Iraq, Iran is the most important ally. Indeed, if war broke out with Iran tomorrow, American forces in Iraq would be barred from launching attacks against Tehran. We’ve pledged not to use our costly military presence in Iraq against any other country — the only country for which the Shiite government would waive that prohibition is Israel.

Meantime, in Afghanistan, the U.S.-backed Karzai government is desperately seeking a deal with the Taliban — the Islamist terrorists the State Department refuses to designate as terrorists. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the Afghan government even convened a conference of clerics to enact a resolution calling for more exacting enforcement of sharia, the Taliban’s key demand. In response, the Taliban have stepped up the pace of bombings and assassinations. They are convinced, as Karzai is convinced, that President Obama will begin pulling out next year, just as he said he would. We imagine a cozy life with a “moderate” Taliban; the actual Taliban intend on ruling with remorseless sharia.

At home, even as al-Qaeda continues its efforts to reprise 9/11, a network of Islamist organizations — coordinated by the Muslim Brotherhood and financially backed by our friends, the Saudis — proceeds with what it calls its “grand jihad” to eliminate and destroy Western civilization by sabotage. This is not a secret. The Brotherhood’s internal memoranda were seized by the FBI. They boldly announce these claims in black and white. Two years ago, the Justice Department aptly labeled the constituent organizations — including the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American Islamic Relations — as unindicted co-conspirators in a terrorism-financing case in which several of their partners were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. Today, those Islamist organizations are right back in business, with an open door to “engaging” government policymakers, as if nothing ever happened. In our imagination, they’re moderates, too.

One thing never intrudes on our make-believe world: the real 9/11. Before it was Ground Zero, the World Trade Center was a real place, where flesh-and-blood Americans were slaughtered — some of them leaping over 70 stories to their grisly demise because it seemed more merciful than immolation in the fires that raged within. We try not to think about that much anymore, except for a fleeting moment or two every September 11. We just imagine it can never happen again. After all, we’ve got Islam in our corner."

-VSP

Boortz Nails It

I'm on a roll here. Found this and had to post it.

 

 

-VSP

Owning Deepak

Found this video and just had to share it. I've always thought it interestingly peculiar that liberal new-agey types have such chronic difficulties with things such as, oh, say reason and logic. No surprise that ol' Deepak got owned on such an elementary Logic 101, the "deep thinker" that he is.

 

- VSP

Beltaine 2010

I commented to my wife last night that I am a "pretty crappy Wiccan." Most others have a very full calender year in which eight Sabbats (holidays or festivals) are celebrated and thirteen moons (26, if you are the hard charging type who does the new moons too) give occasion for further spiritual and magickal work. I, on the other hand, have come to mostly prefer a minimalist approach to religious observance.

Now it might be said that 21-34 (or more) observances in a year is nothing...Christians go to Church once, twice, or even three times weekly. This is quite different though, because for Wiccans there is much, much more to these events than listening to sermons while sitting in the pews and possibly singing a few hymns. For those charged with planning and organizing an event, a lot of preparation is involved and a multitude of variables are considered and addressed for each instance. Even those who "just show up" can be completely exhausted after a ritual, as the good ones will often tax you both physically and spiritually. In other words, effective participation in Wiccan rituals are not only spiritually rewarding, but they are also draining. This is one of the reasons why I, in my absolute commitment to slackerhood, do not observe most Sabbats. In our practice, we emphasize only two of the eight, Samhain and Beltaine, while the others are minor observances at best.

This is probably heresy to many Wiccan gurus. But in all honesty, as I have said before, I could care less about the seasonal cycles and and crop rotations, except for any symbolic value it might have for understanding common human experiences. Therefore, any insistence by self-styled fundamentalists that the full year need be observed falls flat on my decidedly deaf ears. I've made no bones about the fact that to me any intelligent distillation of Wicca does not result in a form of nature-worship, it must lead first and foremost to the God and the Goddess, and then to man and woman. From a certain perspective, Wicca is a humanist religion, as contradictory as that may sound. As a result of this disregard for the agrarian and pastoral cycles, most of the Sabbats, while useful, have much lesser significance. In contrast to these six lesser Sabbats, Beltaine is the most squarely focused on the God and Goddess, their relationship with one another, and their union. It most effectively sums up the whole of our theological and most important philosophical premises, and is to my mind therefore the most holy of Wiccan Sabbats.

Having justified the cause for my being a "crappy Wiccan," let me move on to how Beltaine was for Mr. and Mrs. Page this year. I think I have made mention previously that I fall into the vast majority of practicing Wiccans that are solitary practitioners (although I wonder, if it is my wife and I doing the "practicing" together, are we really "solitary?"), and this can be quite advantageous in some respects, particularly in that it allows for comfortable sharing with intense intimacy.  This is very desirable for a Beltaine ritual, so to us being "solitary" is actually quite useful on this the greatest of Sabbats.

Wiccan Traditions in large part hold some elements of ritual to be oathbound, meaning that they are not revealed to outsiders, even Wiccans from other traditions. Likewise, I too believe that some portions of ritual are best left undisclosed because of their (sometimes intensely) private nature, and because they cannot be understood properly by unprepared minds. Therefore, while I would like to share the many wonderful things that happen within the Circle, I am necessarily confined to presenting themes rather than specific ritual content.

Having said that, the ritual this year was even better than that of last Beltaine. I use a basic structural template for rituals that I created some time ago, but it is designed to allow for the simple insertion of content given the overall purpose at the time. On this occasion we had decided to simplify things, and narrowed down to the most basic of frameworks. Even the portions having to do directly with the purpose were kept simple. Recognition of the seasonal significance, the importance of the specific point according to the Wheel of the Year mythos, and even the offering to the God and Goddess were left as the most simple of references or even stripped out completely. This was all for the purpose of minimizing mechanical demands and maximizing opportunities for internal experience. All in all, I think we were well served with this approach. Keep it simple, stupid.

Rowan, as usual, was to me nothing less than inspirational in leading the Circle. While Wicca is about the polarity of the God and Goddess through the equal recognition of both the feminine and masculine divine, it is almost inescapable that woman is the face and heart of the religion, whereas man may tend to be seen in only the shadows as the mind and perhaps the strength of the path. If it is the right woman, I prefer it this way, as they can stir the hearts and spirits of men unlike anything else. In the right circumstances, I am blessed that my wife is such a woman that she allows me to clearly glimpse the face of God, even if only for a time.

This post is not intended to be about my wife, and certainly it isn't. It is about Beltaine, its meaning, and my experience with it this year. But as a representative of the Goddess in a Wiccan ritual, and as my Wife and partner, I cannot approach the subject without mentioning her at length. And that is how it should be for Wiccans, I would think. Having it in mind to attempt a sharing of the magick that happened in this rit, as it does in virtually all of them, it is perhaps best to describe her first in her more common mundane roles.

My wife is in many respects an exceptional woman. Despite very modest beginnings, she has managed to do well for herself professionally, all through the sweat of her brow and the implementation of a very keen mind. Where the standards for what constitutes a good mother seem to have taken a significant dive in accordance with our post-modern sensibilities, I can say that my wife is a genuinely good Mom. This is something I could not say for many mothers I have known. And then there is the fact that she puts up with me. That in itself verifies her superior quality. She is constantly on the go, from morning to night, fulfilling often thankless and always demanding roles. As a result, her standard way of being is to be firmly plugged into the mundane real world on an almost perpetual basis. And then there is the part of her that is, well, quite common and unremarkable...or rather, unexciting. I certainly don't mean to say that in an offensive way. Having lived with the opposite before, I now value steadfastness and predictability over the sorts of "excitement" many modern women bring to the table. But like most of us, she too has her faults, peculiarities, and insecurities. These needn't be mentioned because they are so few, and mostly because she could possibly read this. Besides that, for every flaw she may have, certainly I have a dozen.

But Wiccan practice calls us to adopt a mode of being that is quite opposite of the hard reason-based no-nonsense reality we are accustomed to. To be a successful practicing Wiccan, we need to do things which are difficult for many of us. Among these are to develop an ability to suspend "reality" and visualize concepts, to leave ourselves and become our greater selves, to alter our consciousness in a way that allows for direct communication with the divine and to receive the mysteries, and to cultivate a path that may challenge our fears and insecurities at their very core. If our day to day lives presents ourselves in the light, then Wicca is most certainly a path of darkness. It asks us to put away the comfortability of what we think we are in favour of finding the fullness of what we really are, and to correct and/or embrace and nourish that. This means not only that we recognize and address our deficiencies, but that we find the strength of Deity that resides in ourselves. It also requires us to dig deep within, even into our more primal shadow selves, and to bring forth that which we would never consider in more polite company. The whole process is much easier said than done.

At a diminutive (to me) five foot six with the softest of "girlie" voices and a very non-threatening personality, my wife is the cute, sensible, dependable, and overall seemingly unremarkable girl (which would be a deceiving presumption) that everyone likes, but most likely pay no attention to if they are looking for "excitement." So it would seem unimaginable that she could also be what I have seen, and even more, that she could be what I have seen inside her. This was the first instance of magick in the evening, to witness the literal transformation of the woman I know into something far more than she usually allows herself to be. Through the whole process of readying ourselves, even as far as approaching the edge of the Circle, she is still identifiably my wife, insecurities and all. But it seems that once that first foot of hers crosses into that space, the Priestess rises and inhabits her. In fact, I would argue that it is an instance of her drawing down the moon, in a minor sense, without even the effort or intent of doing so.

Having opened by entering the space, calling the corners and welcoming Deity, we set about the "meat" of the ritual. Without going into detail, this is where the next major, and to me magickal shift took place that transformed not only the persons involved, but the ritual itself. Using a traditional acknowledgment of deity in one another, between the act and the words spoken there was a significant connecting between us that came about as a result. I will not specify the act, but I will simply say that the recognitions were fivefold. And I don't want to overly romanticize what took place, but to my mind it was comprised of three parts; that we were transported beyond the intellectual understandings of the ritual purpose and into the mysteries of it, that we truly entered that place between worlds, and that the Goddess and the God were upon us. It became a moment of genuine recognition of the other in their glory, and the beauty and creative power of union with the necessary other. If only for a time, all was right in the universe.

There was certainly more to the ritual, but suffice it to say that this and following events were the desired peak of it, to understand and commune with Deity though one another. As above, so below. But the effects of the rit went well beyond it. As what I suppose some might consider a bit of a "cheat," sometimes we set up an auto-closing of the Circle. The way this works is that we summon elements (call corners) and invite Deity as normal. But depending upon the nature of the ritual, upon its pronouncement we may also command that the elements depart at certain point in the rit, and we thank the God and Goddess for their presence and welcome them to depart as they wish at that same point. Likewise, we declare the Circle faded and opened at that appointed time. Then it is a simple matter of visualization and acknowledgment on our part, allowing us to absorb, reflect, and recuperate at a time when we are likely most spent, rather than having to go through all of the further mechanics of doing a full opening. Think of it as putting the closing sequence on cruise control. Cheating? Perhaps. But all of the important bits are retained, and it works well enough as far as we are concerned.

On this particular evening, however, our "cruise control" maneuver also allowed for us to stay very much connected without interruption, which is kind of the point. Still in the midst of that post-rit glow and sharing a glass of wine at the foot of the altar, we began our customary post-rit critique and sharing of experiences. This led to lots of sharing with one another, not only as a man and wife, but as the best of friends. We tend to lose this a lot of the time when going through the motions of life, as do virtually all other couples. But for this evening we had re-established the balance of things, and put some of the really important things back in perspective. It is a shame that we get so caught up in the world that we lose sight of the truly miraculous things surrounding us, and often the most miraculous of all, the other half that walks by our side along the path.

I am blessed in that under the right circumstances my High Priestess can for me truly become the very embodiment of the Goddess. Despite any imperfections, when she enters the Circle and shifts consciousness, she is probably the most beautiful woman that I have ever known. To look at her face and hear her voice weakens my knees, simultaneously summoning and taming the beast within. Her movement mesmerizes me, and the strength with which she commands the Circle while retaining the most feminine of ways humbles me. What she becomes validates the truth of my path and me as a man, inspiring me to be even a better one.

Again, provided that it is the right one, women rule the Circle. And so it should be. With Wicca, even the manliest amongst us hears the whispers of the Goddess first and foremost. She is the driving force in men, commanding us with the promise of her touch. Her power is subtle, but when wielded with wisdom, it is absolute. She is the solid earth on which the greatness of man has been established, yet has the power to reduce our accomplishments and aspirations to mere debris. She is the sea which carries us gently into the bliss of her bosom, but can rage against us when we fail to respect her. This is the Goddess, and the Wiccan woman who grasps Her; beautiful within and without, soft yet fearfully strong, and undeniably sensual, yet very particular with whom she would honor with her gift. Who can deny her? None, and certainly not I.

So now another Beltaine has passed, and I am resolved in my conviction now more than ever that Wicca, when properly understood, is not merely a "valid" path, but in this day and age, it is a critical one for those who would hear Her when She calls. I walk away from yesterdays Circle having inside of me the strength and mind of the God, knowing the heart and comfort of the Goddess. I am closer now to my other half than I have been in quite some time, having been previously distracted by the far less important "real world," and my respect, admiration, and longing for her is increased. My path is somewhat clearer, having seen through the mist, and I am encouraged to journey yet further on, for I know she is beside me, whispering in my ear those words of strength and promise.

Quite simply, these are things you ain't gonna learn in Sunday school or by watching Charmed. They are the very real magick of Wicca.

-VSP

Previous post dissected

A substantial part of my readership (one out of a total of 6 readers...I think thats like, what, fifteen percent?) have taken me up on my offer to dissect the previous post which provided an in-depth critical and scientific analysis of the second fastest growing religion (after Islamo-Fascism) in the United States. While you can expect the entirety of that article to be found contained in next months issue of Scientific Quarterly, with forewords by Rev. Billy Graham and Stephen Hawking, here is the article in question if you just can't wait until then.

The following is my effort to address the several descriptions given of Wiccans in that article. It is intended primarilly for the audience of Cowans (outsiders, or non-Wiccans) who would like a critical, and I think rather objective peek inside the religion. Basically, it is the perspective of one guy willing to call b.s. on his own religion...and I think that is a healthy thing. So, issue by issue, and virtually line by line, here we go:

-"Wicca is the shi**iest subset of the Pagan expression of religion. It is favored by people too f**ktarded to learn the rules of a real religion and too poor to join any other cult."

I'm not so sure about it being the worst subset of the Pagan expression of religion. "Neo-paganism" (let's be honest enough to admit that it certainly isn't paganism proper) casts an insanely wide umbrella these days, and there are plenty of kooks to go around. Wicca does, however, tend to draw a lot of people who want to maximize personal flexibility in their religious system. For many this simply means the ability to whip up whatever religious nonsense they like, and throw it all under the semi-respectable banner of an "official" religion. I mean really...how seriously are we supposed to take the worship of "faeries"? And while it is tempting to portray most Wiccans as "poor trailer-trash" types, it should be noted that Wicca also has a surprising number of professional adherents such as doctors, lawyers, actors, musicians, law enforcement specialist...it runs the full gamut. But as a group...yeah, we kinda present ourselves as trailer trash hippies. *sigh*

-"Most modern Wiccans will claim to be in it for the self-expression and becoming more in touch with the world. Expect these retards to say Oh Goddess! in lieu of proper epithets."

Yup, those are a couple of the more common claims for involvement in Wicca, although I think "the world" in that sentence would be better changed to read "nature". Another common reason for joining Wicca is because it is advertised as an allegedly balanced path (it fights "the Patriarchy"(tm) by worshiping the Goddess) that reverences the Feminine Divine Principle (also tm) in our return to the purity of a peaceful Matriarchal religion. There are a lot of nonsense reasons given for becoming a Wiccan. I do it because I like the idea of dancing around nekkid with a bunch of easy women while getting high off of second hand doobie smoke. But I ingore most who would exclaim "Oh Goddess!" (and there are a ton of them), as I have found it is an indicator of delusional and imbalanced utopianists.

-"Wicca has only one rule: An it harm none, do what ye will, which makes Wicca as pu**y as it is stupid."

I agree, it is a pretty lame "rule". And actually, it is not even a rule. It is known as the "Wiccan Rede", rede translated as "advice." I have long said that it is a woefully inadequate moral or ethical maxim, but the neo-hippie folk who hijacked Wicca back in the 60's and 70's tend to like their spirituality with no real personal cost...so it works for them. "Get your freak on, just don't hurt anybody please. Now pass the reefer, man."

-"Wiccans delude themselves into thinking they can perform "magic" just by dancing around naked with shiny rocks laid on the ground in mystical patterns."

The shiny rocks came more into prominence with the new age movement and its subsequent infusion into mainstream Wicca. I personally don't do rocks and crystals (you won't find a single one on my altar), but many do. More new age hippy nonsense, IMHO. But at least we're not offing ourselves in cheap Wal-Mart sneakers while waiting for the UFO's to come pick us up. Now magic(k) (<- prefers the Crowley spelling) is something else. Yup, we believe in it...but I am loathe to use the term (along with "witch") in public, since there is a massive divide in understand exactly what we are talking about. As I have said before, let's instead refer to it as "prayer-PLUS." And I think the author here fails to understand the very real value of "dancing around naked." No, I am not kidding. But that is for another rant. Or maybe not.

-"If you see a Myspace, Live Journal, Facebook, etc. profile saying something like Proud to be a witch ! ! !, you can be 99.9% confident that you're dealing with a Wiccan."

Yup. No arguing with this one. Remember that neo-pagans tend to be the sort who view homosexuals "coming out of the closet" as "revolutionary" and "courageous," as if most others could really give a rip. If you're going to be an obnoxious ass with all of this "we're here, we're queer, we're in your face!" crap, the respectable folk would prefer you to get your ass back in the closet. But us libtard pagans, we apparently love this obnoxious and victimhood garbage, so some try to piggy back on that attention seeking gravy train by proclaiming ourselves out of the "broom closet." We're so clever. The above sentence is pretty much spot on.

-"Wiccans are divided into little gangs called "covens", usually with contrived and melodramatic names like The Silver Moon Circle, the Black Pentacle or The Raven and the Rose."

Yup. Absolutely true. This also extends to "craft names," which are essentially religious alter-egos. One of the more famous Wiccan authors (which says a lot about us) is a woman who chose the name "Silver Ravenwolf." Seriously. Another equally famous author and feminazi activist in Wiccan and neo-pagan circles is named "Starhawk." And this predilection for silly fantasy-inspired craft names is absolutely common. Give it a try by making up your own "craft name" with Lady Pixie Moondrip's Guide to Craft Names. You can thank me later.

-"Wiccan covens are full of pot smoking alcoholic female fatties, with a few token males who join out of faggotry or in a hopeless attempt to get laid."

There do seem to be a lot of overweight Wiccan High Priestesses. More often than not, I think they tend to flock to Wicca for it's seeming promise of power and it's "cool" factor. This is usually to address some sort of inferiority complex or self-esteem issues, and the likelihood that they have never really fit in. Not all, mind you. But we do tend to attract a lot of "special" people. Males, on the other hand, are a significant minority in the craft. With the massive injection of radical feminism back from the 60's on, few "real men" can hack the Wiccan community nonsense for very long. As a rule, we are kind of expected to adopt some sort of justification for a "Matriarchal" religion, and we take a back seat. Adequately sensitive hippie types or those sufficiently programed through a series of "women's studies" classes in University or Community College will have little problem fitting into the neutered role crafted for men in mainstream Wicca. The reward for appropriate obeisance may very well include getting a little piece of the 300 pound high priestess...who knows?

-"Wiccans can be easily confused with obsessed fans of the fantasy genre, for instance people who dress up as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings characters. Another group easily mistaken for Wiccans are LARP and Dungeons & Dragons roleplayers."

*SIGH* Yup, all too true. Again, not all, mind you...but enough to embarrass the hell out of the rest of us. The more respectable Wiccans are identifiable by the fact that they are unidentifiable. If you were to see me in public you might think something along the lines of "god, that guy is hot," but you would never know I was a Wiccan, except maybe if you spotted the small pentagram ring on my right pinkie finger (no cracks about coming out of the closet, please).

-"...whereas the Wiccans actually believe that their magic wands and elvenlore are real things."

See my above remarks about faeries. Yeah, some of us can get pretty fruity, and the Wiccan Grand Council at Hogwarts doesn't seem to want to change much for the time being.

-"Wicca is really just dumbed-down Satanism for really f**king lazy people. Wiccans will try to convince you that their religion has nothing to do with Satanism by saying that their religion is over 9000 years old. In reality, it was invented by a Britfag in the 1950's."

There are some elements of Wicca that may be similar to others in Satanism, but these are insignificant. Wicca is very, very different from Satanism in it's theological and philosophical content. Truth be known, I think there are some things that we could stand to learn from the Satanists. For the record: Satanists do not actually believe in Satan. They are more of a radical hedonist philosophy that prefers their outright societal rebellion to carry a degree of offensive shock value. Many, if not most Satanists are atheists or agnostic. But Wiccans have nothing to do with Satanism, and I have yet to hear any use the 9000 year old pseudo-pedigree in defense against such a comparison. I have heard of the 9000 year claim to antiquity, but even the less than reputable now know that it is absolute rubbish. Wiccans are not Satanists, and we are not 9000 years old (try about 60 years). But Wicca was invented by a "Britfag" in the 1950's.

-"Since Wicca does not require any special tools, ordained priests, or even a building to worship in, it is the ideal cult for lazy poor people, even though Wiccans are still encouraged to buy loads of worthless plastic crap from occult shops...even though Wicca is as phony as Scientology, at least it won't f**k you out of your money."

Most Wiccans do use special tools, although they are not an absolute requirement, overall. A lot of us do spend a lot of money buying a lot of "worthless crap" from occult shops, such as the latest deck of tarot cards, ritual supplies such as candles and incense, and on occasion, a sparkly pink crystal...Just in case Xenu shows up with the alien fleet. Overwhelmingly, however, I would argue that the greatest expenditure of Wiccans is on the development of personal libraries. Wiccans are characteristically a snotty little bookish bunch. This is a good thing in that many of us tend to have a grasp of what we are talking about, but it is also a bad thing in that a lot of the books we read are saturated with hippy new age crap. All in all, costs for being Wiccan are relatively small, I would think. One thing that bugs the hell out of me is the completely selfish (and socialist) notion that students should never pay for training. It is an unspoken but militantly enforced rule in some circles that training in the craft should always be free. While a lot of half-ass justifications for this "rule" have been bandied about for decades, the truth is that a lot of neo-pagan types are simply lefties who think they are entitled to "something for nothing."

-"Since Wicca has no established doctrines, half of the things they do are pulled out of the Coven Leader's ass."

The number of new "traditions" (denominations) in Wicca over the course of the last half-century are virtually uncountable. The origins of each of these were essentially someone saying "here's how I am going to do it...", so the above statement is kind of true. As a matter of full disclosure, I am no different. I came into it and commenced to weeding out the bull**it. But I like to think that rather than following the trend of tailoring things to my personal whim and fancy, I instead opted to examine the practices and beliefs involved, and asked what made sense. At least this is what I tell myself.

-"The other half is a mish-mash of pseudo-religion stolen from Medieval Catholic documents on witches, Harry Potter, Disney films and Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

A lot of younger folk came to the Craft as a result of depictions in the mainstream entertainment media. The movie "The Craft" and the TV series "Charmed" have certainly had a substantial impact on the growth of Wicca in recent years. This is of no small irritation to older practitioners, as most portrayals have exercised a large degree of creative license. And for those who find the Craft through such means, I would think that a few might stay, even after they realize that it isn't at all what Hollywood has served up to them. But all in all, I think most leave after realizing that they are not Queen Witch of the Universe after a couple books. Don't let the door hit you on the ass....

"...proceed to bitch about how Christians stole everything from them."

Wiccans have a HUGE stick up their butt about Christians (again...not all do). There is some historical truth about "Christians" having appropriated pagan themes into what we recognize now as Christian holidays. But a lot of Wiccans get their panties in a massive bunch about anything Christian. I could go on about this for quite some time, but suffice it to say that we can be pretty immature and intellectually dishonest about our animosity towards Christians.

-"Wicca is the official religion of feminism..."

I'm not sure that Wicca is the "official" religion of feminism, but if there were one, then many forms of Wicca, and mainstream Wicca in general would certainly be it. Where Wicca originated with concepts of gender polarity and balance as a fertility religion, subsequent morphing thoughout the 60's to the 80's saw drastic redefining of Wicca as a "nature" religion and even as a "feminist" religion. Make no mistake, third wave feminism has done incalculable damage to the original virtuous goals of Wicca, and saw many of it's more respectable tenets stripped away in favor of radical politicization. We can thank imbalanced and bitter feminists like Zsuzsanna Budapest and Miriam Simos (Starhawk) for the shift of Wicca from a balanced reverence for both the God and Goddess to a twisted and unnatural Goddess-only quasi-dogma. The irony is that most of these still somehow con others into believing that a Goddess-only matriarchal religion is the proper response to centuries of a Patriarchal God-only religious approach. Although most in the recent generations have no substantial claim to genuine victimhood at the hands of "the Patriarchy", they are still rabidly devoted to the idea that misandry is justified due to historical records of misogyny. Most often, the run of the mill devotee doesnt actually understand the nature of their hostility, much less the implications of it. Therfore, it shouldn't have to be spelled out that these "womyn" are in it for a sense of revenge against and power over men, not for any reasonable notion of balance alongside them. As a result, one of the primary beauties of Wicca has taken a severe hit in mainstream Wicca.

-"The rare Wiccan past thirty is most often a fat woman who believes her cats are 'children', or a dragon-shirted male suffering from fail."

These are actually more common than not. Do yourself a favor and find a pagan friend. Ask them to take you to the local "drum circle" or whatever pagan events are available. Take a good look around at the bulk of folk in attendance. Pissed off neo-feminist chicks, old aging hippies, and different strains of nerdery, including the dragon-shirted males. It's can often be quite a gathering of oddballs and misfits. But that's not to say that there aren't a lot of good folk there. I happen to favor the underdogs. As a committed nerd myself, this means I champion my own. But let's call a duck a duck here, shall we?

-"They wear black almost universally, even though real pagans wore white."

As far as I know, the real pagans didn't wear white, at least not exclusively. And in those days, I would be surprised if their clothes stayed white for very long, even if they did. But a lot of Wiccans do choose to wear black. These are overall in the minority, however. Pagans also choose to wear some pretty gaudy colors too, like bright green or blue. Me, I like the black. Black and red are my colors. But I'm not gonna be throwing on my ritual robe in public either. A Darth Vader costume, however...

-"Wicca is usually matriarchal, while real pagans were usually led by male druids."

Druids were a sub-group of paganism. So little is known about them that it is best to not even comment. But they were far from officially representing the whole of historical paganism. But Wicca does tend to be mind-numbingly matriarchal, although most traditions tend to deny it with a wink and a nudge.

-"Everything about Wicca is designed specifically to scare conservative Christians, which is completely out-of-line with pre-Christian paganism..."

Wicca is in no way "designed" to scare conservative Christians, but it is certainly hostile towards them in the main. Based on decades of horrendous history about the "burning times" (as if it ever affected modern Wiccans) and the traditional opposition to witchcraft by Christians, we Wiccans have kicked our hatred (but we won't call it that) into overdrive. Google the "Witches Voice" every Sunday. After a few weeks you will see what I mean...we "pagans" have some serious axes we love to grind.

-"Wiccans may tell you that they're descended from six or more generations of Wiccans, in spite of the fact that they live with their affluent, vanilla parents and that modern Wicca has only been around since 1954."

This is a hilariously common trend that has existed from the very beginning of Wicca. Gardner, who created Wicca, was notorious for being, well, imaginative with the truth. He didn't exactly start the seeming tradition of fabricating lineages, but he certainly became fairly famous for it. Alex Sanders and Robert Cochrane were no different, and subsequent Wiccan leaders have overwhelmingly flirted with "alternative" historical truths. This is one of our more shameful pedigrees, at least to my mind. But nowadays, it is actually possible to find Wiccans who do in fact come from a lineage of three or even four generations.

-"...a Wiccan may also claim to have been reincarnated several times over (almost always as a well-known historical figure, such as Cleopatra)."

This was once fairly common, but I seem to think (hope) that it is less so these days. Personally, I am not a reincarnationist, although some groups rabidly insist on it as a theological tenet. Nowadays I just tell these folks that in a past life I was their father, so go fetch me a beer, son.

-"Wiccans who are called out on their bulls**t or don't do either of the above may instead call themselves Gypsies..."

I have yet to meet a single Wiccan call themselves a Gypsy. In fact the only one of Roma descent that I know of offhand is the Wiccan author Raymond Buckland, and he tend not to emphasize the gypsy stuff in any of his teaching, as far as I can see. Now there are quite a few Wiccan folk who seem to live like gypsies...and historically they were, if we are going to be honest here, quite a filthy bunch of people on the whole.

So there you have it...my commentary on the previous post. In the course of this rant, however, I fear that I may have come off as overly critical of the group to which I claim to belong. While I would agree that I have been critical, I don't think it has been any more than is deserved. In fact, there is much more criticism that could be fairly leveled, truth be known.

But the reason that I am so critical is for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have no problem in admitting that I remain perpetually heated that such a potentially beautiful religion has been, to my mind, hijacked and transformed by despicably dishonest and immature political ideologues. The green movement, and more importantly, modern feminism have all but destroyed a thing of beauty. Nowadays, rather than bringing the young and the new to a religion that teaches them a balanced respect for gender according to nature, they are now instead more likely indoctrinated into very un-natural, unintuitive, and unhealthy feminist (and other political) dogmas.

Secondly, I certainly despise the fact that Wicca, and modern neo-paganism in general, has become blindly hostile to conservative wisdom, in favor of simplistic and often juvenile utopian idealism. And they are militant about this crap. All the while, many still add insult to injury where conservatives are concerned by still claiming to be a path of "wisdom" and "balance," and of being non-judgmental and inclusive. All of this could not be farther from the truth. To sit there and watch them tell this delusional nonsense to one another is one thing, but the fact that they advertise themselves so dishonestly as such to the world...now that sticks in my craw. And they make the good ones of us look very, very bad...to the point that I am often slow to even identify myself as Wiccan.

Lastly, I complain mostly not because of what we have become, but because of what we could have been, and still can be. I want more than anything to see us as a group get our act together and become respectable. There are certainly respectable groups and individuals out there, but they are not the public face of Wicca. I want to see that change.

These are but a few of the complaints I have against my own. The overall list is massive.

So why bother? Well, as I have said, I don't have a problem with Wicca (mostly), it's the Wiccans I cannot stand. When you go back to the original principles and you strip away some of the Gardnerian (and Alexandrian) nonsense in favor of those things that are in accordance with common sense and the truth of ourselves (as ugly as that may be at times), then you have a helluva start on a fantastic religious system. One that makes sense and very effectively connects you with the divine. One that does not divide the "real" material world from the "metaphysical" spiritual world, but fuses them together. One that not only allows you to see the divine in your other half, but encourages you to do so. One that genuinely empowers you through healthy and natural philosophical understandings rather than thinking yourself empowered as a perpetually bitching "victim."

I could go on and on and on. And that is yet another reason why I am so critical. I see what we are as a people, and we could have been so much more. I hope that we still can be. But we will never be, so long as the reasonable amongst us remain silent while the nut-jobs run the show.

But I digress (for now).

-VSP

Wicca defined

I just had to post this one. We religious type folks can be quite serious about our spiritual beliefs, and so we should be. But when we get so uptight about things that we cannot take an objective look at our belief systems, or that we cannot laugh at them where they certainly beg for it, well, maybe we need to take a step back and breathe a little.

So, in the spirit of good humor, with the intent of promoting mirth (which the Valiente drones inform me is a virtue), I refer you to the official entry describing Wicca according to the Encyclopedia Dramatica. It is quite disturbing how much of this is accurate, but readers with politically correct sensibilities would be better served to ignore this post; it will certainly offend you, especially if you are Wiccan:

"Ankh If You Love Isis

-Popular Wiccan Bumper Sticker

WICCA

Wicca is the shi**iest subset of the Pagan expression of religion. It is favored by people too f**ktarded to learn the rules of a real religion and too poor to join any other cult. Most modern Wiccans will claim to be in it for the self-expression and becoming more in touch with the world. Expect these retards to say Oh Goddess! in lieu of proper epithets.

Wicca has only one rule: An it harm none, do what ye will, which makes Wicca as pu**y as it is stupid. Wiccans delude themselves into thinking they can perform "magic" just by dancing around naked with shiny rocks laid on the ground in mystical patterns.

Wiccans have been better known throughout history as witches and many still use this title. If you see a Myspace, Live Journal, Facebook, etc. profile saying something like Proud to be a witch ! ! !, you can be 99.9% confident that you're dealing with a Wiccan.

Wiccans are divided into little gangs called "covens", usually with contrived and melodramatic names like The Silver Moon Circle, the Black Pentacle or The Raven and the Rose. Seriously. Wiccan covens are full of pot smoking alcoholic female fatties, with a few token males who join out of faggotry or in a hopeless attempt to get laid.

Wiccans can be easily confused with obsessed fans of the fantasy genre, for instance people who dress up as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings characters. Another group easily mistaken for Wiccans are LARP and Dungerons & Dragons roleplayers. However, there is a simple way to distinguish these groups from Wiccans. The essential difference is that these cosplaying and roleplaying nerds, while annoying and immature, know that they're just playing a little fantasy game, whereas the Wiccans actually believe that their magic wands and elvenlore are real things. This often leads to a painful disillusionment, when a Wiccan realizes that he or she cannot pay the rent or find a job by casting a magic spell.

WICCAN DOCTRINE

Wicca is really just dumbed-down Satanism for really f**king lazy people. Wiccans will try to convince you that their religion has nothing to do with Satanism by saying that their religion is over 9000 years old. In reality, it was invented by a Britfag in the 1950's. Even TOW agrees.

Since Wicca does not require any special tools, ordained priests, or even a building to worship in, it is the ideal cult for lazy poor people, even though Wiccans are still encouraged to buy loads of worthless plastic crap from occult shops. This means that even though Wicca is as phony as Scientology, at least it won't f**k you out of your money.

Since Wicca has no established doctrines, half of the things they do are pulled out of the Coven Leader's ass. The other half is a mish-mash of pseudo-religion stolen from Medieval Catholic documents on witches, Harry Potter, Disney films and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When confronted with that fact, Wiccans will scream "NO U" and then proceed to bitch about how Christians stole everything from them.

Rather, Wiccans might tell you that most of their religion comes from a Book of Shadows that only the innermost circle of Wiccans are allowed to read. Like the Xenu story, this is probably because its contents are so dumb that you can only be given it when you absolutely have to believe it.

Wicca is the official religion of feminism, as all real religions refuse to give women power. Wicca is believed to spread furfaggotry and otherkinism, making it a sort of gateway drug of faggotry.

WICCANS DEFINED

Modern witches are insane, attention whoring, self-injuring 16 year old girls that are very easy to piss off. They hate to be confused with Goths, emos or vampires and will totally cast a spell on you if you do. Any green a**hole wishing to pursue an exciting career as an internet troll should find a witch community.

Wiccans over the age of thirty are extremely rare, partially due to the fact that they have no time for such nonsense once they have been kicked out of their parents' basement, but mostly because they have been brought to justice long before that. The rare Wiccan past thirty is most often a fat woman who believes her cats are 'children', or a dragon-shirted male suffering from fail.

They wear black almost universally, even though real pagans wore white. Wicca is usually matriarchal, while real pagans were usually led by male druids. Everything about Wicca is designed specifically to scare conservative Christians, which is completely out-of-line with pre-Christian paganism and makes Wicca more of a trolling technique than a real religion.

ORIGINS

Wiccans may tell you that they're descended from six or more generations of Wiccans, in spite of the fact that they live with their affluent, vanilla parents and that modern Wicca has only been around since 1954. Failing this, a Wiccan may also claim to have been reincarnated several times over (almost always as a well-known historical figure, such as Cleopatra). Wiccans who are called out on their bulls**t or don't do either of the above may instead call themselves Gypsies, even though Gypsies (or Roma) are a race of smelly Indians who lie and steal, giving them more in common with ni**ers than with Wicca or its supposed origins."

Sometimes the truth hurts. In this case, it is also funny as hell, IMHO. One of these days I am going to have to start picking apart the parts of this that are generally true, but for the moment I will let my brothers and sisters off the hook.

Blessed be.

-VSP

Beltaine, Balance, and Booze

Actually, booze has absolutely nothing to do with this article, I just needed another "B" for the title. But while we're mentioning it, why not check out Hookers and Booze? With a name like that, I know you want to. Go ahead, treat yourself.

As for the topic at hand: Beltaine is right around the corner, brothers, sisters, and aspiring Wiccletts. For the cowan folk, that would be the right randy 1st of May. What is Beltaine, you might ask?

Of the eight seasonal festivals celebrated or observed by Wiccan folk, Beltaine is one of the big two...to my mind on par with Samhain, if not of even more importance. As with each of the Sabbats, Beltaine has some significance with regard to the pastoral and agrarian cycles, but I'll not bore you with that. Honestly, as a modern Wiccan, all of that stuff has very little importance for me, except as a reminder of the seemingly cyclical nature of things. Oh, and as supportive backround to the Wheel of the Year mythos. But other than that, I'm sure most would join me in caring less about the planting and harvesting of crops. However, there is a much deeper significance to Beltaine that speaks to the core of Wiccan understanding and practice as I see it.

If we forget all of the seasonal cycles and hippy-dippy stuff that much of mainstream Wicca is bogged down with, and if we cast aside the oddly whimsical temptation to flood our theological thinking caps with mix and match deities from various pantheons, inevitably Wicca boils down to a very simple focus point, that of the God and the Goddess. For this humble 43rd degree (level, for the D&D crowd) Wiccan Master of all things dark and wycked, this is the absolute heart of the path, and indeed of the Craft.

I've not yet related here exactly how I came to this path, and this is prehaps something I shall have to remedy in the near future. But suffice it to say that as with most, I too came from a Christian background. Finding this path, however, was far easier than navigating it, at least in the beginning. Like with many Christians, there are those who claim they were called to it, and I believe that the same was true for me. However, once I got here and looked around, I was not all that impressed, quite frankly. Nonetheless, the Goddess continued to whisper to me, beckoning me to continue further. And so I did, thus beginning the long and laborious effort to sift the precious golden wheat from a mountain of chaff. I am grateful that I did, for when I looked at it's core, without all of the haphazard and unintuitive trappings heaped upon it by generations of neo-hippies, I found perhaps the most beautiful of divine revalations; as the faith is of the God and the Goddess, the practice is of man and woman.

Now this is certainly a controversial thing to say in these days of dogmatic political correctness. Unless I am willing to include the full gamut of sexual preferences, including french sheep-shaggers (pardon the redundancy) I would assume, then I run the very serious risk of being labeled a homophobe, or some sort of "-ist." So be it. While we seem to have this bizarre need to be insanely inclusive, the truth is that Wicca was never intended to be anything but exclusive. Therefore I in this sense have become one of the "old guard" who reject the big tent philosophy wherever it requires the sacrifice of more important theological and natural principles. So while I support the rights of persons to seek love where they may find it, this does mean I maintain that Wicca is best suited to the worship of the God and Goddess by men and women with natural understandings. This is, to me, the primary spirit and beauty of Wicca. Likewise, this is also the spirit and beauty of Beltaine.

The basic story of the Wheel of the Year is one of a perpetual Goddess who gives birth to and eventually marries and mates with the God, who is caught in a never ending cycle of death and rebirth. I've always found this mythos disturbingly perverse with its incestuous implications and the feminist preference for an immortal Goddess who never dies while an almost seemingly mortal, and therefore inferior God is doomed to die repeatedly. But all of that aside, the more important element is the story of the courtship and eventually the marriage of the two. And within the Wheel of the Year, Beltaine is certainly the most important Sabbat for what it represents in the relationship of the God and Goddess, of the masculine and feminine, and of man and woman.

Traditionally the greatest of fire festivals, Beltaine is a season of passion. In the context of the divine relationship, it is representative of the heiros gamos, or the divine marriage, and highlights the consumation of that marriage as a predominant feature. For the bashful, it should be noted that WIccans (and Pagans overall) are generally far more positive about sex than the more timid mainstream, embracing it as a natural, and even a spiritual function that is not worthy of shame (although yours truly believes that it is still an intimate function and not for being obnoxiously paraded). So it should come as no surprise that we have a significantly important religious "holiday" that features it prominantly.

But beyond the blatantly obvious theme of physical sexuality, there is even greater depth to the understanding of this divine marriage. The joining is not merely one of a physical nature, it is also of the mental, emotional, and spiritual. The joining is literally of two polar opposite becoming one unified whole. Where the Goddess and the God come together, each ceases to be merely themselves and to become one, or as some in the Craft might say, they are then "the One."

To us, that which many refer to as "God" is viewed in terms of the masculine and feminine divine. This is quite intuitive for a species which is divided evenly amongst those very same divisions (along with most others). The path for us is therefore necessarily one of understanding and honoring the qualities of the other, our dependance upon one another, and the negation of our divide through union with the other. In this manner we are able to see the spark of divinity in our spouse or partner, and in a sense, come to know heaven on earth.

And this is why I believe that Beltaine is the most important of the Sabbats, as it represents clearly the most important aspect of Wiccan theology, the union of the God and the Goddess. Likewise, it is a celebration of man and woman as representatives of these, and provides our most clear understanding of the ultimate reality, which is the polarity based nature of Akasha, or the One ("God").

So whether Wiccan or not, take this upcoming May 1st to step back and truly appreciate he or she who is yours. Forget the imperfections, we all have them. Put aside your quarrels, even if only for a day. Look past all of the faults, real or percieved, and know this: She has in her the spirit of the Goddess, and she therefore is the Goddess. He has in him the spirit of the God, and he therefore is the God. Without the other, each is at best merely half of what we are called to be.

"Love is the law..." - A.C.

Blessed Be.

-VSP

 

Yet another Wiccan reformist? It's a revolution, baby!!!

Okay, maybe the title is exaggerated just a tad, but one can hope, no?

I've always respected the Witches Voice for the invaluable services it provides to the Wiccan (and greater Pagan) community. However, I've also always taken much of its content with a huge grain of salt as well, as it tends to be more of a clearing house for kooks and neo-hippies more than anything else. But every once in a while, somehow the censors slip and some much needed critiquing of our community, or even common sense slips in (just kidding about the 'censors' thing, Wren, Fritz, and Co.). Here is an article which I found of interest as of late, reprinted in it's entirety from the original source:

Paganism - You're OK with us.
Author: Gaelyn Thorne

"Paganism has for the most part adapted the structure of "Anything goes" when it comes to individual beliefs. With the lack of any Dogma, Creed, or set down rules we are the exact opposite of the Judeo-Christian Belief systems. But what does that say about our future? Will we always be divided and separated into a myriad of paths because we have no set belief systems?

I've spent the better part of the last 18 years of my life studying, following, and leading in the pagan communities in which I have lived. I have seen numerous different covens, groves, paths, lodges etc. spring up and thrive. I have met hundreds if not thousands of wonderful people who are all intelligent, caring, and quick witted and amazing all around. I would not trade those experiences for anything.

As with all things I have seen the opposite, I have met fundamentalists, bigots, racists, posers, and people who in my humble honest opinion need to seek out some professional mental help. These are fewer and far between but it gives paganism a sour taste in my mouth sometimes.

There seems to be a cycle that I have noticed. For those of us who come from a Judeo-Christian perspective on our way into Paganism, there seem to be a lot of animosity towards the religion that we left, whether it was Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic etc. Terms such as "Stupid Sheep", "Dead man on a stick" and others which are much worse seem to pop up when talking to people who are angry, or disillusioned, or upset with their former teachers, pastor, lovers, whatever.

These people spend an amazing amount of energy on fueling the fires of a war that doesn't exist.

That's right boys and girls; there is no war between them and us. Truth be told 95% of Christians don't even know what we are besides what they watched on Charmed 5 years ago. The 5% that is left 98% of those don't give a flying fig about us. 2% of those are like Jerry Fallwell, and Pat Roberson, or the "concerned moral right." But we insist on creating this conspiracy against us that consumes us and makes us fearful or feel righteous in our HATE of another person or group of people.

If we believe that anyone can believe whatever they wish, if we are accepting of all faiths, why is it that some of us are so against a path that a Christian chooses to walk? Isn't it time we let go of the past and walk to the future?

But now it comes to the topic of what about OUR choice of Spirituality? We have so many different paths now that it is sometimes hard to see any structure within the Greater community. We are inundated with Eclecticism with a belief that you can believe and do things whatever way you wish?

Sure we have the Established Traditions Alexandrian, Gardnerian, and Georgian etc. These are paths that have been around for a lot longer than most and have established themselves as valid paths within Wicca. But yet I have seen animosity towards these paths because they are too structured, because they keep secrets, because they won't just let anyone in. I am not sure if people understand this or not but the study of Paganism is a study in Spirituality, a Study in self-control and discipline, and a study in finding the path to empower oneself. There are mysteries out there, and they are not for everyone.

So we come to the paths that are made up on the fly. Ones that make no sense from a Magical point of view, or even a logical point of view, let alone ones that make no sense spirituality, but we accept them. But why do we accept them? Is it because we are so afraid of saying "umm that's not right" and looking like the respective churches that we left. Or is it because we believe that no matter what you believe it's OK with us?

What if I believe that I am actually part Dragon? Well we do have other kin no harm there as long as you're not trying to set sheep on fire. What if I believe that I was Cleopatra and Julius Caesar in a former life? There are even theories on how that is possible now. What if I believe that is ok to harm children? Or that blood sacrifice is fine as long as the sacrifice is willing?

Absurd! There is no way we could ever accept that! But every path is valid, and I know that "An it harm none do what thou will" is running through quite a few minds right now, Great theory, Great ideal for Wiccans but what if a person isn't Wiccan? Then the Rede does not apply to them, and if we try and make it apply to them then... well are we any better than the church we left?

A line has to be drawn somewhere. Do I believe anyone in their right mind would follow a path like the last two examples that I used? No, however not everyone is in their right mind. And there are people out there who are mentally disturbed running around in our community. There is in every community. We all can say there is a line; there is a limit to what we will accept and what we won't accept. But at the rate we are going with the blanket of total acceptance for any belief any path, any way of thinking when will we reach the edge of our tolerance, and what will we do when we get there? Whether we accept it or not there has to be some level of organization within our communities, if there isn't it is just a spiral a spiral that will spin us into complete and total Chaos.

We need leaders, teachers, students who are willing to listen and follow some rules. We need a system where if you know of a dangerous individual you can let your community know. Smaller communities need to set up standards of what they will accept and what they will not, it is no huge change to things, if your community, group etc. is a very family friendly group *like mine* then you obviously do not want people who might be a danger to kids. I am not saying we should be distrustful of strangers but get to know people before inviting them to a ritual at your house, or to that party you've wanted to have.

Make a stand. Draw a line.

Gaelyn Thorne"

Maybe we will start getting on the right track after all....

Note: For the sake of clarity, it should be noted that Gaelyn Thorne, the author of the above article, identifies specifically as a pagan, and not as a Wiccan.

- VSP

Wiccan Hawtness