Re: Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs & Disease (Review) Jenny jennyg@compuserve.com Tue Oct 13 12:51:02 1998 : Have you run into the problem yet when you tell people you *br*: ae not Wicca, that they seem to view you as a sub-secies, *br*: and not worthy of their attention?*p*<g> That kicks in a little later. Usually I find that saying "I'm a Witch, not a Wiccan" confuses people and they start trying to explain to me why I really am a Wiccan. "Witch" is just another word for "Wiccan", right?*p*So then I say, "Gee, I thought Wicca involved stuff like the veneration of the Horned God, worship of a three-formed Goddess Who appears as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, raising magickal power through dualism, and the Wiccan Rede." They say yeah it does, and I explain that I'm a Witch and I don't believe/do any of those things. Ergo, I am not Wiccan. Most people can grasp this, if I take the time to explain. (Some can't, but that's another story... <g>) *p*Where I run into problems is when I mention that I don't follow the Wiccan Rede. I have run into sooo many people who assume that if you don't follow the Rede, you must be the Anti-Christ. You must be the most vile and monstrous person on the face of the planet, an evil, malevolent thing that curses at the first provocation. No one ever thinks that a decent person could object to the Rede.*p*: Shame on you. We can use Witch/witch, Celt, Wicca, Shaman, *br*: or whatever. *p*Ah, but Witch and Wicca are just as bad, aren't they? Wicce might have meant something positive, once upon a time. (Though it's equally likely that it was always a pejorative term, meaning something like "the Twisted/Evil One.") By the time that wicce became witch, it was definitely an insult. Even "white" witches usually called themselves other things, like wise-woman, good-walker, cunning body, etc. It was primarily their clients and critics who called them "witches".*p*Plus there's the problem of definition. Some people do follow one clear-cut path, either ethnic (Celt/Asatruar/Strega), stylistic (Shaman/Witch), or religious (Wicca). But in modern times we've see the rise of extremely eclectic paths, based loosely on these more specific threads. What do we call them? What do we call someone who believes in the Triple Goddess of Wicca, celebrates the solstices and equinoxes (but not the Celtic Quarter Days), venerates the Great Goddess of feminist spirituality, fire-walks (but only at workshops), and doesn't cast spells?*p*It seems to me that it's useful to have a generic word for people like this. For people whose religions draw on the early faiths of Europe, or on modern faiths that drank from that well. It does raise the spectre of stereotyping and overgeneralization -- all blanket terms do. Look at how many people assume that all "Native American religions" are exactly alike. And yet I think "Native American" is a useful term. Pagan has the same challenges, plus the fact that it has some odd meanings. But I think it's worth salvaging, just like "witch".*p*: We don't call Jews, *br*: Christians, or Muslims by one lump term, why do it to *br*: ourselves? It also gives the less thinking of those other *br*: religions something to spark another Burning Times with. *br*: "Go get the pagans!"*p*Well, we call them monotheists, or Judeo-Christianity (for the Jews and the scads and scads of Christian denominations), or Western religions. And the bigots don't need to have a word for us -- they already use "Devil-worshippers" just fine. <g>*p*: many pagans also don't like it when I point out that *br*: "pagan" people had a good practice of sacking *br*: Rome, Greece, and whoever else was around. They don't like *br*: to think they were of the same human stock. Others have *br*: simply told me that they (Romans, etc...) deserved it. *p*Some days I think I would have preferred to live amongst the Celts, because of the personal freedoms women enjoyed. But then I think of the incessant warfare and cattle-raiding that the Celts engaged in, of living with the constant danger that another tribe would show up and attack me. And on those days, the Pax Romana doesn't sound so terrible. *p*People will wax poetic about the glorious rebellion of Boudica. But they never mention that she killed thousands of British who welcomed the Romans. That the British were terribly distraught when the Roman legions were withdrawn, because that left them open to attack from the Irish and the Pictish confederacy. Or that the Angles and Saxons first came to England because the British were desperate to find mercenaries who'd protect them from their fellow Celts, now that the Romans had left.*p*: I know how "they" come to nine million, btw. They *br*: take all atrocities done in the name of Christianity *br*: (calling it the Church), no matter what time period or *br*: country/contenent. *p*As if deaths caused by Christianity are somehow qualitatively different from deaths caused by any other religion or philosophy... I bet the Tibetans would have some issues with that, and the Martyrs of the Coliseum. *p*Jenny Re: Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs & Disease (Review) Infiniti 64 Mon Oct 12 15:07:50 1998