Path: shell.portal.com!shell.portal.com!not-for-mail From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva) Newsgroups: alt.pagan.magick,alt.satanism,alt.evil,talk.religion.misc,alt.folklore.urban,alt.magick,alt.religion,alt.christnet,alt.religion.christian Subject: JMax: Power of 'Witch' (Was Movie: "The Craft") Followup-To: alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan,alt.pagan.magick,alt.satanism,alt.evil,talk.religion.misc,alt.folklore.urban,alt.magick,alt.religion,alt.christnet,alt.religion.christian Date: 2 May 1996 21:25:52 -0700 Organization: Portal Communications (shell) Lines: 77 Sender: tyagi@shell.portal.com Message-ID: <4mc1sg$1bt@jobe.shell.portal.com> References: <4lbfsi$3rk@sanjuan.islandnet.com> <4lfgea$1jd@blackice.winternet.com> <4lfulm$9kc@news2.cais.com> <4lim6b$b86@news3.cts.com> <4lqrag$b6m@sleddog.fred.net> <4lrubd$3g7@sanjuan.islandnet.com> Reply-To: "Joseph Max.555" NNTP-Posting-Host: jobe.shell.portal.com Xref: shell.portal.com alt.pagan.magick:487 alt.satanism:42551 alt.evil:25279 talk.religion.misc:216632 alt.folklore.urban:272523 alt.magick:72692 alt.religion:2229 alt.christnet:102337 alt.religion.christian:114510 [from alt.pagan: "Joseph Max.555" ] On 27 Apr 1996 hornowl@islandnet.com wrote: > I am a Witch. I do not worship the Christian Devil, do spiteful or harmful > magic, or intentionally hurt people. I am a priestess of the Goddess. > I have spent the last 10 years defending my faith to people who believe > that Witches = Satanists = evil. Now Hollywood is throwing millions > of dollars into telling folks that we are all that the Inquisition > said that we were. > > What in Her Name can we do? I checked into these newsgroups just to see if there was discussion going on concerning this movie -- and boy was there! Very typical discussion, in fact. I figured there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The whole bruhaha underscores the real problem many pagans, and "white light" Wiccans in particular, have with anything that plays up to the darkside of the powers we all work with. IMNSHO, it's a real shame that so many doe-eyed "white" magic Glindas and emasculated Birkenstock-clad Goddess junkies have spent the past few decades deliberately squandering the glorious cache' of power that was once connected with the term "witch". When Gardner came up with his reconstruction of European paganism and called it "witchcraft", don't you think he understood the pre-existing image and innate power that the term held? He could have easily given it some original name and not connected it with the idea of "witches" at all. I think the whole reason he _didn't_ do that was deliberate on his part. He _wanted_ people to feel the power connected with the term (especially back in the 1950's.) There's nothing like a touch of the "forbidden" if you want to make an impression on the subconscious mind. As the sage said, "You can get a lot farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone." Now a great many "Wiccans" are determined to prove to the whole world that witches are really nice, warm huggable people who would never hurt a fly and sleep with fuzzy stuffed animals. The word "WITCH" is a magic word if there ever was one. Thanks to popular folklore, it has a mystery and power that cannot be denied or _ever_ completely expunged from public consciousness. I say GREAT! This is as it should be. Those who do not wish to be associated with the dark power embodied by the name should not call themselves witches in the first place. The problem here is that most new-age wiccans are far more indoctrinated with typical Judeo-Christian moral structures than either side wants to admit. They just have different labels and justifications for what amount to the same attitudes in the end. Take a typical politically moderate Sierra Club member who listens to Sting records and goes to an Episcopal Church's "Folk Music Service" on Sunday, substitute "Goddess and God" for "Father, Son and Holy Ghost", make the priesthood into a priestesshood and PRESTO - you have your typical Neo-Wiccan follower, complete with all the same foibles, prejudices and social hang-ups. A little less body-conscious perhaps... Just to really give you something to get maniacally huffy about, here's a telling passage from Anton LaVey's _The Satanic Witch_: "The smugly righteous, of course, will always wear the mantle of "good", "white light", "spiritual", etc in varying shades of holyness. They will persist in defining themselves as witches by using the sanctimonious definitions of so-called "white witches" working for the "benefit of mankind". There will always be those who, furtively desiring personal power but unable to do anything about gaining it, will devise their own definitions of what witchcraft should be like, seeing to it, of course, that their definition applies to themselves." Geez, could Uncle Anton possibly be describing anyone around here? - J:.M:.555 ... Sacred cows make great hamburger.