Effortless superiority a danger of witchcraft

My last post was about several things: my perception of a deterioration in our modern mores, the ways in which it behoves the witch not to be overly influenced by what everyone else is doing. One of the things about witchcraft is that it appeals to people who feel themselves to be different in some way from other people. This does of course flip over into an assumption of superiority to other people, the sort of superiority attributed to Mr. Brian Sewell in his appearances on Have I Got News For You, & in other media. I was going to touch on this but think it deserves a post of its own.

We as witches put ourselves in a different place from many of the people surrounding us: this is actually the function of quite a lot of what we do. This is the point of witchcraft. If the witch is not capable of naming the problem, saying what must be, & having it happen, often going against the current of people who won't see or are just stuck on stupid, well this person isn't really a witch. The downside of this is that a quite phenomenal amount of arrogance is necessary to do this.

This is in total of the dominant paradign around us in Europe, which remains (despite the protests of Christians) the remnants of a Christian civilisation, with increasingly elements of Islamisation laid over it. The dominant paradigm therefore is one of submission & obedience, which of course has its own dangers. I feel the reason the Catholic church has found itself looking so silly over its failures to deal with abuse is at least partly because it places those in positions of leadership, who have been wholly formed in its values of obedience so are unable or too frightened to think independently.

Modern witchcraft has of course been created in conscious opposition to the surrounding societal norms. Do I even need to comment that the modern pagan/witch community is notorious for in-fighting? In the coven structure, which has more elements of hierarchy & structure than the hedge witching, it happens all the time that people have mammoth bust ups with the High Priestess.

I feel it happens more in the US than here (if anyone calls themselves Lord & Lady here it is at least partly tongue in cheek) that people buy into making themselves witch royalty. Of course everyone who's not completely masochistic wants to be a leader & not a follower - the desire to submit is just as psychologically interesting as the desire to dominate others! The thing is that people of power are perceived as throwing their weight around, by people who perceive themselves as lacking power. Personally I want to be surrounded by people who pull themselves together act sensibly, contain themselves, have adequate boundaries & don't want to be dominated or told what to do. I don't feel the need to tell other people their place because I have a strong enough idea of myself: you'll soon know if you wander in somewhere where you're not welcome.

I feel this may also be the answer to the previous question, how we relate to each other, I was thinking about: I feel the need increasingly to be unaffected by other people's 'stuff'. This is not superiority, well, alright, it is really. Does this give me licence to go through life looking down on everyone else? That would be to close myself permanently to the possibilities of growth & challenge afforded by encounters with others. If I've met someone's stupidity repeatedly, if someone is trying to leech off me, if someone will not accept their own power, I reserve the right not to be drawn into this, because that isn't my thing. The irony is those are exactly the sort of people drawn to someone like me, because if you feel helpless you are going to latch onto a powerful person. This is part of the curse of being a witch.

It's also part of the witch's work of discernment. I am always prepared to be surprised by people, but once I've sussed someone out as a leech I don't let them in. This is simply part of creating a world that is as I will it to be: making a judgement on people & places, & making decisions on what is not healthy. I also have to make decisions on what is there to teach me a lesson, or what is about someone else's stuff. Sometimes my rejection of someone's acting out is part of their process of going through their life's lessons.

Yes, this will often come across as arrogant but I don't have a problem with that. The simple fact is that I am usually going to be right - not through some great occult ability but simply through taking the trouble to see what is going on around me. This is not special. This is merely being me. *That* is the task I have to do before all else, & I must not be deflected by anyone who would stop me.

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