The Flying Spaghetti Monster: A Witch Perspective

Personally I find that the Pastafarians are very principled, intelligent people. In fact they're almost witches. But a witch insight into their noodly religion throws up some interesting insights.

First a little history.

As F Scott Fitzgerald once observed, the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. By this measure, the religion of Pastafarianism is the creation of a first-rate mind.

There are two contrasting explanations for how Pastafarianism (officially known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) came into being. The first is that an invisible monster, comprising a tangle of spaghetti flanked by two meatballs, created the universe after a bout of heavy drinking. For hundreds of years, his followers – pirates, mainly – worshipped in secret. Only recently has it become better known.

The second explanation is that Bobby Henderson, a young physics graduate from Oregon State University, wrote to the Kansas Board of Education in 2005 to protest against a proposal to teach “intelligent design” alongside evolution in secondary schools. The arguments supporting a scientific basis for intelligent design, he wrote, apply just as well to a universe created by a flying spaghetti monster. Source

The first and most immediate observation is that I looove intelligent design because it paints fundament-alists firmly into a corner. The particular corner is that if creation shows God's design, then he very cunningly designed the human male with his g-spot best reached up the bum. Don't blame me, it's God who designed us for gay sex.

Apart from that titbit calculated to have fundament-alists foaming at the mouth, intelligent design is totally dreary and has the slight problem to overcome that we have a goddam tail bone. Evolution is more intelligent (plus the empirical method doesn't claim to have all the answers) and Pastafarianism is more fun.

However if it is a spoof, from a magical point of view there is a danger in creating gods. Consider for a moment the Simon Necronomicon:

Both the introduction and the book's marketing make sensational claims for the book's magical power. The back blurb claims it is "the most potent and potentially, the most dangerous Black Book known to the Western World," and that its rituals will bring "beings and monsters" into "physical appearance". The book's introduction gives readers frequent warnings that the powers it contains are potentially life-threatening, and that perfect mental health is needed; otherwise the book is extremely dangerous. It claims a curse afflicted those who helped publish the book. It also claims that the Golden Dawn methods of magical banishing will not work on the entities in this book. Source

The reason I bring up the Simon Necronomicon is that in a magical world view thoughts are things. If you think something, it is actually created, but not necessarily visibly on this plane. I don't think for an instant that when Lovecraft brought the Necronomicon thought form into being it would take on the independent life that it has an would become an actual paperback grimoire used by kids unprepared for the consequences. This book gives many examples of the real world results of using a grimoire, and the warnings are true.

The application to the FSM of course is that the monster is another thought form which has become an egregore and taken on its own existence. Without meaning to he has created a god and in fact the page I link at the top says that it's as if things are just happening on their own.

So be careful what you think!

Let's end appropriately with an FSM hymn.

Like a Dog with a Bone

I'm not a surveyor but if structural concrete looks like this yesterday was the time to act

Despite definitely being a cat person, always having had cats, and being distinctly cat-like myself my rapport with dogs is growing. The goddess likes gay men and obviously likes dogs and so one of her little jokes is to make a status job with a bit of rough trade, turn into a total puppy with me. Thus embarrassing the rough trade.

I am also becoming more dog like in terms of worrying a bone. Even years ago I stayed in one work place over a decade partly because I liked the clientele but mainly to annoy the staff.

I must give a shout out to my deceased mother at this point because I learned from her how to be as awkward as hell. Unlike her, I don't self-sabotage with it because I don't have a personality disorder and can use it when I want to.

There is genuinely a divine part to this in terms of correcting the karma we have and witches are nothing if not the instruments of divinity in helping people correct their own karma. Not necessarily because they want to, but because you're not taking the piss and getting away with it.

Take the people who sold me my sofa. I haven't had it a year and the springs rattle, the fabric is bobbly and feathers keep coming out of it. I had a lengthy email exchange with their quality control people earlier this year and they told me the bobbling was to be expected, the feathers coming out was my fault because I don't shake the cushions every day and they ignored the rattling completely.

Can you tell that the rattling is about to be transferred to their heads?

I posted a review on trustpilot. I have to say even I was impressed with what a total cunt I was, and particularly made a point of including their feedback when I tried to tell them how crappy it was. Within 24 hours they put a reply saying how sorry they were to hear I wasn't happy and asking me to contact them. I will not be doing so - they had their chance to resolve it and didn't. So I posted a reply saying exactly that, and that they have all the information they need to put this right, and commented that this different approach was obviously because I had put it in a public review.

What makes this a magical and karmic act rather than just being a disgruntled customer? On the one hand we are well used to thinking that all acts are magical acts. In a magical worldview everything we do has ripples in different worlds and different areas. One of the goals of magical paths is to be so aware of everything that you won't get unexpected kickback and won't be one of those kids posting on forums that they've changed their mind about a spell and want to undo it.

On the other hand, to my mind what makes this magical and karmic is the element of consequences. If you complain about something and they resolve your complaint that is the limit of it. If you sue them and get a payout, that's also the limit, the company will be insured and they'll make you sign a NDA ending it. When a company fails to resolve something and they get potentially business-affecting poor reviews, that is their actions returning and giving them real-world consequences.

What they do now, I will add to my review but will not remove it so the difference in their customer service in private and in public is now apparent. They also have a very obvious trustpilot widget thingy on their website so it's the first thing people shopping there will see today.

In terms of witch values, it is very bad indeed to try to get away with things in private that show you up as a two-faced bastard in public. The company says that quality is a value of theirs but it obviously isn't. And now because of doing it across a witch it has bitten them in the bum.

I must be on a roll today because I have also stopped the tenant over the hall plugging his extension lead in to the hall socket by the very simple means of going out and unplugging it every time he plugs it in. Apart from using the building power he puts it right across the hall, dangerous clown. I haven't actually spoken to him, that wouldn't at all be in mother's playbook of driving people mad. I did email a picture to the concierge and I was actually quite impressed - within five minutes she replied to say she had sent it to the letting agent who would be giving them a warning.

The concierge is feeling a little fragile. I hasten to say that this isn't because of me, but I happen to know that one of the directors has been on at the management company for ages about the smell of damp in the basement, and I also know that every flat dweller in the world has been bothering their concierge because the collapse of Champlain Towers South is enough to make anyone nervous about a concrete building.

To be frank the Florida collapse sounds like exactly the sort of tragedy that should be avoided if people pay attention to the likely consequences of their actions. Critical safety concerns have been documented for around three years. I'm not necessarily saying this about the management of that building but there is a human tendency to try to get away with things and try to avoid the consequences of our actions. And it's exactly that attitude witchy intervention is aimed at changing.

You'll thank us for it in the long run.

Pillars and gods and the Fool

To my knowledge there has never been a monastic movement in ancient paganism. The closest, which has sometimes been suggested as a source for the early Christian monastics who lived on top of pillars, is the once a year occasion when men would climb up inside 'pillars' to commune with the Goddess. This is not the actual inspiration, since the actual text of Lucan's De Dea Syria makes it plain they were climbing up inside great big penises (Source chapters 27ff).

That of course is the kind of old time religion we can all be enthusiastic about. Of course they didn't inspire these pillar saints, called stylites, since they were way too fleshly. St Simeon Stylites, who illustrates this post, has always been a favourite of mine, and in true pagan style, I have always wondered how they urinated and defecated, and can't decide whether they would have done it off the edge, or used a pot which would have been collected when their food was hauled up on a pulley.

I think there are however hints of a monastic tradition in modern paganism. I read recently on another blog about a woman who aimed to practice minimalism and was expecting it to give her a great sense of freedom (I won't link this because I really am playing very fast with this source). Unfortunately when she got down to the number of possessions she was aiming for all she felt was a sense of loss and emptiness. She rather got slapped by some minimalism guru who told her she obviously wasn't ready to do it. The person whose blog I was reading criticised the guru in turn and reflected that major changes require adjustment. She felt that the freedom given by minimalism means that a person is very difficult to categorise using the standards of consumer society so would feel a freedom from pressure.

Now I don't believe in minimalism because only the incredibly rich can afford to do it. But the freedom from labels and pressures did strike a chord and I think this is the connection with modern paganism. The fool in the taroT is identified with what there is before something even manifests as intention in the magician. Of course we know the oldest neo-Pagan tradition is stealing anything which isn't nailed down and we stole this from 18th century cartomancers, who stole it from the Jewish Kabbalah. As we  know much of the point of magic is the connection between all things and this includes the no-thing before some-thing.

However there is a connection with ancient paganism and it is to the genuinely ancient belief of holey stones representing divinity. Yes there are also situations where a whole stone represents divinity but in the ditsituat where the hole is the essential thing, it is the nothing which represents the god/dess.

Even without extraordinary feats like living on a pillar I think a pursuit of the no-thing which precedes things reflects the Christian and other pursuit of aloneness but with a genuinely pagan feel.

The Lady will Provide

...and that is one of the ways the witch knows things are moving, when things inexplicably start falling into place. For example in the Acocks Green area of the city (the accent is on the long A, not the O, by the way) today, I not only found the box set of a TV series I've been looking for for ages, but also found my manager (pictured) staring at me in a charity shop window! Of course I had to buy it (the woman closed the zip saying he wouldn't be able to speak, but I closed it again, saying that silence is required) & then some pins from Wilko for the next part. This really is a gift from the universe, a case of more opportunities coming along if you make use if them.

Incidentally, apart from the inane grin & idiotic expression, I hadn't realised how like Zippy my manager is in personality, making it all about her & wanting to be friends, while ignoring other people's views & actual misconduct completely:

'...Zippy claims to be the best at whatever is being discussed, and always claims to be right. He loves to eat sweets, sing songs and tell his favourite jokes, and always has to be the centre of attention. For example, the other characters might be having a discussion, when Zippy would shout: "But I don't want to talk, I want to sing! I'm very good at singing! [starts singing] I'm a little teapot short and stout, here's my handle and here's my spout..."

'Due to his frequently loud behaviour and silly voice getting him into all sorts of trouble, other characters in Rainbow occasionally zip his mouth shut, rendering him unable to talk. On at least one occasion he unzips himself, although he appears unable to do so on most occasions.' (Source

Urban Grimoire: My Favourite Banishing Spell

I wouldn't like my readers to get the impression I think they need pictorial instructions, but surely the two pictures here are graphic enough to explain the spell. The good bit of using loo paper is that the writing on it can be customized (pictures, words, sigils, etc) and any required substances applied before making the offering to Cloacina. Incidentally she was largely invoked for fertility in it's widest sense & that's why this spell is so good.

The Madam and Eve cartoon is largely opportunistic, since it's only since I posted on Jacob Zuma's very plushh toilet at Nkandla that I discovered in contrast the ANC is expecting it's voters to use completely unenclosed toilets.

Avoiding Routine

Throughout the experiences which have left me where I am now, I have always accepted the need for routine and discipline. This is a major theme in 'spiritual' traditions of all sorts, and now strikes me as being unbelievably dreary. It is also one which has somehow made its way into the modern witchcraft and pagan milieu. So many of the books advise one to develop a daily practice, one which will become routine by means of discipline. Do the majority of people stick to their spiritual disciplines? No, they don't. In fact people don't stick to 'spiritual' disciplines to such an extent that some religions actually cultivate a sort of elite of spiritual practitioners, whose expertise is assured by their disciplined sticking to their routines. Sometimes this is even called a 'rule of life'. It is not for nothing that the concept of asceticism was born in a Greek gym, and also not for nothing that Christian monasticism arose after the state sanctioning of the religion, prior to which a career in the church had been a simple question of martyrdom.

But here's the contradiction in this: ascetics of all religions will say that they have to belong to these structures of discipline because they couldn't do it on their own. And this is also where my major problem with this starts, that it brings in a question of authority and motivation. At its lowest level discipline implies some sort of authoritative imposition of rules by another: do this because I say so. This takes us straight back to school. On a more exalted level it implies discipline by means of self-imposed commitment to a course of action, which may be helped by other people or by whatever motivation we have.

There is an undercurrent running through the whole history of the modern witchcraft movement, of turning things on their heads. The example I like is undressing for church, for example. So in line with this tradition, what happens if we turn the concept of 'spiritual discipline' on its head? I think we end up with 'embodied inspiration'. When I look at the experiences which have been most formative to me as a witch, I find that not one of them has been planned. They have all been accidental, often hateful. No amount of ritual, routine, discipline, could have made me a witch. I'm really exploring my way towards a concept here, but I would therefore like to think that (this will sound rather Zen) if I just Be, everything that I need can be found in the Hedge. I wouldn't want this to sound too passive, so perhaps I'd better include ideas of exploration and response to life event.

I suppose the key word is embodiment. I don't want to live in a world from which divinity is absent. In fact I believe that I am my Goddess's priest, and hands in this world. It would therefore be a slap in the face to Goddess to make out that my witchcraft can only be accomplished by my own discipline, routine, ascesis, whatever.

That said, if I had to talk about disciplines for the witch, I would have to talk about values. Dealing with integrity. Being prepared to be surprised at all times. Being open to whatever I find in my Hedge. I'll grant you that these things would require a certain clarity of mind, but I would rather go for a walk and see what happens than get into a ritual. If I'm finding my head a bit crowded I will meditate for a while, but even then that can often take place on a bus or in a crowd.

But the greatest discipline, given the tradition of turning normal society on its head, would be the avoidance of routines and rituals. I merely throw this out there – if getting into routines is a 'spiritual' discipline, then a major 'unspiritual' discipline would be the avoidance of those routines as limiting and closing up the opportunities the universe has for me.

Witch Quandaries and Freud's desk

I don't do clutter, myself. I find I clean more & get less stressed if there isn't loads of Stuff hanging around. What I do collect, though, is what I like to call Weird Shit. I always have either been attracted to, or attracted to myself, objects with what I suppose you would call a bent towards humanity's search for connection. As a child I had a museum of these things in my bedroom, & I remember reading somewhere about scarabs & badly wanting one. I once flatly refused to leave a craft fair without a statue of Shiva. My adult interests obviously appeared in me fully-formed at an early age.

This isn't in itself the cause of my quandary, which is actually that today my collection of Weird Shit has overflowed the shelf allocated to it! I'm not going to throw anything out, just let it carry on for now & see what happens. I want it to remain a collection of things significant to me rather than just random hoarding. I'm delighted to see that I'm in great company doing this; the witch's wide-ranging & (so to speak) often iconoclastic search for inspiration & connection was also carried on by the father of psychoanalysis:

'What you realise, standing in Freud's study, is that his theory is rooted in his feeling for the entire history of art and culture. The anniversary exhibition draws attention to a singular fact: whenever Freud sat down to write he was confronted by statues covering his desk.

'Freud's collection is truly staggering. He acquired hundreds of antiquities, including fragments of Roman fresco paintings, a Roman portrait sculpture and several parts of mummy cases. The cultural legacy of Egypt, Greece and Rome filled his waking hours; no wonder it filled his sleeping ones, too.' (http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/may/09/1)

I'm also pleased to find HR bought his antiquities from dealers. In the poor man's version, my stuff tends to come from charity shops; things demand to be bought when the time is right.

'The Study is also filled with antiquities from ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt and the Orient. Freud visited many archaeological sites (though not Egypt) but most of the collection was acquired from dealers in Vienna. He confessed that his passion for collecting was second in intensity only to his addiction to cigars. Yet the importance of the collection is also evident in Freud's use of archaeology as a metaphor for psychoanalysis. One example of this is Freud's explanation to a patient that conscious material 'wears away' while what is unconscious is relatively unchanging: "I illustrated my remarks by pointing to the antique objects about my room. They were, in fact, I said, only objects found in a tomb, and their burial had been their preservation.' (http://www.freud.org.uk/about/house/)

My sense that this act is different from the building of altars, which have a more specifically devotional or ritual purpose is heightened by the discovery of the book about Hinduism & psychoanalysis. On the other hand to the witch, for whom a major preoccupation is the crossing of traditional boundaries between sacred & secular, there may not be that much difference.

Pictures include (I can't guarantee they'll appear in this order) my weird shit shelf, Freud's desk & an installation at his house (credit: Freud museum website), & credit is needed to OUP India. The final picture is a collection of objects found the mud of the Thames by mudlarkers (presumably thrown into the river for ritual purposes, but another interesting example of the hedge taking & returning) - I've lost the source I'm afraid, but as usual will be glad to reference/remove if anyone asks.

Mummy issues for Christmas

Picture: Virgin & Child, painted by Adolf Hitler. Credit: Wikimedia
True to form, I'm not avoiding the difficult matters for the festal season. Yes, I'm using the Christmas word: my usual disenchantment with 'the Pagan community' pushes me into using the name for this feast of the predominant surrounding milieu. And of course that's the point of this post. Christians like to make out that Christ is the 'reason for the season'. And of course they're dead wrong. The reason for the season is the darkness. And we witches know you can't have darkness without its polar opposite, light, right kids?
But the image which illustrates this post has become a more common image of this season since the Christians came along, & interestingly brings with it one of the most complicated human relationships possible. The Christians, of course, have a slight difficulty with the apparent lack of femininity in their divinity, which is accounted for usually by Mary, or the image of the church as the spouse of Christ. The witches, as among those who have 'reclaimed' the feminine divine in the twentieth century, have exactly the opposite problem: we risk mummy issues creeping into our either bisexual or completely feminine perception of divinity. That said, mummy issues are almost the definitive feature of the witch:
'"I have found that people who know that they are preferred or favored by their mothers give evidence in their lives of a peculiar self-reliance and an unshakeable optimism which often bring actual success to their possessors."' (http://www.pbs.org/youngdrfreud/pages/family_mother.htm)
You will note that I'm using the phrase 'mummy issues' quite differently from its normal sense of a heterosexual man without a mother figure in his early years, who looks for a woman who will fill that void. it is only my personal opinion but I find it quite creepy the way straight men can both want sex & to be - almost - mothered by their lovers. That is my stereotyped perception of a particular human relationship seen from the outside. The stereotype extends to homosexual men having over-involved mothers. In fact both straight & gay men can have over- or under-interested mothers & thus various mummy issues.
This festival has therefore become one marking the *most* complicated relationship we humans have. Of course I'm sitting here secure in the knowledge that I'll never have children to fuck up, although I did manage to turn a nervous stray cat into a relaxed, happy old man. The whole tone for upbringing is set by the parents, the 'blame' will always somehow land there, they will always get it wrong to various degrees.
I hope, as a witch, I can sit with the fact that this relationship will never be 'right'. However if nothing else, I will not play at happy families - that is the way of falsehood & further screwiness.
Happy festival - go on, upset a relative. It's strangely liberating.
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Margaret Thatcher as Goddess Kali

...As depicted on the cover of New Civil Engineer in October 1979.
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Spirit of Place: Beorma

I made the mistake of getting on the Outer Circle back to Bearwood from Erdington today. Mistake because I don't follow football, & how was I to know the Villa were playing? I was very good & held myself back from singing 'You're just a busstop in Aston,' something I failed in last time I went to Wolverhampton, where the song in question was 'Your mum is your dad's sister'. Anyway, the thought of football turned my thoughts to tribes, specifically the tribe of Beorma:
'Beorma (/ˈbeɪ.ɔrmə/; Old English:  [ˈbeːo̯rma]) is the name most commonly given to the 7th century Anglo-Saxon founder of the settlement now known as the English city of Birmingham. This assumption is based on the belief that the original settlement was known as Beorma's ham ("the homestead of Beorma") or Beorma -inga -ham ("the homestead of the tribe or people of Beorma").
[...]
'Beorma could have been the founder or ancestor of a tribe, the beormingas, long before its arrival in what was to become Anglo-Saxon Mercia; the ealdorman or head of a tribe or clan of kinsmen who travelled together for the purpose of migration (and who settled in Mercia); or the leader of a (possibly mercenary) group with whom he shared a contractual obligation (the frankpledge) to one of the Mercian kings.' (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beorma which see for further discussion of the whole Beor- Brom- thing)
The completely hypothetical figure of Beorma has become surprisingly inspirational, with a morris dancing side (http://www.beormamorris.co.uk/), a piece of organ music (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002G995HM/ref=redir_mdp_mobile), a bar at the university, and beer (http://www.beowulfbrewery.com/2012/06/beorma.html?m=1) named after him. He has even had a festival held for him at the Library of Birmingham, an interesting reconstruction of something that may or may not have happened:
'Perfectly in keeping with the spirit of discovery, the Outcrowd Collective's work on the lost 'Festival of the Rea' will celebrate Birmingham's origins.
'According to glimpses and impressions gleaned from a unique collection of archives, the Festival was once held at the crossing of the River Rea (now known as Digbeth), the site of the first recorded Anglo-Saxon settlement – the Beormingas clan, from which Birmingham gets its name. Traditions of the festival included presenting offerings to a 'House of Beorma' shrine and costumed deities dancing to ward off evil.' (http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/event/Events/theoutcrowd)
There is even a development next to Digbeth Cold Store just going up, which is named after him.
For someone who may or may not have existed he seems to have a presence. And surely he (or the tribe named after him) would already have felt the spirit of the city which I have previously expressed in a quote from William Hutton:
'Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our persons, but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it upon herself: I might add, I was hungry, and she fed me; thirsty, and she gave me drink; a stranger, and she took me in. I approached her with reluctance, because I did not know her; I shall leave her with reluctance, because I do.' (See http://houndofhecate.blogspot.com/2014/05/spirit-of-birmingham-in-william-hutton.html?m=1 for the source of this & similar sentiments in Hutton)
More particularly, Beorma's tribe landing up on the banks of the Rea are the (apparent) start of the welcoming, sheltering, busy Birmingham spirit. For witches he could be invoked as the personification of this spirit - surely many divinities had a more shady start than Beorma did! He could be invoked for protection, essential supplies, work, one hell of a party, & also for the other side of the spirit of the city. I was sitting on another bus this week listening to a German student comparing Brum *very* unfavourably with somewhere else. What a mistake, to sit in the city & be rude about it, because the settlement of Beorma has endless kindness to the poor, the dispossessed, those prepared to see a gift horse for what it is. If you slap Beorma's spirit in the face - well, these people were noble & proud warriors - the spirit of the city will chew you up & spit you out. Perhaps this is why you either love Birmingham or loathe it.

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The Curse of the Witch

Sounds like a horror film, that, doesn't it? I can almost write the screenplay off the top of my head - family move to a country cottage, terrible things happen to them, it becomes apparent from the locals it belonged to an old woman with a cat. The woman was wronged somehow, did something, the cottage has been no good for anyone to live in ever since.
That scenario, while variations of it are common in horror films & folklore, only appears at the top of this post to illustrate what the post is *not* about! In my usual pedantic way there's a grammatical point to be made about the title: 'of the witch' is the genitive case, & means belonging or pertaining to the witch. I will not repeat my numerous previous comments on the meanings & nuances of the word 'witch'. Since the curse of which I speak is 'of the witch' it could actually be a curse on the witch herself, or a curse the witch has put on someone else.
The reality is that the witch - a competent witch - would rarely, if ever feel the need to put an actual curse on someone or something. It is essential that the witch is able to do so, & if the witch is not able to step up to the bar she will frequently find she is confronted with the sort of situation where she feels it is necessary to do so, but in reality a curse initiated by the magical practitioner is way too much like hard work. Just as usually, when as individual feels they are cursed, it is them somehow cursing themselves, usually when someone/thing *needs* to be cursed they will usually merrily do it themselves if you let them, or sometimes slightly push them in the direction in which they are already going.
And the reason why it might be necessary to curse someone cuts right to the heart of what magic is about. I'm also not planning on repeating my opinions on why the 'Law of Three' can't possibly be true, but we humans do somehow bring the things that happen to us, on ourselves. There will always be some level on which the person who can't find another half, only attracts heels, does it over & over again, is doing this themselves. This is the real nature of everyone's curse: we keep on doing the same nonsense. If the witch can recognise this pattern & move it on somehow, that is a very effective curse. For example, a perfect situation would be a case I was reading of recently where a man who works as a stablehand likes sex with animals, & actually has sex with the animals in his care, damaging them & causing them distress on the way. He has been caught doing this *fourteen* times. The last time - the leniency of this sentence staggers me - he was banned from keeping animals for *one year* & fined - get this - 200 dollars. That's two-oh-oh. Ideal subject for a curse this. In fact even as I write those words I can feel the anger of the Goddess building up & the laughter of the universe starting up as he nears a sticky end. It is plain that in this case human justice will not deal with him effectively, & that he will continue. So the thing to do is use that. So what's going to happen is he will choose to penetrate a horse or donkey that is not as placid as it seems, one that will kick out. If he's lucky he might live. It is done: the witch has spoken.
And that brings me nicely to the witch's own curse, which is surely that of simply being a witch at all. In addition to the curse I talk about above, that we all carry round with us, the witch has the curse of being the witch. The responsibility. The duty. The privilege. Often witches go through some *terrible* stuff, more than can conceivably be caused by one person's learning needs in one incarnation. I feel this is because we somehow attract those who need a cosmic slap. The guy above would be the perfect example. And there is no such thing as a day off from being a witch - we're witches all the time, & thus continually are confronted with other people's need for a slap.
Of course it can be difficult to tell which is which. It is not an invariable rule, but I feel witchily dealing with your own stuff will feel relatively more painful, since it usually cuts to the heart of who the witch is. My experience of dealing with other people's stuff is that it usually feels more joyous, with a sense of putting things right. Some of these experiences will also have an initiatory air about them, & thus even more be cases of having to make decisions quickly with *no* way of weighing all the consequences.
So this is why, when people say, 'I wannabeawitch,' I say, 'No, you don't.' The hours are unsocial in the extreme, the pay is uncertain, the prospects of promotion are negligible at best. It also leaves you marked for life: it's almost like you curse yourself at some point. However you have to be prepared to do this, otherwise you are always left at the junction of a crossroads. And this junction is one that you can't return from.
Coming next: 'Grumpy Old Witches'.
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A Day in the Life

I came across the illustration for this post (picture credit: http://www.interestingtimestours.co.uk which has a very varied blog on aspects of the history of various places) & it struck me as being an illustration of what I end up doing every day of my life at the moment. Of course that is if it isn't taken *too* literally! Several people have felt the healing of the witch recently, a young man has become more integrated with his sexuality, a slightly older man (who really ought to know better) has been confronted with the need to stop throwing his weight around, I have had another go at fixing my relationship with my mother (doomed, of course, but I am a witch, & if I don't meddle I feel like I'm not being me), & the owner of the house next door has received the consequences of his actions. Meanwhile the local councillor is looking slightly worried (judging by the way he's suddenly moving he *really* needs my vote, or perhaps it is because they've already been criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman recently). Heigh ho, repainting the vault of heaven before breakfast is all in a day's work for a witch, & this is again one of the roads to the Ecstasy of the Goddess. 'This will continue,' she says in Aradia, 'until every last one of the oppressors is dead.' This does not mean (obvious to me, but after the week I've had I'd better spell out the obvious for the cheap seats) witches should murder all oppressors, it means the witch's work is never-ending. Until we create a world, step by step, of magic, ecstasy & wonder, that's the point.

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Witches & Christians, with reference to Bishop Pat Buckley

The picture is actually of Pope St Pius X celebrating Low Mass. I have commented before that he was plainly a man who knew how to dress for church, but he was plainly also a man who knew the value of subtle.

I have a confession to make. It's something that is perhaps unusual among witches, it may even be surprising to anyone who knows me & my history, but I don't actually have a problem with Christianity, myself. I have a problem with certain Christians, their beliefs & actions, obviously, but my opinion is the Christianity is not *that* incompatible with a magical worldview or even a witchcraft milieu.

They don't like to talk about it, but the real reason Christians tend to in-fighting is that there have been two distinct strands to Christianity from the beginning. One I will call the charismatic one, which is (to over-simplify for the purpose of the argument) more spontaneous, inspired, seeks its authority within, & so on. The other is the authoritative strand, which is broadly more conservative, ordered, & seeks its authority outside itself, whether in scripture or church tradition.

What does this have to do with witchcraft? On the surface, nothing. However, when you translate the charismatics as hedgewitches, & the authoritarians as lineaged (or BTW, as they're called in the States), the similarity becomes apparent. The similarity to a magical world-view also becomes apparent when you consider that the two world views can rarely be clearly separated out, as I have above, one form often calls itself the other, & extremes at either end tend to flip over into the opposite, this situation will become familiar to any magical person reading this. In the interests of balance & upsetting everyone equally, the thing that Gardnerian witches don't talk about is that Gardner was also a Christian priest, or even bishop in a rather unusual independent Christian church!

Just in case there are Christians reading this who have not been exposed to a magical world view (welcome, whoever you are), we call this polarity. The entire aim of all magical systems everywhere & at all times has been the reconciliation of all opposites to the pursuit of balance. The nub here (where Christians will part company) is that actually the whole Judaeo-Christian tradition can be understood in magical terms. The best book on this is Morton Smith's Jesus the Magician; Islam has its own magical world that I don't know enough about to write on.

One of the tags on this blog that I find myself using the most often is 'the witch figure'; the fact that I find myself repeatedly chewing this over indicates the ambivalence & multi-faceted nature of the witch figure that we model ourselves on. Some of the characteristics of this figure carry heavy Christian theological ramifications, such as prophet, scapegoat, gathering, time (kairos). The only element which is almost completely missing from witchcraft is sin & redemption. The God of the Christians is plainly Y*hw*h, G*d of Israel, & Jesus is their messiah. We, if we don't have duotheistic views, have often several divinities or a henotheistic God and/or Goddess. I would recognise multiple Jesus figures (downplaying his divinity for Christians) as semi human/divine figures, including each witch herself. I've ignored the Holy Spirit so far, but I would equate the Spirit to any of the entities involved in witchcraft cosmology or even the reality that some witches recognise behind God & Goddess.

This is a roundabout way of saying that since we magical people understand thing happening on several planes of existence (the way things manifest for us represents patterns & systems of reality that we can't physically see on this plane) the way witches would understand this also to Christians, & the way things play out here are part of a cosmic drama representing the realities behind what we see.

Which brings me nicely to the subject of Bishop Pat Buckley (http://www.bishoppatbuckley.co.uk/), who is the bishop of what's called an Independent Catholic Church. He was ordained a Catholic priest in his twenties: up to there his career superficially embodies the authoritative side of Christianity. However when in the 1980s his bishop tried to suppress his views about the ordination of women & homosexuality, he felt he had no option to embark on an independent ministry, & ultimately sought consecration as a Bishop in the line of Archbishop Thuc, a bishop who performed many consecrations without the blessing of Rome. His status therefore, as far as Rome is concerned, is 'valid but irregular': no doubt they wouldn't want to regularise him given his history, but he is a bishop. Why I'm going into all this is that his career here tries to reconcile the two sides - charismatic & authoritative - of Christianity, a reconciliation of opposites that is exactly the aim of most magical practitioners.

I find it interesting also how his prophetic role may manifest energies that are unseen. His blog (http://wisecatholic.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1), to which I subscribe, makes for interesting reading, not least for the prophetic criticism he makes of the church life which surrounds him, even attracting anonymous  comments from local priests. This may seem like a disaffected former priest attracting other malcontents but I don't think that's quite what's happening, in fact on a higher level it more manifests a) an ongoing argument in the religious world more generally, & b) when a culture of disaffection is fostered by heavy-handed authoritarianism, it actually creates its opposite (in a polarity philosophy), in this case clusters of people actively resisting the authority. In this case I have no doubt that the local 'proper' Catholic bishop considers him a thorn in his side, but if one were merely to call him a malcontent, in an attempt to make his existence insignificant, it is to ignore a whole layer of meaning, that we humans ignore at our peril.

And he certainly does seem to be filling the roles that are often reflected in the witch figure. Prophet, by his ongoing criticism of the Catholic church as it is. Sanctuary for those nobody else will care for, by his gay marriages & ordination of women. Confidant, in listening to those who also have an unwelcome story to tell. Scapegoat, by his existence as an object of blame for the local Catholic community & others. I feel he was also scapegoated when a local judge decided to divulge his HIV+ status in court (do privacy laws not count in Northern Ireland?). Incidentally he was in court for allegedly conducting sham marriages to enable foreigners to stay in the country. In fact he almost exactly embodies all the aspects of the witch figure despite being a Christian...

Or perhaps because of it. My point here is that if Christians follow where genuine discipleship leads them they will step on toes & upset apple carts. That's the point.

The other point is that from a witch point of view the things they do will have a broader, more cosmic vibrational aspect. In fact, they may have more in common with us than either of us likes to think, just another of those surprises that the universe likes to give us!

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A particular problem in dealings with non-witches

This one has only really dawned on me recently, even though it helps to explain much of the ridiculousness in the world.

First things first: delineate what I mean. It is apparent that there are a number of ways in which people approach their daily round, & deal with the people they meet. The exact opposite from the witch's approach may be that of a clergy sexual abuser: they are quite happy to proclaim one thing, some of them may be tortured by their urges (although plainly a lot of them are simply not bothered), but what they say & what they do are two different things. I am *not* saying anything about Christians per se here, I have chosen this as the perfect example of the opposite of the witch's approach.

The witch's approach is this: this morning I gave a bag of stuff I've cleared out to the RSPCA shop round the corner (Hecate will accept this as an offering: she has a particular fondness for Guidedogs for the Blind, but actually cats & red mullet were also sacrificed to her in the ancient world). I signed up for gift aid to stop Mr Taxman taking more than the law insists. This, from a Witch point of view, is a holy, a sacred action, the work of the Divine through us & within us.

This is also reflected in the attitude the Witch takes to it. I may merely be giving a bag of stuff to a charity shop, but my Will is that cruelty to animals stops, & those who are cruel to animals are punished. There should be no small action of the Witch's life which is not willed in such a way. When I put my clothes in the washing machine, my Will is that I am clean & nice-smelling. At work my Will is to give the best service possible, to earn in return the money I live on.

Like this, each action fits into a greater 'plan' of living the Willed life. By doing this I affirm my importance in the world, the importance of each of my actions, & the relative importance of everyone one & every thing else. For example my donation to the RSPCA affirms the importance of protecting animals thrown out at this time of year. The ideal for me would be that no one of the Witch's actions is thoughtless, unWilled, unconsidered, on the spur of the moment. The Witch *must* aim to be completely trustworthy, completely living a Willed life, because sooner or later we will have to exert our Will to changing reality, & if we're not in shape, we won't be able to.

And this is where it becomes difficult when dealing with non-Witches, who won't feel the need to have something so for no other reason than that I say so. Between the completely Willed life & the other extreme where you think everyone is pretending (which is what you get in a personality disorder), there is a huge chasm of people who aren't bothered. They 'get away with' whatever they can: they do as little as possible at work, they steal what they can from people, they make *no* effort to Will their life.

Once again please understand that I am talking about two extremes & lots of shades in between. Witches fail in their Will, & similarly people who don't call themselves Witches can live in the way I describe, they might just label it differently. And I certainly don't have a problem with that if that is their Will. Imagine then what I thought on coming home today to find two girls 'delivering' collection bags for the RSPCA in my street: in reality dropping them on the ground outisde each house. They obviously were not bothered, & plainly were quite shocked suddenly to have a man giving them a bollocking (I didn't feel the need to hold back) for this: as far as they were concerned they were doing the minimum required.

My Will is that cruelty to animals stops. This will plainly be best served by efficient fundraising & donation collection, rather than turning the collection bags into litter sponsored by the RSPCA. I have used the magic tool of an email complaining about this & telling the RSPCA's head office how I shall not be donating again (the local shop didn't answer the phone). My Will is that this stops, so I have also put that out in a little spell. Those girls are going to stop doing that or they are out, for their lack of consideration.

Over-reaction? Nah. Once you start the Witch you might just as well give up now, because this is the other thing living the Willed life does: it makes you act decisively & effectively. Just watch it if you're delivering charity bags!

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Internalised (& externalised) gay self-hatred

Bias statement: This post will largely consist of my own undiluted opinions which are not those of the LGBTQ community, & will quote at least one hate opinion.

There is an opinion current among the fundamentalist Christian community & others (this source is one I chose at random from a Google search):

'Homosexual marriage invites God's judgement. And so they have A.I.D.S. to deal with. And want us to pay for it through Obama's socialist healthcare law. This country needs to return to core Christian values.' Source

There are several issues here, all of which are begging me to get my teeth into, but of course being me I want to come at it from the other side. You see, kids, the people who first & foremost hate homosexuals & homosexuality are homosexuals themselves.

This is first & foremost seen in queer bashing, in whatever form it takes. Research repeatedly shows that men who hate homosexuals have responses that way themselves:

'The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.' Source

This is externalised hate of something you can't cope with in yourself. Also frequently you find gays hate themselves & their own homosexuality. Anyone who reads this blog will know that in my opinion this is found most frequently in aping the heterosexual world. At the moment this is obviously found in the push for gay marriage & equality. Let's make it plain why I think this is internalised self-hatred: I am not straight & see no reason why I should take the heterosexual world as normative. Sometimes gays are pushed into this by an apparent lack of contemporary or historical models for gay life nowadays, but I remain convinced that heterosexual life & society should *not* be the model for gay life.

Another example is the whole top/bottom thing. Radical feminist lesbians of the 1970s got this one sussed by refusing to be pushed into male/female models of sexuality. Gay men of the 21st century are falling for the self-hatred trap of modelling ourselves on heterosexual society. We can take a leaf out of the radical lesbians' book by not being polarised into male/female roles. Are you a top or a bottom? - Neither. This exchange changes the question rather than the answer. Gay sex also need not revolve around anal sex, I personally have always thought straight sex must be boring in the inevitability of its ending. I would also even question the subconscious motivations of those who maintain that penetration is in some way necessary to sex, to which everything else is a mere prelude.

This may seem to have moved far away from the way this post started, talking about G*d's judgement. But there's a marvellous twist in the tail to this story of self-hatred & the judgement of G*d. As we know HIV is passed through bodily fluids and mucuous membranes. And this is the bit where the queers get the last laugh: some of the more kinky sexual activities carry a much lower risk of transmission of HIV than vanilla anal sex, because there is less contact between risky bodily fluids and mucuous membranes. For example watersports & lots of bondage-type things are much lower risk. This is also the reason there are such low rates of HIV among lesbians, because they don't tend to do the sort of things that pass it.

This tickles me, needless to say. I don't often think I have a message of hope for the world, but I might have here. Leave the fundamentalist Christians to their conclusion that HIV is G*d's judgement on homosexuals & have different sorts of sex. Like that you can both love yourself & escape the so-called 'judgement of G*d'.

Can you hear laughter?

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Spirit of Place: Key Hill Cemetery

I have posted before on Key Hill's neighbouring cemetery, Warstone Lane Cemetery, but had actually never been to this one until today. The reason Birmingham has two cemeteries next door to each other is one was for the nonconformists, namely Key Hill. It is actually the older, since Warstone Lane was only started after Church of England churchyards started filling up.

They are both now closed to new burials, & both on preservation registers, yet feel subtly different. For a start, I'm surprised at the exaggerated height of the surrounding buildings, on what is already a sloping site. This means the key feature at Key Hill is mush, damp, sludge (at least today). It is also apparently not as well cared for as Warstone Lane: the paths are clearly visible in Warstone Lane today, but indistinguishable in Key Hill. Both have had their chapels demolished.

The gravestones at Warstone Lane are more flamboyant, whereas at Key Hill they bring the feeling of the solid nineteenth century Nonconformity on which so much of Birmingham was built. Many of the great names of Birmingham's early history are buried here, & their scientific interests bring to my mind the dead atmosphere of nineteenth-century Deism. Yes, darlings, it is possible to reconcile Christianity with rational thought, & what you end up with a strange moral Christianity with almost nothing supernatural in it.

What did I feel there? Absolutely nothing. The people buried there are either long gone or horrified at the thought of me. I've never got on well with Christian nonconformity, preferring Anglicanism & Catholicism, where at least you get to dress up. My mother was brought up as a Primitive Methodist, giving her a strange approach to drink: the man she describes as the 'black sheep of the family' got that title purely for drinking, which is rank hypocrisy when you think what some of the rest of the family have been like.

Actually, I did meet someone there: I met the stock from which my mother's side of the family comes. I wound up getting in contact with my roots, because let's face it, saying 'I am a witch' is about as non-conformist as you can get. I had not thought before that what I do is actually in a great family tradition, even if those people would turn in their graves at the very thought of me. But here's the difference: I aim to live on many levels at once in a multitude of worlds & possibilities. They aimed to close possibilities, & even memorialised their attempt by slamming the mausoleum door shut.

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When it goes quiet

There are times when the witch's life goes quiet. This is the reason for the scarcity of my posts lately.

My personal opinion is that these times illustrate one of the differences between us and conventional religions, which are very insistent that you stick to their prescribed practices come rain or shine, regardless of how inclined you feel to do so. They also have an experience called spiritual dryness, when you don't feel like it at all.

I would like to think that we witches live in a world that we are in a relationship with, & it & we respond to each other accordingly. I've posted before on how often the witch is actually dragged kicking & screaming to a task, so I certainly wouldn't want to imply that what we do is dependent on our feelings, but more that we respond to the tasks & challenges as they appear in front of us.

This is the true school of witchcraft, & this is what is meant by the tradition of putting down the books & just doing it. I would personally resist a too rigid daily practice: I mean, G*ddess knows I'm probably the least disciplined witch in the world. For me, there is no point trying to set a daily discipline & stick to it. I can't do it. Working shifts also interferes with it. The failure to stick to the discipline I set myself ultimately leads to 'ought', 'should', 'must', & guilt, & the one discipline I insist on is not feeling guilt because I haven't stuck to an arbitrary rule. I feel for the witch guilt is a suspicious emotion: it suggests something is being imposed on us - even when we do it ourselves - & dammit I *will* be free from slavery!

I also avoid any negative implications of these times, seeing them instead as part of our natural life cycle, of times of busy witchiness alternating with rest. If we're truly trying to be responsive to the world about us, these hints from the universe will be welcome, & paralleled by the necessary times of rest for fields.

Because nothing doesn't happen in these quieter times. In fact they're the prelude to activity. For example I cast a spell on someone before this rest came along, it seemed like nothing had happened, but it now seems like it's working. It was a spell that she would see & not deny a given situation. She actually told me the whole situation today, & the sitch itself is certainly feeling very pregnant, & ready to pop!

Perhaps that's the secret sometimes: sleep on it & don't force it...

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What Witchcraft Is

I notice a recurring theme in my posts, of defining & redefining witchcraft & the witch figure over & over. It would surely limit the multi-faceted witch figure too much to stick to, or even attempt, a simple definition of who we are & what we do. A dictionary-style definition such as that used in the concise Oxford for Wicca (the neo-pagan religion) leaves us in exactly the same position. Given that I'm quite capable of posting completely contradictory posts on this, before I contradict myself again today I will attempt a synthesis: witchcraft is what is done by those who call themselves witches, which is a collection of beliefs or practices proper to the individual or group, & which tends to be known when you see it, even if the individual practitioner does not call what s/he does, witchcraft. That's that cleared up then.

One of the aspects usually soft-pedalled in witchcraft's more 'ceremonial' forms is that of martial art. The virtues of balance, philosophy of praxis & form, & use of energy found in martial arts is very much as found in witchcraft. I wrote the following quote from Rae Bone in my book of shadows years ago (I'm afraid I have lost the reference), which is pure martial artist:

'There are three divisions of our philosophy which we, seeking ancient wisdom & ultimate good, must exercise. First there is avoidance & pursuit; a Witch must not fail in anything she has the will to achieve, nor fall into any misfortune that she can avoid. The second concerns her desires & aversions: she must attain a balance, so that he personal life is orderly, with no single thing done heedlessly. The third is concerned with seeking security from delusions & apprehensions. She must become sure of herself in every way in her private life, & in her public one, & in the way she is concerned with others.'

In aikido dojos there is a sort of shrine called a kamiza. Unfortunately there are no schools of witchcraft where you can try out what you learn on the mats. Our dojo is of necessity the world & the altar is our kamiza. Our consecration/dedication/initiation - however that may have come about - is our entry into the dojo of witchcraft & puts us in the way of learning experiences.

I have recently myself learned what will probably be a very basic point to others. I have cast a banishing spell, which brought all sorts of ills in its wake. At first I thought this was merely the kickback, until I woke one morning with a plan to sort it all formed in my head: I had to create something to fill the vacuum I had created, which would otherwise just have been filled with any old psychic gunk that was passing.

That done, it feels much better. I have also spent today cleaning the house from top to bottom. For the martial artist cleaning the dojo or the witch cleaning the house this is never just plain housework, & should not be approached disdainfully. This is another similarity, that both the witch & the martial artist can both invest apparently insignificant actions with meaning, & also find meaning in these actions.

Another source for witchcraft for me is also related to combat: I am re-reading Mao Tse Tung on Guerrilla Warfare. This may sound strange, but when I say that it's a particular approach to the subject of strategy, its relevance will become clear. This is often a shortcoming in the philosophy of witchcraft, because a lot of witches are in denial about combat & having enemies. Some witches like to talk about maintaining the balance as if to imply that homeostasis in nature is not a continual shifting between polar opposites. This is bizarre since there is an element of combat in most of the magics in the world: witness the hoodoo formulas Essence of Bend Over & Boss Fix, for example. The simple fact is the world is full of piss-takers, the screwy, the manipulative, & the downright nasty, people who will use other people for no better reason than they happen to be there. I will deal with them because that is what I am consecrated to do, this is my holy & divine task, I just want to make sure there's a certain economy of movement as I do it.

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On the lack of need for a witchcraft lineage

Yesterday I came across a video on youtube, showing the initiation of a young male witch into Janet & Stewart Farrar's coven in what looks like the 1970s. Unusually for witches of my stamp I have a lot of time for Wiccans, whether Gardnerian or Alexandrian: it tends to be more that they don't have time for us!

There are several things I love about the video: I always forget how plummy Janet Farrar is, but can never forget that she is a vicar's daughter. I love the way Stewart's smoking a fag while Janet is instructing the initiand in the purpose of the scourge. I particularly love the bit where Janet talks about the question every witch asks from time to time: 'Why me?'. I also love Janet's explanation of ritual nudity as relating to the witch's quest to be truly oneself: one of the more frightening disciplines of the witch is being stripped of everything that is not authentic. Even if unlooked for, this will happen as part of ones progress into the mysteries. Where we hedge witches part from the Wiccans would be in such things as Stewart's horned helmet: the power & significance of horns may be present in the hedge witch's cosmology, but it would rarely necessitate wearing special ritual garb, & in the quest for authenticity a horned helmet could make things difficult at the office.

What I would see the Alexandrian initiate as gaining (how exciting if he's still a witch, reads this & posts a comment!) Is entry into a particular magical current. The authenticity or otherwise of this current is no big deal to me personally. The full implications of this initiation would no doubt take years or even decades in their working out, but he is the inheritor of an established magical tradition involving spiritual entities, currents, & rituals.

This is the - almost - respectable face of witchcraft. There is something doubtful in our society about making something up yourself. The professional's abilities are more highly prized than the amateur's. A long pedigree or tradition is seen in part as the guarantor of something. This is not only in witchcraft: we all know the value placed on lineage & tradition in Christianity. I'm always interested that zen practitioners list their lineage like qualifications. Hinduism has the tradition of the guru. For the purposes of this post I will call this the 'Catholic' tradition: you get it from someone else.

In dynmic tension/polarity/dualism/whatever to this is what I will call the 'Protestant' tradition - I'm plundering Christianity for these words, but you could also call them Wicca/Hedgewitch approaches. In this approach anyone can do it. In some traditions of Vodou you have to be initiated, but Marie Laveau is rumoured never to have been initiated. In Christianity it takes the form of the presence of Jesus in the individual believer.

I feel this is a more authentic approach for the witch: the whole point of modern witchcraft is that it has developed in reaction to the established religions around us & G*ddess help us if we aim them. To say 'only people initiated into X tradition are the real thing' is to my mind a dodgy dynamic. The power relation of saying that anyone can be a witch, anyone can perform magic, anyone can access the 'spiritual' currents, to me is much more healthy.

It it doubtless a more doubtful, less signposted way, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

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God is pissed

A millstone

Pissed here means as in the American sense, not the British sense of drunk, the word just seems to fit the context better.

One of the roles of the witch is a prophetic one. Prophecy isn't merely the statement of what will happen, but the prophet is the mouthpiece for the divine, so prophecy can be as much a commandment or judgment as a prediction.  This is an idea which tends to be played down amongst us, however divination could be seen as prophetic, as could the Goddess's speech after drawing down the moon in Wicca. The only thing I neglected to say in my post about the magical diary was to reference both Starhawk's & Margot Adler's assertions that their two books about witchcraft, published on the same day on opposite coasts of the US, were in part a reflection of how they wished the Craft to be, not how it was. The prophetic act of writing caused the Craft to become more like it was in the books. The word of the prophet makes what they assert, happen.

I have a prophecy, which I was in two minds about publishing until it was confirmed by a friend's dream (don't worry, I won't tell anyone you've met Mary). The prophecy is this: the God of the Christians has found the Church lacking, it is under his judgment. This relates to the sexual abuse crisis, but is about corruption of all sorts in the church. In case anyone should think themselves immune, nor is it limited to Catholics. Your Messiah says so:

It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones. (Luke 17:2, Douay-Rheims translation)

Elsewhere the Messiah of the Christians also warns them that they must be wary of false prophets:

'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.' (Matt 7:15, American Standard Version). 

The test is that you know them by their fruits: nowhere does Jesus expect his Church to bear the fruit of people damaged by abuse.

The twist in this one is that the messiah of the witches also says so: I first began thinking about this when I read the following passage in Aradia: Gospel of the Witches:

'When a priest shall do you harm, [...] With the good or advantage of Zion, you will do him always a double harm in my name, the name of Diana, Queen of witches.'

And Diana also commands the witches, when the priest expects them to accept his religion to state ours in these terms:

'I have come to destroy evil people, & I will destroy them'. (Both passages are from the Pazzaglini translation)

These words hit me like a hammer: I had not registered before that witches are commanded in Aradia to return the harm priests do, & to tell the priest directly that we are here to destroy evil people. So that's two Messiahs warning Christians who go around harming people.

I must seem to be taking an overly fundamentalist approach to Aradia here: in case this passage is read by Christians, perhaps I should explain that it is not considered inspired scripture. Our religion is not a revealed one - it doesn't need to be, because we all have access to the divine source of creation & inspiration. Aradia is firmly in a - now discredited - theory that witchcraft was/is a radical movement in reaction to oppression. In a prophetic sense, it doesn't matter that the 'old religion' Leland found Maddalena describing (for payment, allegedly, after instruction in what he expected to find) never actually existed. The witch figure is at the centre here, & the idea of eccelsiastical corruption causing the existence of witches is also found in the radical French historian Michelet:

'At what date, then, did the witch first appear? I say unfalteringly, "In the age of despair": of that deep despair which the gentry of the Church engendered. Unfalteringly do I say, "The witch is a crime of their own achieving."' (J. Michelet: La Sorciere: The Witch of the Middle ages, translated by L J Trotter. Marshall & Company, London, 1863, p. 9)

To Christians who use their position to abuse others, & to those Christians who cover up this abuse: I say - you are under the judgment of your God, & are found wanting. He so despairs of you that he allows witches - the enemies of the church is there ever were - to use magic to expose you & cause your downfall. He says repent. If you seriously believe the Gospel you preach, can you really face the fate he has for you? I feel there is something changing in our milieu as humans: the old structures are empty shells, & giving way to the presence both of the new witches & the new Christians.

To those who would believe that things have changed & the abuse & cover-ups are in the past I would say - don't you believe it. Humans like to think that everything's alright. Humans also like security so they're not exactly going to put themselves through an exhaustive investigation leaving no stone unturned.

These people's attitude has not changed, as witness these recent posts on another blog:

'I've just been watching Sins of Our Fathers again, and decided to pay particular attention to the interview with Richard Yeo, Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation.

'He started out by saying that he was "very sorry about any abuse that may have been committed at Fort Augustus", which of course very neatly avoids admitting that any abuse in fact had been committed there. These kinds of mealy-mouthed non-apologies are actually worse than useless. For victims and any right-thinking person, they just make the blood boil.' (http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/08/abbot-president-richard-yeo.html?m=1)

'One can only conclude that they [Ealing Abbey]  didn't really want a report that got to the bottom of their safeguarding problems, given how happy they have been with this report.'

'So this has essentially been a PR exercise aimed at rehabilitating the reputation of the school at a cost of about £633,000. That comes to an extra £633 or so on the fees for every pupil in the school, spread over 2 years. Given that a proportion of pupils are on scholarships and bursaries, it has cost more for those pupils who pay full fees.' (http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-lord-carlile-cost-ealing-abbey-and.html?m=1)

'Of the 31 Catholic priests convicted of child sex crimes over the last 10 years, eight (i.e. over a quarter) have been Benedictine monks from one or other of these [English Benedictine Congregation] houses.

'And in every single case, the reaction of the Abbot has been to cover up the abuse, perhaps move the monk to another house, but never to voluntarily report the matter to the authorities.

'That speaks to me not of a problem of one or two individuals but rather of something seriously wrong with the institutional fabric of the Benedictine order.' (http://www.ibenedictines.org/2013/07/31/sexual-abuse-and-the-english-benedictine-congregation/)

Beware also the minimising of the risk & the harm of those who would say that the quotes above are all from one author, Jonathan West. It just happens that I've been following his blog. Impugning the motives of those who would expose real abuse & lack of safeguards, is to be as guilty as the abbots who move abusers around.

And to witches & other magical people I would say this: if we ever had a mission it is now. We are faced by an 'egregore' of abuse that will not stop unless it is stopped. We must exert our will to stop abusers in their tracks. We must exert our will to keep children safe. We must not be taken in by empty promises & facile avoidance of responsibility. This is our opportunity to make a really positive change in the world we live in & all our communities.  I've focussed on the Christians in this post because that is the context I've been thinking about, but abuse must stop, wherever it is found.

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