Trying To Be Misunderstood?

I consider myself to be reasonably tolorent…

well, at least of most things anyway. I tolorate other peoples belief systems, for instance. After all, it not my place to go knocking on folks doors or setting up shop to try to get you to believe what I believe, is it? – and also I dislike the infringement of personal choice.
One thing that really pees me off though is when exploitation is involved, especially if the exploitation manifests at the hand of someone who professes to know better.

So, let me tell you a little bit about belief systems as I see them – Keep in mind though that I’m only sharing my opinion here…

Lets start with witches…

These fall into two distinct types. Theres the folk who feel none of the ‘established’ religions really do it for them, and take a more natural path through their lives. They tend to have a liking for sacred spaces, crystal healing, natural healing – that kind of thing. They also don’t generally refer to themselves as witches. They may have a liking for certain signs and symbols which have been associated with witchcraft – but hey – I have a liking for these kind of things too, I also own a black pointy hat, cloak, sword and several grimoires and other items that some of the folk I meet on my travels would need to resort to wearing incontinence pants to even be in the same room as them. Doesnt make me a witch..
Then theres the others. The ones that have proven to be an endless source of amusement to me.

You can generally spot them a mile off – not because of their stripy socks, pointy hats and slightly verdant pallor – but because they keep screaming ‘I’m a witch!!’ at you.
This kind of person has no concept of the Craft in the least. Yes, they’ll refer to themselves as ‘Wiccan’, and go on to tell you its the oldest religion in the world – it isnt, its about sixty years old. I do keep saying I’ll write an article on the history of Wicca but I honestly don’t think it would be very well accepted.
One lady once confided in me that she was a pagan wiccan… (I found that highly hysterical, and if I have to explain why, you wouldnt understand.) she also said that being a pagan wiccan meant that she believed in the power of spells, was a vegetarian and grew her own vegetables…

These ‘Witches’ have a tendency to feel it is necessary to tell you they are psychic, some of them have an even greater need to tell you you are psychic, and that they will help you along your path to enlightenment. They will also offer to read your tarot cards, runes, crystal chakras, auras, cast spells which will help you find the love of your life, financial stability and probably offer to take out any enemies, ghosts or demons you may have around you for good measure. Changing to their way of life, they will inform you, will leave you enlightened and more aware – and you will be too. Or at least your bank account will be…

If you are brave enough to risk the wrath of these witches – for whatever reason… cos you have some kind of religion based bad feeling against them, or even because they ripped you off – they will pretty much start screaming ‘Inquisition!’ at you. (Again, a misinformed or ignorent choice of words, inquisition is a term that covers many things – ‘Witchhunt!’ would be better.)

You may say I’m unenlightened, a religious nutter, probably even use terms like ‘witchhunter general’, inform me that my ilk has persecuted your kind for time immemorial. You’ll waffle about poor innocent women, burned at the stake… and various other claptrap you learned from poorly researched books written and sold to you hundreds of years after the event..

At this point I’m going to ask you if thousands of innocent women (and men) were burned at the stake (bearing in mind that in the UK we hung folk found guilty of witchcraft, and they really were a very small number, not thousands) Then surely if they were innocent, they werent witches at all? Were there ever any people tried who had actually ticked the boxes which meant they could be indicted as having caused death by sorcery? In effect, can the concept of Magick, outside of the stage, screen and psychology actually exist, and do they have proof?

Cos lets face it, if you are selling spells, services and the paraphenalia associated with an ancient craft practiced by INNOCENT folk who were persecuted and killed for it, and that is your ONLY proof that witchcraft exists, are’nt you breaking the UK Consumer Protection Laws?

Just Saying….