A Christian Speaks On The Faith And Path Of Wicca
By James Clement Taylor
I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been
baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has
made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her
life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things
are true of me. I am a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church,
Calhan, Colorado. In this pamphlet, I am not speaking as agent for any
church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth
in love, as we Christians are supposed to do.
There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a
Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent
person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people
from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ,
having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan,
proclaimed:
"Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in
Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the
sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12)
If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear
that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will
contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ sets
forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and those
criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to judge
others:
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will
also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the
same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2)
"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'"
(Matthew 9:13)
"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge
not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be
condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:36-38)
Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself
a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being
unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord,
Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father shall enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because
there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace,
which alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the
sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The
faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor
faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church.
Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy:
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God
who has mercy." (Romans 9:16)
But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their
own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-worshipers
are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that
Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they
understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.
Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it
should. In the Bible we find the following:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I
was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: To The Unknown God. Therefore, the
One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts
17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form
of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the
same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!
For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must
prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John
has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any
public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see
"whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). You will find that, while the
power manifested there may be less than what you have experienced as a
Christian, that power is clearly the power of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been
terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of
business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which
they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable
for this, you may be sure, for He has said,
"Assuredly I say to you,
inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did
it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)
Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that
henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn
them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins.
The Eleven Goals of a Witch
1. Know Thyself
2. Know your Craft (Wicca)
3. Never Stop Learning
4. Apply Knowledge with Wisdom
5. Achieve Balance
6. Keep your words and thoughts healthy and productive
7. Celebrate Life
8. Attune thyself to the cycles of Mother Earth
9. Eat healthy and exercise the body
10. Meditate, Visualize
11. Honor the Goddess and God and all other life
To Be A Witch
Author Unknown
To be a witch is to know everything, and nothing at all.
To be a witch is to move amongst the stars while staying on earth.
To be a witch is to change the world around you, and yourself.
To be a witch is to share and give, while receiving all the while.
To be a witch is to dance and sing, and hold hands with the universe.
To be a witch is to honour the gods, and yourself.
To be a witch is to BE magick, not just perform it.
To be a witch is to be honourable, or nothing at all.
To be a witch is to accept others who are not.
To be a witch is to know what you feel is right and good.
To be a witch is to harm none.
To be a witch is to know the ways of old.
To be a witch is to see beyond the barriers.
To be a witch is to follow the moon.
To be a witch is to be one with the gods.
To be a witch is to study and to learn.
To be a witch is to be the teacher and the student.
To be a witch is to acknowledge the truth.
To be a witch is to live with the earth, not just on it.
To be a witch is to be truly free
The Goddess in the Bible
by Rev. Frodo Okulam
When we are asked to think of a Goddess in the Bible, the first thing that
comes to mind is Mary. Traditional theology is quick to say. "Of course,
she's not really a Goddess." Is She or isn't She? If she isn't, why is she
venerated all over the world, often in sites formerly sacred to the Goddess
(Tepeyac, the former shrine of the Aztec Mother Goddess, Tonantzin, now
venerated as the site of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the
example.) Who is Mary in the Bible & how does she come to be associated
with the Goddess?
The story begins with a typo; Well, not exactly a typo, but a
mistranslation. Matthew, concerned to present a prophetic precident for
Jesus, builds his birth-narrative around a Jesus verse from Isaiah (7:14):
"Look, the virgin shall conceive & bear a son, & they shall name him
Emmanuel (Matt. 1:23)."
Since the Isaiah passage says "virgin", Matthew tells how Joseph finds out
Mary is with child before they have lived together, & is told in a dream
that the child was conceived from the Holy Spirit (Matth. 1:18-21).
The Isaiah verse, however, does not really say "virgin", but "young woman."
The Greek translation from which Matthew was working mistranslated "young
woman" as "virgin". Luke also calls Mary "virgin" (1:27), & Mary, herself,,
asks the angel, :How can this be since I am a virgin?" (Luke 1:34). The
angel answers that the Holy Spirit will overshadow Mary (Luke 1:35). The
imagery here is not heterosexual: "spirit" in Greek is neuter, & in Hebrew
is feminine. So Mary remains virgin. In Mark, also, Jesus is called "son of
Mary" (Mark 6:3), not "son of Joseph."
If this sounds strange biologically (although I have read at least one
biologist who proves the possibility), it is extremely plausible in the
realm of myth. Geoffrey Ashe, in his book The Virgin (which is an excellent
study of the question of Mary) cites many examples of Virgin Goddesses who
give birth by their own power: Neith in Egypt, Cybele & Gaia in Greece,
Anath in Canaan (who was both the Virgin & the Mother of Nations), Artemis
in Greece/Diana in Rome (who was both the chaste huntress & the
many-breasted Goddess of Ephesus (Ashe, p. 13). Mary's virgin birth-giving
fulfills the image of a Virgin Goddess, powerful in & of herself.
Although Mary in Luke's gospel is portrayed as very human, she is also
strong. It is Mary who decides to bear Jesus: "Let it be," she says in
1:38. In the Magnificat, she praises God for bringing down the powerful
from their thrones & lifting up the poor, filling the hungry & sending the
rich empty away (Luke 1:46-55), showing a concern for justice. In Matthew,
she is already shown being venerated along with her son by Pagan
astrologers, the Magi (2:11).
John's gospel, while lacking a birth-narrative, shows Mary beginning Jesus'
ministry, at a significantly communion-like event, the Wedding at Cana
(John 2:1-11). E Ann Matter, in her article "The Virgin Mary: A Goddess?"
in The Book of the Goddess; Past & Present, says "Mary's role in the event
shows her maternal influence on her son, which is the basis of Marian
intercession.(p.82).Rather than interceding, though, she is giving the
orders herself: "Do whatever he tells you (2:5)." Mary is present at the
cross (John 1:25-27) & Jesus presents John, the beloved disciple, to her as
her son and she to him as his mother. John takes her into his home, the
first of the disciples to call her Mother. Mary is with the disciples in
Acts as they experience Pentecost (1:14).
In the gospels & in Acts, Mary acquires Goddess-like attributes, but is not
yet fully Goddess. The book of Revelation changes this.
Hail Mary, Full of Grace
by Spiderwomon�
My Great-grandmother died when her daughter (my Grandmother) was three
years old. She left behind four other children for my Great-grandfather to
raise, including a nine month old infant. He never remarried and dutifully
provided for his family by working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania.
My Grandmother once told me that during one particular time of trial for
her, she cried to her father - cried to him in need of the special love of
a mother. My Great-grandfather, who raised the children Catholic, went to
his dresser and returned with a statuette of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He
handed the figurine to my Grandmother and told her that this was her mother
now. She could pray to the Holy Mother, share her problems with Her, and
ask for Her guidance. The Virgin Mary was the only Mother my Grandmother
ever knew and she remained very special in my Grandmother's heart.
When my Grandmother died two years ago in May, before going to the wake, I
remember going to the cellar and digging through the Christmas decorations.
I found the plastic nativity set that Grandmother had given me years
before. I took out the plastic Virgin Mary and brought it to the funeral
home and put it in Grandma's casket, so she could have her Mother with her
forever.
Before I had even heard this story from my Grandmother, I can always
remember holding a special place in my heart for the Virgin Mary as well.
Whenever I went into a church, I always sat near Her. She was so beautiful.
She looked so warm and inviting. And she was a woman. A figure in the
patriarch-dominated religion which I could relate to. I always "spoke" to
the Virgin Mary when I needed help or sought guidance.
It wasn't until three years ago, when I took a feminist theaology (study of
the Goddess) course when I found out that the Virgin Mary was actually a
watered down version of the Goddess figures of preherstoric societies. The
more I learned about the Goddess, the more I came to understand that my
attachment to the Virgin Mary was my attachment to the early, Earth
honoring, Goddess centered religions.
Apparently, the new religion of Christianity knew it had to give the people
of the old matriarchal religions some parallels between the old religion
and the Christian Religion. Winter Solstice planned around the birth of
Jesus and Jesus' resurrection timed around the Spring Equinox (celebration
of rebirth) are but to name a few. The Virgin Mary was yet another example
of this. The Catholics gave the people a woman to pay homage to. The only
problems being the only woman they accepted reverence to was meek, humble,
passive, obedient, pliant, and pious. She was charged with setting the
example for all women to follow in order to serve Christ and their husbands
to the fullest extent.
Martin Luther and the Protestant movement took the patriarchal step one
further and totally eliminated the worship of Mary all together. It is all
well and good that she is the mother of Jesus, and that is nice, a woman
figure for their people to worship was neither beneficial or necessary.
Mary is crowned the Queen of Heaven and sits with Jesus in Heaven and is
typically pictured in blue and white - much like the Egyptian Goddess Isis
is called the Queen of Heaven and whose chosen colors are blue and white.
Statues of Mary are often have her standing on a globe of the Earth with a
snake beneath her feet. Catholics believe she is squashing the snake which
tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. My pagan friends and I think this is a
representation of the Catholic elimination of the old religions - for the
snake is one of the most powerful pagan symbols we have.
Somewhere in my mind, I comforted that at least there was/is some sort of
female presence. And if it is the Goddess in disguise, so be it. No one
knows how I pray in my own mind. So thought the slaves who came to America
on the slave ships. Luisah Teish in has a chapter in her book Jambalaya,
entitled "Beneath Mary's Skirts". It seems that when slaves were brought
here, it was proper to convert them to Christians and have them baptized
and they were given Christian names and forced to accept the Catholic
saints. It seems the slaves saw in Mary their own Goddess of the Ocean,
Yemonja. They embraced her and celebrated her (Yemonja) as the Blessed
Virgin Mary. They recognized Mary as a symbol of power, as a sister, as
another Goddess who could be invoked to work magic. So, Mary was useful in
helping this displaced people of rich culture continue their faith, however
secret it must have had to have been.
Yes, I hold Mary dear and am quite content to sit back and think about her
association with the Great Goddess. The Blessed Virgin stands tall on my
personal altar on my dresser along with my other Goddesses. My Catholic
mother-in-law and sister-in-law had cause once to walk through my bedroom.
I noticed them stop and glance in puzzlement at my altar. They didn't know
what is was for sure, but you can be sure that they immediately nodded in
approval when they say the Virgin Mary smack dab in the middle. I guess I
can't be all bad in their book!
A Pagan Alphabet
To learn your letters you must start
With a clever mind and a willing heart
Each one is special, just like you
And you will learn them all by the time we are through!
A is Athame, the knife that we use.
B is for Beltaine, when partners we choose.
C is for Circle where we all are one.
D is for Deosil, path of the Sun.
E is for Esbat, when we gather round.
F is for Fire and its crackling sound.
G is the Goddess in beauty and love.
H is the Horned One, our Father above.
I is for Imbolg, candles light the way,
J is for June when it's Midsummer's Day.
K is for Karma, the things that we do.
L is for Lammas, harvest's almost through!
M is for Moon, riding way up so high,
N is for Nighttime, which darkens the sky.
O is for Ostara, when we hunt for eggs,
P is for Pan, with hairy goat legs.
Q is the Quarters and there are just four,
R for the Rites when we open the Door.
S is for Samhain, end of the year,
T is for Tarot cards, futures to hear.
U is Undines from the watery West.
V is Vervain for protection and rest.
W's Widdershins, the path of the moon.
X is the sign that's the sign of the God.
Y is for Yule and the sun's return.
Z is the Zodiac, 12 signs to learn.
To learn them all you will have to try
And now it is time to say goodbye
Merry have we met, and Merry have we been
Merry shall we part and Merry meet again!
A Funny Story
A Wiccan friend of ours was working as a teller in a bank in Texas.
Since she was very patient and kind to everyone, she was
given the job of helping count up the deposits brought in by the various
churches from their collection plates. One October, she
was helping the lady from one of the more fundamentalist churches count
up her deposit when the woman asked her what she
was doing for Halloween. "Not much", our Wiccan friend replied, "and
you?" "Well", said the woman, "We're not going to
do any of that Pagan stuff with witches and black cats and things!
Oh,no. We're going to have a harvest celebration with a
Corn Queen and a Harvest King, and sing and dance and celebrate the
season!" "I hope you have a wonderful time", said our
Wiccan friend, (trying very hard to keep a straight face!)
Oh, my! Who says the Gods don't have a sense of humor!
A Halloween Story
Submitted by Magickal
[Inspired by women, (and men), who live
their lives with courage,
strength, unity,
and conscience on a daily basis.]
It happened about 3 years after I started working for the company.
Good Friday came around on the calendar and over half the floor took
their Three hours religious time to get a start on the weekend. Pat the
Buddhist and I were the only two left in the module and we were swamped
with work that had been handed off by the long weekenders.
Linda the supervisor came over to see why we weren't turning up the
circuits as quickly as she wanted. We explained that most of the
technicians in the outer offices were also taking their three hour
religious time and had gone for the day. She didn't seem too happy with
that response. As Linda was returning to her desk, Pat asked about her
religious time. Linda said that Pat wasn't entitled to any because 'it
was for Christians and Jews only'. That didn't go over well as you can
imagine. A rather heated argument ensued. The outcome was that Pat
could have her religious time if she could 'prove' a Buddhist holiday.
Linda was trying to return to her desk one more
time when I swiveled my chair around and said that she could mark the
calendar for my religious time on October 31.
She exasperatedly asked just what religious holiday fell on October
31st. When I replied "All Hallows Eve", she sarcastically said, "Oh, you
mean Halloween. So are you saying you're a witch?" I nodded my head ever
so slightly. She locked eyes with me for the longest time and then sat
at her desk, writing rapidly, her back turned to Pat and me.
In the weeks that followed, Linda would ask me questions as to how I
defined myself as a witch. At first I didn't mind. She was giving me the
chance to speak aloud just how I felt about the Goddess and Mother Earth
and a death experience that I had undergone. After a month, the
questioning began to feel very intrusive. I knew that I was being
challenged on how I felt and what I believed in regards to Faith.
Although I believe that all G-ds are one G-d, I still find that, for me,
my G-d is the Goddess. Finally I started asking questions about her
religion. She took great offense, saying that I had no right to question
her beliefs. I countered that she had no right to question mine either,
especially if she was judging whether I was entitled to my religious
time. I suggested that perhaps future conversations on my religious
beliefs and religious time off should have a representative from the
union and the ACLU present. Before she could say anything, her
phone rang and another supervisor was telling her to cool off. (I
worked in a Dilbert-partitioned office so we could hear the other
supervisor who was only two partitions across from us. Needless to say,
during most of these conversations the floor tended to get very quiet
anyways as folks tried to listen.)
Spring turned to summer and summer to fall. October was closing fast.
The last week of October the company put my section on forced overtime
for two weeks. October 31st I arrived at work two hours early to work
the overtime. More than a few fellow employees phoned me to see if I
was taking the afternoon off. I replied in the affirmative. (Probably
actually said "Hell, yes!") At noon I put on my coat and started to
leave. Linda rushed over to my desk and said that if I did not return,
I would be fired. I told her I would see her in the morning and left.
That next morning I arrived at work, having called a union
representative to be available just in case, and found a written apology
from Linda the supervisor for having "misunderstood the importance of
(my) religious freedom". The story unfolded with guarded whispers from
my co-workers in the bathrooms and the break areas. After I had left the
day before, the shit hit the fan. Linda went on a rampage and started
calling her supervisors and the district office to have me fired and my
paycheck waiting at the guards' desk
the next morning. Having started the ball rolling, she found that I
was entitled to my religious time ("...to worship her belly button if
she
wants to, for heavens sake" was the response screamed by one of her
supervisors within range of many ears) and that I was also within my
rights to sue her, and the company, for harassment for those months
while she was questioning me. Linda was strongly encouraged to give me a
written apology, which I accepted with one stipulation.
Within 48 hours, all company locations were posted with an informational
bulletin specifying that the "three hours of religious time per employee
per year was available to everyone, without specifying which religion or
which occasion, as long as adequate notice was given to an immediate
supervisor."
And although I was the only one who took that first Halloween off, the
following year there were over twenty on my floor alone, and the year
after that, there were over 100 from the building. Were all of us
witches? No.
That second year found most of us spending time together in a coffee
shop talking about how a strong woman was controlled in the middle ages
with the fear of being called a witch if she dared step out of line. It
felt empowering to be among others who could identify with the struggle
to be wholly human, and to remember those women who had gone before us.
The third year had a wonderful mix of men and women who again in the
coffee shop spent time talking about religious and personal freedoms and
the expectations that we all fall into line or take the consequences. By
the fourth year I was no longer with the company but I've heard that the
tradition of the coffee shop
continues.
Am I a witch? I guess that depends on one's interpretation. I have
beliefs that feel as natural to me as seeing that my eyes are blue when
I look in the mirror. Some might call those beliefs pagan. I do know
that I have a tradition of telling the Halloween story each year. It
reminds me that the struggles women have today will be the inspiration
for women in future generations, as long as we act with courage,
Strength, Unity and Conscience.
There are other stories that will never be told. Yet it is those stories
which raise us all up a rung on the ladder and guide us to the
attainment of being wholly human. We must never think that our actions
are inconsequential, or that our stances of conscience are solitary. We
can not predict which of our acts of courage. Strength. Unity.
Conscience. Will inspire those who come after us.
Happy Halloween to each and every one of us.
Blessed Be.
(In memory of the millions of women and men who have lost their lives
in witch hunts throughout history.)
(c)1996 Peg N McCuaig
Drink From The Cup Of The Goddess
Chalice image (C)ROBINWOOD
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