"If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced."
The Open-Ended Proof from The Panoplia Prophetica
Children of Dune
Of late, I have been hearing some witches tell other witches their methodology is incorrect, their theories shoddy, and their lack of an academic approach to magic is reproachable. Excuse me???
Magic comes from the deepest parts of one's soul and connection to the land they live upon and connection to the Gods. Not some ancient text written on paper by a man who says it must be this way or all is doomed. Don't get me wrong I love reading old books of magic and old books about magic, but the authors of these books are NOT the end all be all of the subject. They are great places to learn and move forward from once understanding has been achieved. Quite frankly, I love the weight and smell of old books. These books bring me comfort in the knowledge that someone before me has indeed walked a similar path to mine and it is entirely plausible that I may be walking in a good way. They are also great points of inspiration to my own craftings.
I have a deep respect for those who can rattle off the history texts of the craft by chapter and verse. Indeed, it is a great benefit to those around them. However, when it gets to the point where all your do is site and work from texts written long ago, I think the lessons provided in these wonderful texts becomes lost in arrogance. To sneer at your fellow witches for moving beyond the written word once they understand it, is not only disrespectful but and embarrassment to the person doing the sneering. It's painful to watch actually.
Now, I am not saying that there is a certain amount of pure nonsense and idiocy as a result from someone not doing any homework into their subject. . . there is a whole mountain of it. That, too, is painful to watch.
I suppose what I am encouraging here, is for a healthy balance of doing your homework and stepping into the circle trusting your own inner workings and mysteries. We all work differently. We all have different pieces of the puzzle. To sneer at each other is non productive and it allows who are not our friends to fish in troubled waters.
I've been known to butt in on topics of legitimacy, but sometimes I feel that it's better to intercede and educate as opposed to let everything be claimed a historical practice or fact. A lot of young and inexperienced witches tend to "help" the world wide web by providing them with their "expertise" when, in many cases, all they are doing is furthering generalizations and misrepresenting our entire demographic. Such statements as "Samhain is the most sacred day of the Witches' calendar" or "Witches don't believe in Hell" and even "most Witches are vegetarians" are not only incorrect but are also completely unfounded. While I respect an individual's decision to practice their faith however they wish, I am more apt to agree with the Pagan minority than I am to defend the right of the majority to be experts.
ReplyDeleteAs I said. . . there is a mountain of pure non sense because there are those who refuse to do their homework. . . or any homework. I hear you on the butting in thing. I have done it myself when I hear things I know to be untrue. But to go as far as to say that there is only one way to cast a circle or that this ritual must be done this way or it's a complete flop is untrue.
ReplyDeleteDefending the truth is one thing. Looking down your nose at the rest of witchdom is just, as I said, painful to watch
I used to watch this type of thing going on in a couple of the ning groups I belonged to. Almost daily, in one of the groups, there would be an intense argument. Usually it was between a certain groups of "know it alls" and people thinking they are a witches because they watched Charmed or the people that call themselves "Christian Witches". These "know it alls" looked down their nose at everyone. No one else's practice or knowledge was correct, except there's! hahahaha It got very old very fast and was painful to watch. I have a problem with that kind of behavior and instead of helping the newbies, these people treat them like crap. Why can't certain witches just back the hell off, it gives witchcraft a bad reputation from within and turns the newbies away. If this continues, witchcraft will die out as the crones pass on. Yes, witchcraft has a long deep seeded history however to spend all your time with the written word instead of practicing what you preach, is pathetic and a shame in itself. This is why I don't belong to any of the ning groups anymore. It's full of know it alls, wanna be's and just plain weirdos. lol
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