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Beta's
RantsHow Can I say that, you might ask?
Well first off, I am a long time member of a traditional Wiccan Tradition, a reform group, a group that split from American Gardnerianism because it was contrary to a lot of what being an American is- with patriots in our group, and women, the concept of the high priestess stepping down when she is no longer a reflection of the youthful goddess, the high priest ruling over the high priestess, and oathes of fealty to shadowy (and suspect) figures in the "old country" bugged us, or should I say, them, as I joined after the break.
I was born in the UK and go back regularly, (any more specific than that and I have announced who I am, to all who don't yet know,) and frankly, I don't grasp the anglophilia you all have. We don't wander around in clothes off the backlot of "Shakespeare in Love," we don't use thees and thous, and our accents vary as much as yours do. The mere presence of blood from Britain does not make a person better than you, does not make a Witchqueen or "King of the Witches" sound any less hubristic. So you are sickeningly in love with us-this we know-I teach Shakespeare to pubescent Catholic girls who want me to be Sting telling them "don't stand so close to me" despite the fact that I'd rather stand close to Sting, personally, and their protruding nipples and pouty lips bring to mind nothing more romantic than my ancient African fertility figures, collected from an anthropologist friend. (When I am in the mood for a woman-a rare thing, at most, I like them round, old, wise, and unmarinated in babysoft or tommygirl.) Regardless, this rant is not about these disgusting things I herd-who wear their crucifices while reading Teen Witch and telling me they've cast love spells to seek the perfect(and older) mate.
This rant, as I've stated, is about why the Keep Wicca traditional ribbon campaign is fluffy bunny itself.
Alright, Plebs, sit down, and here goes:
Fluffy bunnies believe one thing and one thing only about Wicca- that they are doing it right, despite what other people say-that they are practicing the one true Wicca that they alone know. That those who are do not agree with them are AGAINST them. True fluffy bunnies can't stand disagreement with them, and whine and cry when confronted by it.
I am a traditional witch, I was initiated in a ritual that involved bonds, the scourge and nudity, I was initiated by a person whose lineage is tight and provable, who is mentioned in the memoires and histories of other traditions. I have performed the Great rite before a hundred people on a Solstice night with a beautiful maiden who has gone on to be a priestess of my tradition...
And I, dear hearts, am wholeheartedly eclectic.
When KWT lambasts eclectics, when it calls them non-traditional, it says so of me.
This type of broadbrushing is the domain of the Fluffy Bunny. When they say "Wicca has gone from a definable set of practices, a secret society and a sacred Priesthood to a fluffy bunny, sugar and flowers hodge-podge of Pagan practices." It's all of Wicca they insult, not just those who are like this. Of course, they are wrong... Wicca was never one set of practices, one secret society or one sacred priesthood, it was always several such groups that considered those not of that group to be lesser. To not recognise this is to buy into the pseudohistory of one tradition over another, or at least over the facts, which is even more of an indicator of fluffiness. We were never one group. That some lay claim to a legacy they don't have is, indeed, a problem in our community, but Scott Cunningham is not to blame, last I knew, he never claimed a legacy he didn't have.
The only legitimate gripe with Cunningham, and the gripe of the one whose link is not operative on the KWT site, is that he is too positive, and not reflective of the "harsh reality" of the real world. He was eclectic in the true sense, and had the fatal flaw of believing that if he demonstrated Eclecticism, the use of things from many sources, that those who followed him in his Eclectism would use common sense and respect for the traditions of others to NOT use Eclectism as an excuse to "do whatever they liked."
Those who read Cunningham to say "Do whatever" are as literate as those who see the Wiccan Rede to say "Harm none," which is to say not very. That an author doesn't tell you not to do something does not mean that an author thinks you SHOULD do something. How Much clearer can you get?
But this is no time to declare a war on "Liath Cadhóit" and her personal (and misdirected) anti-Cunningham crusade and the entire concept of Cunningham as the bad guy-especially in this new age of Silver Ravenwolf. (Frankly-if Cunningham diluted things, she poisons them "nuff said!") She has her ideas, and I can't, as a traditional Witch, agree with them. That I know of several Trad groups requiring Cunningham as a read for their initiates speaks loudly, but those are Wiccan groups, not Celtic groups, so they clearly have a better handle on things than a Celtic group would, since Wicca is not, and has never been, Celtic.
When our misguided and so-called outspoken traditional Witches say "Wicca has gone from a discipline to a feel-good opiate for people who skim over a book they get from Barnes and Noble and then declare themselves the heirs to a heritage they have taken no time to learn." the nail in their logical coffin is lodged home. Wicca was never a hertitage, was never a discipline, it was always, and still is, a religion. And religion, is, don't you know, the opiate of the people. Of course, what is an opiate? It is a drug, true, but what else? An end to pain? The thing that makes you have some small comfrot when you are dying? Is an opiate inherantly bad, or is it bad when it is abused?
Those who see Eclectism as evil or dilution (despite the fact that Gardner and Sanders were heavy handed in their own eclectism, the Athamé is brought to us by Gardner's knife collecting, Skyclad by his nudism, and the NON-fluffy bunny is not afraid to say this) are just as the drug zealots who scream that the opiates are evil and should be banned while people dying in pain are given comfort by them. They are ignorant in their belief that since a thing is bad when done one way, it is bad when done all ways. Their illogical stance that one thing is bad because some people do it badly reminds this person of those "Wiccans" that deny that a dark side of humanity exists- Wiccans that are labled, I might add, as "fluffy bunnies."
The Mysteries teach us to see in shades of gray, to know our brothers and sisters by their actions, and to not be afraid or angry when the cowan gets our faith wrong. (Indeed, I was told to say that talk of Witchcraft by the cowan frightened me in my oath, and deny it fervently) The Oath I took taught me that my mind, my logic and grace and the promethean spark we all carry was the second greatest gift we had, and it is from that oath that I rebuke KWT most harshly, because in saying that those who disagree with them are, by mere disagreement, supporting the so-called dilution of Wicca, they speak from the point of view of the supremicist, no different than those that speak of dilution of the white race, or of the Christian church. If you define Wicca in such a way that many so-called Wiccans are exclude from your terms, there is no fear in expressing those terms, and you quickly do.
It is the fluffy bunnies who do not speak plainly, who speak in terms of fear and hatred, and who define their ways as the way, and based on this definition of Fluffy Bunny, a definition I freely give, Keep Wicca Traditional is Fluffy bunny.
And I, too, speak from the voice of a discontented elder, disgusted by youngsters who claim a path they don't know, infuriated by authors who profit by flaunting their version of my faith as the faith itself, and wishing that we could go back 20 years in SOMETHINGS, but certainly not all.
I, at least, am strong enough in my tradition to not fear those who are different in theirs, they will not effect my tradition, not dilute it, nor weaken it, because they are not it- and frankly, any traditional witch would think that, and not only know that they would leave the fluffy bunnies to confront the magistrates and squires, all they while going- "Wicca? Witchcraft? Oh, I daren't speak of that, sire, it frightens me so!"
*if and only if