"ARE YOU A WITCH?"
"ARE YOU A WITCH?"
"No, " I replied, "I am Wiccan."
The bag-boy looked at me curiously.
He had seen the pentagram around my neck. "But aren't they the same
thing?" he asked.
"It depends on how enlightened you
are." I answered. We ended up having a thirty minute conversation
in the grocery store parking lot. Why did I deny being a witch?
Let me see if I can explain.
Witches are old, ugly and have a wart on their nose. Or so says Disney and Shakespeare.
Witches worship the Devil and participate in orgies and human sacrifices. So say the ministers in the pulpits on Sunday morning.
Witches are evil and perform black magic. So says The Brothers Grimm and countless other stories read to our children.
I am none of those things.
I am not old and ugly (not beautiful)
but not old and ugly.
I don't worship the Devil, I don't
believe he exists. The evil men do comes from within themselves.
The devil didn't make them do anything.
I am not evil. I don't just
recite the Wiccan Reed, I live it. I do no black magic, what few
spells I have cast have been for nothing but good. Healing and protection.
I am not discrediting anyone who chooses to call themselves a witch. It is just not for me. Like it or not, the world we live in has an entirely different perspective of a "witch" than someone who is in the Craft.
I suffer with anyone who has been persecuted because of their religion or path they have chosen. But this is one persecution I believe we could minimize. One word is all we have to change. I know some will not. Some even like the attention and shock value the word brings. I am not one of them. The only way we can begin to change the worlds perspective is to change ourselves. Is it truly a word that is necessary to describe who we are?
Am I a witch?
No, I am Wicccan.
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