TYPE 4

wicca and it's politics

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It has always bothered me that there seems to be an abnormally large lunatic

fringe in Wicca; people who threaten others with curses from a "Council of

Witches";⁰敯灬攠

; people who claim qualifications they haven't got; people who are so

fundamentalist in outlook they put Fred Nile to shame. There is, I believe, a

strongly fundamentalist element within Wicca. It seems to be found mainly

amongst those who, in Hawkeye's words, "believe in the objective reality of

faery", and those who see the Gardnerian Book of Shadows as Holy Writ. Now I

have no objection to people believing in anything they want to, but if they

try to tell me that my more psychological approach (to say nothing of my

cynicism regarding the aforementioned Holy Writ) is wrong, I naturally

question whether I want to be classed under the same banner.

Whilst I wholeheartedly concur with the premise that worship is a private

matter between the practitioner and his/her deity, in actual practice it just

ain't so, even in Wicca. "You have to do it our way, or you aren't one of

us", seems to be a common attitude. The argument that formal teaching or a

recognised clergy would destroy the right of each individual to approach the

divine in her/his own way therefore, just doesn't hold water, since as things

stand at present, a practitioner who doesn't agree with the mainstream

viewpoint will very quickly find him/herself on the outer anyway. The "free

form eclectism" touted by Peregrin (WOW #6) just doesn't happen outside the

books, as far as I can tell.

I'm certainly not suggesting that we ought to rush out and set up seminaries

and parish councils, but I do think we have to accept the fact that we do

already have a de facto clergy, largely self-appointed, most of whom have no

training in counselling or teaching. Like it or not, if you are leading a

group of any kind, no matter how informal or unstructured, you are going to

need both those skills. It's all very well for Michelin (WOW #6) to compare

coven leaders to parents who "receive little or no training beyond that which

they received in the family in which they grew up". It's actually a sad fact

of life that we were all fucked up by our natural parents, thus creating the

need for us to clear away the shit through spiritual practice. I don't want

to be stuffed around by any more amateurs, thank you very much my family of

origin did a pretty good job already!

It's obvious that hierarchic structures don't work, but what do we do

instead? What we've got at present isn't really working either, and in many

cases it is, in fact, very hierarchic anyway! It's a really hard one, and I

don't think there are any easy answers. But, sadly, we have a situation where

unsuspecting neophytes run the risk of being conned, robbed, threatened or

subjected to various power trips, and even those of us who condemn such

behaviour run the risk of being tarred with the same brush in the eyes of the

public.

Whilst Pagan organisations (such as the Pagan Federation, Pagan Alliance or

Church of All Worlds) could be an excellent clearing house for people seeking

groups, and groups seeking members, who is to decide which groups are

"kosher"? Supposing a bright-eyed bushy-tailed tyro from Upper Woop Woop

approaches an organisation, and asks to be put in touch with the nearest

Wiccan coven. The organisation knows damned well that the only coven within

coo-ee of Upper Woop Woop is run by a couple of dickheads who shouldn't be in

charge of a street stall, let alone the vulnerable psyches of others. What do

they do? If this particular pair of dickheads are paid up members of said

organisation, how can enquiries not be passed on to them? It really isn't

possible without some sort of formal screening system, to keep the lunatic

fringe out of an umbrella organisation, especially when some of them are

already well established in the Craft.

Of course many people don't see teaching as a relevant function of the coven.

But new members are going to look to the leaders for guidance, even if only

at an unconscious level. Everyone who starts a spiritual practice does so

because they see life to be a mess, and they need to know how to get out of

that mess. Personally, I think teaching is very important, and I will seek

teaching on Love and Trust wherever it is offered. Over the last couple of

years, I have found it mainly within Tibetan Buddhism. Similar to the Craft

in many ways, the practice is more structured and the teachers have all been

practitioners for twenty years or more. None of the teachers attempts to

dominate the students; in fact they go to a lot of trouble to discourage

guru-tripping. Teaching is offered by a variety of visiting teachers, so

students get a range of opinions and practices, and they can ask for specific

teaching as they need it. I've seen less power-tripping and ego-flaunting in

this movement than in any other; they really do go along with the premise,

"an it harm none do what you will". Their methods, having been tested for

over a thousand years of unbroken lineage, really do work: I learnt more

about magic from those guys in a month than I learnt in five years with the

Rosicrucians and some twenty-odd years of private and group Craft-style

practice. It isn't surprising that Tibetan Buddhism is currently said to be

the fastest growing "new" religion in the west. Incidentally, I thought

Hawkeye's comments on Eastern religions a bit sweeping: I know little of

Taoism, but the Hindu and Buddhist faiths don't claim to be based on Absolute

Truth. Rather, they are based on the belief that there is an Absolute Truth

and that it is possible for the individual, without mediation from Priest or

Guru, to find it. Quite a different proposition.

All any teacher or group leader can do is point out ways and means; it's up

to the individual to find her/his own way to the Divine, call it Goddess,

Christ, Krishna, Bliss-Void or whatever. But finding suitable friends is the

first step along the path - you really can't do it all by yourself. Whether

you go in for counselling, therapy or spiritual training, the idea is the

same - find someone who's been there already, and who knows how to give you a

hand over the rocky bits. It is this which lies at the basis of the

guru/disciple relationship, not, as some would have it, a need to dominate or

be dominated. The system is, like any other, open to abuse, but we only have

to look around and see the same abuses and worse within the Craft, despite

its supposed "free form eclectism".

I still believe that the Craft is a beautiful path in theory, and could be so

in practice, were it not for the large numbers of near-sighted people

presuming to lead the blind. However, perhaps I'm expecting too much - maybe

the Craft really is just a celebratory religion which offers a U-beaut party

eight times a year and a chance to run around starkers once a month. Perhaps

I am expecting too much in asking that it provide tools, teaching and example

for personal growth as well? Nevertheless, this is what many people,

including me, seek in a spiritual discipline. I would like to think that

somewhere, somehow, sometime, I might find it in Wicca.

BLESSED BE.