AGAINST THE WITCH HUNTERS
Robin Culain
"All this has happened before. And all this will happen again. But this time it
happened to ..."
Well, us.
The beginning of Sir James Barrie's Peter Pan must echo what many of us are
feeling, as we watch a new and loosely-knit conglomerate of yellow journalists,
right-wing eco-spoilers and Evangelical and Fundamental Christians move slowly
towards a Witch hunt for the 90's. Our spiritual ancestors faced similar
problems in many times and many lands.
Recall the Priestesses of Eleusis, last of an ancient line, in decline, falling
at last to the stratagems of Theseus and his new Attic Gods. Recall the
Etruscans, their vision of sexual-political balance overpowered by the might and
organization of the husband-headed Roman Empire. And most tender to the touch,
recall the agony of the middle ages, as the Catholic, then Protestant churches
consolidated their grip on the rural population, killing six million alleged or
actual Witches in the process.
The hunt is in a beginning stage and beginnings are important. The formal focus
of the television specials, Redbook articles, diatribes in the LaRouchite New
Federalist, "Occult Crime" seminars and newspaper articles is some thing called
"Satanism", which bears little or no relationship to Wicca and Neo-Paganism.
In fact, media "Satanism" bears little resemblance to any historically
verifiable Satan-ism. It is neither classical Egyptian Set-worship", Romantic
Ceremonial Satanism a la Huysmanns nor modern Egoist flamboyance per La Vey.
Sometimes it's heavy metal sullenness, drugs and violence, but that's usually
only for starters. The heavy metal boys, we're usually told, are just dupes of
the Great Conspiracy. And when you get down to the real stuff, the genuine
complaint, it's generally the stuff of horror movies and nightmare -- baby-
eating, virgin-sacrificing bloodsucking monsters!
All this has happened before. And all this will happen again.
There's a limited range of things that can be used to stir up the anger of a
populace against a group, or deaden moral sensitivity to a persecution. It
pretty much boils down to baby-eating, virgin-sacrificing and bloodsucking.
This has been the century of Hitler's Holocaust, but the Russians who butchered
entire Jewish villages in the Pogroms, the inhabitants of York who slaughtered
nearly every Jew in the city in the 1100's didn't merely think the Yiddim
dressed and talked funny. The accusations were the same. By Jesus, those Jews
ate babies! They were just like Satanists, with one exception.
You could find the Jews.
There probably aren't any "Satanists" as portrayed in the articles, seminars and
diatrib-es. If there are, they're certainly not Neo-Pagans or Wiccans. But in
the lucrative atmo-sphere in which the press, missionaries and so-called "Crime
Advisers" publicize and proselytize the word "Witch" creeps in every third
sentence.
Naturally, we Witches and Neo-Pagans have spent a certain amount of effort
pointing out that we love children like anybody else, have no particular
attraction to virginity, and tend, in the most extreme of our diets, to
vegetarianism. In short, we have tried to educate our detractors and the media
to our harmlessness.
This tactic is true, and this tactic is good, but I think that if it becomes our
primary response to persecution we will ultimately fail to endure.
Imagine a Witch in the Middle Ages in front of a Catholic or Protestant
tribunal. In some cases she has been denounced by a business competitor, or an
envious rival in love, or a spiteful neighbor. In other cases she has been
brought to the dock by an expert in "Occult Crime" -- the traveling Witch
Finder.
She stands bound before her Inquisitors, plain or pompous depending on their
religious persuasion. Perhaps there's a crowd around. She tries to educate them
to the simple fact that she's a worshipper of the Old Gods, loves children like
anybody else, has no particular attraction to virginity, and tends, in the most
extreme of her diets, to vegetar-ianism.
They, in turn, accuse her of worshipping a living fiend, blighting the cattle,
and eating babies.
She doesn't stand a chance.
Now picture another scene, one that has not occurred often. She stands before
those assembled, and begins, shall I say, to point out some facts. She points
out the medieval physician with the two per cent live delivery rate who wants
the local midwifery practice shut down. She points out the priest and bishop who
are terrifying the once fun-loving populace into penury and pestilence with the
twin threats of damnation and the noose. She denounces the Christian nobles who
will brook no interference with their rule, least of all from the old Nobility
of the land.
She'd be shut up in short order, but in a different way, for she would be
addressing the real issues. The nonsense about babies, Black Men and cattle was
then, and is now nothing more than a smoke screen to mask real and significant
religious and political differences. It's all a cheap trick, a coward's cheat, a
way of throwing muck until some sticks. It is only used when the real terms of
debate cannot stand the light of day, and it works only if we permit it!
Our situation is in no way as dire as that of our ancestors. Only now have
things moved to the stage where one group, the far-right and sometimes farcical
Limonites, actively bait Wiccans and Neo-Pagans as being "as bad as Satanists".
And unlike our ancest-ors, we have a freedom of speech they could only dream of.
We will not be silenced if we speak, certainly not at this time.
So let's not waste our opportunity! Whenever the "Witch-Hunters"
bait us or attempt to smear us with their cannibal taunts, let's find out what
the real agenda is, and address it. Make the Lyndonite defend himself against
whipping up the population against a minor-ity religion as Hitler stirred hatred
against the Jews. Make the entire La Rouche crew explain their suicidal
environmental policies, and their editorial statement that "the worship of
Mother Earth does indirectly lead to mass murder ..." Engage them on the real
issues -- just what the worship of the Mother really means, and what people are
really like that scapegoat innocents and despise nature!
Likewise with the "Occult Crimewatch". Ask them about their sources of revenue.
About their religious agendas and connection with Evangelical missions. Ask the
if they support religious freedom, and if non-Evangelical religious belief, in
their opinion, is a hazard to the public. Ask them, if you can corner them into
a frank reply, what on earth they are doing lecturing hate to police officers
sworn to protect all the public, Christian and Pagan!
The media deserve the same. Let's not spend more than a breath denying lurid
charg-es. Instead, ask them why they are sensationalizing and smearing a
legitimate religion to make sales. Inquire as to whether the German press in the
30's had a responsibility for the slanders on the Jews that they printed. Ask
them how they'll feel if harm comes to one Pagan woman or man, girl or boy
through their negligence, indifference to non-sensational fact and search for
sales.
In every case we have an opportunity to turn the tide, by coming right out with
our real differences in front of the public, and insisting that the terms of
debate be on genuine issues. We must refuse to be backed into a defensive
posture, denying ever-wilder charges.
Instead let us bring our active advocacy and love of our Gods, of Mother Earth,
of our families and children and ourselves to the fore in every debate. We must
require our opponents to bare their genuine beliefs and motives, and contrast
them clearly with our own in full view. We must sharpen the terms of debate so
keenly that no person can leave the scene without having to make a clear and
conscious choice about what they value and believe is right.
There's no point in lecturing to the Cardinal. The audience for every debate is
not the Witch Hunter, it is the neutral observer. Let them see the love of the
Earth, and contrast it to nearsighted greed and poverty of emotion. Let them
see the love of the Old Gods and contrast it to a cringing fear of the Father's
judgment. Let them see generosity and intelligence and refusal to be sacrificed,
and contrast them to venality, cunning and scape goating. In every debate, let
us rise to the height of our capability, and let our opponents have it in the
Values -- right where it hurts!
Ravinessa23 Community Member 
|
|
