GROWLS FROM THE BEAR'S LAIR

How is it that you, a Wiccan High Priest and a Pagan elder, are a non-theist?

Why not?As I recall, there is no commandment requiring us (Neo-Pagans) to believe in the actual existence of any deity. As any responsible theologian of any faith would state, we truly don't know if there is anything beyond our physical world. Belief ultimately comes from one's will to believe and to accept that there is absolutely no valid empirical evidence to date proving the existence of gods, spirits etc., and possibly there never will be. This is called the leap of faith.

I use the term "possibly" because all data and knowledge obtained through science is provisional, although subject to certain laws such as the cause and measurability of gravity and phenomena (such as the sun appearing to orbit the earth though we know for a fact it's the other way around). As a non-theist, I simply state that since we have no real way to prove any of this there is no reason to argue or debate. If a person tells me "I believe in life after death, the Gods, karma, etc., because I feel a certain emotional security from it," I have no argument with that. However, if a person tells me that they believe in all of the above metaphysical statements and can prove them scientifically, I say, "Show me the objective, measurable evidence. I would honestly love to see you prove it."

As for my "eldership," that is a title that was conferred upon me by others based not on my beliefs, but on my time served (over twenty-five years) and work done within and for the New York Neo-Pagan community. My beliefs are my own and I feel no reason to conceal or deny them merely for the sake of appearance of acceptance and conformity. Those who know me will accept me for who and what I am.

Is " Wendy the Good Witch" good for the Image of the Craft? Is "Charmed”? Is Willow on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? These images are based on what their creators perceive the characters are supposed to be. The witches and wizards in the Harry Potter novels are not Wiccans, but rather a separate race of beings that co-evolved alongside of us and, for the sake of their survival, have developed their own culture that seeks as little contact as possible with the human one (though there has obviously been much as many witches and wizards in these novels claim a mixed racial heritage a perfect example the protagonist after whom the novels are named is of human and magickal ancestry).

The novels do more in teaching lessons of understanding, friendship, courage, self-sacrifice and going past one's shortcomings than in promoting the Craft. But if Non-Craft people enjoy the novels as extolling the value of not judging solely on the basis of appearance alone, or going beyond preconceptions of what a "witch" or "wizard" is supposed to be, then, yes, I would say they are "good" for the Craft. (I will not use the term "Cowan," a Masonic term meaning non-initiate or "Muggle," the term used in the H.P. novels to designate a human without magickal abilities, but simply Non-Craft in the same way as someone who is not a Christian would be called a Non-Christian.)

Have you ever heard of the Circle of Three books by Isobel Bird? It's a teen-fiction series that one of the young’uns I help along this twisty path introduced me to. The young women in these books are Wiccans, and the novels show the trials and tribulations of everyday people about becoming a Wiccan and dealing with someone you know and love becoming a Wiccan. Admittedly, they're a bit too P.C. and squeaky clean in some ways, and not as well written as the Harry Potter series, but they're good books and far more accurate in terms of modern Neo-Paganism.

Well, for starters, Wiccans have a bad tendency to devour their own before coming to maturity - young meat is so much more tender.

To become a leader is a difficult and dangerous path to tread. There are snipers along the way, plus if you're not careful, your own internal self-destructive mechanism may kick in. In this community especially, it seems authority is simultaneously admired and suspect. Many Craft people would make excellent leaders if they had the time and inclination, and many who are in this position really would serve the community better if they were doing something less injurious, such as raising killer bees. As for myself, to quote one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain: "I feel like the fellow who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail; if it weren't for the honor of the occasion, I'd have had no part of it and wouldn't have gone."

Formal does not mean good in the sense of capable and honorable; it only means structured. There are many teachers and leaders in many systems that the how and why they got there is anyone's guess, and there are many informal teachers who are very good at what they do. We have survived so far, and perhaps in time that too will change. The current amorphous structure has given a chance to many who could not conform to other systems, but it has in many instances also let loose the hounds of havoc. This set of current affairs has helped some (for example, a certain very skeptical, non-theistic High Priest would not have had the freedom in a formalized structure to help develop a system of Wicca that put more emphasis on the person than the doctrine.) Unfortunately, the lack of strictures has occasionally allowed abusive individuals to achieve positions of leadership. Wicca is still growing. We (all of us – elder and newcomer alike, formal initiate and self-styled practitioner) are cultivating it as part of our evolution like all the other religions before us. We will develop, we will succeed sometimes; we will fall on our faces sometimes. That is the way and the price of growth.

The Internet allows Wiccans to communicate with each other far more efficiently and cheaply than before, and it has allowed people who have been isolated to connect with others. It has made the sharing of information and ideas much easier. And, yes, it has made it easier for sickos and predators to prey on the unsuspecting and vulnerable, but sadly, when have these bastards not been around? We know what the world was like without it, and we can imagine and guide where it will be with it.

Wicca at times is described as one of the fastest growing religions in the country. Yet, on the average, a person is only involved in the Craft for only a few years. Why is this and why is this a bad or maybe good thing?

On the average, most Wiccans have been involved for less than five years. Many have never had any formal training; they have learned what they can from books and the Internet. There are now books on Wicca of various degrees of quality in every mainstream bookstore in the country in addition to online bookstores, and New Age and Craft-related stores. Anyone now can easily purchase the required tools, learn the lingo, and call themselves a Wiccan.

I know or who are out there consider themselves "eclectic, solitary practitioners." As for it being a good or bad thing, how about a thing with good and bad points? Good point - people have the freedom to choose what their religious view will be. Bad point - any ding-a-ling yahoo can join in. Good point - you can connect with some knowledgeable people. Bad point - you can connect with some really nasty sons -(and daughters)-of-bitches. Good point - new people can mean new ideas and energy exchange and keeping the flow going. Bad point - a glut of inexperienced incompetents with no desire to really work and learn. So you see, it's really a mixed bag, and, like so much else in life, that’s what we have to deal with.

Did Aleister Crowley and MacGregor Mathers (founder of the Golden Dawn) ever do the deed?

Mathers, to all reliable accounts, was very, very heterosexual. Until his death in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1919, he was married to Mina Bergson, sister of the philosopher Henri Bergson, so it is extremely unlikely that Mathers and Crowley would have engaged in any type of sexual activities. Mathers was brilliantly creative magically, but also, unfortunately, equally grandiose and gullible. Crowley was extremely erudite, and could, when it served his purposes, also be very charming. Mathers saw Crowley as his Magickal Heir Apparent, and for a time was very fond of him in a fatherly way, much the same way Freud was of Jung before their breakup. After their estrangement, Crowley vilified Mathers in his writings; the head of the Black Lodge in Crowley's novel "Moonchild" was a thinly disguised version of his former friend and mentor.

The term "skyclad" comes "from India's sunny clime" and originated among the Jains, a sect of Hinduism that practices a very strict form of "ahimsa" (non-violence). Some of their holy people will become recluses, choosing to live in nature and eating only the simplest plants for which they must make reparations by cutting themselves and giving their blood to nourish the plants. As a sign of their dedication, they refuse to wear even the most basic of garments lest some small insect get tangled or smothered in the folds.

Gerald Gardner, founder of modern Wicca, spent a great deal of time in India and Ceylon where he learned of these practices. When he created his version of Witchcraft, he incorporated the idea of skyclad as a way of allowing the "natural flow of magical energy freely through the people in the circle."

I became involved because as a child I would listen to the folk and ghost stories of the witches and other supernatural beings from my maternal grandmother's homeland, (now officially part of southeastern Poland, then the Ukraine.) That sparked my interest, and when I became older, I read everything I could get my grubby little paws on. Through a friend 's sister I met my first formal Craft teacher, a neo-Alexandrian High Priestess in New Jersey, and I was officially initiated at Mabon in 1976. And that was how it happened.

His name was Wong Lieu Teh, an old Chinese laundry man who became a dear friend and who introduced me to the martial arts. I have since called him Master Wong. He was feisty, caring and unpretentious, and I met him when I was a lonely and unruly twelve-year old. I would work in his laundry, sorting clothes, learning how to steam press, iron and hand wash. In return for my labor, I learned the basics of his family's style gung fu (Cantonese – better known as kung fu). One of his most important lessons to me was, "Kid, it don't matter where you were born or who your parents were, or where and how you die, what matters is how you live your life."