Shamanism @ MindSay

Okay, this is part two in my attempt to get caught up recreating my deleted account.  Yikes!  Good thing I like working on the Internet!

Another website I recently created was www.WitchHuntNovel.com.  It is the official website for the rare, out-of-print classic Wiccan novel by Devin O'Branagan, called WITCH HUNT.  It is a multi-generational saga about a family of witches, that takes them from their persecution during the Salem witch trials, to a modern-day, fundamentalist Christian-inspired witch hunt.  The research is amazing and--since wicca is my own religion--I know my stuff.  So, apparently, does Devin.  It is breathtaking in its accuracy and its spiritual and magical insights. 

The amazing cover won an award as one of the best covers of the year.  It was designed by the famous artist Keith Birdsong, who designs many of the STAR TREK book covers. 

It has adult content, however, and should be only read by adults.  Lots of sex and violence, but that was the nature of the persecutions, I guess. 

Anyway, I have so much to say that I need to do it in short bursts or I will be overwhelmed.  Please check back as I continue with the saga of recreating the massive blog that was vanquished by some evil power.

Hmmmm?  I wonder if there's a novel in that?

The problem with practicing an alternative relgion is that there's loads of misinformation out there being spread about your religion, and it's usually not the fault of Christians who want to brand us as baby sacrificing demon-worshippers!  Usually, sadly, it's the ones out there who are new and eager for recognition or validation after experiencing disenfrancisement from other religions that spread the misinformation.  Here are a few things that really piss me off about them...

When well-meanning Neo-Pagans assume that Native American Shamanism (among just one of several different culturally based religions) is also part of Pagan religion:  Oftentimes this is because many well-meaning new Pagan religious scholars are trying awful damn hard to put all nature spiritualities under one banner or label. Young Pagans, who are not religious studies scholars but mere students of their religion who are desparately seeking the guidance of scholars, are all too eager to follow suit.  What happens here is that many various culturally based religions and practices are taken out of their original cultural context and homogenized into a melting pot of American subculture.  Native American Shamanism has many things in common with Paganism, but the Paganism of Indo-European cultures is still different from the spirituality of North American tribes.  The same assumption is made with Afro-Caribbean Voudo, Ifa, and Santeria; again these are cultures drastically different than those of Native Americans as well as that of American Wiccans.  I believe that the reason why many Pagans are attempting to define themselves as part of a large group of people is because they want to evade accusations that they are just a fringe religion; but the thing is, we are!  Paganism and Wicca as we know it now in North America is a new religion and it will take many more years, if at all, for us to be considered one of the world's major religions.  Thing is, in order to be part of a larger cultural group we have to become an institution with a set dogma and rules.  Most Wiccans do not want that.  So why do we keep trying to prove to the rest of the world that we're all one path when we're dozens of traditions and spirit paths?  It's just ridiculous and makes me growl.

I guess I have the benefit of being both Wiccan and Native American and this allows me to make that clear cultural distinction that separates the two paths from each other.  I practice Wicca because I like it, it suits me and my personality.  I am influenced, however, by my family's religious practices so some of my native pride fits into Wicca, but it is still separate from it.  Too often I've seen too many well meaning Wiccans get snubbed by medicine men and women because they make the mistake of assuming that their friendly neighborhood Shaman is going to teach them native ways because, hey, I'm Pagan just like you.  Thing is, native peoples were long persecuted by white people who considered them "pagans."  Five hundred years later white people are still making that mistake!

The best example I can come up with is to liken it to a white person dressing up in black face and claiming that they are paying homage to the Black Man.  Fuck that.  Stop dressing up in feathers and deer skin and giving yourselves what you assume are Native American names, Pagans!  You're just further perpetuating the native stereotypes.  You have no idea what it is to be Native!  You've never lived on a reservation or had your ways outlawed.  Not only that but each tribe had their own religious practices!  You can't put all the indigeous peoples of North America under one umbrella.  You can only, seriously, claim we are like one another, related if you will, but not the same.

Another thing I get annoyed with, the native NAME GAME:  People from a specific enthnic group like to be called by the name they've given themselves, preferrably in their own language.  Yet for some reason white people have a hard time coming up with a name to call us.  Hello, African-Americans can you relate?  Couldn't a smart ass white guy like Columbus have gotten it right after he realized we weren't INDIANS?  Yet it's not just white people who have this problem.  Even I get stuck on the terms, especially when I'm talking to white people!  I find myself calling myself "Native American" and "American Indian" and "Indian" all at once.  Why can't I just call myself Menominee or Chippewa or Anishinaabe?  I like being called Anishinaabe; or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek (meaning "original peoples" or "the good people") a term to describe more accurately the tribes of the northern woodlands -- the indigenous Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Menominee, and Chippewa.

It's damn annoying whenever another Pagan assumes you need teaching:  No matter what I do, if I start talking about my religion and post a Mindsay wiki page on Wicca there's some other Pagan out there who sees fault with it because I don't include what they believe. I basically state the BASICS, people! Of course I know it's hard to include EVERYONE in on this, but just about everything I posted there is the facts. Sure I could always include more info and then go through another row of pages and columns EXPLAINING AWAY the religion, but who wants to read that? SO WHAT if I don't quote every single teacher I've ever had or post an entire bibiliography of source materials on my blog or website? If you already have figured out what you believe, then practice it. If you preach it to me you're only preaching to the choir anyway. 

I've been a praciticing Witch since Samhain 1990 -- there's nothing I haven't heard yet rehashed by some young upstart Pagan who thinks they know it all.  However, if you have a public blog, I will post a reply or two if I think something you've written is a little troublesome -- in my opinion.  But the last thing I want is a long list of source material and quotes.  I've experienced that phenomenon when I was brought up Born Again Christian.  I hated it whenever religious types pulled out the endless Bible-quotes-for-everything speeches.  You are not going to win me over to your beliefs and opinions if you spew out passages from your Book of Shadows.  It didn't work with the Bible study sessions my fundie Penecostal mother forced me to go to and it certainly isn't going to work if you start quoting the "Wiccan Rede" at me either. 

I don't care who originally wrote the "Wiccan Rede" anyway.  So what if Aliester Crowley penned it first and it doesn't matter if he did in a Russian Orthodox Catholic church.  What really matters is what you do with what you've learned.  So stop it with the power trips already, wiccanrantings and other Pagans who can't help but jump on the preachy Pagan bandwagon.

There's nothing more annoying that visiting another Pagan's blog and they email one of your teachers to tell on you:  wiccanrantings took it upon herself to email Selena Fox on me.  Like Selena will take it upon herself to interupt her busy schedule to deal with me?  Especially when the only thing I've done wrong is tell wiccanrantings that she should not confuse Native American Shamanism with Wiccan Shamanism!  Totally ridiculous.  If someone has to go through the trouble to bother an elder over some minor detail discussed on a personal blog, makes me wonder what else they bother their elders with.  Sheesh!  Again, I don't mean to demean this person, I'm just saying that a discussion on a blog should not warrant the interest of an elder, unless said elder is currently teaching them.  If that's the case, I'm sure Selena will do her best to settle the argument.  It still irks me, however.  I can only hope to assume that she gets her facts straightened out and, instead of going the quoting-from-books-and-websites route, she starts to put things in practice and not just "talk her walk."  Yep, even Pagans are guilty of this one, mate. 

I also hate it whenever Pagans assume that they are authentically Celtic Religion:  Just about all the Wiccans I know like to stamp themselves as 'Celtic' just because they picked up a bit of information on Celtic Spirituality or Mythology.  There are groups out there who are strictly Celtic Reconstructionists; in other words, they are Pagans attempting to reconstruct the ancient Celtic Religion and many of them are doctors and scholars.  I have my old friend, Andrew, to thank for helping to educate me about their ways and how they differ from those who just "claim" to be practicing Celtic ways.  The group that truly practice Celtic religion have a set dogma and lifestyle, their religion based upon a strict study of  academic Celtic studies, liturgy, ritual, meditation, language, and service to their communities.  These groups fall under the definition of Pagan religion but are not associated with Wicca or Witchcraft.  Too often Wiccans make the mistake of defining themselves as Celtic Witches or Druids when they have nothing to do with the real groups who seek to practice the Old Celtic ways.  This is the trouble that comes from fluffy bunny surburan American white people who want to be Irish!  And I mean that with all my heart...

I still get annoyed with Hollywood portrayals of Witchcraft:  Sure, some TV shows and movies have taken the "cute" route with their portrayals of witches, but there are has yet to truly be dramatic entertainment portraying witches for who they really are!  The problem with this is that mainstream America still considers Witchcraft to be something out of Harry Potter.  The reality is that we do not perform amazing light show feats with our magick.  But, damnitt!  I sure do wish I could produce those special effects in real life.  It would make things so easy, wouldn't it?  Real magick doesn't work like Hollywood wants it to, so we have to suffer with fantasy portrayals that wow the kiddies.  The bad thing is that, once those kiddies grow up and meet a real life Witch like me, they tend to think I'm deluded or a freak.  Well, there's nothing really wrong with being a freak, but I assure you I'm not crazy.  I know that I can't really fly around the world on a broomstick!  Mine is a spiritual lifestyle and the magick that I practice is nothing more bizarre than the prayers said by Catholics.  Yet Hollywood makes millions each year telling lies about us. 

Ain't that a B? 

The only way there will ever be a true portrayal of Witches on the big screen is if finally one of us gets behind the camera and produces a movie based on the life of a real Witch.  I would love to write a story based on the lives of Gerald Gardner or Doreen Valiente.  They, by the way, created Wicca!  

And I'm really tired of Wiccans trying to all be religious scholars:  Not all of us are meant to be priests and priestesses, yet with the amount of books out there being written by people who claim to be "elders" there is a serious lack of hands-on guidance.  Wiccans today are taught by the media and that's a big problem.  This encourages misinformation -- it doesn't matter if the author is truly an authority on the subject, it's the simple fact that they have written a book on the subject that makes them an expert, and therefore it is considered safe for a young Pagan to quote from them.  Not every Wiccan author is a legit priest or priestess; they're just out to make money by rehashing old spells and waxing poetic on what they think Paganism is.  This is also the problem we have in our religion, a problem too often other religions find fault with us: we don't have one book written to guide us all.   Yet the plus side to this is, we are all ENCOURAGED to write our own books as witness to our development as a Pagan, and thereby our book should be shared with others.  However, the mistake is to never take anything for granted and NEVER assume that everything you're being told is the truth.  The truth is out there for you to find.  No one can tell you what your personal truth is. 

Again, keep in mind that not all of us are getting it all right.  We're all related, but we're not the same, and even though we encourage each other to share what we've learned, we are not meant to know everything.  Even the most learned elder will make mistakes; it's a part of learning after all.  But it's not wise to assume that everything you're being told is correct.  Unlike other religions, Wiccans are taught to question everything and make their own conclusions.  Keeping that in mind, take what your neighbor has to say to you with a grain of salt!  Any Witch worth her salt (salt is a very important part of our religious practice, by the way) knows that it's best to not assume anything and to speak of her ways with practiced silence (in other words, speak until you know for sure you know what you're talking about, so think on things well in advance first).

And, lastly, what is it with all these CUTSEY NAKED GODDESS pictures anyway?  Okay, I love art as much as the next Pagan, but I do get tired of the cutsey stuff after awhile.  Not every Pagan woman, much less Pagan Goddess, looks like she came off a New York City runway!  The Goddesses out there are of all different shapes and sizes, yet all we get are these portraits of naked cuties who are, more often than not, WHITE and rarely shapely.  Even if you Google "goddess" you'll get tons of pictures of lonely, sad looking white women in robes.  What's up with that?  Give me big dark mama goddesses like Kali or the Morrigu anyday.  I'm sick of picking up a Pagan calendar and seeing nothing but reflections of looney looking white women.  That's not my image of the Goddess.  I think the artists need to stop looking at fashion magazines for examples and start looking at REAL WOMEN.

There, that's my rant for the weekend.