The author is Mike Nichols, who's written some pretty wonderful stuff on other topics. (Worth noting, 'cos he's not a fly-by-night fluffhead.)
No, I could tell that by the writing. I genuinely believes that he really knows his stuff when it comes to this. The whole thing just seemed *really* shortsighted to me.
I think Mike is oblivious the the rather *drastic* differences between various types of religious witchcraft.
Yeah, and while I have my own moments of 'how much does that really matter in the grand scheme of things?', I don't think that the distinctions we have should be tossed out because of the original meanings of a word.
His point that "wicca is the religion and witchcraft is the practice" is legally dangerous is worth noting.
I've been thinking about that as well. I am not sure that I think it is something that really needs to be worried about all that much now, but I can see problems arising in the future as well if it is pushed too hard outside of the community.
Which is something else that I think is worth noting. When *outside* the community, maybe it is better to just use Wicca and Witch interchangabley. People seem to have a rudimentary understanding of what Wicca is and they don't really care about the specifics.
Inside the community, it is different, however. That is where we get into specifics to have discussions about personal theories and practises.
I'm not sure why I argue for these points. Sometimes, I think it'd just be easier to start calling myself a Satanic Wiccan and insist "that's the label that best suits me, and it's only my opinion and of course other people might disagree, but only the Goddess can tell you whether you're a real Wiccan."
Yeah, I get tired of the whole thing too. I don't so much care anymore who calls themselves Wiccan and I think that people like the one I have been dealing with on gURL (and Erin as well, though I avoid her) are wasting a lot of energy chasing down newbies about that when they could be advancing their own paths.
Though part of me secretly wants to unleash this argument on them and see them try to wrap their heads around that and fit it into their whole 'Wicca is a priesthood ... not every Witch has the right to that term' propaganda.
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-21 05:56 pm (UTC)No, I could tell that by the writing. I genuinely believes that he really knows his stuff when it comes to this. The whole thing just seemed *really* shortsighted to me.
I think Mike is oblivious the the rather *drastic* differences between various types of religious witchcraft.
Yeah, and while I have my own moments of 'how much does that really matter in the grand scheme of things?', I don't think that the distinctions we have should be tossed out because of the original meanings of a word.
His point that "wicca is the religion and witchcraft is the practice" is legally dangerous is worth noting.
I've been thinking about that as well. I am not sure that I think it is something that really needs to be worried about all that much now, but I can see problems arising in the future as well if it is pushed too hard outside of the community.
Which is something else that I think is worth noting. When *outside* the community, maybe it is better to just use Wicca and Witch interchangabley. People seem to have a rudimentary understanding of what Wicca is and they don't really care about the specifics.
Inside the community, it is different, however. That is where we get into specifics to have discussions about personal theories and practises.
I'm not sure why I argue for these points. Sometimes, I think it'd just be easier to start calling myself a Satanic Wiccan and insist "that's the label that best suits me, and it's only my opinion and of course other people might disagree, but only the Goddess can tell you whether you're a real Wiccan."
Yeah, I get tired of the whole thing too. I don't so much care anymore who calls themselves Wiccan and I think that people like the one I have been dealing with on gURL (and Erin as well, though I avoid her) are wasting a lot of energy chasing down newbies about that when they could be advancing their own paths.
Though part of me secretly wants to unleash this argument on them and see them try to wrap their heads around that and fit it into their whole 'Wicca is a priesthood ... not every Witch has the right to that term' propaganda.
--Phae