Green for Green, Brown for Brown-Ethicality in Spiritual Supplies

Okay, the Yule article that Azzerac wrote for Witchvox has received a bit of mail, only one negative, but it was from someone that seems bound and determined to be offended by everything.

Someone asked me awhile ago why I do what I do, as far as the shop goes. I want to get one thing straight, for the record. I don't hate Wiccans. Never have, never will.
The reason Azzerac and I started Lodestone & Lady's Mantle was as a direct response against the vast majority of metaphysical stores. They all stock the same Made-In-China, by child slave labor, plastic statues, diluted essential oils, fragrance (fake) oils marked as essential, inaccurately reproduced formulas, and stones that are unethically mined.

The height of New Age hypocrysy is blowing up the side of a mountain so that you can have a Power Crystal to "heal yourself" and "heal the Earth".

Not to mention the herbs. Old, overpriced, and the common practice of brown-for-brown, green-for-green among many spiritual suppliers. A green herb is substituted and sold in place of a more expensive green herb, etc. A lot of dragon's blood I've seen on the market is dyed frankincense or copal, depending on whats cheaper during a given season. Many shops justify this by saying that it is the belief of the practitioner that does the work, not the herb. If that were the case, why should anyone go to the trouble of purchasing herbs at all?

We started the shop out of respect to magical practitioners, because we, as magical practitioners, were sick of the same Azure Green junk. Instead of the same, rehashed (and frequently plagiarized) information, we write original, in depth, born from experience, not Llewellyn.
Formulas are researched, tested, refined, and tested again before they ever reach our shelves. Herbs are organic, fresh, and exactly what they say they are.
Stones are gathered ethically, with no harm to enviroment, or humanity.
Ritual tools are as unique as the practitioner who uses them.

Wiccans and Occultists are creative people. How many people in your community make beautiful magical crafts, whether its dipping candles, making soap, sewing their own robes, or forging gorgeous knives and jewelry?

The person offended by the article didn't want his worldview of Paganism shaken. He has written to us, twice, to scold us for not writing happy "feel-good" articles (yes, he actually said that). While some may want to believe that the status quo is acceptable, that everything is perfect, happy and shiny, and will bite anyone that tells them otherwise, I think its an insult to the intelligence of my spiritual family.

It's honestly disheartening to see people behave this way. But if we wrote the pandering, simpering, feel-good articles, it would be like handing candy out to shut up a screaming kid.

I know advanced practitioners are sick of this kind of behavior within the community. Thats one reason why so many experienced practitioners have retreated from the community, because nearly every event becomes a political "I'm more damaged than you" fest.

In short, I love you guys :)

That Old Black Magic, or " A Long Hard Look at Wiccan Ethics" Part I

"Saul and the Witch of Endor" Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Haha!
Now that I have your undivided attention, I'd like to address that most taboo of subjects within the Wiccan and Magical community. As Azzerac deftly pointed out, we have suffered as of late from an extremely Westernized, watered down ethical system poorly extrapolated from Mahayana Buddhism that has little to nothing to do with Wicca, Witchcraft, or Paganism.
Ethical and religious systems that cannot survive contact with the physical world are to put it bluntly, useless. If it doesn't meet physical and emotional needs, it is highly doubtful that it can meet the spiritual needs of its practitioners, yet another reason in a LONG list why more people are turning away from "traditional" religious ideologies.

So, black magic, then. The slightest whisper of performing bindings, curses, or what is perceived as 'controlling' magic is guaranteed to bring a gale-force sized petulant verbal slap of: "but the REDE SAYS...! Never mind that Rede doesn't mean law, but instead "good council", and is meant to be an easily remembered set of advice. Disregard that these are the same people who cannot say more than "Harm None" from memory; convinced that a coven must have "perfect love and perfect trust". That last bit of advice refers directly to the Rede, not to covens or any other group of practitioners. ( "Bide the Wiccan Rede ye must, in perfect love and perfect trust"), yet seem to entirely overlook this bit of good advice: "with a fool no season spend, lest ye be counted as his friend". Nope, just Harm None.

Part of me wonders if this isn't a nasty side effect of the "look normal for the Christians" movement of the '90's, when every author from coast to coast made sure to include a section in their article or book that we don't eat babies or wear black makeup, as if the two were synonymous! Geez, I still remember the pressure within the community to denigrate any practitioner who looked counter-culture. These were popularly perceived as newbies, or doing it for the rebellion factor. But when you meet an old school punker with a mohawk bigger than he is, that has been practicing for twenty years, well... I doubt he was still rebelling after 160 Sabbats.

The modern spillover effect: more and more high profile members of the community are actually trying to convince the Mundies that we don't cast spells! The worst bit is that real practitioners are actually starting to believe this, or at least repeat it en mass, at high volume. In an attempt to be accepted within the mainstream, the cries of 'we are all safe, suburb-living- khaki-wearing-PTA-attending-bake-sale groupies' has done nothing but water the Wiccan community into a fluffy bunny hypocrite parade that is MOCKED within not only the mainstream culture, but the metaphysical and Occult communities as well. When acquaintances learn that I'm Wiccan, its invariably followed by a long pause, and "you don't look Wiccan". It isn't just a few people. This is a wide sampling of people, of very different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic makeup, professions, etc. From the deep South to the Pacific Northwest, a score of Brits, a handful of Europeans, Jamaicans, Russians, and New Zealanders; it has been determined almost universally that the stereotypical Wiccan is a 400lb emotionally crippled doormat with poor hygiene.
Before you launch a tirade at me, remember I am one of you. I love my Pagans and Wiccans. I have watched this problem grow from inside the community. Let me give you some more stats. We at Lodestone & Lady's Mantle offer free classes, one of which is geared toward improving health and physical activity."Power-Walks: Magic in the Great Outdoors". To date, it has received 90 views on Witchvox. Compared to our other free class, Occult sciences 101 (454 views). Both posted at the same time, with the former being more well advertised. Goddess forbid a member of a Nature religion actually go outside, or apply their ethical system to their own bodies, or their own lives! Like I said, fluffy bunny hypocrite parade.

Those of you that insist on rubbing our noses in the Rede, or your convoluted and ill-researched version of it do not get a vote in this.

That was a huge lead-in to this: I am currently working on an article about what Wicca can learn from Hoodoo. What it all boiled down to was this. Hoodoo practitioners expect their workings to, well... work. None of this mucking about with "I move the Universe with my WILL alone, well, no, that's not right, but I can affect the universe around me with a change in consciousness. Well, a little bit. Not really. Umm.. sometimes I have dreams and stuff. Wanna see my new crystal?"
No, Hoodoo spell craft and formulas have the weight of centuries of practitioners using them because they work, in the real world, and meet physical emotional, and spiritual needs.

Wow, this has gotten to be a rather long-ish rant. To be continued on the 'morrow. :) Sleep well, my pretties!

-Carmin