Sometimes I think that it's a real shame that witchcraft and Satanism don't live up to their media image. Ah, the romance of those cavernous crypts lit by massive black candles and filled with dizzying clouds of incense! Those robed, chanting figures, those beautiful though damned maidens, those magnificently choreographed circle dances and orgies! When will I taste the mystic potion which sends the hypnotised heroine into such erotic and transporting visions? Where are those ancient houses with secret passages leading to paneled chambers with horrifying sights? How can I join those beautiful people dancing to the strains of supernatural piping in a stone circle under the full moon?
Alas, scenes like these seem to exist mainly in movies and between the pages of books. I've never seen anything like them in ten years of occult experience, and friends with longer track records than mine seem to have missed them as well.
I once had the illuminating experience of giving a ride to a man who was about to attend his first ritual with our group. When I came to his door and introduced myself as the person his friend had persuaded to offer him transport, his eyes widened. I don't know what he was expecting, but what he got was an ordinary redhead in street clothes with a battered Chevy Nova rattling in the driveway. He gathered up a bundle of clothes which looked as though they had been through a number of revels at meetings of the Society for Creative Anachronism and new-looking copies of BOTH" Satanic "and" Spiral "by Starhawk, and followed me to my car, chattering nervously. On the way to the house where the ritual was to be held, he told me how important he was in the Society for Creative Anachronism; how his powers had been revealed to him in a childhood vision and how successfully he had been warding off a series of psychic attacks by his enemies.
I suppose that I should not have been surprised when he didn't know how to behave during the ritual and constantly had that "what do I do with my hands"
look which comes over people who are in totally new situations. However, I was completely shocked when the ritual, which I considered to be beautiful and highly moving (I had written it myself) bored him to tears. He cornered me in the kitchen later while I was loading my plate with the usual sumptuous after-ritual feast (six casseroles, two salads, five desserts and six kinds of chips, washed down with Diet Pepsi and various strange-looking wines). "Are your rituals always like this?" he asked plaintively.
I shrugged. "Sometimes shorter, sometimes, longer, sometimes totally unrestrained."
He brightened. "Totally unrestrained?"
"Yeah. You were lucky today. The High Priest kept his face straight all the way through and Leon the punster didn't make any rude remarks. Sometimes we end up laughing so hard we can't go on for five minutes."
"Oh. Is there ever any sexual involvement?"
"We save that for afterwards," I leered and carried my teetering plate over to the sofa where my two favorite fellow-worshippers had been beckoning lewdly to me. Poor Fred! The most excitement he got that night was watching the more lecherous members of the group figure out ways to hug and nibble the ears of all the women in the group while simultaneously demolishing the food and managing not to miss any of "Star Trek".
Needless to say, Fred never came back.
Recalling Fred's first and only visit to a Real-live Magical Ritual makes me realize that the so-called "occult experts" who appear on network and local TV and speak to parent's groups across the nation are concealing two important and horrible truths from the American Public.
First of all, the experts have bought the legends hook, line and sinker.
They believe that we worship in those smoky crypts and god-haunted groves instead of suburban living rooms and basements. They believe that we feast on murdered infants instead of tuna noodle hot dish and walnut brownies, and that we don't fill our chalices with Diet Pepsi, but with human blood. I have it on the excellent authority of Frank Medina, a Wisconsin-based probation officer who is one of the few REAL occult experts in the country, that it is not even POSSIBLE to drink a cup of blood. The acrid, caustic properties of blood make it much more likely that the drinker would dash off to the bathroom to be sick or even to an emergency room to have his stomach pumped than that he would rise up filled with fervor and praising Satan. However, the "experts" would far rather believe in legend than in fact, and they desperately want to conceal their lack of real evidence from their audiences.
The second horrible truth that these stars of the Oprah Winfrey Show are hiding from the American people is that most of the people who inhabit the occult world are ordinary, normal, and yes, BORING. The High Priests and Priestesses of satanic and wiccan covens across the nation are not pale, glamorously dressed tempters and temptresses who sleep by day in the luxurious homes maintained by their private fortunes, then rise as night to perform unspeakable acts of horror and perversion. We are nurses, secretaries, waiters, engineers, graphic designers, college teachers, soldiers, computer programmers, security guards, and lawyers.
Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Average American, we have infiltrated all walks of American life. We might even (perish the thought) be living right next door to you! How can you tell who we are so that you can protect your precious pets, children and selves from us? Well, here are a few dead giveaways.
1. Most of us are well-educated. I have seldom met a witch or a satanist who
does not at least have a bachelor's degree. Those who have not attended
or finished college have made up for it by voracious and eclectic reading
and seldom can be distinguished from their more-educated co-religionists.
2. We have LOTS of books. Not all of those books, or even the majority of
them, will be on occult topics. Our bookshelves overflow with gardening
books, cookbooks, science fiction, mysteries, anthropology texts and even
romance novels.
3. We have LOTS of pets. Many of us have at least one, and usually more than
one cat or dog or other cute little creature. Mysteriously, these pets
do not usually end their lives as blood sacrifices, but are cherished,
coddled and taken to the vet as often as pets raised in Christian
households.
4. Not too many of us were raised without the benefits of "true religion".
A startling number of both satanists and witches were raised Catholic, and
most groups include former Lutherans, Baptists and even Jews. A
conventional religious background can even add to the fervor of our new
religious feelings, and it certainly adds to the rituals. Unless he has
a theatrical background, it is a sad sight to see a lifelong atheist or
agnostic conducting a ritual as High Priest--he usually won't have the
experience to perform without self-consciousness or with truth conviction
as a lapsed Christian can.
5. Those occult people have funny names like Bob and Michael and Sue and
Delores. Certainly, you will find people named Morgain and Rhiannon and
Shadowdancer and Wolf, but you will also find that they generally revert
to their birth names outside of magical groups.
6. They listen to a lot of music. Oddly enough, this is seldom heavy metal
or punk music with those vicious Satanic lyrics we've all been warned
against. Their record libraries generally contain a lot of folk music,
Beatles albums, New Age compact disks, and even jazz. They tend to
subscribe to public radio and TV stations.
7. As mentioned before, they eat a lot. As many recipes are swapped after
occult rituals as after church services, and not just for guaranteed love
potions and remedies for charming off warts.
8. People who are involved with the occult tend to be devoted followers of
"Star Trek". It is well known that almost all of the occult groups which
hold their meetings on the same night that "Star Trek" is shown in their
viewing area always finish their rituals in time to watch the show. The
reason for this is unknown.
9. For some reason, a lot of the women have red hair. I once had to get up
at an occult conference and announce to the group that although Morgain,
Mairi, and Maura all had red hair and glasses, we were not the same person
and would appreciate it if people would bother to learn to distinguish us
rather than addressing us indiscriminately by each other's names. One
would perhaps think that there is a genetic predisposition for redheads to
go into magic were it not for the fact that most magical redheads dye
their hair! (Except for me, of course.)
10. Satanists and Witches are devoted to the Constitution of the United
States, expecially the First Amendment which preserves their right to
worship as much as it does that of fundamentalists, Lutherans, Catholics,
Jews, Buddhists and Hindus. I once heard a fundamentalist at an "occult
seminar" reply to this argument that, except for the fundamentalists and
the Lutherans, the rest of the people in that list were all damned and
didn't deserve religious rights anyway. I wonder why the Lutherans were
OK?
Now then, Mr. and Mrs. Average American, don't these dreadful and
threatening occult types sound an awful lot like you and your spouse? That is, in fact, the most horrible truth which the modern witch-hunters are trying to conceal from you. If everyone knew the truth, that being a satanist or witch can be as ordinary and normal and boring as being a Presbyterian, then the witch-hunters would be out of a job. Their mission would be unnecessary, they would no longer be able to raise (and probably skim) funds, and they themselves would become laughing stocks.
Do you want the world to go on being deceived by the suppression of these horrible truths? If not, then spread them, promulgate them, foment them! Let the whole world know, and then maybe we can all get on with our lives in peace and without fear.
(c) Copyright 1989, 1990 by Morgain Blake. All rights reserved.
Suggested ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - Cults Of CthulhuValentina Izmirlieva - All The Names Of The Lord
Keywords: aquarian tarot deck equinox of the gods holy guardian angels chakra balance meditation el necronomicon candle magic rituals astral travel grenada lucid dreaming for beginners