Witchvox Article

Author: Raveneve Night
Posted: June 10th. 2007
Times Viewed: 3,664

�History never repeats, I tell myself before I go to sleep.� (Split Enz)

Can someone tell me why, as pagans we are creating exactly the same sort of bias that we are appalled by in Christianity. Men. The Patriarchal curse of Christianity is now in the same danger of being silenced by pagan women. Where is their voice?

Now I am fully committed to the Goddess, but I am increasing becoming concerned by the loss of the Horned God, the Oak King and the Holly King. How can we have Sacred, (and not so sacred) sex without the male witch? Sorry, we actually do worship a duality. This means that men need to have an equal voice with women.

This does not mean that women to women relationships and worship as well as male-to-male relationships with worship have no place. As I have said before, �The Goddess/God loves us all straight, gay, European, African, blue, green and purple.� There is no difference. Because They created us to experience these relationships and have joy, it is right. But do we create equality in our own religious practice? I am not so sure.

Hands up if when you write Goddess/ God or God/Goddess you have an internal struggle as to Whom to place first? I must admit as I was raised a Catholic, I think about this. I am the only one? Now I know in my heart They do not care about who is first, but it is very hard to break programming? I know this shouldn�t be an issue, but it is. This is a sign of our struggle against Patriarchal programming, but have we gone too far the other way?

I have read articles about the subtle and not-so subtle loss of power that male witches feel in worshipping the Goddess. Do we as women, because we have a Goddess, undermine the equality of our male counterparts? Have we lost the crucial balance of Duality that is embedded in Wicca, Witchcraft? I hope not. For I need the grounding of men, their insight into my worship, the love they give me and I, in turn, return.

I am not ashamed to admit this. This is what makes my worship complete. I gain understanding in the sacrifice of the Oak King. I revel in the joined duality of men and women. Without this voice, these perspectives, then I feel slightly empty.

What is this doing to the male worshipper? Are their ideas being treated just that little bit less seriously? Do they have a real voice or the equivalent of the High Priestess saying, �There, there, it will be alright, you don�t have to worry about that?� Now I hated it when my parents used to do that. Can you imagine the anger of men who have been practicing Wiccans for years getting this pat on the head? This is all because we have a Goddess. Oops! Humans have done it again.

What is so hard about equality? Why do we, as humans have so much trouble with this concept? We were all created equal, but some more equal than others. What a horrible situation. Do we as women need power that much that we cannot respect men in our place of worship? Why is this so hard, we are supposed to be better than this?

I know that for many practicing covens, solitary and not so solitary witches this is not an issue. Male voices, worship and ideals have the same weight as the female voices. Rites are practiced with true equality. But this is where the Media is helping us to embed female superiority into our psyche.

Look at all the books, the Charmed series, Practical Magic, where did the men go? I have even heard that there is no such thing as a male witch; they are wizards. Talk about arguing semantics. Pagan men, who worship the Goddess/God and call themselves witches, are witches. If you call yourself a wizard and follow their ideals then you are a wizard. Naming yourself is part of the journey; this is only between you and your God (ess). If you call yourself a witch and you are male, guess what, you are not an endangered species. Besides it is only a label only you know who you are truly.

I am not going to get into the argument of is the all female coven wrong. Nope it�s not. If that is how your coven wants to work then say, �Yes� this is what we need to do. The Powers that Be have no problem with this worship. Why would They? It is all beautiful to Them. If you wanted to create an all male coven, �Yep� that is great too. They love all of you. If you wanted a coven of little green men then somewhere out in the universe They are smiling, you want to know why? To Them it is all beautiful.

The thing They don�t smile about is one human being claiming they have more power because they are female, male, rich, poor, etc. This is (swear word). See I�m even self-censoring, but you know what? It is �

In human groups there are all types, leaders, followers, gossipers about followers, people who look down their noses at the gossips, but secretly enjoy it and the quiet workers who never seem to get recognition, but actually run the group. If you don�t believe me then try to work around one of these quiet organizers and see how much you can change without being given �the look�.

Nowhere in this list does it say that men are not useful and don�t know anything. Nowhere does it say that the men are naturally the leaders and that women should just wash dishes. What is does say is that no matter what your talent, education or ability we have a place for you.

We need you. We need men. I now said this twice; I hope that you realize just how important this is. What we don�t need is for guys to assume that they are God (esses) gift to the female species, (re: all feminist arguments back though the centuries). It just means what it says. We need your thoughts, ideals, arguments, sex (sacred or otherwise), work, prayer, love and fellowship. Male witches need a voice and I hate to say this, but female witches sometimes do have to listen. Please don�t send me hate mail after all (harm none). Are we calm yet? Just like female witches need a voice and men sometimes do have to listen.

This is equality. This is love!

Merry Meet from Raveneve Night, may your
Goddess,
God,
Deity of worship, go with you!

Copyright: copyright by Raveneve Night

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