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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 18855
[Crime]
Date Posted:
11/7/2007
7:32:02 pm EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 5,488
RSS: 13,321
Comments: 6
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Expert: Grave-Robbing Contrary To Witchcraft
Author: WMUR Source: WMUR (NH)
Title: EXPERT: GRAVE-ROBBING CONTRARY TO WITCHCRAFT
Practitioners of witchcraft are reacting strongly to a story about a grave dug up in Hillsboro and suggestions that believers in witchcraft might have been responsible.
The grave in the Bible Hill Cemetery was dug up last week, possibly on Halloween night. The grave belonged to Sarah Symonds, who died in 1821, and there was no trace left of her body.
A Hillsboro police lieutenant who spoke to News 9 suggested that the grave might have been dug up by practitioners of witchcraft, but Dawn Whiting, owner of Pachamama, a metaphysical store in Concord, N.H., said that wasn't likely.
"I thought you'd be getting a few calls from those practicing witchcraft -- the Wiccans and pagans saying you are misguided," Whiting said.
Additional Article Link: [Click HERE]
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Community Thoughts: There are 6 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Nice Responses! | Nov 9th. at 10:27:56 am EST
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Greybird (Sullivan, Indiana) - Email Me
'Witch' means many, many things. Modern pagan variations of witchcraft covers only a few of those meanings. Wiccans and most mainstream pagan witches wouldn't rob graves, sacrifice animals, or curse someone.
That accounts for what a half-dozen of the things that 'witchcraft' refers to wouldn't do. It doesn't even begin to touch on the rest.
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| Shop Owner Missed The Mark | Nov 8th. at 1:27:43 pm EST
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Titania (Smallville, New York) - Email Me
This is not the work of Satanists. For someone who owns a metaphysical shop, I'm sure there is a book somewhere on the subject. Though I have to concede that it could have been someone calling himself a Satanist--as others have pointed out, no one has the market on the word witch so I guess no one does on Satanist either. But, I still expected a little more from her. I think her comments hit too close to the views of the Satanic panic "experts" of the 80s.
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| Never Fret... | Nov 8th. at 10:46:31 am EST
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Fraoch (Shelby, North Carolina) - Email Me
One of the first questions I asked my brother when he became a cop was whether or not they had a few people with the PhD's. Most County Sherif's offices do, eventhough they are two different departments, they'll help out. My former sister in law was at a scene of a murder where the perp. was Wiccan and had all of his spiritual items out in the front room. However, it was a "crime of passion," or 2nd degree, along with drugs, so there wasn't a need for an actual expert.
This is police work, you know. You can't be too careful with this kind of thing, and they are the last people to care about being PC. He's not going to say, "This looks to be witchcraft, though not of the..." It's crappy, I realize this. However, that's how it goes. It's like my brother said to me, "H, you can complain all that you want, but if you're asleep and you hear someone breaking into your house, we're going to be the ones to take care of you. Then, we're going to get called out to god only knows where to deal with people who want to kill us because we're going to take down their meth ring. We're here to serve and protect." - My brother really believed in that, and so did many of his friends and colleagues, though I hear it isn't the norm.
It's really real, though, to use an expression from one of my professors, that different varieties of so-called Witchcraft exist in this world. I'm not saying this to be a schmuck but rather to give an idea that in social terms and practical/hands on and even spiritual (globally) no one's got a copyright on the word or it's powers, you know. Everybody's got their own flavor, and not everyone's flavor "harms none," in fact it may want you to "harm one" for this particular right.
Also, there are folks in the traditions that most of you take part who will go to jail for felonies arranging from assault to murder just as any other spiritual person might. It isn't for us to judge them. (I've seen the job She's got, and I don't want it. This happened as I had an epiphany that we, me included, get rather indignant when excluded and judged, but you know, we, me too, are some of the most judgement and exclusive people within the religious sphere. I've been making movements to extricate myself from that behavior however now am really also trying not to loose my cool at people who continue to be stuck up and mean) .
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| What Defines An Expert? | Nov 8th. at 9:12:00 am EST
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Finn (San Marcos, Texas) - Email Me
Here is a thought, how about bringing in someone other than a merchant that hocks junk at a shop directed at those under the Pagan umbrella. I do not define someone who owns a Metaphysical Shop as an "expert." We have to hold ourselves to the same standard we expect of others. It is idiotic when the police bring in someone as an "Occult Expert" in creepy cases whose only experience is some sort of religious background and a negative reaction to the occult. It is likewise idiotic for us to accept someone as an expert because they have put Llewellyn's oversized inventory of pulp on their shelves.
As I said before, I don't think a witch was responsible for the grave robbery in this case, largely because a real witch wouldn't have worked so hard to call attention to it. However, that is light years away from saying witches would never (could never) do something like that. There are witches the world over, in every culture and of countless creeds. The remains of the dead, both animal and human, play a big role in the ritual and symbolism of many. An actual expert, someone who has actually studied or trained in culture, history, and theology would be well aware of this fact. More to the point, since when do we get to decide who is and isn't a witch because they do things we find questionable?
Call me crazy but I define an "expert" as someone with a PhD on the wall, or ten plus years of highly specialized, practical application in a specific, NARROW field. I'm an elitist that way. To frame this in an even harsher light, would you go to someone for surgery who isn't a doctor but own a medical supplies store? Come on people, can't we set our standards a little higher?
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| You Hear That? | Nov 7th. at 8:26:31 pm EST
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Young Coyote (W. Hempstead, California) - Email Me
It's the sound of some cop being intellectually b**** slapped by someone who actually knows what she's talking about.
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