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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20545
[Religious]
Date Posted:
4/17/2009
4:12:40 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 3,661
RSS: 20,338
Comments: 21
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I Think Perhaps I Am Wiccan
Author: Margaret Caldwell Source: Desert Valley Times (UT)
Title: I THINK PERHAPS I AM WICCAN
Today I am in a reflective mood. I find very little inspiration. I’ll share my random thoughts. I don’t go to church but I feel I am close to God. When I did go to church I was not religious in my feelings. Church was too much like a business.
I think perhaps I am Wiccan. After all that was the first religion, wasn’t it?
A Wiccan worships the earth, the sky – all of nature. They also have an appreciation of “an old crone.” Me.
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Community Thoughts: There are 21 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| She Said 'perhaps' | Apr 20th. at 1:06:25 pm EDT
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me
Which gives her great latitude, don't you think? I think it's a sweet and fascinating article. Her attitudes regarding Church sure have a delicious bite. It does seem she's confused someone's else's conception of Wicca with free-form paganism. And apparently she has not yet met the religious police that so earnestly try to calcify and enforce a Wiccan belief system. But I'm sure she'll recognize them for what they are, crafty as she is.
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| Wow | Apr 20th. at 10:36:31 am EDT
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Tammabukku (Phoenix, Arizona) - Email Me
Reading this was pretty amazing until you start to get to the comments. I hope in some ways this old crone doesnt end up reading these and in other ways i hope she does. If she doesnt read them she may continue to learn and grow in her own ways, however if she does read them maybe she will start to see the reasons many others and myself have withdrawn from the "wicca". Its amazing to see so many people who claim to be open to others and yet so quick to judge. I think the ones that get me the most are those that say what experience she did or did not have. and what she is or isnt. You were not there and you did not feel what she felt. Many of us have experience things, connections, communications,ect. in our own ways and many times not able to correctly translate the experience into words.
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| "If You Build It, They Will Come" | Apr 20th. at 9:58:11 am EDT
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Fraoch (Shelby, North Carolina) - Email Me
What I don't understand is a Wiccan who will point at someone and say, "You're not Wiccan." You'd never find a Taoist pointing at someone to say, "You're not a Taoist." Is not Wicca *now* a frame of mind. It has to be; it's an existing evolving religion.
Face the facts kiddies, people are going to be entering into the Wiccan way through various channels and means, because the religion is wide spread. What a religion doesn't need is it's members picking who's who and who's not and member. In fact, you really can't do that once involved in a religion, unless you're an a#*.
Sure Wicca has it's indoctrination ceremonies, but it's also a solitary religion. Not only are the hundreds of fun titles to be thrown around, there's also a moral code, a system of beliefs that have nothing to do with yippee titles. There are experiences to be had. We could talk all day about the Gods, and ultimately, it's up to them to decide, not some "stuck up" with their head up their bum.
This how relgion works. If you build it, they will come. Sorry peeps, it's the way it is. So, get your thumb out your tushes and quit judging people.
This 102 year old woman had an experience of a life time, and thus I quote someone else, how in the heck do you know that that night spent was not her inititiation?
*My* only concern was that she didn't experience the Goddess, but hey, maybe she did in her own way. I don't really give a fig that she got her dates wrong. I mentioned it as something that everyone does.
This is why I left Wicca. Titles... I don't need no stinking titles!
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| Bravo, Margaret! | Apr 19th. at 11:39:37 pm EDT
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nasionnaich (Stanchfield, Minnesota) - Email Me
I love Old Crones -- my mother is a Crone! (I don't see her as "old", though - I see her as "elderly") In my view, it doesn't matter one bit whether the Crone is a Christian, Pagan, Wiccan or Elvish Water Dragon -- she is a person who has lived a helluva lot longer than I have, and she deserves my respect for that alone.
This woman (no, not me - I am not a woman) has lived for 102 years, has lived as a church-going Christian for at least 80 of those 102 years, and has adopted a Wiccan as her daughter. She has dared to write about her POSITIVE experience at a Wiccan gathering, and dared even to have what she wrote published in a UTAH newspaper. She is anything but a "methead fundie"! Yes, Draken, that was a response to what you called her; perhaps you should read the article again.
I just hope that I'm still able -- if I'm still around 55 years from now -- to try new things, to take a step or five out of my "comfort zone", to do things simply for the experience of having done them. I hope I'll still be able to enjoy Life with the same kind of excitement as this 102 year old Old Crone shows in her writing.
--nasionnaich
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| Aw Come On.... | Apr 19th. at 1:15:24 pm EDT
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GreenRain (Sedalia, Missouri) - Email Me
...She's over a hundred and has opened her mind to a new faith. She's just learning, so she's going to get bits that are inaccurate and hearsay.
But she opened her MIND. That's a big leap, and some are nitpicking her for the first step.
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| On Initiation (from A 30 Year Wiccan Veteran) | Apr 19th. at 10:21:21 am EDT
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The Wolf from Penn's Woods (Chattanooga, Tennessee) - Email Me
Who is to say that the "epiphany" Ms. Caldwell experienced was not HER "initiation", by a higher power?
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| Respecting Old Crones Is | Apr 19th. at 8:46:10 am EDT
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Liriel (Lehigh Acres, Florida) - Email Me
one of the reasons I chose the Pagan path.
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| Please... | Apr 18th. at 11:23:12 pm EDT
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Kate (Athens, Georgia) - Email Me
Many years ago, I started my study of Paganism by visiting every web site I could find that dealt with any form of Pagan belief. At that time, a seeker felt free to follow their heart and mind in choosing the path for them. Now, it seems you come under severe criticism if you don't adhere to very strict guidelines. Where did the freedom, the beauty, the self fulfillment go?
I decided, after much study, that Wicca was not my path. Actually, I don't follow anybody's path other than my own. My form of Paganism has no name. I simply say I am Pagan.
I love the freedom I have. I appreciate the independence. I read comments on here that others have made about their beliefs and I feel they have the right to believe whatever they wish. However, when the comments about another person's beliefs become harsh, spiteful, non-understanding, I cringe. This is not Paganism to me. We are an accepting people.
Are we returning to the Xian narrow-minded, hateful, spiteful ways?
The writer of this article is 102 years old. If you can't show her common courtesy, please respect her years.
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| I Understand | Apr 18th. at 10:26:55 pm EDT
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browneyes (savanna, Illinois) - Email Me
i srugle but i know that i believe in the earth the trees the waterfalls i believe in the stars and the moon i can see them i talk to the night sky ,, not sure who i am adressing my thoughts to but i know some one hears me,,, i have proof in my life of that
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| :D | Apr 18th. at 5:56:23 pm EDT
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Elistra (Lexington, Kentucky) - Email Me
I think that's so great. Many people that age are so wrapped up in the trammels of habit that they don't seek out new experiences like she's doing.
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| I Think Perhaps People Are Nitpicking | Apr 18th. at 4:48:48 pm EDT
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Jenna (Cary, North Carolina) - Email Me
I think it's thrilling that such a lovely elder lady has taken an interest in Paganism and has remained openminded enough to give what the mainstream dismisses as being either a "delusion" or to the Christian fundies "a trick of the devil" a real chance. Was this an academic article? No, but there are thousands of those out there for those who are looking. This was a personal experince article, and I for one think this lady should be applauded, not chastised. The sheer joy with which she wrote is a much greater reflection of the Goddess than writing an essay on the various mythological names of Her. Pagans and Wiccans especially need to ease up. Is Wicca is oldest religion? No, but it is based upon Paganism which is the oldest known form of religion. The only reason why Paganism didn't survive in an unbroken chain as Gardner stated was because the Christians were putting to death anyone who remotely clashed with the Church, including fellow Christians. I for one am grateful that Paganism is making a resurrence, and I am honoured that women such as the author have chosen to give this path her consideration. If only those in our belief system would be as openminded.
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| What Annoys Me | Apr 18th. at 2:19:11 pm EDT
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Aritimi Morgana (RotterdamJct/Schdy/Scotia, New York) - Email Me
is the astounding hypocricy of pagans. Sure, I've my bones to pick with the Church and fundies, and they aggravate me. That's true. What makes me shake my head is the sneering, supercilious tone some of the posts here have towards this woman who wrote the piece. SO what if it doesn't entirely make sense to you. It's her intentions that make it poignant. You don't have to take her words for truth, it's just her experience. And I've seen this done to other pagans who don't follow the rules; they get stomped on by fellow pagans.
And here I thought pagans were supposed to be accepting of one another's differences, to embrace diversity. Wrong! We're just as spiteful, narrow-minded and judgemental as the fundies some of us here hate. Pot calling the cauldron black? Save your contempt for those who truly deserve it, not innocent people.
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| A Few Things | Apr 18th. at 1:11:20 pm EDT
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Morgan Pierceheart (Boston, Massachusetts) - Email Me
"This is a woman who was born before airplanes"
Nope, first flight at Kittyhawk was in 1903, this woman was born in 1907.
I agree with the commentary regarding what Wicca is and isn't, yet I think we'll never manage to fully put that one back in the bag.
This woman reminds me a lot of an older brother Mason who has spoken with a number of us younger Brethren who practice either NeoPagan witchcraft, or Wicca (or are studying towards that) who has told us all, a number of times, that he is glad we do not recruit.
"You guys seem more like followers of Christ should act, than a lot of the Christians I know from the Lodge, and this has attracted me to your faith."
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| You Go Girl! | Apr 18th. at 12:43:37 pm EDT
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SnowRaven (Medina, Ohio) - Email Me
In regards to the article, I'm profoundly happy that she has had such an experience and at such a venerated age is open enough to explore it AND write about it.
What saddens me, both in the comments here and others on-line, are those that have such a narrow definition of what being Wiccan is and its origins. It is divisive and not a little insulting for other pagans to look down their noses and assure us that they know when our religion began -- 'only last century!'-- they state, smugly. My Goddess is far older than that, and there is nowhere I won't look for her. Even in those books labeled as 'fluffy'. Being Wiccan can mean many things....
Yes, it is the oldest religion.
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| One Cannot Expect... | Apr 18th. at 8:18:29 am EDT
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Cwydd ap Gwydion (Hudson, New York) - Email Me
... someone who has not walked the path to know all about it... however, I am truly happy for her experience. There is magick in the world, and people experience it in different ways. Her perceptions are a bit skewed, but her experience is genuine.
Kneejerk reactions to WHY she wrote this, and labelling her, are not very encouraging to someone who may be questioning their direction in life.
Bravo to her, I hope she backs up her epiphany with deeper study, and greater understanding.
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