{"id":335,"date":"2017-01-27T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T20:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?p=335"},"modified":"2017-01-27T12:16:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T20:16:01","slug":"witch-theology-sacredness-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/01\/witch-theology-sacredness-now.html","title":{"rendered":"Witch Theology: The Sacredness of the Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Witch Essence: Rooted\" - painting by the author
\u201cWitch Essence: Rooted\u201d \u2013 painting by the author<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Occasionally I am asked about my theology as a Witch \u2013 especially what about the goal of living, of death and the afterlife? I\u2019ve been thinking about it a lot lately as other folks\u2019 beliefs are being used to wage a culture war on the rest of humanity. \u00a0Seeing what other people claim they believe and then do because of those claims is always a good time to stop and think about your own.<\/p>\n

I went to Catholic school from kindergarten through 9th grade, with the catechism to match. \u00a0Not because I believed it, but because I was driven to excel in\u00a0all of my studies. Seriously, the only \u201cC\u201d I ever got on a report card was my final semester of college, when I was out of fucks to give about liberal arts credits.<\/p>\n

I was very much an over-achiever, so of course when there was a competition for art or scholarship, I was usually on board. \u00a0No less true for the annual poster competition that my school held \u2013 in correlation with the Pro-Life march. \u00a0I never went on a march, but I made some incredible posters from 6-8th grade, winning the competition every year. \u00a0The one I remember most had the words \u201cLife is a Gift\u201d and featured a baby in an open gift box with tissue paper (it was 3D) \u2013 and I achieved super-realism through Pantone markers.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t about the cause. \u00a0It was about the art. \u00a0I had the same fervency for the \u201cReuse, Renew, Recycle\u201d poster and anything else you tossed my way. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t into babies or children \u2013 I preferred my bunnies, bears, and unicorns. \u00a0My little cottage in the backyard wasn\u2019t so that I could \u201cplay house\u201d as a parent to dolls, but as a self-sufficient adult out in the wilderness. \u00a0When I heard of the deaths of young people \u2013 kids and teenagers, I was sad of course, but more on the part of frustration on their behalf. \u00a0That they had to go through THIS all over again. \u00a0THIS being childhood. \u00a0Childhood was a kind of purgatory to me \u2013 very early on I was keenly aware that in order to get shit done, I\u2019d have to be a lot older. \u00a0The idea of dying\u00a0just as you were getting to that point was the ultimate tragedy to me. \u00a0Innately, I had a dreaded sense of having to go through a reboot if that happened.<\/p>\n

Also, by 3rd grade, I learned that there wasn\u2019t a hell. \u00a0At least not to my parents \u2013 though that has never stopped any one in my family\u00a0from instructing other people to GO there post haste. \u00a0One of my teachers had said that anyone who wasn\u2019t Christian would immediately go to hell upon death. \u00a0Knowing my father was Jewish, I was understandably distraught. \u00a0My mom unpacked it for me that we didn\u2019t believe in hell, not like that. \u00a0Of course, if you take one thing out of the equation, it causes one to wonder about the other half \u2013 heaven. \u00a0Which in turn makes you wonder about the point of religion in politics, especially those\u00a0that have become largely based on a reward\/punishment system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s essentially about control and money \u2013 totally anachronistic to the actual doctrines of most religion. \u00a0Those doctrines are about the essence of love, about providing a good life for all, taking care of each other, cherishing our resources and protecting them. \u00a0There is a little talk about reward (because let\u2019s face it, some folks do need that kind of structure to actually be and do good), but it plays second or third fiddle in the orchestra\u00a0of living life fully and respectfully.<\/p>\n

So that hard focus on \u201cPro Life\u201d means absolutely nothing if you\u2019re not going to also give support for the actual life of the child, regardless of its creed, color, or background. \u00a0It means you\u2019re more intent\u00a0on breeding people and making them miserable for your own needs. \u00a0Why would anyone do that? Money, power, and control. \u00a0Why deny other kinds of marriage when you don\u2019t hold your own as sacred?\u00a0Fear-mongering, not love. Why destroy the environment and strip the planet of its resources? Maybe it\u2019s because you only believe in one life, and<\/em> think he who dies with the most money wins? \u00a0It sure isn\u2019t about cherishing life. \u00a0It definitely isn\u2019t about God or heaven. \u00a0It shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that the rise of the heaven\/hell concept really took on a new role in Christianity during the darkest ages of man \u2013 as a means to make money and control people.<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to the wording on that \u201cPro-Life\u201d poster I made in grade school. \u00a0I don\u2019t believe in the doctrine or system behind the creation of the poster, but I do<\/strong> believe that life IS a gift, once we have fully entered this world. \u00a0And we have a duty to live it.<\/p>\n

My theology as a Witch is that I\u2019m focused on the sacredness of now, the inter-connectivity of life. \u00a0I believe all<\/strong> <\/em>expressions of love, and I find such incredible beauty in them. I believe in giving people the opportunity and freedom to live life beautifully. \u00a0I believe we do travel in cycles and circles, and therefore need to not<\/strong> think in terms of heaven and hell, but rather of the interwoven pattern of past, present, and future. \u00a0I\u2019m not hung up on the idea of reincarnation or heaven, but I do believe we exist as energy that can return to a source. And then like fresh wool, are spun out again into threads across the universe\u2019s loom. \u00a0If we revel in the now and<\/em> take responsibility for our actions as we weave through the loom, then we preserve the future and build the fabric of life.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s the point of others to seek to destroy that fabric. I don\u2019t know. \u00a0But I do know it\u2019s my job to keep on practicing, and weaving it the best way I know how as a Witch.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally I am asked about my theology as a Witch \u2013 especially what about the goal of living, of death and the afterlife? I\u2019ve been thinking about it a lot lately as other folks\u2019 beliefs are being used to wage a culture war on the rest of humanity. \u00a0Seeing what other people claim they believe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[167,168,22,166,7,4],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernpractice","category-myth-and-folklore","tag-afterlife","tag-now","tag-paganism","tag-theology","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\nWitch Theology: The Sacredness of the Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Occasionally I am asked about my theology as a Witch - especially what about the goal of living, of death and the afterlife?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2017\/01\/witch-theology-sacredness-now.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Witch Theology: The Sacredness of the Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Occasionally I am asked about my theology as a Witch - 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