4. Gain Sovereignty of Yourself
Personal Sovereignty means that you have full control, responsibility and and authority over yourself. If someone else threatens your well being, including access to the resources you need to survive, because your religion differs from theirs, they are being an asshole, and you don’t need assholes in your life. The first thing you should work on is gaining your independence. Get yourself to a place of safety; call the authorities for help if you have to.
There are advocacy groups out there to help you should you find yourself in a threatening situation and need help. In support of our freedom of religion in legal matters, know that we are blessed to have The Lady Liberty League in the United States.
From their website: “LLL members include specialists in a variety of focus areas, including public relations, countering harassment, employment issues, child custody issues, military affairs, law enforcement relations, legal affairs, interfaith relations, scholars support, and others.”
My First Rule of Witchcraft is don’t burn the witch, starting with yourself; the best way to love and respect others is to begin by loving and respecting yourself first. Create high standards for yourself, and expect the same respect from the people around you. Be awesome, be gentle, be informative; hold open the door to meet them on common ground. Stand strong, and if they cannot return to you the same respect by showing up in peace, be willing to let them go their own way.
Establishing your sovereignty is the first step of good witchcraft, anyway. Work to create the environment in which you will thrive, then decide whether or not to “come out of the broom closet” when you have less to lose. Cutting loose abusive people is ultimately for our highest good, though it certainly hurts in the moment.
5. Change your perspective from combatant to healer
One of the jobs of the Witch is be a healer, yes? Well, we need to become “field medics” for our evangelical neighbors.
Consider this: evangelicals are suffering from a form of PTSD – they are deeply wounded.
We understand that the Abrahamic paradigm is a battlefield where a war is raging between their God and the Anti-God they’ve named “Satan.” It’s a good vs. evil paradigm. In their mythology it’s a real nightmare trying to decide which character is good and which one is evil, because it’s basically a horror story from beginning to end. The whole system is driven by the fear of being cast out from the supposed love and mercy of their God.
This “merciful” God would damn his own children because of their inherent depravity through original sin, the weakness of the flesh that they are supposed to deny, and then he’d torture them for eternity in the fires of hell unless they jump the hoops, fit the mold, and toe the line, just so. Oh, but Abrahamic folks can’t even decide among themselves how best to do that. So, instead they spend centuries trying to kill each other.
Terrifying! Fear of a lack of god’s love binds them like slaves. I have nothing but compassion for anyone still suffering on this battlefield. They are bleeding out all over America. Bless their hearts. MEDIC!
Mental Health Professionals are now recognizing a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder called Religious Trauma Syndrome. Of course some of these wounded folks are acting badly towards us! If they love you, of course they are concerned for your eternal soul, but it does no more good to harbor anger towards them than it does good to blame a veteran with PTSD. Hold the space with that thought for a moment. Then, send the power of truly unconditional Divine Love into those wounds, offer them healing, compassion and support, just as much as you would a soldier returning from war.
I see evangelical Christians as wounded with a subversive form of brain-washing. Those wounds fester under this repressive, unnatural way to live and become a pressure cooker with a recipe for disaster. They don’t know any other way. But you do…and isn’t that a blessing you should share?
My paganism is a honeymoon paradigm, a love story, of Goddess loving God. We know that all of us, including our most meddlesome of proselytizing family members, are sacred beings worthy of dignity and respect. We know that all of humanity are inherently Divine and blessed in their natures, just like Jesus was trying to tell them so very long ago…
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who’ve trespassed against us.” ~Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6: 9
Continue on to the last page for a few more ideas…
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In