Witch School.

On my various pagan wanderings, there have been two traditions that I have examined and had the opportunity to study with folks in that tradition- but rejected. The first was Stregheria, Italian Witchcraft. The second was Corellian Wicca.

I don't know when it was taken down, but the Correlians used to have a tradition listing at http://www.witchvox.com stating, among other things, that they emphasised education and learning, with spells and magic being less of a focus. That was what interested me about them. And then they started their witch school- It's been in the news lately, but it's been aorund for a while. They either bought or were going to buy a building a while back, but the residents of the particular location were particularly hostile, so it remained an online venture for a while...Way back, shortly after it first started online, I checked out the school website. I decided not to do it because even if the classes were free, I had no money to buy books or anything like that.

...now they've bought another building and are opening a school. Some pagans think that this is a really great thing, and it's going to make pagan religions more mainstream, or more respected...I can't find reason to agree

( Check out this essay written by Juliaki )

Reading this essay, and a discussion on one of the ADF lists has prompted me to go and look at the website again.

Here's what I turned up:

1. They can't decide how to spell "magic". Pages with multiple occurences of the word show it spelled both "magic" and "magick". can't even mis/spell consistently?? A bit of a red flag.
examples found all over this page

2. Their FAQ: you can't read more than one line from any of the answers (type a "%" to bring up all questions/answers)

3. Want to teach a course? There's not much to it really, Here's the page asking for teachers. Note how there's nothing mentioned about teachers' credentials. They talk about reviewing material for grammer, spelling atc...but not for content ("Any suggested changes of a substantive nature will be sent to you for review and will not be put up on the site without your approval." *might* refer to content...but it is followed with another statement about spelling that leads me to believe that it's strictly a language refernce.)

4. They call themselves "Correllian Nativist Wicca" but have a look herefirst they say that "Correllian Nativism" was established in 1897, which would predate Wicca by about 70 years. Then it goes on to say that it's debateable as to whether it's actually Wicca or not, but that's just "a matter of semantics anyway". According to the page, it started as "Nativism" until 1992, when they changed it to "Correllian Nativism". There NO explaination as to when or where Wicca comes into the picture. Googling the terms "Nativism High Correll" (without the quotes) returns 61 results- some of them not related. The results contain only information that is parotted from the link above. There is also this claim:

Lady Orpheis’ Nativism was a highly political and deeply synchretic form of Pagan universalism, which stressed the need for the world’s Native (Pagan) religions to unite in the face of colonial Christianity.

If they were so political, then why when I google "orpheis nativism" do I find only two pages of results- one of which the search engine says is duplicate information, and again all repeating the same information on the Correllian website- several of them word for word?

(This has nothing to do with the school...but has given me a headache looking over the website: They have their own special calendar. If you read the history page- linked above- you'll notice that they keep giving dates like this: September 4, 1479 Pisces (1879 AD). Why not just say "CE" instead of "AD" if you have such a problem with that designation? But here's a link to information about the calender: http://www.correllian.com/correllcal.htm)

WTFF???

The Statue Of Liberation Through Christ???

(It's the Statue Of Liberty. With a few new accoutrements. For serious.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html?ex=1152763200&en=201321768bfb4841&ei=5059&partner=AOL

( Or click here...I had some issue getting the link to work the first time... )

"This statue proves that Jesus Christ is Lord over America, he is Lord over Tennessee, he is Lord over Memphis."

This statue proves nothing.

Dammit, it's my Statue Of Liberty too.

Yeah, you know, I'm just not too jazzed about that.

Too Much Time On My Hands...

So...out of curiousity I decided to give Witch School a call and pretend that I was interested in teaching a class. I asked what kind of documentation I would need to submit as far as my experience, credientials, training etc....

...nada. Zip. Zilch. Squat.

foolish at best, but potentially downright dangerous.

Even if there are no requirements are needed for those interested in teaching things like movie revierwing (yes, it's one of the classes on their "wish list"), there are certain things that should not be taught except by those qualified to teach the subject. The other example that I used is herbalism. If you just go messing around with random plants and you don't know what you're doing, you could make someone sick or kill them.

This Is A Load Of Bull.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jul-06-Thu-2006/news/8344272.html


Wiccan symbol far from getting VA's approval

Guardsman's widow says lawyer hired

By SEAN WHALEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- The widow of a Nevada Army National Guard member killed last year in Afghanistan met with a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official Wednesday to try to get her husband's Wiccan symbol of faith approved for his memorial plaque.

Roberta Stewart, wife of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, met with William Tuerk, undersecretary for memorial affairs within the veterans department, but was told no action on approving the Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star, for use in veterans cemeteries would be taken anytime soon.

Stewart, speaking by telephone from Washington, D.C., said Tuerk told her that the rules to approve an emblem of belief for use on a headstone or memorial plaque were incorrectly adopted and need to be redone.

Tuerk would not offer a timeline, and Stewart said her only option now is to file a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds.

An attorney has been hired, but Stewart said he would not be named until today.

Stewart's plaque with the symbol cannot be placed at the cemetery until it is approved for use. The spot where his plaque would be is blank.

Tuerk offered a plaque with no symbol, but Stewart refused.

The agency has recognized other emblems over the years, including one for atheists, for Buddhists and for many Christian denominations.

Stewart died Sept. 25 when his Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. Four others also died.

Wiccans, also known as neopagans, are a loosely confederated group of nature religious practitioners. Their beliefs date to before Christianity and focus on the natural world.

Many of their observances fall around specific times of the year, such as the summer and winter solstice.

Stewart said the agency's refusal to recognize the symbol of her faith is discrimination.


My question: Does this mean that other symbols that were approved in the meantime will be subject to recall and reevaluation?

(no subject)

I'd like to issue a general grumble to the universe.

*grumble*

That's all. Go about your business.

From An Unlikely Ally:

The Rutherford Institute, one of the largest right-wing Christian think tanks/lobbying groups in the country supports this fight:

"Sgt. Stewart and his family have already been harmed in the ultimate way. The least the Department of Veterans Affairs can do to ease that suffering is to act in the manner that realizes the constitutional values which Sgt. Stewart died to preserve."

The article is long, but that's the basic idea.

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/legal_features.asp?article_id=151