191 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
191 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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A LITTLE LESS MISUNDERSTANDING
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(what Christians don't understand about Neopaganism)
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by J. Brad Hicks
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Q: Are you a witch?
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A: That's actually a tricky question to answer, so let me go about
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it in a round-about way: what I am is a Neopagan. Neopaganism is a
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beautiful, complex religion that is not in opposition to Christianity
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in any way - just different. However, some of the people that the
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Catholic church burned as "witches" were people who practiced
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something essentially the same as what I do. In identification with
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them and the suffering that they went through, some of us (Neopagans)
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call ourselves witches.
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One expert, P.E.I. Bonewits, says that there are actually several
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kinds of groups that are called "witches." Some are people whose
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ancestors were village healers, herbalists, midwives, and such - many
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of whom had (or were ascribed to have) mental, or psychic, or magic
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powers, which were passed down through the family in the form of oral
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tradition, and Bonewits calls them "Traditional Witches." Some are
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people who have deliberately used the term to oppose themselves to
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Christianity, are practicing "Satanists," and practice (deliberately)
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most of the practices invented by the Inquisition, and Bonewits calls
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them "Gothic Witches" or "Neo-Gothic Witches." Some belong to radical
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feminist groups, who use the term because they believe that the
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original Inquisition was primarily anti-women; some of them practice
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magic, many of them do not - Bonewits calls them "Feminist Witches."
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But the vast majority (these days) are harmless people who worship God
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in many forms, including the Lord and the Lady and Mother Earth.
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These (including myself, and himself), Bonewits identifies as
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"Neopagan Witches."
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I hope that this helps more than it confuses.
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Q: Are you a devil worshipper?
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A: I'm tempted to just say, "No!" and leave it at that, but that
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probably isn't enough.
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Devil worship (including Satanism) is really a Christian heresy.
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If you don't believe me, ask an expert - say, a well-read pastor or
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theology professor. In order to worship Satan, you have to believe in
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him - and the mythology/beliefs about Satan appear only in one place:
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the Christian Bible. So to be a Satanist or a devil worshipper, you
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have to believe in the accuracy of the Christian Bible, then identify
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yourself with God's Enemy, proclaim that you are "evil," and then try
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to "fight against Jesus" or similar nonsense.
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Neopagans do not accept the Christian Bible as a source of truth.
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As a source of some beautiful poetry, sometimes, or as a source of
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myth, but not as a source of truth. Emphatically, we do not believe
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that God has an Opposite, an evil being trying to destroy God, the
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world, man, or whatever. So it is non-sensical to say that Neopagans
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worship Satan.
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Of course, many people insist that any god other than JHVH/Jesus
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(and his other nom-de-plumes) is an illusion created by Satan. Well,
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you're welcome to believe that if you like - but over half of the
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world's population is going to be unhappy at you. Followers of Islam
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are just as confident of Allah as you are of Jesus, and resent being
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called devil worshippers. So do I.
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Q: What do Neopagans believe about God?
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A: Neopaganism is a relatively new religion with very, very old
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roots. It harks back to the first (based on physical evidence)
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religions that man ever practiced. Neopagans worship a variety of
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symbols from the old religions - the practices of the ancient Celts,
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the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans - and differ with each other
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over what those symbols really represent. What believe is that they
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are all aspects of God (or maybe, The Gods) -
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some kind of beautiful, powerful, and loving being or force that ties
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all of mankind together and is the origin of all miracles - including
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miracles such as written language, poetry, music ...
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Q: Do Neopagans have a Bible?
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A: Not most of us. The closest analogue would be a witch's Book of
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Shadows, which is a sort of notebook of legends, poetry, history, and
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magic that is copied by every newly-initiated witch, then added to.
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But on the whole, even a Book of Shadows isn't what Christians think
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of as a Bible. It's not infallible (couldn't be - they've been
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transmitted by hastily-coppied texts under questionable
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circumstances), it doesn't prescribe a specific code of contact
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(except for a few prohibitions), and it doesn't claim to be dictated
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by God - except for a few, debatable parts.
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Those of us who aren't witches don't even have that much.
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Neopaganism is a religious system that relies more on the individual
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than on the Book or the Priest. One of the principal beliefs of
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Neopaganism is that no one, not Pope nor Priest nor Elder, has the
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right to interfere with your relationship to God. Learn from whoever
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you want, and pray to whatever name means the most to you.
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Q: Did you say magic? Do Neopagans believe in the occult?
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A: Cringe. What a badly worded question - but I hear it all the
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time. Neopagans as a rule don't "believe in the occult" - we practice
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magic. Magic is simply a way to focus the mental abilities that you
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were born with, and use them to change the world in positive ways.
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Magic can also be mixed with worship - in which case it differs very
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little from Christian prayer.
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Q: But I thought that you said that you weren't a demon-worshipper?
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A: That's right. Magic and demonology are two different things.
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Magic you also know as "psychic powers" or "mentallics" or even as
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"the power of positive thinking" - in essense, the magical world view
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holds that "reality" is mostly a construct of the human mind, and as
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such, can be altered by the human mind. That's all there is to it.
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Q: How do you become a Neopagan?
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A: In a very real sense, nobody every "becomes" a Neopagan. There
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are no converts, as no conversion is necessary. Neopaganism is an
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attitude towards worship, and either you have it or you don't.
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My case is not atypical. All of my life, I have been fascinated
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by the old mythologies. I have always found descriptions of the Greek
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gods, and the classical Greek civilization, to be beautiful and
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fascinating. If I had any religious beliefs as a child, is wat that
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somewhere, there is a God - many people worship Him - but I have no
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idea what his name is. I set out to find Him, and through an odd
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combination of circumstances, I because convinced that his Name was
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Jesus. But seven years later, I had to admit to myself that Whoever
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God is, he answers non-Christians' prayers as well as those in the
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name of Jesus. In either case, true miracles are rare. In both
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cases, the one praying has a devout experience with God.
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After searching my soul, I admitted that I could not tell that I
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was better off than when I believed in the old gods. And in the mean
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time, I had found out that other people also loved the old Greek gods
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- and that they call themselves Neopagans. When I realized that what
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I believed was little or no different that what they believed, I
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called myself a Neopagan, too.
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The common element for nearly all of us is that nearly all of us
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already believed these things, before we found out that anyone else
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did. "Becoming" a pagan is never a conversion. It's usually a home-
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coming. No one ever "brainwashed" me. I finally relaxed, and stopped
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struggling against my own conscience.
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Q: I've heard about witches holding orgies and such. Do you?
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A: No, that sort of thing doesn't appeal to me. Most of the crap
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that you've heard about "witch orgies" is nonsense made up by the
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National Enquirer to sell magazines.
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But I shouldn't be flippant about this, because it underlies a
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serious question - what kind of morality do Neopagans hold to?
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"Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:
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An it harm none, do what thou will!"
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from an old Book of Shadows
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That about sums it up. Neopaganism teaches that it is harmful to
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yourself (and dangerous) to harm others. It also teaches that trying
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to impose your moral standards on somebody else's behaviour is (at
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least) foolish - and probably dangerous, as you run some serious
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chance of hurting that person. Perhaps in a sense Neopagans don't
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have morality, for as R. A. Wilson said, "There are no commandments
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because there is no Commander anywhere," but Neopagans do have ethics
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- standards for behaviour based on honor and mutual benefit.
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Q: I saw on the news that Neopagans use a star in a circle as their
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emblem. Isn't that a Satanic symbol?
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A: A pentacle (that's what it's called) is a Satanic symbol in the
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precise same sense that a cross is a Nazi symbol. The German National
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Socialist Party used an equal-armed cross with four flags attached to
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it as their emblem. (Yes, I know - that's a swastika. Well, before
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the Nazis made the word common knowledge, people just called it a
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"bent cross" - it's an old heraldic symbol, and it means the same
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thing that a normal cross does). That doesn't make the Nazis good
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Christians, nor does it make Christians, Nazis.
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In the same sense, Satanists (and some rock groups) use a type of
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pentacle as their emblem. That doesn't make them Neopagans, nor does
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it mean that Neopagans are Satanists (or even rock-and-rollers).
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Q: Are Neopagans opposed to Christianity?
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A: I'm not going to deny it - many Neopagans are ex-Christians, and
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some of them have a grudge against the Church because of what they
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perceived as attempts to control their minds. Many are suspicious of
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the Church, because it was in the name of Jesus Christ that nine
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million of our kind were murdered.
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Neopagans are opposed to anyone who uses force to control the
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minds of others. Does that include you? If not, then it means that
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Neopagans as such are not opposed to you. Do you work for the benefit
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of mankind, are you respectful to the Earth? Then it makes us allies,
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whether or not either of us wants to admit it.
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- - - - - - - - - -
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There are many other misconceptions in the common mind about the
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Neopagan religion. Unless you've studied it, read about it from
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sympathetic sources, then you really don't know anything about Neopagan
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history, beliefs, practices, customs, art, science, culture, or magic. But
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it would take several entire books to teach you, and I already fear that I
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will be accused of trying to win converts (despite what I've said above).
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If you are curious and willing to learn, try some of the following books:
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Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon
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Starhawk, The Spiral Dance
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P.E.I. Bonewits, Real Magic
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Stewart Farrar, What Witches Do.
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