Starhawk and the Pope

it is also important to examine one's own conscience before judging another. And while "witches" (or those who are slottled in various related categories) are too often victims, and the pope acknowledged that in Africa, the "imagination, intution, and magic" that Starhawk cites also fuel terrible abuses and horrific crimes against innocents in Africa and elsewhere. The pope also spoke against that. Did Starhawk? Perhaps she or her clan spoke out against abusive withcraft and superstition and neo-paganism during the papal visit to Africa, but I didn't see it.

I see this issue rather differently than Gibson.

In a sense the problem is with our name, a name I have no intention of giving up.  "Witch" refers to two different groups of people that can sometimes over lap.  First are those following traditions rooted in very distant times, probably growing out of shamanism, that make use of magick, herbs, spirits, divination and healing to bring a community into greater harmony with the more-than-human context in which it exists.  Because the Church believes non-Christian Pagans worship demons, they claimed all this was witchcraft.  The name stuck, as has the name "Pagan."

Then there are those who make use of magick, herbs, spirits, and divination to gain power, destroy enemies, and manipulate others.  These folks have to be called something, and that word has been "witch."

We Witches emphasize the first group, but often neglect to mention that the second group has existed as well.  

The distinction between them blurs when one community fights another, because their shamans might also get in on the action, using their magick against their community's enemies.   Think of the Christian churches of Germany supporting their soldiers while the Christian churches of America supported ours in both World Wars.  One could draw a distinction between those who injure others for personal gain, and those who do so to defend their community, and I do.  But it is shaky ground.

The abuses of 'black' practitioners, have been used to justify the religiously intolerant in suppressing those who follow a Pagan way steeped in a shamanic past.  Historically the Catholic Church has been second to none in committing such crimes.  And so everyone working either alone or in small groups has been lumped together as "Witches."

Don Frew tells me this confusion over what constitutes a "Witch" has been a frequent problem when we initially communicate with many indigenous traditions, at least in Latin America.  While missionaries attacked their 'witchcraft' they themselves rejected the title because witches did bad things, and they didn't.  Then they meet people who say they are witches.  Initially they think we must do bad things, and only relax when they learn the truth.

And so I am not convinced that the African examples Gibson would have us denounce are properly criticized.  Maybe, maybe not.  All I know of them is what their detractors have said. When those describing them are also associated with an institution having a long history of distorting and maligning indigenous spirituality, I'll reserve judgment as to whether we are getting accurate information on those African examples.  

Yet there are nasty practitioners and when they come to light within our own community Pagans have been pretty united in denouncing them..  

But lest we get too smug, the Pagan traditions are not bloodless either.  Those who would commit far darker deeds and serve depraved motives in the name of the Sacred include more than arrogant monotheists.  Think of Carthage and its infant sacrifices, or the Aztecs and their blood offerings.  Much that is most objectionable in some Islamic practices towards women has nothing to do with the Koran and a lot to do with the Pagan Arab cultures where Mohammed's teachings first took root, and were modified.  

I think while we all must acknowledge the dark sides of our respective histories in order to inoculate ourselves against the disease of self-righteousness, the true task of our time today is to build our communities on what is best in our own traditions, and let others do the same in theirs, relying in Interfaith to promote mutual respect, while enabling friendly relations with different religions to marginalize those within any particular tradition who seek to gain power within their own community  through sowing divisions and distrust towards others.