Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Wicca

Wicca

"We are not evil. We don't harm or seduce people. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary people like you. We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V. We are real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor. You don't have to be afraid of us. We don't want to convert you. And please don't try to convert us. Just give us the same right we give you--to live in peace. We are much more similar to you than you think."Margot Adler

"If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind and the rain." Herbalist Carol McGrath as told to her by a Native-American woman.

"I don't think witchcraft is a religion. I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made." G.W. Bush (R), as Governor of Texas. Interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America, 1999-JUN-24. He disapproved of Wiccan soldiers being given the same religious rights as others in the military.

"We should educate people that 'Witch' is not evil but ancient and positive. The first time I called myself a 'Witch' was the most magical moment of my life." Margot Adler.

"When one defines oneself as Pagan, it means she or he follows an earth or nature religion, one that sees the divine manifest in all creation. The cycles of nature are our holy days, the earth is our temple, its plants and creatures our partners and teachers. We worship a deity that is both male and female, a mother Goddess and father God, who together created all that is, was, or will be. We respect life, cherish the free will of sentient beings, and accept the sacredness of all creation." Edain McCoy

Satanism vs. Neo-Pagan Witchcraft

"Satanism vs. Neo-Pagan Witchcraft: Confusions and Distinctions"by Otter and Morning Glory Zell Editors, GREEN EGG magazine
It seems to be necessary to preface every discussion of Witchcraft with an explanation that, no, Neo-Pagan Witches aren't Satanists. The Christian anti-God, Satan, has no place in Pagan pantheons, either mythologically or theologically. Plainly and simply, to non-Christians, Satanism is the dark side of Christianity. Even today, Witchcraft is frequently misrepresented by being confused with Satanism. Often the word Witchcraft is used to represent two wholly opposite phenomena the survival of ancient Paganism in one instance, and the inversion of Christianity in another. Let us make it clear: a Satanist is a renegade Christian, who, in his rebellion against the authority of the church, worships Satan rather than Christ. Such people are at times called witches and warlocks in popular books and movies but they have little to do with Pagan Witches. Satanists, for one thing, accept the Christian duality between good and evil; Pagans do not. Satanists may choose to worship evil rather than good but they have utterly bought the Christian world view."
The word Pagan derives from the Latin paganus, meaning "peasant" or country dweller. It is correctly applied to indigenous (native) pantheistic folk religions and peoples. The term "Neo-Paganism" is applied to the modern re-emergence of ancient Pagan religious values, including the sacredness of all Life and the worship of Nature. Contemporary Witchcraft has been a major component of the Neo-Pagan resurgence since England repealed its anti-Witchcraft laws in 1951.

The Goddess and the God of Witchcraft

The many traditions of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft have few universal theological precepts, but one of them is certainly the veneration of the Moon Goddess, known most commonly by her Roman name, Diana. She is perceived as manifesting in triple form: as Maiden, Mother and Crone. These triple aspects are identified respectively with the waxing, full, and waning moons. Witches gather at esbats every full moon, to sing and dance in Her moonlight, share cakes and wine, and work magic to heal each other, their friends, and the Earth. Many modern Witches expand the concept of the Goddess considerably, and see Her also as Mother Earth and Mother Nature.P Most traditions of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft also honor the Consort of the Goddess in the form of the Horned God, who is seen as Lord of Animals as well as seasonal ruler of the Underworld. The most familiar version of the Horned God is the Greek Pan, goat-horned and goat-hoofed, playing His panpipes, guzzling wine from his freely-flowing wineskin, and seducing nymphs in the woods. He is regarded as lusty and jovial, epitomizing masculine attributes of ideal father, brother or lover. As the Goddess of Witchcraft is closely identified with the Moon, so the God is identified with the Sun. In this way he may been seen mythologically as the lover both of the Moon and of the Earth, and another of His many epithets is Lord of Light.
Every light casts its shadows, and the Lord of Shadows is the other face of the Lord of Light. The Lord of the Underworld is the title of the God in Winter when He goes underground with the animals to hibernate. Some traditions had Him alternate with His brother as husband to the eternal Goddess. Others, as in the Greek Hades, had a year-round God of the Shadows.

The Devil You Say!

It is essential to clarify the historic relationship of Pan and the Devil, as Christianity has tended to confuse the two, giving rise to the accusation that Pagans are Devil- worshippers because some Pagan gods have horns. Once and for all, the Christian Devil is not the God of the Witches! The genesis of the Devil comes from a merging of two concepts: Satan and Lucifer. The original meaning of the word satan is adversary, and his inclusion in the Bible represents an attempt by later apologists of the Old Testament to justify the more negative actions of a benevolent God (such as the persecution of Job) by attributing the actual dirty work to a testing spirit; the original "devil's advocate." This entity was not considered evil until after the Persian conquest of the Hebrews introduced them to the Zoroastrian dualism of Ahura-Mazda (the good God) vs. Ahriman (the evil God). This later manifested in Christianity as Manichean dualism. The Maintain equation was brutally simple: God=Good; Devil=Evil. But it was not until the year 447 CE that the Council of Toledo declared the legal existence of the Devil as an actual entity, though he was still not thought of as necessarily manifesting in human form.P The Lucifer story is a mish-mashed retelling of the Canaanite myth about the overthrow of Baal by Mot and the usurpation of Baal's throne by Athar, the God of the morning star. The original Hebrew name for Lucifer was helel ben shahar meaning "son of the day star" (the planet Venus). The name Lucifer ("light bearer"), a Romano- Etruscan title of the Sun God, was erroneously used when the Bible was first translated into Latin. Various Shadow Gods or Divine Adversaries contributed to the creation of the Devil, including the Canaanite Moloch or Mot, the Egyptian Set or Suteck and the Roman Saturn. The final touch was that they placed all Pagan gods and goddesses in an adversary position to Yahweh, the God of Israel. This is because Yahweh, as a monotheistic deity, considers jealousy to be a virtue rather than a vice. This is a profound cultural difference from Pagan pantheons and polytheistic peoples who co-existed together, whether or not in harmony. Also since unbridled sexuality, especially for females, was defined by Judeo- Christianity as evil, Pagan gods and goddesses who were especially sexual or sensual garnered the new sect's especial hatred. Pan and Dionysos were by no stretch of the imagination evil, adversary or even shadowy deities, but because of their riotous celebrations the Devil acquired Pan's horns and hooves and Dionysos' bibulous nature. This final equation of the Pagan Horned God with Satan was not established, however, until the year 1486, when the Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger published the Malleus Malificarum, or "Hammer of the Witches," wherein they gave the first physical description of the Devil as he is commonly depicted today, declaring that this was the God worshipped by those they wanted to call "Witches," and thereby justifying the centuries of terrible persecution inflicted on those who clung to the worship of the elder gods.P The Devil is quite a modern patchwork quilt of other people's ancient gods and spirits, but Christian apologists put the cart before the horse when they try to explain that all other Gods are just their Devil in disguise. This is a very erroneous and intolerant attitude. No less an authority than Jesus said: "By their fruits you shall know them." Pan is a noble and worthy god even if He is a bit wild and woolly; whatever else He is, He is not now nor ever was, the Devil.2

Witchcraft and Shamanism

Witches were the shamans, or medicine men and women, of the tribal Celtic peoples of Europe, and they functioned in precisely the same fashion as shamans of any other tribal culture, be it American Indians, Africans, or Australian Aborigines. In fact, and in time-honored tradition, shamans are still commonly referred to as "Witch Doctors." All shamans are specialists in herbal lore, and the Witches of Pagan Europe were no exception. Usually, but not exclusively, women, they practiced herbal medicine, midwifery, augury, spell casting, and counseling. Often dwelling alone out in the woods, Witches lived close to Nature, and attuned to Her cycles. Their gardens grew not only food, but also many kinds of herbs, including those valued for their medicinal, anesthetic and hallucinogenic properties. In a period of time when good Christian folk maintained only those domestic animals that could be considered "livestock" (i.e. useful to humans), Witches frequently kept wild animal pets: foxes, weasels, owls, ravens; and of course, the ubiquitous cats. Such became known, appropriately enough, as familiars. When Witches came to be persecuted, so did these familiar animals, and the brutal capture, torture and burning of millions of cats that accompanied the Witch burnings begat the horrible Black Plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century. For the cats had kept the rat populations under control, and it was rat fleas that were the carrier of the bubonic plague bacillus, pasteurella pestis.

Satanism: The Dark Side of Christianity

Satanism was not originally a religion itself, of course, as Satan exists only in the theology of Judeo-Christianity (and in Islam, too, as Shaitan), and there only as an opponent of Yahweh, the supreme God. According to Judeo-Christian mythology, Satan I(originally known as Lucifer, the light-bearer, greatest of the angels)/I had led a rebellion of a third of the angels against Yahweh, challenging Him for the Throne of Heaven. Lucifer was defeated, and was cast down with his followers into the underworld, where they all became demons and devils, their white-feathered wings and golden halos becoming bat-wings and horns. Not to mention the forked dragon tails. The underworld, according to Christianity, became a place of fiery torment for doomed souls, presided over by Satan, now the supreme Devil. Even the largely erroneous material circulated by File 18 and the Cult Crime Impact Network specifies the relationship of Christianity and

Satanism as thesis/antithesis:

"Christianity and Satanism are the two inseparable parts of the whole. You cannot believe in the existence of one without believing in the existence of the other. Satanists are not Anti-Believers in Christianity they are counter-believers. The cult of Satan was developed on the basis of the dualistic conception of Christianity. It is a collective protest movement with one-sided and exaggerated features which are the cause of its distorted and usually destructive behavior. At the same time, it can also be a creative force. It is a combination of the creativity and destructive behavior that is so appealing to followers. The drawing factor, over Christianity, is that 'anything goes.' There are no constraints in Satanism."

Contemporary Satanism has grown from such roots of rebellion and has put out many shoots. If you tell an adolescent child that the normal sexual urges of puberty are the inspiration of Satan, or indeed, that anything else you strongly disapprove of is "of the Devil," then you can hardly be surprised if normal adolescent hormonal rebellion takes a Satanic overtone. Anton LeVey of the Church of Satan and later Michael Aquino of the Temple of Set have basically capitalized on the idea that human nature will emerge and if this is defined as Evil then so be it. The '60s and '70s saw numerous Satanic splinter groups such as The Process Church emerge with a similar message.

Periodic reports of isolated Satanic groups can be more of a danger. Most seem to be groups of teenagers who were experimenting with the occult and, lacking any instruction or connections with the more harmless public groups, created their own brand of homegrown Satanism out of various books on black magic practices available from bookstores. This variety of Satanism is fueled by the powerful adrenaline rush of Heavy Metal music, liberally laced with sado-masochistic sex and heavy drug use. Their modern mythology and primary source of inspiration comes from the overwhelming flood of mass media horror movies of the genre of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist." Recent titles like "The Cult," "The Believers," "Omen," "Damian," "Bride of Satan," etc, are readily available from any video store in the country.

This variety of Satanist becomes known to authorities usually when they are caught desecrating graveyards or churches, or from complaints lodged by parents of members. These kinds of groups have actually been prosecuted and convicted for criminal activities up to and including rape and murder. Though they are not connected geographically they do have a common set of symbols such as inverted crosses, inverted pentagrams, the number 666 and so on. This is simply because most of their imagery is an amalgam of readily available mass media sensationalism composed of Heavy Metal subculture from groups like Motley Crue and Black Sabbath and the ubiquitous "Devil Cult" movies. When major established religions preach that the end of the world from a nuclear holocaust is part of God's plan for salvation, it should not be surprising that the resulting fear and sense of despair of "Youth deprived of a Future" should occasionally take on such a twisted form of "eat, drink and make merry..." Similar attitudes gave birth to Satanism originally during the time of the Dark Ages with the onset of the Black Death and the resultant economic chaos in Europe. What we need to understand about this phenomenon is that such "... small ephemeral Satanic groups, most consisting primarily of young adults and/or teenagers, some led by psychopaths and/or sociopaths continue to come and go. While they pose no threat to the larger society, they do pose an immediate danger to those involved in them and are frequently involved in criminal activity, from dealing in drugs to rape and murder."

Adult Survivors

"However, beginning in the 1980's, a new and different set of reports on Satanism began to appear. Possibly the first to receive any public notice was that of Michelle Smith which appeared in a book [Michelle Remembers, Congdon Lattes, NY, 1980] written by Michelle and her psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Pazder. Michelle Smith had gone to Dr. Pazder seeking help with her continued emotional distress following a miscarriage and a recurrent nightmare. In the course of these sessions she gradually told a story of her having been involved in a Satanic cult in Vancouver, B.C., as a five-year-old child in 1954-55. The events described were not a part of her conscious memory prior to the sessions with Dr. Pazder. As the story unfolded she told of her mother being forced to surrender her for a ritual, the Feast of the Beast, and of her forced participation in the group for over a year, during which time the group tried unsuccessfully to convert her to their beliefs and practices. Though attempts were made to uncover independent evidence of the existence of the group, none could be found." Soon after Michelle's book appeared, The National Enquirer published a questionable account of a woman who also claimed to have been raised in a devil cult and prepared for marriage to Satan. The account took all the elements from the Michelle story including the ritual calendar. Since that time, similar accounts have popped up all over the country. Perhaps there are such cruel underground generational Satanists; child abuse is clearly a reality and often twisted religious beliefs do play a part in it. But it is the abuse that we should focus our attention on, not the legitimate practice of any religion, regardless of its orthodoxy.

Satanism and Non-Christians

It should be clear from the above that people who have no belief in Christianity (i.e., Pagans, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) cannot be Satanists, since the two faiths, Satanism and Christianity, are inseparable mirror images of each other, each dependent on the other for its justification and existence. Thus Satanists use the inverted cross to symbolize their complete reversal of everything Christianity stands for. Interestingly, many contemporary Satanists also use the inverted pentagram, symbolizing as well their complete reversal of everything Witches stand for, as the right-side-up pentagram is the universal symbol of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft.
Nor are Neo-Pagans the least bit interested in the Christian or Islamic Satan / Shaitan figure with whom the fundamentalists are so obsessed. One has to be a Christian or a Moslem to believe in this "God of Evil," and frankly, the whole concept seems silly to the average Neo- Pagan. Genuine Satanists fall into four overlapping categories: fundamentalist Christians and Moslems themselves, who are constantly talking about "Satan's" power and influence; Conservative Orthodox Satanists, who are right-wing racists looking for metaphysical excuses to behave the way they would anyway; Liberal Heterodox or Punk Satanists, who are kids doing it to annoy their parents; and what journalist Paul Sulin calls "the Sincere Sociopaths:" folks who are crazy to begin with, believe that they are evil (often as a result of growing up in abusive families), and who then latch onto the prime Western image of Evil and proceed to enact the sick fantasies that the fundamentalists have created. All of these people are stuck in the standard dualism of conservative monotheism.
Neo-Pagans are interested in worshipping Nature and the gods and goddesses of the "Old Religions" not the tired, old abortion of monotheistic dualism. The Pagan deities were ancient long before the monotheistic religions were even founded; the Horned God of the Wildwood was worshipped by our Pagan ancestors for tens of thousands of years before the Christian church invented "The Devil." Christians are welcome to their creation; Pagans will stick with Mother Nature's.

The Burning Times

It is truly ironic that, though it is the practitioners of Witchcraft who have historically suffered real abuse and persecution, the Witch has somehow continued to be misrepresented as the villain. Christianity did not become the world's dominant religion by peaceful conversion, but by the sword and stake. As the legions of Caesar had forged the Roman Empire over the dead bodies of countless tribal peoples of Europe, so did its heir, the Holy Roman Empire, continue the tradition. Declaring them "heresies," agents of the Holy Inquisition hunted out and ruthlessly exterminated every religion, sect or tradition that would not convert to "The One True Right And Only Way." Witches, however, lived outside of any organized religious structure, and were largely ignored until the 13th century, when the Church had finally gained enough power to deal with grass-roots Paganism.

"In the 13th century the Church opened its long-drawn- out conflict with Paganism in Europe by declaring 'Witchcraft' to be a 'sect' and heretical. It was not until the 14th century that the two religions came to grips... In 1324 the bishop of Ossory tried Dame Alice Kyteler in his ecclesiastical court for the crime of worshipping a deity other than the Christian God...
"The 15th century marks the first great victories of the Church. Beginning with the trials in Lorraine in 1408 the Church moved triumphantly against Joan of Arc and her followers in 1431, against Gilles de Rais and his coven in 1440, against the Witches of Brescia in 1457. Towards the end of the century the Christian power was so well- established that the Church felt the time had come for an organized attack, and in 1484 pope Innocent VIII published his Bull against 'Witches.' All through the 16th and 17th centuries the battle raged. The Pagans fought a gallant, though losing, fight against a remorseless and unscrupulous enemy; every inch of the field was disputed, but the Christian policy of obtaining influence over the rulers and law-givers was irresistible. Vae victis [Woe to the conquered] was also the policy of the Christians, and we see the priests of the Papacy gloating over the thousands they had consigned to the flames while the ministers of the Reformed Churches hounded on the administrators of the law to condemn the 'devil worshippers.' What can have been the feelings with which those unhappy victims regarded the vaunted God of Love, the Prince of Peace, whose votaries condemned them to torture and death? What wonder that they clung to their old faith, and died in agony unspeakable rather than deny their God."

It should also be pointed out that the court recorders at the Witch trials were specifically instructed that, whatever gods or goddesses the accused actually claimed to worship, what went into the record was "Satan," or "The Devil." And what wonder if some of those who had come to believe the Biblical history taught them by the missionaries, monks and priests of the conquering faith, concluded that the story must have gotten it wrong somehow? That if there had indeed been a rebellion in heaven, it was clearly evident that the winner had not been the God of love and peace, as his propagandists claimed, but rather a God of cruelty and evil; of war and violence, wrath and jealousy. (This had, in fact, been an old Gnostic tradition.) The clear implication was that the defeated Lucifer must have been the good guy, and surely many must have swarmed to his allegiance in this belief. While, of course, true adherents of the Old Religions certainly knew better, and continued their faith entirely distinct from Christianity, there were surely, then as now, many ignorant people who were simply too unsophisticated or too illiterate to question the Christian paradigm once it became established. And thus did Satanism as a belief and a practice come into being, spawned by the Church, and forever to be locked together with it in a fatal embrace of mutual antagonism. Whether or not the persecuted peasantry who came to side with Satan against their oppressors thought of themselves as "Witches," the Church and the authorities of the Holy Inquisition certainly identified them as such:
"The heart and center of the persecution of Witches was that they were Satanists, that they had rejected the rightful God and given their allegiance to his arch- opponent, and that in their 'sabbaths' or meetings they worshipped the ruler of evil, carnality and filth. Some of those accused as Witches do seem to have taken the Devil for their god, worshipping him as an equal opponent of the Christian God, over whom he would eventually triumph. They looked to Satan for power and pleasure in this world and for a happy future in the next, and they vilified Christ as a traitor and a cheat, who had made promises which he did not keep, and who had gone away to live in heaven while Satan remained with his faithful on earth."
"The Witches and sorcerers of early times were a widely spread class who had retained the beliefs and traditions of heathenism with all its license and romance and charm of the forbidden. . . in their ranks every one who was oppressed or injured either by the nobility or the church. They were treated with indescribable cruelty, in most cases worse than beasts of burden, for they were outraged in all their feelings, not at intervals for punishment, but habitually by custom, and they revenged themselves by secret orgies and fancied devil-worship, and occult ties, and stupendous sins, or what they fancied were such. I can seriously conceive what no writer seems to have considered that there must have been an immense satisfaction in selling or giving one's self to the devil, or to any power which was at war with their oppressors. So they went by night, at the full moon, and sacrificed to Diana, or 'later on' to Satan, and they danced and rebelled. It is very well worth noting that we have all our accounts of sorcerers and heretics from Catholic priests, who had every earthly reason for misrepresenting them, and did so. In the vast amount of ancient Witchcraft still surviving in Italy, there is not much anti-Christianity, but a great deal of early heathenism. Diana, not Satan, is still the real head of the Witches."

The Baby-Stealers Myth

The public justifications for these persecutions were based on a most remarkable myth, pervasive throughout European history from the second century CE. The myth, or fantasy as historian Norman Cohn labels it, postulated the existence, somewhere in the midst of the larger society, of "another society, small and clandestine, which not only threatened the existence of the great society, but was also addicted to practices which were felt to be wholly abominable, in the liter sense of anti-human." 9

J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of American Religion explains that "though the myth first appeared in the second century as a polemic against the Christians, it had its antecedents in earlier anti-Jewish polemics. Jews were accused of worshipping a donkey- headed god and of keeping gentiles prisoner in the temple in Jerusalem for the purpose of sacrifice. However, in the second century, the Christians were accused not only of worshipping a donkey's head, but of revering the genitals of their priests, sacrificing and devouring the blood of babies, and a wide variety of perverted sexuality. "The existence of this myth, which had its last major appearance in Nazi Germany, where it was used against the Jews, provides a framework for a discussion of the most recent accusations concerning contemporary Satanism." 10
One wonders what would be the commonly held "facts" about Judaism if Hitler had been as successful in his efforts against the Jews as the Medieval Church was in its eradication of Pagan Witchcraft. But you don't have to have lived in Nazi Germany to have heard the vicious propaganda that Jews kidnap unbaptized Christian babies and grind them up into Matzoh balls. And before the Jews, it was the Gypsies who were the purported child-stealers. During the Witch-hunting hysteria previously mentioned, these same accusations were leveled at Witches. Today, continues Melton, "as currently hypothesized by the advocates of the theories on contemporary Satanism, there exists a network, national, if not international in scope, of small groups of Satanists. These Satanists, financed by wealthy sexual perverts and sociopaths, practice the most barbaric and inhumane rituals which involve widespread torture, murder, the sexual abuse of children, the mutilation of animals, and even cannibalism." 11
The myth that an easily-targeted group of relatively defenseless people are engaged in the stealing, torture, ritual sacrifice and cannibalism of innocent children has proven throughout history to be quite sufficient to engender public support for a campaign of extermination directed against the accused. In the case of this current Witch-hunt, extensive police investigation over the past decade has failed to corroborate the existence of an actual Satanic conspiracy. In those cases of ritual child abuse that have actually come to court, the vast majority have involved Christian clergy: "Hundreds of children molested by Catholic priests in the United States during the past five years have suffered severe emotional trauma, say parents, psychologists, police officers and attorneys involved in the cases." 12
"The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has been forced to pay millions of dollars in damages to families who contend that their children have been sexually abused by priests. In spite of that, the problem has grown so severe that many lawyers and victims say the church ignores and covers up such cases." 13

The few cases of child abuse involving "Satanic elements" that have been tried have not revealed any organized Satanic cult, but rather a handful of sick and demented individuals claiming they committed their crimes because "the Devil made me do it." If such a conspiracy exists, it will remain to be uncovered by the police; hopefully in cooperation with the people who have come forward as spokespersons for the survivors of actual cases of Satanic Ritual Abuse.
The actual Satanic abuse statistics, however, do not support the requirements of the new Witch-hunters, who, in order to whip up the kind of public hysteria that can give them power and credibility, must point their fingers at an identifiable and accessible scapegoat. Thus they have chosen, once again, to lay their myth of child-stealing and ritual human sacrifice at the feet of the Witches. By continually identifying Witchcraft with Satanism, these current Inquisitors hope to justify and validate their cause. For there are well over 100,000 practicing Neo-Pagan Witches in America today, according to such genuine authorities as Margot Adler. 14
Many Witches are highly visible in their communities: they publish books, magazines and directories; operate stores; conduct public rituals; give classes, workshops, interviews and lectures; and appear on local radio and television programs. Since Witchcraft is still little understood by the general public, who are frequently unable or unwilling to look deeper than the vast smoke screen of misinformation promulgated by churches, movies and popular fiction, Witches are easy and visible targets for persecution. It must be remembered that, in the previous episodes of Witchcraft persecution hysteria, it was the Witches who were the victims, not the Christians.

Witches, and those conveniently accused of being Witches, died by the millions during the terrible centuries of the holocaust they remember as "The Burning Times." They have no wish to repeat that experience today. The Aquarian Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1973 with the motto: "Never Again the Burning!"

Notes and References:
It is not the purpose of this article to determine the validity or extent of actual ritual child abuse or contemporary Satanism. The interested reader is referred to the quoted 13-page paper by J. Gordon Melton, which covers these topics in depth.
1. Jong, Erica, Witches (New American Library, New York, 1981) p. 52
2. Zell, Morning Glory, "The Lord of Light," Green Egg, Vol. XXI, No. 82; Aug. 1, 1988 (POB 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482) p. 12
3. "Dynamics of Counter Religions" (The Cult Crime Impact Network, 222 N. Latah St., Boise, ID 83706, 1985)
4. Melton, J. Gordon, "The Evidence of Satan in Contemporary America: A Survey;" a paper presented at the meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, Los Angeles, March 27-29, 1986. (Available from the Institute for the Study of American Religion, POB 90709, Santa Barbara, CA 93190) pp. 7-8
5. Ibid. p. 11
6. Murray, Margaret, The God of the Witches (Oxford University Press, New York, 1931) pp. 21-22
7. Cavendish, Richard, "Satanism," Encyclopedia of Man, Myth and Magic, Vol. 18 (Marshall Cavendish, New York, 1970) p. 2479
8. Leland, Charles Godfrey, Legends of Florence, (David Nutt, London, 1896)
9. Cohn, Norman, Europe's Inner Demons, (Meridian, New York, 1977) p. xiii
10. Melton, ref. cit., p. 1
11. Ibid.
12. Akron Beacon Journal, Jan. 3, 1988
13. The Miami Herald, Jan. 3, 1988. See also Shadowcraft, Ammond, "Molesting Ministers and Pedophiliac Priests: Child Sexual Abuse by Christian Clergy," Green Egg, vol. XXI, no. 84; Feb. 1, 1988, pp. 18- 20 ($5 postpaid from POB 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482)
14. Adler, Margot, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today, revised and expanded edition (Beacon Press, Boston, 1986) p. 418
Copyright © 1995, Church of All WorldsThis Article was last updated on 21 December, 1995


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