Monday Musings Getting Witchy with It True Blood

Mon·day
n.Abbr. Mon. or M

The second day of the week.

[Middle English, from Old English Monandæg (translation of Latin lunae dies, day of the moon) : monan, genitive of mona, moon; see moon + dag, day; see day.]

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Mon days adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Monday is the Moon's Day,  so it seems appropriate to discuss traditions which celebrate the moon and the heavens.  We all count our time by the moon either by the time period it takes the moon to orbit the earth (a month), or by the tides, or lunar phase. Especially today, the first day of summer, the longest day of the year!


While some "conventional" traditions or faiths use the moon to decide when certain holidays or events will be scheduled, I will discuss the "unconventional" world of the neo-Pagan belief Wicca.


Wicca is  a positive, nature based form of paganism (polytheism). While roots are pre-Christian and its traditions and symbols   are based in the natural cycle of life, Wicca as we know it developed sometime during the 20th century.   


Wicca has NOTHING to do with Satan.  Again, let me say that Wicca. Has. NOTHING. To. Do. with. Satan! Early Christianity was brilliant in its use of "public relations" and  "crowd control." It co-opted traditional Pagan festivals and made them into Christian observances.  It required fasting Saturday to Mass and then gave out bread, and it took an Old Testament fallen angel, Lucifer and turned him into the Lord of Evil and Prince of Darkness against whom God and Christ struggle to save our souls.  Then they gave him horns so he would resemble the horned God Pagans worship in harvest celebrations.  While wise women didn't disappear, thank goodness, they didn't hang signs on their doors either.  A woman who practised healing with herbs and other "simples" always ran a risk so those who were truly wise kept their heads down.


"Wicca" probably derives from "wise," although some say it derives from a different word which means "performance of sorcery." While Wicca has no formal commandments its rede is "As it harms none do as thou will." Modern day physicians, it is interesting to note, swear to "first do no harm."

Wiccans traditionally revere a male and female pair of Gods, and celebrate seasonal festivals around the equinoxes and solstices as well as other observances. My understanding from my past is that the male and female gods are not seen as omniscient or omnipresent beings but as natural forces that are both needed for creation and sustenance. There are other theistic beliefs within the world of Wicca and it is pretty tolerant.

In popular Western society Witches and Wicca are synonymous. The church invented the myth that witchcraft was satanism - in fact they invented Satan. Of course, this is the same church that said that Jews had horns and ate babies (A lie for which they only recently apologized).  Like I said, the church had an uncanny ability to take a fear, codify it and use PR to make it part of people's own beliefs.  


Neo-paganism, as Wicca is today, recognizes the need for a balance between male and female forces. But allowing women to have knowledge of healing, or even teaching them to read was a threat to the patriarchal church. I am sure that male-female balance was not perfectly practiced in traditional paganism. Men have more physical strength and women have long been subdued by stronger men and as child-bearers had a certain period of time in which they needed another person to help them (I guess it doesn't have to have been a male).


The church however codified the reduction of women to a vessel, servant and almost non-human. Being a healer, even a mid-wife left one open to all sorts of charges. Paganism hid in the shadows for centuries until a more tolerant society made it possible to come out.  Saturday, I was out shopping and came across a car with the license plate "Witch." Times have surely changed!

Druids are a whole other kind of pagan belief system which deserves its own post!

Recently, in fiction, I have noticed a differentiation between Witches and Wicca. I recall the first time I saw this was in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books with both her friend Amelia and the coven who attacked Eric; Amelia at an innate gift that she cultivated by training. In The Hollows, Witches are a separate species, and Wicca is something different; almost for poseurs, although some humans have the ability to use Ley lines.The concept of a gift of some sort being a genetic inheritance is evolving in the literature. 

But, outside of books,  there are still people who will understand that the earth and nature are to be respected, regardless of whether a twitching of the nose does anything to alter the here and now. It is a sad fact of our existence that wherever there have been people with power some will be corrupted by it. Are "wicked witches"  practicing satanism? After all, the worship of anything is possible. When we read these PNR and UF and fantasy books there are always those who practise black magic but very rarely have I seen the presence of Satan himself (or in the Queen Betsy books, herself). The Wiccan rede of no harm would imply that using and ability to gain power over others, or by sacrifice, is not acceptable within the tradition.
 

There are tons of good sites out there with info on Wicca. If you Google "Wicca" you will come up with lots of information. If someone is asking you for money, or mentions Satan then it is not a good site. My references below are strictly information I found useful and not a recommendation. Nor should the non-inclusion of a site be seen as a condemnation.

The Wikipedia Article seems like a pretty good one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiccaI liked the Celtic Connection for its understanding of what happened between the church and Wicca: http://www.wicca.com/celtic/wicca/wicca.htm

TRUE BLOOD

I was fairly confused during last night's episode.  I got the whole Sam and his brother thing.  Now, there is one screwed up group.   What I didn't understand was why Sookie was being sought by the wolves and hence the King of Mississippi?  How Nazi's came into it? Whether Bill really set Lorena aflame or was he having a daydream?And, dare we hope?  And, where is Alcide and when do we get to see him.

I am not catching any heat at all between Sookie and the Sheriff (hoping it was the wolf she shot and not Eric but she was pretty unflinching with the gun.) I don't recall the Were-Jaguars being drug dealers in the books either but then  it was awhile back; we need a book by book synopsis like Diana Gabaldon provided in the Outlandish Companion does anyone know of one?

Have I got an ear worm on a song from the Philadelphia Story with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, well the melody anyway.  I give to you and you give to me, True Blood, True Blood.....