NMR ISSUE 46

Abundance Circle
Activating Miraculous Success
And Now for Something a Little Different
Astrological Forecast 46
Circle of Fire
Circle of the Stars
Dolphin Magick
Earwig & Cow
Editorial 46
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Finding the Goddess in Ancient Greece
Hear O Humankind
Letters 46
Magick in the Forest
Making the Break
Old Ways to Celebrate New Life
Other Editorial 46
So True, So Real
Spring Equinox Rite
The Lesson of the Tree
The Portrait of the Beast
To Be a Witch
To Pythia
We Are Everywhere
Weasel, Black Beetle & Plover

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The Other Editorial

By Judith Wise-Rhoads

Why I left the Church

As an ex-Catholic I am still sorting out the intensely ingrained beliefs of my childhood from those I have adopted after long and hard studies. It took a lot of searching, but when I found the Craft it was like coming home. Pagan beliefs make so much more sense and are more loving and forgiving than the Christian ones I knew.

To be fair, let me say that the Catholic Church has done much good and many good, good people have been nuns and priests. In school, there were many that I admired for their spirituality. There is much from my education in Catholic school I honor, and I am glad I went. But I also paid a price for the blinders that went with that education. It took years and a lot of pain trying to work in that system before finding my truer path.

Even if one has never gone to any church, the ideas of right and wrong get ingrained in one's attitude just by living in society. This is mostly a good thing but there are always laws that get outmoded, that need changing in a changing world.

Love of history, archeology and anthropology led me to new insights. The history the Church taught me and the history I studied outside the Church were very different. Indeed, the history I've witnessed of the Church's activities during my lifetime convinces me that power corrupts. This, of course, can be said of any large institution, like government. The problem is practicing politics instead of what they preach. Every race, government, institution and religion has done this to some extent, as well as every individual.

The Church has reversed itself many times quickly, when it was to the church's advantage; more slowly when it had to admit to being wrong, as in Galileo's case. For instance, did you know that the Catholic Church use to preach that celibacy was the only way to heaven? It taught that marriage was a sinful way of life. This was meant to combat the Goddess religions, as Her special domain is love, marriage and children. Life itself. It was also done to put women in their place.

Someone finally noted they would whither away if people really did as they preached, as have other sects, such as the Shakers, who stand by such preaching and are dying out. Then the Church did a complete reversal and decided that every sperm was sacred and could not be wasted. (I love Monty Python.) Paul (an early Church father, I can't call him a saint) taught that a man should only contaminate himself with a woman once a year for the sake of children.

In that society men were not to blame for being tempted by women into having sexual feelings; but a woman could be burned at the stake if a man even had a wet dream about her. That was considered prove enough that she was tempting him. A woman was taught to be ashamed of her body and its functions. A woman had to wear a veil over her head when entering church. On and on, the guilt and shame. A slave complex that still prevails today.

Men, of course, were also badly damaged by this kind of thinking. One, you have a bully kind of relationship based on muscle not equality and this produces a frightened, dependent, slave paradigm and a weak woman with low self-esteem. Second, if a patriarchal society produces a slave/property complex in women, (or men) it will also produce a deep down guilt and fear complex in the masters. Even if the ego enjoys being the master, deep down the consciousness knows it's wrong. Also, it fears that someday the slaves will rise, perhaps to enslave the masters someday, sometime they are going to pay. No one really has to tell you that killing or stealing or lying or slavery is wrong, for whatever you do to someone else, you also do to yourself. We are all One.

The Church's politics has been to put the Fear of God into people, sometimes by pain, torture and death. Be afraid, be compliant. Women, fear your husband, be dispossessed in your mind, body and soul. Above all, do not question the Church's authority to rule and run your life. How awful and how insidious. Fear is a method of control.

Your Life is the great gift of God/Goddess/All-That-Is. You are the one who will ultimately pay for the consequences of your actions therefore you should be the one calling the shots. Never hand over your authority to anyone else. Even, or especially, when in Circle, where the High Priestess is in charge of the way the energy is handled. You give your consent for your energy to be used and directed, or you withhold it.

This is why I find Pagan men so attractive. These wonderful Goddess-loving men are not only unafraid of women (you hate what you fear) but actually like women. There is a difference, a big difference in most cowan men's attitudes toward women and Pagan men's attitudes. Strong men are always attractive. It's like the strong dog compared with the weak dog: It's the weak dog that will bite, out of fear. Fear is how to tell if something is truly right. If it is fear based, it is not real or right. Being good because you are afraid to be bad (fear of Hell), is not truly being good, it is merely obedience. Remember, fear is a method of control.

I left the Church when I discovered its intimidation had instilled weakness in me, leaving me with second-class status. Pagans are strong because they deny the disempowering belief that we are all born sinners. Mere worms in the dust at the feet of a God ready to throw us in Hell forever for daring to fail (sin) or to use the free will He gave us. One of our most liberating beliefs comes through realizing that God/Goddess/All-That-Is does not cast us into a Hell, but gives us infinite chances to graduate to the next level through reincarnation like a truly loving and wise Parent. Pagans new to the belief in reincarnation may not at first realize that reincarnation does away with Hell and therefore the biblical Devil. The devils and hells we have to contend with are those of our own making, and they are more than enough, thank you!

Blessed Be! JR