Brightest Blessings and welcome to yet another grand publication of the Witchcraft Dawning Newsletter...
Goddess I love the sound of my own voice! However, this week I'm going to turn the mic over to an extremely enthusiastic writer, Newt, who I'm sure you will quickly find enjoyable and enlightening!
We all know Samhain is coming up quickly (too fast from this editors end *smile*) and you can expect quite the New Years Bash newsletter from us! Newt is acting as an over qualified filler for all you eager folks, you know who you are. So, until then, enjoy Newt's work... it's one a kind and my ribs still hurt from the laughing!
Peace,
~Markus
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Hi,
I wrote this for the Witchhaven mailing list. Yes, it's humor, and in a
way it's also not. I do feel very strongly that the Craft ought to be
treated better than this:
"Jumbo Shrimp, Military Intelligence, Cthulu Wicca"
I participate in a electronic mailing list. This means that once a day
(or so) in my e-mail account there is deposited a collection of
commentary by other participants in the list. It's a bit like a cross
between having a lot of pen pals and a private BBS. Recently something
that sparked a discussion was using Cthulu deities in a Wiccan format.
As it happens, there is a guy who each year at minicon puts up posters
advertising "Cthulu Wicca". It's a pretty hilarious joke. Some of the
people on the mailing list didn't seem to see it that way, and started
listing off entity names they had used in ritual and asking for source
material. I like to think I'm a creative person, but I really don't see
how the Wicca and the Cthulu mythos can be reasonably combined.
What I know of the Cthulu mythos comes from three places; 1-AD&D's first
edition of the "Deities and Demigods" book, which contained an
unauthorized gaming usage of the Cthulu mythos; 2-The Call of Cthulu
Role Playing Game, which was an authorized version, and 3-the stories of
H. P. Lovecraft, which were the inspiration for it all in the first
place. The mythos itself is presented as being so alien as to 1-be
completely evil in effects and 2-eventually kill, mutate or drive insane
any who come into connection with it. The first is presented as the most
desirable, and the three are not mutually exclusive.
Wicca, as I have studied, understand and practice it, acknowledges and
respects the reality of God and Goddess and magick, and develops a real
and personal connection with the deities.
For someone to be willing to combine the two, seems to me to imply only a
few possible attitudes.
Wicca is real, but Cthulu is not: This would be a person who wanted a
real relationship with the divine, and used names from the Cthulu
pantheon for some weird reason. This seems disrespectful to one's path in
the extreme; why use Wicca to have a relationship with a God that isn't
really there. If this person isn't taking Wicca seriously enough to want
to experience connection with real deity (and not what they have made up
or redefined as convenient) they why do it at all? This is the sort of
person who calls Kali a "mother Goddess".
Cthulu is real, but Wicca is not: This is a person who likes the idea of
playing around with dangerous powers, but since there is no real,
contact, thinks they run no risk. This is either not a spiritual person
at all, or somebody on a path that is really not working for them. If
someone doesn't take their deities seriously enough to seek connection
with them, then how and more importantly why relate to them at all? This
is the sort of person who would have a coronary if a DDM actually worked.
Both are fake: This is the goth-chick (or guy) who likes to play with a
spooky path, and spooky deity names, but doesn't take any of it
seriously. I wouldn't be surprised at this person having chosen Wicca to
be able to say "ooh I'm a *witch*", and having chosen Cthulu to be able
to brag about how gory their gods are. This is similar to the person who
says "I'm a Satanist" and when pressed, admits that they don't really
worship or believe in Satan, they just want to irritate fundamentalist
Christians.
Both are real: this is a person who is insane or suicidal, or aiming for
both on some level.
The 'I don't know' factor: This is a newbie being let into this by
someone else who tells them that all the horrific lore is really there to
keep the "wrong people" from learning the "real secrets". This person is
a fool, or severely unfortunate in choice of mentors.
Perhaps there is some respectful, serious person out there who is
working with "Cthulu Wicca". I doubt it.
Oh there is one last possibility. It's a joke. Which it is, and actually
it's a pretty funny one. But just in case consider
this a warning from all those who found out the truth too late, and are
now in no condition to express how very wrong and foolish they were......
Newt
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Thanks again Newt! For all others, we are still (as always) looking for feed back from our readers (now numbering into the 200's!), telling us what YOU want to hear about? You (yes you) aren't just another number on the list with a collection of characters that make up what is universally known as an "email address." We publish this for YOU, so help us out... let us know what you want -- chances are you'll get it and more!
~Markus
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Editors,
Ralph M.
ralphmj@hotmail.com
&
Markus
Witchcraft Dawning Webmaster
http://www.oocities.com/CollegePark/4885/index.html
witchdawn@hotmail.com
(
geocities.com/collegepark)