Witch

A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Witch: It's just a word, 5 letters. But it causes such a flap.
Some people don't like it and some do.
That's their choice. It's just a word.
In the Burning Times, a word could get you killed.
It's April, 2001 now.
And a word can still cause you to lose your job,
cause you to be investigated by Child Services,
cause religious fanatics (of all religions) to persecute you,
bring tension to the workplace,
cause problems with your family,
and cause your neighbors to ostracize you.

A Word.
Funny how a simple word can be the driving force behind so much pain.
I'm sure we all know what "The Hollywood Witch" is.
When we were children, she was a comic hag
with a huge nose, large prominant wart on the end of said nose,
sometimes green skin (courtesy of the Wizard of Oz),
frizzy and ratty hair, and her laugh was a cackle.
Not a true laugh but a skin-crawling cackle.
You know the kind, it scared you on "Halloween".

And then you have the other "Hollywood" witches.
Endora, Samatha and Tabitha.
These kind were dressed up and made "nice".
The also added to the misconceptions of what we are.
Now I know we all wish we could clean like that,
travel like that, and get ourselves our of trouble like that.
It's not going to happen.
We are not fiction.
We fall strictly into the non-fiction category.

We are real people.
We were born, we grow up, we fall in love,
get married/handfasted, have babies and grow old
just like any other person.
We come in all colors and ethnic backgrounds,
we are all sexual orientations,
we come from all other religious roots.
We dress in what we like, the same as you.
We live everywhere, just like you do.
In fact, you just might be our next door neighbor.
You might have shared a dinner with one of us.
Your kids might go to school with ours.
What I'm trying to say is we ARE you.

Take me, for example, I'm 39 years old, married with 3 kids.
I am a stay at home mom. I do laundry,
go to the grocery store,
once in a great while I mow part of the yard,
vacuum the floor, yell and hug my kids,
make them clean their rooms, pick up their dirty clothes,
try to figure out what to fix for dinner
and wonder how fast I can take off a few pounds.

And I'm a Witch.
I'm a Solitary Eclectic Wiccan.
Now remember, not all Wiccan's are Witches,
and not all Witches are Wiccan's. *grin*
For me, I chose Wicca, what I learned about it,
and what I'm still learning seemed to be what I was looking for.
I also find much of the Native American teachings to
be extremely pertinant to today's needs.
So, I'm a Witch. Some use the term Crafter and
some use pagan, and some don't use a word.
Afterall, there are many different Pagan Paths.
This is mine and a word doesn't bother me.
5 simple letters, and such a fuss.

Written By Lorelai on 11 April, 2001