Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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Of Witches and Baptists

 

The group of witches sits listening.

Alison is telling us about her coven sister who, in the mistaken practice of the day, deliberately raised her children, not as pagans, but as nothing, so that (in theory, anyway) they would have the freedom to make their own choice for themselves later in life.

(The tragic result of this ill-conceived exercise in spiritual libertarianism was almost invariably that said children, having no basis of comparison by which to make a good decision for themselves, usually ended up falling prey to the first spiritual predator to come along.)

“...And so when she was eighteen, her daughter became a...”

A pregnant pause.

“...a Baptist.”

A collective gasp of horror.

Then, sensing the inverted absurdity of the situation—a group of witches, after all—we all begin to laugh.

“...a Baptist!

We laugh and laugh.

 

 

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Tagged in: Alison Harlow
Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

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