PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com

It is said that during the dark days of the Great Persecution, certain friars secreted themselves near the sabbat-stead of a certain Alpine valley.

In this way they hoped to spy upon the witches in their gathering, and so ascertain once and for all the much-vexed question of what numbers the cult could claim.

Now it so happened—let it surprise no one—that these friars were in their turn espied by a certain warlock on his way to the sabbat, and this is what he said to them:

I have it from a friend who grew up Pentecostal that if ever (who knows?) you should have to pass yourself off as a “Tongues”-spouting Bible-banger, here's what you need to do.

Look like you're in trance. (You're pagan, no problem.)

Repeat again and again, faster and faster, as if you can't help yourself:

Tie my bow tie. Untie my bow tie. Retie my bow tie.

***

 The ancient Romans regarded the Germanic tribes as paragons of perfidy. Again and again they would conclude treaties, only to break said treaties as soon as it was advantageous to do so.

What the Romans never understood was that in Germanic culture, A binding agreement can only be validly concluded between equals.

With some effete, boy-boffing southron shaveling, no agreement could ever possibly be considered binding.

Which is the greater courage?

To die with the Old God's name on your lips?

Or to speak the usurpers' words, and to live with the Old Ways in your heart?

To hide, to lie if need be, to this end: that “ever the Craft shall live”?

[Image from http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/01/25/a_q_a_with_the_muslim_woman_whose_face_has_become_a_symbol_of_trump_resistance.html]

Hey you: witch.

How many nipples do you have?

Back in the Bad Old Days, the received wisdom was that witches have more than two. That's so we can suckle our imps.

Those of us with a Classical education, of course, think immediately of Diana of Ephesus, goddess of witches, with her ample endowments (polymasteia: the state of having many breasts). Of course, Many-breasted Earth feeds us all to this very day.

But I highly doubt that that's what the witch-finders had in mind. Humans have two nipples, animals have many. It's a comment on the witch's intrinsically bestial nature.

They took down the gallows in the park today.

In some ways, that's too bad.

Sculptor Sam Durant's 2012 wood and steel installation Scaffold had been acquired by the Walker Museum for its newly-renovated Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Intended as a commentary on racial inequities in capital punishment throughout American history, it sparked protests among traditional Dakota, who found it offensive.

So they took it down.

The entire mishandled situation has been, frankly, a tragedy of errors from beginning to end, starting with the fact that the sculpture garden has long been known locally for—how shall I put this charitably—its “content-free” nature. What the Walker was thinking by plunking down something with actual serious content into the midst of its half-acre of vacuity, like some farmhouse crashing down out of the clear blue into Muchkinland, I honestly don't know.

But controversy aside, I've been thinking about the piece itself.

You could say that it's put me in touch.

Our Pagan News Beagle today is all about faith & religion -- both Pagan and otherwise. Today we have 17th century British (accused) witches; a rare documentary on British Witches of the Sixties; a naturalist Pagan describes the purpose of ritual; religions that are highly concentrated in only a few places; and a suggestion of how black churches can function, post-Ferguson.