As I was saying........

You might have noticed that I mentioned I'm married to a Witch.  I wasn't kidding, and I wasn't disparaging the woman.  She really IS a Witch, and no, in context it's not a bad thing.  You see, unlike the stereotypical old hag with a bad complexion and an appetite for stray children, a REAL Witch is nothing more than a person (not necessarily a woman) who practices the nature-centric religion of Wicca, often as the High Priestess of her coven, although belonging to a coven is not necessary to practice Wicca, as many adherents practice as solitaires.  We here at Pendragon Hold consider our family to be our coven, and have always welcomed like-minded guests to our circles, although here in the bible belt, pagans are rather hard to come by.

Which makes yours truly the High Priest more or less by default.  Yes, I DO consider myself Wiccan as well, having given up Catholicism for Lent a long time ago.  I'm just not as devoted to the craft as the wife is, never having personally cast a spell or led a ceremony.  I've been happy to let her do all the hard work....grin.  Actually, she finds value in my ability to stay grounded within the faith, keeping her firmly within the realm of reality.  Yes, I know it seems that I might just as well admit to having joined the crazies by embracing neopaganism instead of graduating straight to atheism, but so far I've refused to surrender to the idea that there is nothing greater than ourselves outside the realm of our four senses.  No, I cannot abide the idea of an angry white guy in the clouds who tolerates the very idea of a Westburrough Baptist Church or Fundamentalist (fill-in-the-blank).  Yes, I do know a VERY few individuals I would consider Christians in the truest sense of the word, but like Grandi observed, the worst thing that ever happened to Christ's teachings were what his followers seemed to have "learned".

Thus we now live our lives by a new sensibility, which embraces our most basic teaching; "An it harm none, do what you will".  This is simultaneously liberating while at the same time applying the same principle as the golden rule.  There are so many strictures within our social order which are oppressive for no profit other than for those seeking power over another.  Our Wiccan "Rede" frees us to pursue pleasure and joy during this life while sternly reminding us that there IS no pleasure OR joy in harming others in this pursuit.  No, there probably is no practical way to adhere to this guideline, insofar that we eat meat or purchase a product that may have cost some blood, sweat, and tears to produce, but if we cannot strive to avoid doing so, then we have avoided our fair share of responsibility.  Rights of any stripe do not come without a price.

Oh boy, I can go on and on, can't I?  This was a sort of "get-to-know-us" sort of post for the benefit of those who don't know us or didn't know us that well.  I hope you didn't think of any of this as judgmental, because save for anything YOU might believe which might wish harm upon me or mine, I do not require you to accept my creed in order to have my respect.  And since it is not MY job as a human being to be anybody's judge, I hope you can see fit to be our friend and return the favor.

Friends (no, not the "FB" idea of friends) in this day and age are worth their weight in ANYbody's concept of "gold".