Christo-pagans
ALSO—
Pleasepleasepleaseplease may I have names of people who involve Christian beliefs in their pagan ones, and/or with their witchcraft?
My roommate would really appreciate any new people I can find for her.
And, seeing as how she’s more likely to find a community of similar-practicing people than I am, I intend to live vicariously
The truth...
“Christian Witch: This name is an oxymoron, meaning two conflicting worse have been joined, thus canceling out each other. In other words, this is an impossibility. True witches do not believe in the Christian god, nor do they meld their religion with an orthodox religion that tried to exterminate them.”—D.J. Conway.
This isn’t meant to offend anyone:
Honestly, I believe this to be a fact. I know there may be some of you who disagree, fine. You’re entitled to your opinion but to me the term “Christian Witch” is too contradicting for even the complex mind to begin comprehending. Christianity sees witchcraft as evil, so therefore I don’t see how you can mix those two together. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, who knows? But traditionally, witches/wiccans/etc…believe in a Goddess & God, or for those who work with pantheon traditions many goddesses/gods, but I don’t ever remember the Christian god being mentioned anywhere. Paganism is polytheism, Neopaganism is polytheism. Christianity however, is not.
Story Time With ChristoWitch : The Legend of The Witch of Yazoo.
And now for the reason why:. Christowitch/Amy/I grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. And this is one of the Legends I grew up with. When i bring new people to the town one of my favorite things to do is to find the Witches Grave and tell the story.
The chains have been changed out..and they put up a big stone memorial. Although..you can see what the witch thought about that in the pictures here.
The Story of the Witch
Many years ago, there was a mean and ugly woman who lived alone in carefully guarded seclusion near the banks of the Yazoo River. Nobody knew anything about her, but they loathed her nonetheless. They hated her so much they didn’t even give her a name. It was rumored that on stormy nights she would lure fisherman into her house, poison them with arsenic, and bury them on a densely wooded hill nearby…this was her hobby, but although many people suspected her of these evil diversions, no one was able to prove anything. Then one late afternoon in the autumn of 1884, a boy named Joe Bob Duggett was passing by her house on a raft when he heard a terrible, ungodly moan from one of the rooms. He tied his raft to a cypress branch, ran to the house, and looked through a window. What he saw chilled his blood and bones. Two dead men were stretched out on the floor of the parlor, and the old woman, wearing a black dress caked with filth and cockleburs, had turned her face up to the ceiling and was singing some dreadful incantations, waving her arms in demented circles all the while.
Joe Bob Duggett raced to his raft, floated into town, and told the sheriff and his men what he had seen. They got a horse and buggy and sped to the old woman’s house…They smashed down the front door, but were unable to find either the dead men (who have never been found to this day) or the demented old woman. They climbed the stairs to the attic, opened the door an inch or two, and caught sight of several dozen half-starved cats, all bunched together and gyrating in their wild insanity. Two skeletons, which were never identified by the sheriff’s office, dangled from a dusty rafter. Fish bones littered the floor, and the smell was unusually pungent. The sheriff, his deputies, and Joe Bob stood there transfixed, finally banging the door shut when eight or ten of the cats tried to get out.
Then from the backyard they heard the sound of footsteps in the fallen pecan leaves, and from an upstairs window they saw the old woman sneaking away into the swamps which abounded along the River. “Stop in the name of the law!” the sheriff shouted, but the old woman, who as Joe Bob Duggett would later tell his grandchildren, looked “half ghost and half scarecrow, but all witch,” took off into the swamps at a maniacal gallop. They followed in hot pursuit, and a few minutes later they came upon a sight that Joe Bob remembered so well he would describe it again, for the thousandth time, on his deathbed in the King’s Daughter Hospital in 1942. The old woman had been trapped in a patch of quicksand, and they caught up with her just seconds before her ghastly, pockmarked head was about to go under. But she had time to shout these words at her pursuers: I shall return. Everybody always hated me here. I will break out of my grave and burn down the whole town on the morning of May 25, 1904! Then, as Joe Bob also described it later, with a gurgle and a retch the woman sank from sight to her just desserts.
With the aid of pitchforks and long cypress limbs the authorities were able to retrieve her body. The next day, with the wind and rain sweeping down from the hills, they buried her in the center of the town cemetery, in a cluster of trees and bushes, and around her grave they put the heaviest chain they could find—-some thirty strong and solid links. “If she can break through that and burn down Yazoo,” the sheriff said, more in fun than seriously, “she deserves to burn it down”.
The years went by, the long Mississippi seasons came and went, and the town forgot the old woman.
On the morning of May 25, 1904, some twenty years later, Miss Pauline Wise was planning her wedding. As she entered her parlor to show her visitor some gifts, she discovered a small blaze. Suddenly a strong wind, unusual for that time of year, spread the fire to adjoining house. From Main Street the fire spread to all intersecting streets and soon reached the residential section. The roar of the ever-increasing flames, the confusion of terrorized thousands, the hoarse shouts of the firefighters, and the sound of crashing walls made a scene of awesome horror that remained a fixed picture in the memory of eyewitnesses as long as their lives lasted. Many fine homes were destroyed, and every bank, every physician’s, lawyer’s and dentist’s office, every hotel and boardinghouse, every meat market and bakery, the newspaper and printing office, every church, clubroom, and lodge room, every telephone, telegraph and express office, the depot, the post office, every furniture store, every hardware store, all but one livery stable, all but one drugstore, every barbershop, every tailor shop, every undertaking establishment, and, in fact, nearly every business necessity.
The next day, after the murderous flames had consumed themselves, several elder citizens of the town made a journey to the grave in the middle of the cemetery. What they discovered would be passed along to my friends and to me many years later, and as boys we would go see it for ourselves, for no repairs were made, as a reminder to future generations. As if by some supernatural strength, the chain around the grave had been broken in two.
This immense and grievous tale alone would have been enough to make us woefully mortal Yazoo boys susceptible to the ghostly presence in our midst as we grew up in the 1940s. But on still, cold nights in the fall, as the mists whirled and eddied out of the delta, and the wind whistling and moaning from the woods made our hearts pound in fear and excitement, we had other things to remind us that this was unusual country to have been born in.” (Good Old Boy by Willie Morris)
Now the question is….does that technically make me the Witch of Yazoo….
an undoubtedly intruiging concept
What does it mean to be a Christian Witch?
If I were to explain with words what Christian Witchcraft is, it would feel empty.
For what we hear stays in our minds , but what we live vibrates in our hearts.
I am a Christian Witch, a walking contradiction.
I cast circles and design spells of burning incense and gemstones bright,
I follow the teachings of Jesus, his message of love and compassion
My guides are the angels, the saints, the warrior women of the Torah, the Myrrh-bearers and the holy Trinity,
My cup and cauldron are the Holy Grail
My herbs of worship are frankincense and myrrh
The four archangels guard my elemental gates
My scriptures are the Bible and the Gnostic gospels
My mythology are the genesis and the parables
My guardian angel is my spirit guide
My God is the breath of life from which all things in the tree of life flow
I celebrate the Christian aspects of the Sabbats
I celebrate the Pagan aspects of the Christian Holy Days
I practice what is forbidden by the officials of my Church
I attend mass
I am priestess of my rituals
I believe in the blessed sanctity of the earth and the heavens
I believe in the beauty of women’s spirituality
I am not a bible waving, proselytizing fanatic
‘An ye harm none, do what you will will be the whole of the law’
‘Love your neighbor as yourself will be your new commandment’
‘All acts of pleasure are my rituals’
‘It is time to rejoice for that which was lost is found’.
(excerpt from The Path of a Christian Witch)
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Oh looky what I found. :3 I think I may have stumbled onto a gold mine.
Levantine Paganism (or witchcraft--I'm just picking a term: I know it's not perfect)
*whispers* Can I just…make friends who even in some way sort of kind of border on each other and eat tea and biscuits or whatever you like to eat or drink and sit in my happiness because there are other people that believe things and things? That would just make me so happy.
In my happy little daydream, I go to a levantine paganism tag (or, fuck it, it could be levpag for short) and just see all kinds of people who involve themselves with Kemeticism (Egyptian), or Christianity, or Islam, or the Canaanites, or the Babylonians, or Judaism, or the Assyrians, Mesopotamians, etc.
And there is glory.
“The Moon is the cosmic symbol of the Goddess, the Divine Mother is not the Moon itself nor do Wiccans of any tradition consider the Moon to be Her celestial place of residence. Throughout the Book of Psalms in the Christian Holy Bible, the Sun and the Moon repeatedly symbolizes the Male and Female Principles of the generalized concept of the generalized term "God.”
—Nancy Chandler Pittman
(this shows my Wiccan belief in the God/Goddess.)
Unpopular opinion (WARNING)
Yeah, so this might offend but I really couldn’t care
I find this “Christian Witch” path thing offensive. I am not easily offended but this, this is rubbish.
I feel that these people are the ones who are too chicken shit to break away from what they were taught/ what is expected from their parents/society, that they’ll practice witchcraft but still call themselves “Christians”.
It’s something that fucks me off to no end.
And if you want to spam my ask box with whatever you want, go for it. I need a laugh. I won’t publish it though ^^
My Spiritual Journey
Hello to whomever you are reading this right now. I am honored that you felt curious enough about me to read my story. I wish to remain mostly anonymous on here, so I will refrain from displaying my birth name. I wish to be referred to as Indigo or Indi. :]
I have chosen to keep my identity hidden for the obvious reasons. There are very few (one, as of the moment I’m typing this) who know about my spiritual path. I am surrounded by people who would have a problem with my views and wouldn’t hesitate to vocalize their issues. I fear it would cause a wedge in my relationship with my husband (the only person who knows), and I will do almost anything I can to avoid that. His family is full of judgmental conservatives, so it’s best to just keep their knowledge to a minimum.
Anyways, I suppose it’s time to move on to who I am, outside of my name. I am from a central state in America, almost directly in the middle. It’s a state full of southern people and southern mentalities. Stereotypically that goes hand in hand with being Christian and a conservative Republican. Although my immediate family is not like that, everyone else I was surrounded by growing up was.
My father was a Christian, but he was very open minded and I never once saw him go to a church service. He was saved around 13 and as an adult he developed a personal relationship with God. I know he had strong faith, but he chose to stay away from the church. He unexpectedly passed away in 2006, so you will hear me speak of him from time to time and it will always be in past tense (unless I’m speaking of his spirit).
My mother’s belief system was very different from my father’s. She rarely spoke about her beliefs when I was a child. She had a rough up bringing and that caused her to struggle with where she stood on faith and belief in any divine. She allowed me to attend church with friends growing up, but she made it clear that she would never participate. Even to this day she still has the same mentality. She (justly) feels that Christianity is full of hypocrisy, judgement, and people who are backwards with their views.
So coming from a Christian father and an unsure mother made me a bit confused about religion as a young girl. I spent my childhood going to Christian churches on and off with various friends. Because of that my spiritual foundation was based off their religious teachings. I have always had a very questioning mind and have struggled with the teachings in the Bible. My connection to the Christian faith was Jesus and his teachings of love and acceptance. Unfortunately the massive majority of modern Christians say they follow those lessons, but their actions are very different. The actions and attitudes of the people I was surrounded by in church caused me to feel a great separation with Christianity.
As a young girl I was made aware that my grandmother was a witch. My mother told me that she had spell books and practiced hexes and curses. She told me a story of a man that once hit on her endlessly in a bar and she later cursed him. He got into a car accident shortly after and was killed. There were also several other men throughout her life that had unfortunate things happen to them after bothering her in some form or another. I always felt embarrassed to express my strong curiosity to her about this and it was something she never, ever, exposed. I think she is what sparked such a strong interest for me in this….or I was born with it in me as a descendant of her.
As a teenager I spent a very short amount of time looking into Pagan religions, but didn’t feel a deep enough connection to the polytheistic ideals, so I quickly moved on. I went back to Christianity and planted myself there (loosely) up until a few months ago. I didn’t have any specific experience that made me feel disconnected from it, but I felt years of questioning thoughts and uncertainty built up inside me start to expose itself. I have always, and will always, relate to Jesus and his lessons, but I cannot connect with the religion His “people” have turned Christianity into. I can not surround myself with such ignorance, hate, and hypocrisy any longer.
So here I am, 24 years old, and questioning my beliefs again, for the millionth time. I came to a rough conclusion of where I see myself going with my spirituality. I want to blend Christianity and Paganism together. I need to look into the different Pagan paths to find the specific one that suits me, but I know I want to mesh some form in with my Christian foundation (Jesus’ teachings). I know this may sound strange (and possibly stupid or impossible) to some (or many), but it sounds perfectly rational and feels right to me, and in the end that is allthat truly matters.
I have decided that Paganism and Christianity are one in the same, except men screwed up the religion when they wrote the Bible. I want to worship the Almighty/the Creator/the One who created the universes and everything existing within them. This may seem like a Christian point, but the Pagan influence comes in because the One is my God and my Goddess together. I believe the One to be both of these things all in the same. I believe that they are the same being with different sides and faces. I think that both sides should be acknowledged and worshipped separately, but they come together to form one being. Then when it comes to deities I believe the angels, disciples, saints, etc. in the Christian religion are equal to the deities in the Pagan faiths. I think they take several forms, but instead of worshipping them I will chose to use them as guides. I will only worship the One, and use the deities (including Jesus) as advanced spiritual beings to receive blessings and leadership from in my journey. I want to take the Pagan views on nature and live in balance with everything that surrounds me. I believe anything created has a purpose and energy flowing within it. These energies are meant to be utilized in our path, but never taken advantage of or used without permission.
As far as heaven, hell, and the devil I am still unsure of where I stand on those. I have thought briefly on it, but I just don’t have a direct feel for what to believe yet. I do believe that after our spirits leave the human form they travel somewhere magickal. I just don’t know where that is yet.
I plan to continuously research and learn everything I can. I want to be a sponge when it comes to faith and spirituality. My views and thoughts are likely to change, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Life is all about our personal journeys and what we feel to be right within us. I have always and will always follow my intuition strictly and wholeheartedly.
I wish many blessings for you all!
Indigo
P.S. I do not intend for this to offend absolutely anyone. If my personal beliefs or opinions do bother you that is something you will need to deal with within yourself. Your opinions of my beliefs are irrelevant to who I am, especially if you know nothing more about me than what I have written here. Please realize that this is all stuff within my mind and heart and has no outwardly projection on you and your beliefs.
