Post by KaiAidan on Aug 8, 2004 23:35:01 GMT -5
this is old posted to a yahoo group last year dont know if anyone would want to read it so hey if you want to .... ;D
Subject: Not Your Father's Witch
This NYTimes has been the highlighted "News" item
on AOL the last
24
hours. Not tooooo bad, except that first sentence!
"or so they
say"
Huh,
would they open an article about Ramadan-celebrating
Muslims like that?
Oh, and
yeah, they could have given the respect to capitalize
"witch" at least
some of
the time.
But, pregnant doging aside, not bad for a mainstream
fluff piece. And, if
we go
to www.nytimes.com, click on editorials - any of us
can send in a
couple
paragraphs' worth of a letter to the editor. Hint,
hint. Respectfully
written,
appreciative AND pointing out the shortcomings...
They might well
print/post
our reactions, too.
Treasure
Not Your Father's Witch
By IAN URBINA, The New York Times
Yes, there are witches among us, or so they say. Not
"pointy black hat,
pointy green nose" witches, but the modern kind, the
urban
sophisticated witches,
and this is their time of year. They seem to enjoy
their moment in the
sun, or
the darkness, as the case may be.
************* Sidebar piece **************
What Is Wicca?
Nancy Siesel/The New York Times
Definition: Old English word, meaning to bend or to
turn
Organization: No central authority; followers known as
witches, loosely
organized in groups called covens
Magic: Used only for beneficial purposes, not to harm
Population: Grew from 8,000 in 1990 to more than
134,000 in 2001, as
estimated by the American Religious Identification
Survey
Sources: World Book Online,
Dictionary by Merriam & Webster
************************************
Here is Stacy Rapp, 30, of Brooklyn, slender, with
many tattoos and a
shock
of red hair. Not a mole in sight.
She sets a plate with bread and fruit to honor
deceased loved ones,
places
orange candles around the room, cuts a pomegranate to
invoke the spirit
of the
mythical figure Persephone, and begins divvying up
exact portions of
the
wormwood, mullein (also called graveyard dirt),
mugwort and other
herbs. All are
ingredients in the incenses burned during this week's
rituals.
[Would they say "the mythcial figure Jesus" for
describing an Xmas
creche?
-RW]
O.K., it seems a little hokey - but this is a hokey
week. For witches
like
Ms. Rapp, it is a sacred week, too.
["Hokey"? As in oh say having little children put
on a play about a
woman
pregnant out of wedlock having a baby around newborn
lambs & such in
the
middle of winter?]
Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced SOW-wen), as
Halloween is called by
the
male and female followers of the Wicca religion,
represents the close
of the
harvest season and the beginning of a new year. Most
Wiccans, or
witches, spend
some part of the evening of Oct. 31 reflecting on
loved ones who have
died.
But this is New York City, so there is actually a
diversity of ways
that
witches spend this holiday.
"In the past I've thrown huge parties," said Kimberly
Smith, 30, of
Washington Heights, and a board member at Pagan Pride,
a group that
helps explain pagan
traditions.
"It's a festive time of remembrance," she said, "so
I've had altars
stacked
six or so feet high with photos and mementos of all
sorts."
Michelle Nelson, 24, a witch from Ridgewood in Queens,
prefers to
escape the
city to spend time at her father's house in the
countryside near
Lititz, Pa.
Some go to the Greenwich Village Halloween Day Parade.
Others meet in
small
groups. "I'm a kitchen-sink witch, so that means I
make up the rituals
from
stuff I have around the kitchen," said Sarah Razner,
28, of
Williamsburg,
Brooklyn.
But Carol Bulzone, 52, a high priestess from Queens,
said there was one
thing
that witches shouldn't do. "You need to be careful not
to surround
yourself
with the wrong people," she cautioned. "We made that
mistake one year,"
she
said, explaining that several years ago she invited
Geraldo Rivera to
televise a
séance. "He sent the place haywire," she recounted.
"It was terrible,
he drew
so much power that he completely blew the fuse in the
building," she
said,
leaving ambiguous whether this was a spiritual or
electrical fuse.
Although counting Wiccans in the United States is
difficult, the
American
Religious Identification Survey estimates that the
community grew to
more than
134,000 in 2001 from 8,000 in 1990.
As for New York City, "Honestly, I think the Lower
East Side has the
highest
concentration of witches," said Joe Zuchowski, a high
priest of Wicca
and an
employee at Enchantments Book Store in the
neighborhood.
Some crave a more suburban existence. Morgana
SidheRaven, 44, who owns
Morgana's Chamber, a Wicca store on West 10th Street
in the Village,
lives in
Westchester with her husband and daughter. "My husband
is not within
Wicca, but he
is very accepting of my beliefs," she said. They were
wed on Samhain.
"Everyone
has their own way to celebrate the day, but for us
it's a wedding
anniversary
and a religious new year."
Subject: Not Your Father's Witch
This NYTimes has been the highlighted "News" item
on AOL the last
24
hours. Not tooooo bad, except that first sentence!
"or so they
say"
Huh,would they open an article about Ramadan-celebrating
Muslims like that?
Oh, and
yeah, they could have given the respect to capitalize
"witch" at least
some of
the time.
But, pregnant doging aside, not bad for a mainstream
fluff piece. And, if
we go
to www.nytimes.com, click on editorials - any of us
can send in a
couple
paragraphs' worth of a letter to the editor. Hint,
hint. Respectfully
written,
appreciative AND pointing out the shortcomings...
They might well
print/post
our reactions, too.
Treasure
Not Your Father's Witch
By IAN URBINA, The New York Times
Yes, there are witches among us, or so they say. Not
"pointy black hat,
pointy green nose" witches, but the modern kind, the
urban
sophisticated witches,
and this is their time of year. They seem to enjoy
their moment in the
sun, or
the darkness, as the case may be.
************* Sidebar piece **************
What Is Wicca?
Nancy Siesel/The New York Times
Definition: Old English word, meaning to bend or to
turn
Organization: No central authority; followers known as
witches, loosely
organized in groups called covens
Magic: Used only for beneficial purposes, not to harm
Population: Grew from 8,000 in 1990 to more than
134,000 in 2001, as
estimated by the American Religious Identification
Survey
Sources: World Book Online,
Dictionary by Merriam & Webster
************************************
Here is Stacy Rapp, 30, of Brooklyn, slender, with
many tattoos and a
shock
of red hair. Not a mole in sight.
She sets a plate with bread and fruit to honor
deceased loved ones,
places
orange candles around the room, cuts a pomegranate to
invoke the spirit
of the
mythical figure Persephone, and begins divvying up
exact portions of
the
wormwood, mullein (also called graveyard dirt),
mugwort and other
herbs. All are
ingredients in the incenses burned during this week's
rituals.
[Would they say "the mythcial figure Jesus" for
describing an Xmas
creche?
-RW]
O.K., it seems a little hokey - but this is a hokey
week. For witches
like
Ms. Rapp, it is a sacred week, too.
["Hokey"
? As in oh say having little children puton a play about a
woman
pregnant out of wedlock having a baby around newborn
lambs & such in
the
middle of winter?]
Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced SOW-wen), as
Halloween is called by
the
male and female followers of the Wicca religion,
represents the close
of the
harvest season and the beginning of a new year. Most
Wiccans, or
witches, spend
some part of the evening of Oct. 31 reflecting on
loved ones who have
died.
But this is New York City, so there is actually a
diversity of ways
that
witches spend this holiday.
"In the past I've thrown huge parties," said Kimberly
Smith, 30, of
Washington Heights, and a board member at Pagan Pride,
a group that
helps explain pagan
traditions.
"It's a festive time of remembrance," she said, "so
I've had altars
stacked
six or so feet high with photos and mementos of all
sorts."
Michelle Nelson, 24, a witch from Ridgewood in Queens,
prefers to
escape the
city to spend time at her father's house in the
countryside near
Lititz, Pa.
Some go to the Greenwich Village Halloween Day Parade.
Others meet in
small
groups. "I'm a kitchen-sink witch, so that means I
make up the rituals
from
stuff I have around the kitchen," said Sarah Razner,
28, of
Williamsburg,
Brooklyn.
But Carol Bulzone, 52, a high priestess from Queens,
said there was one
thing
that witches shouldn't do. "You need to be careful not
to surround
yourself
with the wrong people," she cautioned. "We made that
mistake one year,"
she
said, explaining that several years ago she invited
Geraldo Rivera to
televise a
séance. "He sent the place haywire," she recounted.
"It was terrible,
he drew
so much power that he completely blew the fuse in the
building," she
said,
leaving ambiguous whether this was a spiritual or
electrical fuse.
Although counting Wiccans in the United States is
difficult, the
American
Religious Identification Survey estimates that the
community grew to
more than
134,000 in 2001 from 8,000 in 1990.
As for New York City, "Honestly, I think the Lower
East Side has the
highest
concentration of witches," said Joe Zuchowski, a high
priest of Wicca
and an
employee at Enchantments Book Store in the
neighborhood.
Some crave a more suburban existence. Morgana
SidheRaven, 44, who owns
Morgana's Chamber, a Wicca store on West 10th Street
in the Village,
lives in
Westchester with her husband and daughter. "My husband
is not within
Wicca, but he
is very accepting of my beliefs," she said. They were
wed on Samhain.
"Everyone
has their own way to celebrate the day, but for us
it's a wedding
anniversary
and a religious new year."
