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Hysteria and Witch Hunts Ask
a person at random on the street today if they think that the office of the
Inquisition is still in business and the chances are that they will laugh at
you. They will assure you that such things do not happen any more in today's
civilized world. Those who remember their history lessons will tell you that
the Inquisition started with Pope Innocent VIII's Papal Bull of 1484 CE and
finally petered out in 1741. A few may even recall that the Inquisitors used
a witch finding manual called the Malleus Maleficarum (“Witch’s Hammer”). If
they recall this book, these people may have heard that it lists what the
Inquisitors wished us to believe to be the characteristics of Witches. They
may know that many people died during the Inquisition, but it is less certain
that they will recall that these deaths were often the result of people being
denounced simply because they were left handed, had blemishes, or had red
hair. These Inquisitors burned or hanged hundreds of thousands of people. The
average man on the street today will likely tell you that civilized people
don't do that sort of thing in Western society in the twenty first
century. Now
check out the following list of household items to see how many of them you
have in your home: candles, incense
and incense burners, bells, jewelry, photographic equipment, painted, draped
or stained glass windows, colored scarves, pieces of fruit, vegetable
kernels, sea shells, toothpicks, needles, tacks, oils. I’m
guessing that you have quite a number of these items in your home, even if
you have no interest in Pagan or New Age things at all. These items are among
those listed in A Basic Guide To The
Occult For Law Enforcement Agencies (cover in left sidebar),
a manual allegedly designed to help law enforcement agencies identify “signs
of occultic involvement” and Satanism. It was published by a group called the
Technical Research Institute in Arvada, CO, in 1984 and reprinted in 1987. It
has been handed out to cops at seminars on “occult crime.” Publicly
declare yourself a Wiccan and you quickly learn that the spirit of the
Inquisition persists here and there. I can read this in the eyes of Pagans
that I encounter in the course of my duties. A number of times in my police
career I have found myself in households where the occupants have a number of
New Age books displayed on a shelf. I’ve noted the nervous expressions on the
faces of the residents when they see that I’ve noticed these books. These
expressions don’t change until they realize that the cop looking at these
books is a Pagan like they are. I’ve
been on the receiving end of this sort of attention too. For example, on one
occasion a younger police officer was assigned to work with me by our
supervisor. When I arrived at work at the beginning of my shift this officer
approached me and refused to do so: She was a devout Christian and my beliefs
made her uncomfortable. Several
years later, I attended at a synagogue to investigate a silent alarm. This
building had not been used as a synagogue for long: It had formerly been a
Christian church. Upon arrival I discovered that the service entrance door
was unlocked. There were no signs of forced entry: It looked as if it had
accidentally been left unlocked. I requested cover units so that we could
check out the building and ensure that no unauthorized person was still
inside. The cover officers soon arrived and I went up to the unlocked door to
enter the synagogue. It was then that one of the covering officers (who was
not Jewish) challenged me: He told me that I couldn’t enter. “Why
not?” “If
you go in there, you’ll desecrate it,” the officer replied. It
is disturbing to learn that some of your colleagues consider you “unclean,”
simply because you believe something different than they do. Many other
Wiccan police officers have had similar experiences. Texas probation officer
Rey Gutierrez once wrote to me: “I
still find officers now and then that have every misconception in the book
about Wicca. Usually they are so ingrained in their views that nothing will
change them. Those usually end up keeping their distance - I guess they are
afraid that I might contaminate them.” Wiccan
Liz Mahaffey of the Hall County Sheriff’s Department in Georgia describes her
jurisdiction as “a bible stomping area.”
Liz writes: “After I came out I NEVER received another promotion.
Luckily I was an investigator in Narcotics at that time. Coming out as a
Wiccan in a very Southern Baptist town certainly had its drawbacks! In the
department, you'd find those that got promoted all attended the same church
in many instances. I had to put up
with the "you're going to hell" comments from fellow officers. I've
even had other officers tell me the other officers were "afraid" of
me because I was a Witche [a female Witch]... One time I had some people over
at my house - they were mostly all Native American spiritual seekers, very
few Wiccans and one of the neighbors called the Sheriff’s Office, saying they
heard children "screaming" (there were kids playing!). Three patrol
cars came to investigate! It was a
hoot.” A
Wiccan security detective in New Jersey seeking to get a job within police or
ambulance services wrote: “I recently took a police test in my town and also
applied to the volunteer ambulance corps... Within a week of applying at the
ambulance corps the Captain of the corps called me and told me some people
had told him that I talk to spirits and practice black magic. I of course denied this and asked what this
had to do with driving an ambulance for free?
He told me that it didn’t, but felt it best that I not join the
corps.” A Wiccan investigator working for the County Prosecutor of Essex County in Newark, New Jersey, once wrote to me: “I’ll just put it this way, the door to the ‘Broom Closet’ has been open for at least the last 10 years, but I have never gone truly public. My wife of some twenty seven years is a cowan [a person not initiated into Wicca] and I have always respected her wishes that I not publicize by beliefs. If questioned, though, I do not deny what I am. I just don’t go looking for notoriety. Then, too, in the police profession down here any thing out of the ordi |
Hysteria and Witch Hunts
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e-mail: webmaster@officersofavalon.com |
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To contact us: |
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Publicly declare yourself
a Wiccan and you quickly learn that the spirit of the Inquisition persists
here and there. |
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Dispatches:
Volume 2 No. 2 Eostre/Alban
Eilir/Méan Earraigh/Ostara 2007 |
