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Creating
Reality I
remember stepping into the Car 86 office at the start of an afternoon shift a
few years ago. I found that my partner, the child protection worker, was
already sitting at her desk. Poker faced, she handed me an action alert which
directed us to assess the mother of an eight year old child. This mother was
diagnosed with schizophrenia and was believed to be off of her
medications. This mother was beginning
to decompensate. The neighbors reported that this woman was becoming paranoid
and delusional, becoming a danger to herself and her child. The action alert
stated that several times in the last few days this woman had called 911,
reporting that my police department had been infiltrated by Witches. She
thought that these Witches were sending thought energy into her brain and
controlling her actions. I
raised an eyebrow and looked up from the action alert in my hands. My partner
was starting to giggle as the mirth that she had been concealing began to
leak out. Small wonder, since she knew what I am. I
was a cop, and am now a police dispatcher. I am a witch. In my case, both of
these statements are true. The average citizen in Western society seems to be
able to grasp the idea that a person could be one or the other. A lot of
baggage comes along with the “W” word. Centuries of myth and propaganda make
it impossible for many people in today’s world to see how both of these can
be combined in one person. For many people the word “Witch” conjures up
images of frightful crones with pointy hats and familiar cats, not police
officers. My co-workers have come to see that I am
not some secret agent of some evil conspiracy that infiltrated the Vancouver
Police Department 30 years ago. My partner the social worker understood that
I was not controlling that schizophrenic’s thoughts with magic. Yet that
action alert in my hands was further evidence that there are still quite a
few people in our society that did not yet share my colleague’s insight. There is a lot of misinformation out there.
Until you meet a Wiccan like me, it is often hard to separate the facts from
the fiction. Seeing me in uniform back then, there was no way for a citizen
to know that I was a Witch. My existence confounds them. Yet here I am,
living proof. In November 1992, CBC Radio host Peter
Gzowski read out a letter from a Wiccan living on Saltspring Island, British
Columbia, on his Morningside radio show. The author of this letter had listed
several professions that Wiccans were involved in. Law enforcement was one of
the professions on that list. Gzowski laughingly commented to the
listeners: “Do you really think that any police officers are
Witches?” I’m sure that many of Gzowski’s listeners would have answered this question in the negative. Fortunately for us Wiccans, a friend of mine was listening to that broadcast and recorded it. They sent the tape to me. I immediately dashed off my own letter to Peter. A few weeks later his producer telephoned and quipped, “OK, Peter |
Creating reality
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e-mail: webmaster@officersofavalon.com |
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To contact us: |
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I was a cop, and am now a police dispatcher. I am a
witch. In my case, both of these statements are true. The average citizen in
Western society seems to be able to grasp the idea that a person could be one
or the other. |
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Dispatches: Volume 2 No. 6 Samhain/Calan Gaef/Einherjar 2007 |
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Until you meet a Wiccan like me, it is
often hard to separate the facts from the fiction. |
