O TEMPORA, O MORES

Witch says fellow pagan out to get her (Janett Neuwahl, Daytona Beach News-Journal, 12/6/05)

It was close to midnight on Sunday and Jill Pagan -- who practices paganism and calls herself a witch -- was getting settled into bed when she heard a crash. It sounded like something might have fallen.

Upon investigation, Pagan discovered that her home's white aluminum door had a large gash in it. And just to the right, a large chunk of concrete was sitting in a flowerpot with a note attached to it by rubber bands. She immediately recognized a handwritten note in an ancient language called Theban, which she said is used almost exclusively by witches. . . .

Pagan later translated the message as, " 'You've been warned. Stop what you're doing,' " she said Monday. And it was a way to scare her, her husband and daughter. . . .

Pagans in Volusia and Flagler counties are a loose-knit group with various beliefs. Some believe in multiple deities, while some follow the Wicca, Celtic, Norse, Egyptian, Druid, African and Native American traditions.

"Someone knew damn well that I was a witch and that I would recognize Theban for what it was," Pagan said, angry at what she calls a hate crime on her Belvedere Lane home.

Pagan wants to know why someone sent such a violent message.

Julius Caesar (writing c. 15 March, 44 B. C. E.) De Bello Gallico 6.16 (Julius Caesar, 3/15/-44)

All the people of Gaul are completely devoted to religion, and for this reason those who are greatly affected by diseases and in the dangers of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow to do so using the Druids as administrators to these sacrifices, since it is judged that unless for a man's life a man's life is given back, the will of the immortal gods cannot be placated. In public affairs they have instituted the same kind of sacrifice. Others have effigies of great size interwoven with twigs, the limbs of which are filled up with living people which are set on fire from below, and the people are deprived of life surrounded by flames. It is judged that the punishment of those who participated in theft or brigandage or other crimes are more pleasing to the immortal gods; but when the supplies of this kind fail, they even go so low as to inflict punishment on the innocent (trans. Anne Lea, in Koch and Carey 1995. 22).

In Neil Gaiman's excellent American Gods, there's a wonderful scene in which Odin interrogates a self-described San Francisco pagan:

[T]ell me, as a pagan, who do you worship?"

"Worship?"

"That's right. I imagine you must have a pretty wide open field. So to whom do you set up your household alter? To whom do you bow down? To whom do you pray at dawn and at dusk?"

Her lips described several shapes without saying anything before she said, "The female principle. It's an empowerment thing, you know?"

"Indeed. And this female principle of yours. Does she have a name?"

"She's the goddess within us all. . . . She doesn't need a name."

"Ah, ... so do you have mighty bacchanals in her honor? Do you drink blood wine under the full moon while scarlet candles burn in silver candleholders. Do you step naked into the seafoam, chanting ecstatically to your nameless goddess while the waves lick at your legs, lapping your thighs like the tongues of a thousand leopards?"

"You're making fun of me," she said. "We don't do any of that stuff you were saying."

Even among the pagans, orthodoxy declines. One day, sacrificer of the innocent; a few thousand years later, an occassion for constitutionally protected transgression. One would very much like to introduce Ms. Pagan to her namesakes.

Posted by David Cohen at December 6, 2005 2:54 PM