Posted on 10/22/2007 9:50:39 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Bonnie Thompson's Hicksville house is bedecked with all kinds of witch decorations.
There are witch-on-broomstick weather vanes staked in her flower beds and witch chimes dangling below her mailbox. Sitting atop the sill of her bay window are small iron cauldrons and witch figurines.
But none of these objects is there because Halloween is coming.
Thompson is a real witch, or wiccan to be more exact, who follows the concepts and rituals taught by Richard and Gypsy Ravish. The Salem, Mass., couple are head priest and priestess of the Temple of Nine Wells and initiated Thompson into wicca.
As the wicca holiday of Samhain - which falls at the same time of year as Halloween - approaches, Thompson's split-level ranch house is a hive of activity.
Those who enter the front door are first met with the smoky fragrance of burning incense before walking into a world dedicated to her vocation as a "third-degree Alexandrian high priestess" who leads her own Long Island sect, the Coven of the Crescent Moongoddess.
"The neighbors are really good. We've never had any problems because they know we are good people. We have a dog and a turtle and two children. We are a normal family," said Thompson, 36, who has been married to her husband, Bob, 42, a hospital MRI technologist, for 13 years.
Thompson's dining room table is covered with paperwork, laminated credentials, programs and other material in preparation for her third annual New York Witch Festival, which will be held Saturday in the grand ballroom of the Sheraton Long Island Hotel in Hauppauge.
Last year's event, she said, attracted more than 1,000 participants on a stormy day. She is expecting even more at this year's festival, which features a day's worth of workshops with such titles as "Energy Healing" and "Spirit Communication," taught by a number of authors, psychics and full-time witches. There's even a kid-friendly workshop called "Real Wizardry for the Harry Potter Generation," conducted by writer Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, whom Thompson is flying in from San Francisco.
Thompson, who is hosting a 2p.m. ritual, is quick to dispel any notions of brewing up potions with dried bat wings or casting evil spells and hexes on enemies. That, she says, is the stuff of Hollywood.
The modern-day witchcraft she practices as an initiate of wicca, a nature-based religion steeped in the symbolism of European pre-Christian paganism, is benevolent.
"We honor the gods and goddesses of ancient mythology. We honor the sun, the moon, the Earth. There is nothing evil about it," said Thompson, who works part-time as a florist in Old Bethpage. "Many witches believe in the wiccan rede - that what you do to others comes back to you threefold. So we don't do harm."
Thompson, who grew up on Long Island before moving as a teen to upstate New York, was raised Catholic, like her husband, who still considers himself a Catholic. The couple has baptized both their daughters, Sara, 11, and Bridgette, 5, as Catholics.
Bob Thompson said he supports his wife's religion, but, as a tradeoff, he is raising his girls as Catholics until age 16, when they are free, he said, to choose whatever religion they like.
Where do I start?
She couldn't get there on her own broom?
Does she get to roll extra dice with that title?
They honor ancient admitted myths, just like the Democrats. "Fake but accurate".
It's new and as phony as that Christmastime newfangled thing supposedly from Africa.
LOL!!!
Oberon is a guy...
One mans religion is another mans pratfall...
No relation, I promise you.
True, very much so.
The wiccans essentially white-wash what witchcraft and paganism really is: worship of nature gods and the devil himself.
Benevolent. Ha.
These people are posers. Druids and "wiccans" practiced human sacrifice. And the Celts became Christians for a reason: they wanted freedom from their abusive and wicked service to the gods they knew all too well.
Read Thomas Cahill's "How the Irish Saved Civilization" for more background.
Is this what you saw in the mirror this morning?
The guy has a serious Gandalf fixation going on.
Looks like he’s deliberately going for the Dumbledore effect.
Oddly enough... I think Zell’s real first name actually is “Tim”... ;-)
So those ten years I was a practicing pagan, I was really worshiping the Devil? How about all those yeas I was a Luthern? Was I actually worshiping Mohamed?
I wonder if he’s a “...manky Scottish git”...
I’m betting he weighs more than a duck though...
Right up there with the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas for their bloodiness. I believe one of Samhein's rituals was burning people alive as they druids believed their expressions in death could be interpreted to predict the future.
Such a big country, so many loons!
So, is she gonna lock up some her neighbors in a wicker man and burn ‘em?
I think that is part of a “traditional” Celtic celebration of Samhain.
And I may choose to observe "Festivus" instead of Christmas, but I'm not sure why the NY Daily News thinks either decision should be news.
Plus 2 on all saving throws against magic.
Jesus, on the other hand, claimed to be God and accepted worship as such. I suggest you investigate His life and claims. He's either a lunatic, a liar or Lord.
Thanks.
I'm pretty much an agnostic these days.
For everything else, I recommend the Malleus Maleficarum. It isn't any more accurate, but lots of folks still try and use it as a cite source.
http://mhsymp.com/?p=103
There are some who claim that Islam is a Christian heresy, and I tend to agree.
Allah is not Jehovah. Here's why.
I was an agnostic for a while, too. My major problem was religion. I'm not a religionist any more, I'm a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. It's about relationship, not religion.
Thanks!
Whatever trips your trigger. It isn’t up to me to tell you what to believe. Too bad more don’t return the favor... ;-)
Worship - no. Serving - yes.
Worship requires an active, conscious decision. Being manipulated to serve the ends of satan does not.
You mean like the Islamic world considering the USA as “the Great Satan”?
Sure. This nation does an awful lot of stuff that serves satan (i.e. legalized abortion on demand). But of course, the Islamicists are serving satan themselves, so that is rather like the pot calling the kettle black.
Mrs. Redcloak and I knew a Wiccan once. The further into it the woman got, the nuttier she got. I wonder if she’s changed her name to something like Willow Darkfeather Starchild by now.
***Nicholas Cage in Wicker Man.***
I have seen the 1973 Wicker Man with Ed Woodward and Christopher Lee.
You might check out The Golden Bough by Frasier.
my son asked about the christmas tree i tossed out a few months ago...he thinks we are getting a repalcement...time to introduce the lad to Festivus...no need for ornaments so i gave them to the salvation army...just the pole...mine is stainless steel...will be stringing lights on it
So what?
Yes, I find tinsel distracting. :-)
My exact question in #24, but you put it so much more succinctly.
Pass the popcorn!
Halloween by Rabbi Burtshalom b'shem Yah'shua
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