Are Witches Ugly?

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 12:54 pm by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Are Witches Ugly? 2014-12-27T12:54:49-05:00 Fr. Dwight Longenecker

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This light hearted little rant about adolescent type behavior warranted a rash of comments from irate pagan/witchcraft types. Seems their green skin is pretty thin. (that was a joke)

We all have to laugh at ourselves a bit, and I was surprised that the pagans–who I usually perceive as laid back and easy going–were so annoyed.

In fact the post wasn’t an attack on pagan-witch religion at all, but on a certain type of behavior not unique to pagans. As commenters pointed out we have a few attention grabbing “So whaddya looking at??!!” Catholics too.

That’s not to say that I have no criticisms of the craft. I do, but that’s another post for another day.

Anyway, the post garnered a big raft of comments. A few of the comments were intelligent invitations to dialogue. Some simply blamed me for being ignorant. I’m happy to take that swipe. It’s true that I don’t’ know that much about the details of paganism.

However, a number of the comments were ignorant and arrogant and a few of them were downright threatening and ugly.

Here’s one:

Respect Existence or Expect Resistance. You can’t write an article calling a whole plethora of religions nothing but a bunch or attention seeking whiners, and expect there not to be consequences for those actions…. Odin’s pretty clear on what one should do when ones people and traditions have been dishonored.
We’re not exactly a “turn the other cheek” kind of people. If you poke us, we’ll poke you back.

Whoa! That’s not nice! Was that just wand rattling or did you really mean to threaten me?

It makes me ask therefore whether witches are portrayed as frightening freaks because there is an innate ugliness and violence in their religion. The commenter seemed to suggest that revenge was part of the occult creed.

So is this kind of aggressive threat part of the very warp and woof of pagan-witchcraft religion or is paganism basically benign and the commenter simply one of their bad guys?

It’s certainly true that all religions have their Darth Vaders. I can dish up some pretty nasty examples from the Catholic world–not just historic examples of Catholic ugliness, but present day vile bile. However, it is unwise to judge all Catholics on Torquemada.

Come then, let us reason together. What do people on both sides think?

Are witches-pagans intrinsically ugly or is it more a matter of “Well, OK. There are some wicked witches and then there are the Glindas – the Good Witches.”

So…Which Witch?

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