Do Witches Believe in God?

Do Witches Believe in God?

The question that everyone seems to ask most often about Witches is: Do Witches believe in God? It is a very important question,really;one that you should put a lot of thought into before you decide on an answer. Now as I have explained elsewhere,everyone is different and free to believe exactly whatever he or she chooses to believe regardless of what religion they claim,what church they attend,or what traditions they were raised with-and this goes for everyone Witches and non-Witches alike. You can ask this question to a hundred different Witches and you will get a hundred different answers. Yes,there are Witches who believe in God and yes,there are Witches who do not believe in God,and there are also Witches who believe every possible belief in between. What is important is not what all Witches in general believe,but what you believe. When you give your answer be sure to explain that all Witches believe exactly as they choose,some believe one thing and others believe another,and that the answer that you give to them about God,is based on your own personal beleifs and can’t realy be used to describe all Witches in general,as all Witches have the freedom of choise that this contry grants to all of it’s people,and that unlike the average American church-goer Witches are not willing to be intimidated into giving up their freedom for the sake of what a religion tells them that they are “supposed” to belive one thing over another. You should also explain that the whole purpose of the Declaration of Independance was to alow people the freedom to worship as they chosed without fear of persicution from other denominations who did not agree with the teachings of another religion. When you answer them,you must speak with bold conviction,but without trying to “convert” them to your way of thinking. Telling someone that what they believe is wrong and that they must believe only what you say it right,is called communisim and is illeagel in the United States of America,as it takes the freedom to choose away from the person who is being intimidated into believing th dictator’s point of veiw. You have the freedom to preach whatever you want,but you do not have the right to force others into believeing the same things that you do. Speak as boldly as you what,with as much conviction as you can. If they detect the least bit of dought in your answer than they will assume that you don’t really beleive what you are telling them,and this well leave you open to endless attempts to rob you of your freedom and convert you to their religion,because they will feel that you are not happy with your own,otherwise you would have been more convinced that what you were saying to them was true. If you are strong in your convections,people will respect your beliefs and be less likely to make attempts to “change” you.

The real question should be,not do all Witches in general believe in God,but “Do you yourself,as a Witch, personally,believe in God?” Now ask this to yourself. You will be asked this question-are you prepared to give a good plausible answer when someone asks you if Witches believe in God? Maybe someone has already asked you that question –How did you answer them? What did you say? Usually when someone asks if Witches believe in God,what they really want to know is: Do you yourself,as a Witch,believe in God? Well,do you? You can’t answer the people who ask you these questions,if you,yourself don’t even know what it is that you believe in,so before you can even think about becoming a Witch,you are going to have to figure out what you believe spiritualy.

When you become a Witch you must realize,that although Witchcraft is not in itself a religion,Witches are very religiously inclined individuals who devote their lives to spiritual things-and the world knows this. If you plan to be a Witch,than you will have to do some real soul searching,and determine once and for all,what you as an individual believe. A Witch who doesn’t know were they stand on spiritual beliefs,is not really a Witch at all. While not all Witches maintain the same religious convictions,all Witches do have very strong,deeply held convictions-they know who they are,who they worship,and why they worship–and no one,no one at all,not no one no how,gets between them and their “chosen deity”-ever.
I have discussed some of the common religious beliefs that you will find among many Witches,in another chapter. So, rather than tell you what other Witches believe about God,in this chapter we will focus on you and what you believe about God. When it comes right down to it,it is not really so important that you know what other Witches believe as it is that you know what it is that you believe. It is your beliefs that shape who you are. This is something that very few people are willing to admit. Even politicians who claim to seperate church and state,run the government based on their own personal beliefs,no mater how hard they try to say otherwise. They can’t even vote to pass a law,without first looking inside of themselves and deciding wither it is moraly right or wrong to vote yes or no. As much as these people hate to admitt it,they can not avoid running a government that is not influanced by the religous beliefs of the politicians. And this is not limited to politicians-everyone,every where in the world,does every thing they do,based entirely on what they believe in,wither they realize it or not. Most people would rather say that they are not persuaded by their religious or spiritual beliefs and some go so far as to say that they couldn’t possibly be affected by religious beliefs,because they don’t have any. But just that statement alone–”I have no religious beliefs”–is in fact a religious belief! You do not have to belong to a religion or go to church and you don’t even have to believe in God,in order to have religious beliefs. Religous beliefs have nothing to do with church or religous demoninations-religious beliefs are your own personal convictions about life and spirituality-they are yours and no body elses. No one else will ever have the same religious convictions that you have,no matter how simalar they may seem. Just like your fingerprints,no two people can have exactily the same religious belifes-and only you and you alone can decide what it is that you belive. Your personal beliefs determine what you interpret to be right or wrong,good or evil,moral or immoral,just or unjust. It is falsely and commonly believed that to be religious you must believe in God,go to church,or belong to a denomination. The definition of religion,however,is not what church you belong to or what deity you worship,but what you believe and how you choose live your daily life. However,what you believ about everything else,is affected by what you believe about God. So,let’s find out what it is that you believe.

First of all you need to figure out: Do you or do you not,believe in God? Did you ever? Did you always?
Next ask yourself: Why do I believe (or not believe) in God?

I’ve heard answers that sounded like this: “Well,I don’t believe in God,because He never believed in me.” or “God was always so mean to me and my family that I stopped believing in Him.”. Now,on the surface it may seem like this person does not believe in God,but careful consideration of the words chosen, suggest that both of people who gave these answers,do in fact still believe in God. They didn’t say “There is no God” ,what they said was this: “There is a God,but I don’t like how He does things. I still believe He exists,but He ain’t getting anything out of me. No sir,I’ll show Him,He can’t treat me like this.”. This is not unbelief,this is anger,this is an attempt to get God’s attention by being spiteful to Him and getting revenge on God–now,you can’t be spiteful to or get revenge on someone if you don’t believe that they exist,can you? Before you can decide on a career in Witchcraft,you need to really sort out wither or not you actually believe there is a God or not. Now if you have decided that there really isn’t a God after all and there never was and never will be a God,than there is really not much point in you reading this book any farther,as it is nearly impossible to be a Witch and not believe in a God of some type. However if you have decided that,Yes,you do believe there is a God in some form or another than the next thing you need to do is figure out,what it is exactly,that you believe about God.
Ask yourself:

How do I see God? Who is He/She to me? What do I believe about God?

Write at least three pages on how you see God,what He/She looks like to you,how He/She acts,what characteristics you believe that He/She has. What would you describe as the “ideal God”? Why?
Here are some common descriptions of God,are any of these similar to your description? Can God be all of these things? None of them? Why? Why not?
Many people who do not belive in God or do not like God because of the descriptions of God that Christian or Jewish preachers give;but how many of those preachers got their descriptions of God out of the Bible? Not many. Do you know how the Bible realy describes God? Take notice of which of the following descriptions come from the Bible and which ones did not.

Do you see God …

…as a six winged Beast in a man’s form with many faces (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as black robed Death on a pale horse (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as a warrior in a flaming chariot (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as an angelic Being with wings (as the Bible describes Him) ?
…as a young man with long brown hair and shinning blue eyes ?
…as a jealous and vengeful deity(as the Bible describes Him)?
…as a loving and caring Father(as the Bible describes Him)?
…as the Creator of all things (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as your Lord and Master(as the Bible describes Him)?
…as all encompassing love (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as a kind and just King (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as a Judge and Jury (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as a Lawmaker (as the Bible describes Him)?
…as a shapeless entity that can take any form?
…as an old man with a long white beard?
…as knight on a white horse?
…as a cruel Task Master ?
…as a Vengeful Warlord?
…as a dictatorial Tyrant?
…as your worst Enemy?
…as your Best Friend ?
…as a Philosopher ?
…as Mother Earth?
…as a Comforter?
…as a Protector?
…as a Teacher?
…as a woman?
…as a Savior?
…as a Hero?

Did you notice which of the above statements come from the Bible and which did not come from the Bible? Surprised? Most people are. Very few people actually study their Bibles enough to know how it describes God- physically,mentally,and emotionally. Did you know that the King James Bible says 32 times that God has white feathered wings and can fly and that He is always acompanied by an angel with six pairs of gold wings and a sword made out of fire and that each gold feather on each wing has a face and each face speaks a differant language,but all say the same thing- “Halleujah to God,Praise be to the Lord Almighty”? How many preachers tell you this? Or maybe the question should be:”How many preachers believe that the Bible’s description of God’s physical appearance is true?”. Don’t they say that everthing in the Bible is an undeniable truth? Why than don’t any preachers believe the Bible’s description of God?

Now there are many who say that God talks to them–Do you believe these people when they say such things? Why or why not?

Has God ever talked to you? If so-Have you ever heard His “physical” voice,or was it a deep feeling inside of you that you couldn’t explain,but that you “just knew” was God talking to you or did you see a vision or have a drean that you “knew” was a message from God? If so,how did you respond?
If God talked to you how would you respond?

Than there is the question of Jesus. What about Jesus? Many people believe that Jesus actually is God–Do you? Sooner or later someone is going to ask you if you as a Witch believe in Jesus as God,or if you believe in Jesus at all. What are you going to tell them? You’ve no dought heard preachers talking about this young man called Jesus,but what do you really know about him? Who was he really? It is a known historic fact that there really was an ancient Hebrew very young Rabbi named Yeshou of Nazarath (Jesus or Joshua by translation) and that many people in his time called him the Christ (the Messiah,Savior,or Annointed One by translation) and it is also known that he was the much younger illegitamate step-brother of the historicly famous high ranking Judean Preist known as James of Nazarath. It is also known that Yeshou was a wealthy highly educated young man,who knew how to read and write (unusual in his day),and made a living as a dyer of fine cloth,but at about thirty years of age gave up everything to become a revolutionary,radical,peace-loveing,peace-preaching,wandering minister, who created such a stir with his new fangled ideas that he was exicuted three years later by the Roman government for causeing riots amoung the Jewish peoples by teaching the unheard of and outlandish ideas that slavery was wrong,that woman and children were not beasts of burden to be bought and sold,and that everyone was a brother or sister of everyone else because we were all created by the same God-who Yeshou refered to as “the Father” rather than God,Yeshou also taught that all men could be saved,and that God could forgive the sins of everyone-not just the Jews. Other charges that were held against Yeshou and helped to condem him to exicution included fellowship with prostitues,harlots,and whores,befriending tax collectors and publicians,destroying temple property, beating temple preists,practicing sorcery,Witchcraft,and Satan Worship,and harvesting corn on the sabbath day. That’s who both history and the Bible say that Jesus was-he was pretty much just a loud mouthed,obnoxious,head strong,rebelous,bad tempered,wild youth who sought to unite the entire world with peace,love,and happiness–not altogether any differant from teenagers and young adults in today’s society. Not quite the way your average church minister decribes him,is it? The way most preachers describe Jesus you’d think that he was a wise old sage that had lived a good long life,but he was little more than a teenager when he was crucified on the cross! How many youth, today,say that what they have to say isn’t important–or worse how many Christ fearing adults say that, “Oh,they are just young,they don’t know anything.”. Well,think about it,how old was Jesus? It is sad to realize that very few people,are even able to see Jesus as the youth he realy was-they all seem to be to busy imagining the angelicly beautiful,white shinned,smooth blound haired,blue eyed man in shinning white robes,floating on a cloud-to even recognize the dark skinned,dark eyed,plain faced young Jewish man with curly black hair in dirty weatherbeaten clothes. How few people would recognize Jesus if they ever met him. If a young dark skinned,dark haired,dark eyed, loud mouthed,obnoxious,head strong,rebelous,bad tempered,wild young college student sought to unite the entire world with peace,love,and happiness today,most people would call him a half crazed environmentalist,hippie, that would never amount to a thing. Yet, these very same people think nothing of calling a young man who did this very same thing 2,000 years ago-God or the Son of God. You will notice too,that neither history nor the Bible decribes him as a king or God. Only the Wise Men from the east ever refere to him as a king. In fact when his own disciples called him “the Son of God”,Jesus himself corrects them by saying ” I am the son of man.”! Wow,now that’s something you never hear a preacher read from the Bible! Now that you know how history,the Bible,and even Jesus himself decribes Jesus,what do you think about Jesus? Who do you think Jesus was?
Let’s look at some common descriptions of Jesus–take note of the ones that come from the Bible and the one’s that do not.

Do you think of Jesus …

…as a man whose best friend and traveling companion was a condemed and convicted harlot that he rescued from exicution (as the Bible says)?
…as the illegitimate son of a 13 year old temple virgin and a 70 year old retired temple priest turned carpenter (as the Bible says)?
…as a red robed warrior in a flaming chariot,who will return in the last days to kill all sinners with a sword(as the Bible says)?
…as a man who will return at the end of the world as black robed Death on a pale horse (as the Bible says)?
…as a man who,as teenager murdered a small boy,just because he didn’t like him (as the Bible says)?
…as an unattractive,plain faced man,regected for his lack of physical beauty (as the Bible says)?
…as a man with a bad temper,who makes whips and beats sinners (as the Bible says)?
…as being born into one of the wealthiest families in Jerusalem (as the Bible says)?
…as a young white man with long blond or brown hair and shinning blue eyes?
…as a kind and just King (as the Bible says)?
…as a dyer of fine cloth(as the Bible says)?
…as a Judge and Jury (as the Bible says)?
…as a Jewish Rabbi (as the Bible says)?
…as a Brother to all (as the Bible says)?
…as the son of man (as the Bible says)?
…as a Lawmaker (as the Bible says)?
…as a man who never committed sin?
…as a Teacher (as the Bible says)?
…as being born into a poor family?
…as the Christ (as the Bible says)?
…as a jealous and vengeful deity?
…as a loving and caring Father?
…as the Creator of all things ?
…as knight on a white horse?
…as your Lord and Master?
…as a cruel Task Master ?
…as a Vengeful Warlord?
…as a dictatorial Tyrant?
…as your worst Enemy?
…as your Best Friend ?
…as the Son of God?
…as a Philosopher ?
…as a Comforter?
…as a Protector ?
…as the Messiah?
…as a carpenter?
…as a prophet?
…as a Savior?
…as a Hero?

Hey! What ever happened to the perfect sinless man that the preachers all discribe Jesus as? What you got to understand is that preachers rely on their church members for their income-do you really think anyone would want to join a church were the preacher described Jesus just exactly as the Bible does? They have to add all that glamour and fantasy stuff and ignore and delete all of the “bad stuff” about Jesus,otherwise no one would join their church and give them money. Very few “modern translations” of the Bible even contain any information about Jesus’s childhood or daily life at all–the translators were too embarassed to include all the “evil” things that Jesus did,prior to his three years as a wandering preacher or the scanladl surrounding his birth and so they deleted many sections including entire chapters and several of the books themselves. All together over 200 books (several thousand verses) were removed from the Bible when it was first translanted into English in 1611,most of them from the New Testament and nearly all of them in referance to Jesus’s life prior to his short three year minitry (if you think the Bible is a big book today-you should see the size of the old unedited ones). If the preachers say that every word in the Bible is undeniable truth,wht than did they remove all accounts of Jesus’s scandalus youth,why did they remove the stories about Mary’s childhood as a Temple Virgin (a harlot that lives in the temple from the time she is weened,for the pleasure of the temple priests),why did they remove accounts of the 70 year old temple priest Josheph’s removal from the temple after Mary’s pregnancy and his being forced to marry the 13 year old girl. Why were these original records replaced 300 years later by a Catholic monk named Luke,for a more glamorous retelling of Jesus’s birth. Don’t the preachers all say that everthing in the Bible in undiniable truth? Why then do they not believe the things that they removed? Or did they remove them because they did believe them,but where ashamed to admit that Jesus wasn’t perfect?
Most people who have a hard time beliveing in Jesus,have never realy studied him or his life,they are relying totaly on things that preachers have said about Jesus,and irronicly,very few preachers today get much of what they preach from the Bible-nearly all denominations have “pre-written” books of sermons,teachers manuels,and magizines that the preachers use to write their sermons. It is rare to find a preacher today,who actualy reads the Bible and preaches based on what he reads–this if largely because very few people in today’s society would be willing to believe the Bible’s teachings at face value,a most preachers today are only preachers so they can get alot of money without working–they care very little for the souls of others. This is were Witches come in.

Witches,true real witches,not Wiccas or Wiccans,are out to help others,to help the souls that are starving at the strangualous hands of religous preachers. This is why it is so important that you,as a Witch,know exactly who you are spiritualy and what you believe in. It is your job as a Witch to help heal others. Remember that Witches a total healers,not just physical healers. Witches are there to help heal the mind,soul,and spiit as well as the body. You can not heal broken spirits and dieing souls,if you don’t even know the condition of your own soul.
Now,once you have decided what it is you believe about God and Jesus,the next thing that you need to decide is-what about a Goddess? Do I believe in a Goddess? Another of the most asked questions asked to Witches is “Do Witches worship a Godess instead of God?”. Well,do you? Hollywood rarly dose any reseach before they make a show,as a result they often make T.V. shows and movies about Wiccas and call them Witches or vice a versa. This has resulted in much confusion among teenagers who are Wiccas but call themselves Witches,assuming that this is alright because Hollywood does it. Saddly very few people know the differance between a Witch and a Wicca,so most people falsely assume that like Wiccas,Witches usualy worship Godess instead of God. While a large magority of woman’s liberating Wiccas and Wiccans worship a Godess only and are quite vocal in denouceing the exitance of a male God,there are very few Witches do the same. (You may also notice that while there are as many male Witches as there are female ones,there are relitivly few male Wiccas-Witches are not feminists as the Wiccas often are.). Surprising as it may be,most Witches are Christian and believe in only God and Jesus. The few that do believe in a Godess,view her as God’s wife and compainion. This is probably the one thing that sets a Witch apart from a Wicca or Wiccan more than anything else. Very few Wiccas or Wiccans believe in God,while most all Witches do believe in God.
Again there is no “law” one way or the other,everyone believes what they choose to believe. Go back and look at the statments about God and aply them to Godess. Write down all of your hows and whys and why nots,and figure out what it is that you believe.

For the sake of clarity in the following example all male deities well be refered to simply as God and all female deities will be refered to simply as Godess and Jesus is himself. Now let’s assume that you have choosen to do one of the following:

I worship…
…just God alone.
…just Jesus alone.
…just Godess alone.
…both God and Jesus.
…both God and Godess.
…both Godess and Jesus.
…God,Godess,and Jesus.
…just God alone,but also follow the teachings of Jesus.
…just Godess alone,but also follow the teachings of Jesus.
…both God and Godess,and not Jesus,but also follow the teachings of Jesus.

These are the most common things for a Witch to say that they believe. The next question people will ask you,after you have explained who you worship and why you choose to worship,is “How do you worship? Do you even go to church?”. Now what are you going to say? First of all you need to think carefully about what they are asking. Do they realy what to know how you worship or do they only want to know if you go to church? Now you have told them that you worship,something,can you explain what it means to worship? Do you know what worship is? Do they? What is worship? Most people don’t know what worship is,and although many people say that they believe in God/Godess/Jesus,very few of them ever actually realy worship their deity. Worship is one of the things that sets Witches apart from the rest of society. Worship has all but gone out of style amoung non-Witches. Most people are apauled by Witchcraft simply because Witches are not afraid to worship. Even the most religious of Christians veiws true worship as an out dated old fashioned custom and many even veiw it as a sin,saying that silent unemotional reverance is more pleasing to God than loud boilsterous worship.

Before you can answer this question,you need to decide,how much are you willing to tell them and more importantly,how much are they realy willing to hear? Most people are only “testing” you and don’t realy care wither you worship anything or not. There are people,however,who are genuinely interested and really truely want to know how you worship. Are you prepared to tell them?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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Good Deeds:

Good Deeds:
365 Ways of Letting your light shine in a dark and dreary world.

The following is a quote from Benjamin Franklin’s 1751 edition of Poor Richard’s Alminack. Read it carefully, than read it again, than stop, think, and meditate on what it is that he was trying to teach the world. This is something that should be applied to all points of our life, but it is to the doing of good deeds that it is so often neglected:

The Romans were 477 Years, without so much as a Sun-dial to show the Time of Day: The first they had was brought from Sicily, by Valerius Messala: One hundred and eighteen Years afterwards, Scipio Nasica, produced to them an Invention for measuring the Hours in cloudy Weather, it was by the Dropping of Water out of one Vessel into another, somewhat like our Sand-Glasses. Clocks and Watches, to shew the Hour, are very modern Inventions. The Sub-dividing Hours into Minutes, and Minutes into Seconds, by those curious Machines, is not older than the Days of our Fathers, but now brought to a surprising Nicety.
Since our Time is reduced to a Standard, and the Bullion of the Day minted out into Hours, the Industrious know how to employ every Piece of Time to a real Advantage in their different Professions: And he that is prodigal of his Hours, is, in Effect, a Squanderer of Money. I remember a notable Woman, who was fully sensible of the intrinsic Value of Time. Her Husband was a Shoemaker, and an excellent Craftsman, but never minded how the Minutes passed. In vain did she inculcate to him, That Time is Money. He had too much Wit to apprehend her, and it prov’d his Ruin. When at the Alehouse among his idle Companions, if one remark’d that the Clock struck Eleven, What is that, says he, among us all? If she sent him Word by the Boy, that it had struck Twelve; Tell her to be easy, it can never be more. If, that it had struck One, Bid her be comforted, for it can never be less.
If we lose our Money, it gives us some Concern. If we are cheated or robb’d of it, we are angry: But Money lost may be found; what we are robb’d of may be restored: The Treasure of Time once lost, can never be recovered; yet we squander it as tho’ ’twere nothing worth, or we had no Use for it.

The Bell strikes One: We take no Note of Time,
But from its Loss. To give it then a Tongue
Is wise in Man. If heard aright
It is the Knell of our departed Hours;
Where are they? With the Years beyond the Flood:
It is the Signal that demands Dispatch;
How much is to be done? ——
Be wise To-day, ’tis Madness to defer;
Next day the fatal Precedent will plead;
Thus on, till Wisdom is push’d out of Life:
Procrastination is the Thief of Time,
Year after Year it steals till all are fled,
And to the Mercies of a Moment leaves
The vast Concerns of an eternal Scene.
If not so frequent, would not this be strange?
That ’tis so frequent, This is stranger still.

~Benjamin Franklin

As Benjamin Franklin so rightly stated, how often do we spend our time doing nothing worth doing? All time wasted is time lost, that you can never get back. How many times could you have done something good and worth while, but neglected to do so, because you were too busy doing something wasteful with your time instead? Think about it–”Procrastination is the Thief of Time, Year after Year it steals till all are fled The Treasure of Time once lost, can never be recovered; yet we squander it as tho’ ’twere nothing worth, or we had no Use for it.”

In today’s fast paced world, filled with “give me this, I’ll take that, get out of my way-I’m more important than you” attitudes, people often forget that there are others out there and that the world does not revolve around them alone. In their hurry to get to the next self-gratifying thing on their list to of things to do for themselves, they forget to help others. They forget that our world is a world filled with pain and suffering-not superficial “pains” like broken fingernails and no enough cable TV channels or to many flavors to choose from, but real pain, and real suffering-people dieing from curable diseases because they can’t afford medical insurance and can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars a week to get medical treatment, small children roaming the streets starving and homeless, large families of five, six, or more people living in one bedroom cabins with no heat, no plumbing, no electricity, and wondering how they are going to get their next meal -no I’m not talking about some distant land you’ll never see- no not just the big. big cities, either, I’m talking about right here in my town-right there in your town-right here in every single town from the biggest and busiest right down to the smallest and quietest, in the United States.
How many times have you walked by that homeless person carrying a sign-will work for food? What did you do to relieve their suffering? What? You walked right on by-you were late for your hair appointment, and then you had to go to the gym, and you still had to hurry to get home in time to watch your favorite show? I will bet you had yourself a nice hot meal too-slept in a nice warm bed, hell you at least got a roof over your head do not you? If you are like most people, you probably walked right on by and never even saw that person at all-you were just too busy looking at your watch. Whenever I bring up this subject in daily conversation, I get many responses like the following:

“Well, it’s hard times, you know-we’d all like to help-if only we could, but…”

“God is punishing them for their sins, and we just can’t go against God’s will.”

“God has a lesson for them to learn, you know I’d really like to help, but, I mean, how will they ever learn their lesson if we help them?”

“It’s the test of Job-God is testing them to see how much they can take and still keep their faith-we shouldn’t interfere with God’s work; if I help them now, how will God ever know how much faith they have?”

“They are foolish-if they had been wiser with their money they wouldn’t be in the situation that they are in right now-if I help them they will just waste my money too and will soon be back out on the streets all over again-so why should I help them? They made their beds, now let them lie in it.”

“If they really needed help, they’d help themselves.”

“They don’t really need my help, they’re just pretending-there aren’t any real homeless people in the United States-those kids on the streets are just drug addicts and run-a-ways, it’s like the Prodigal Son-when they get hungry enough they’ll go home.”

“I pay my taxes-let the State help them.”

“There are plenty of people helping the poor already! What with all the money those charity places get”

“ I do not need to help the poor, that is what those organizations are for. I sent my five dollars in for the year, so they can get out there and do their work.”

“I’m too busy watching the Super Bowl to do it right now-maybe after football season ends-no wait, basket ball season comes next, I’ll have to do it after that-no wait I can’t, baseball season opens after that, I’ll do it then-no I can’t do it then either football season will have started again. Oh well, I guess you’ll just have to find someone else.”

This however, is my favorite excuse for not helping the needy. In the winter of 2002, about a week before Christmas, a families house burned down. They lost everything. The ladies in or church relief society, decided to raise money to buy Christmas gifts for the families children. Most of the women were quick to donate, a few did not, but one women, the wife of a local billionaire stood up and had this to say:
“I’d like to help them, I really would-I’m really a generous person you know, I really am, no really, I am, but I’ve got 4 car payments (it’s those three brand new 2002 Mercedes, you know-you’ve seen them, we each drove them to church here this morning -I just couldn’t decide which color to get so I bought one of each color and gave two of them to the girls, and than there’s my husband’s car. He really really needed that new Fierri -his other car was just too old-he hasn’t had a new car in over a year, Can you imagine? He actually had to drive around in that old thing-Think about our image, I can’t let him be seen in a car from last year! , and then there’s the cable bills (we’ve only got 236 channels, you know, we’re falling so far behind-I’m going to have to upgrade soon, a satellite will give us more channels), and there’s the boat payment, and we just put in a new pool, and we’re saving up for a second vacation home-our other vacation home just isn’t big enough for the two of us-not now that the girls are in collage-it only has ten rooms and no hot tub-Oh and one of the girls just asked for a new motor home, she wants to take a trip around the world-college is to boring she says-I’ve got to pay for that too, you know-I mean you know how bad off our family is right now-I can barely survive as it is. How can I afford to help the poor and homeless when I can barely get by myself? I’m not made of money you know, there are some very wealthy people out there who don’t have all these bills I’ve got-Why don’t you ask them to help the poor?”

It wasn’t the fact that she didn’t help, that bothered me. It was the way she set out to listing all the needless items that she had foolishly pampered herself with. To give no donation and pass the plate on in silence, as other women had done, would have been better. In her bragging about her many vain and worthless possessions, she accomplished nothing but to show people how foolish, wasteful, and compassionless she was. At least she had a roof over her head, warm food in her belly, and Christmas gifts for her children (even if they were $64,000 cars).

Every one of these statements is an actual quote-and every one of them was said not by people on the street, but by people in my local church, by “good Christians” (three of these statements came from three different LDS/Mormon Bishops-advising members NOT to help the homeless people who gather at the front steps of the Temples!). These statements where said on Sundays, at church, both between meetings and during classes-a few of them where comments made by the teachers themselves during the lessons. Some “good Christians” they turned out to be. And the Mormons aren’t exclusive in this mindset-I’ve heard many other similar quotes from nearly every other Christian denomination under the sun.
You want to know what the really ironic- thing about this is? Jesus the Christ, taught one thing and one thing only: help others-all others-without reasoning amoung yourselves who is desrveing of what. To find out more about doing good deeds, let’s take a look at what it means to be a Christain-a real Christian, not those so called show off holier than thou “Christians” that you find in church buildings-but a real Christian-an actual a follower of the ultimate doer of good deeds. What is the difference between a Christian today and a real Christian-someone who follows after the teachings of Jesus? Well let’s see-Christians go to church, Christians.. humm, let’s see, well they go to Church some more.. and well, uhm, huh? Do they do anything else? I guess they just love going to church. Followers of Jesus the Christ don’t spend all of their time running to and from church because they are to busy doing what Jesus did to find the time to go to church. What are they to bust doing? Well, let’s see-they help the poor, mend the wounded, wash the dirty, make and give blankets to the cold, teach the unlearned, heal the sick, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, and generally go about their daily lives by putting others before themselves, just like Jesus did. Well, what do you know they actually do what Jesus did-shocking isn’t it? How many “good church going Christians” do you know who do that? Hey, did you know what Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, Al Capone, Bonny and Clyde, the Manson brothers, the Davidians of Waco Texas, the teenaged Columbine killers, and the Ku-Klux-Klan all have in common? Yes, your right they were all blood thirsty, murderous, serial killing, villains, but guess what -they never missed church every single Sunday -they were all good upstanding Christians, and they all killed in the name of bettering the world and making it the world Jesus intended it to be. Oh sure, that was exactly what Jesus wanted: Christian murderers. Get real! If everyone did the things Jesus taught the would be no suffering, no argueing, not jealously, no compitition, no war, no greed, and especially no murder. Jesus never intended that people do half of the things they do in his name, but people keep on doing them, and they keep on blaming Jesus for the things that they do.
Jesus used many different ways of wording his request, but they all carried the same meaning-the same message: help the sick, feed the hungry, give to the poor, shelter the homeless, give without measure, it is better to give than to receive, think not for yourselves, love others, return good for evil, etc., etc., etc.-Christian like to brag and say that they do this, but do they really? Think about it. Jesus read the Torah and asked others to do this too, but how many Christians do you know who do that? Do you ever know of a Christian that would even allow a Torah in their house? And what about all those “Christian” holidays, that they like to celebrate? Which one’s did Jesus celebrate? Easter? Christmas (known as Yuletide in Jesus day)? Both were Druid holidays that the Jews of Jesus day considered very evil. Jesus did celebrate The Passover and asked people to do this as well. How many Christians celebrate the Passover, like Jesus asked them to do? None-not one-not one single Christian denomination celebrates the Passover! Not even one! And what of all this going to church on Sunday, that “Christians” like to do so much. What did Jesus really do about going to church on Sunday? Guess what? He didn’t. Jesus was a Jew, he went to church on Saturday and he didn’t do that very often, he was to busy healing the sick and helping the poor to waste time going to church and was constantly being chastised by Sadducees and Pharisees because of this. In fact, the only times Jesus did go to church was because there was a sick person in the congregation that he had compassion on. He had to enter into the church building to heal them. I’ve heard some “Christians” say that Jesus started a new church, a new religion, and that it is this “new religion” that meets on Sundays. Did you know that the word Christian wasn’t even invented until, 175 years after he died, and that the first 15 chapters of the Gospel of Mark wasn’t written until 75 years after his death, or that Matthew, John, and the ending of Mark were written 175 years after his death, or that Luke was written 300 years after his death? Not many Bible readers take these dates into account as they read it. And what about that church that Jesus supposedly started? He didn’t start any church, he didn’t write anything, he didn’t build a big fancy expensive building, he didn’t tell people to join any religious denomination, he didn’t ask for donations, tithes, or money, he didn’t wear white (how could he? bleach had not yet been invented), he didn’t wear gold embroidered white, purple, or scarlet robes, he didn’t wear funny looking hats, he didn’t condemn people into hell, he didn’t scream and yell and smash his fists on the Bible, (he didn’t even own a Bible -the Bible was unknown before 500 A.D. and wasn’t available to the public until 1544), he didn’t demand that you do what he said “or else”, in fact, he didn’t do any of the things that “Christian” churches do today. Jesus was not a religious freak, bent on global denomination. He was a very spiritual, righteous man, with an enlightened vision of the Great Spirit. He tried to teach people how to live at peace with one with one another and be closer to their Creator. He helped the people around him. He healed the sick He loved everyone regardless of race or religion. He helped everyone. He taught peace and love and joy. He said to pray for others and pray often. He said that we should have faith, hope, and charity. He said to forgive your enemies and bless them. He did all of these things saying that if you really truly deeply love God you will prove your love to God by helping the His children, His sons and daughters here on earth. He said that everyone is a spirit brother and sister of everyone else and that we are to treat every one as though they were our physical brothers and sisters because God created us all. God is the father of us all and there for we should love everyone. Does this sound like any of the Christians you know? Mary Slessor, Martian Luther, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, come to mind, but I can’t think of many others who strive to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. I’ve certainly never met anyone claiming to be a Christian who really was a Christian, and I doubt if you ever have either, nor do I expect either you or I ever shall.
If you are a follower of someone, than you teach what he or she taught. You do what they did. You say what they said. You act as they acted. A true follower imitates and obeys their leader. In order to be a Christian, you much give up your own wills and desires and focus all of your energy on helping those around you-that is what Jesus did-and anyone who does this is a follower of the teachings of Jesus wither they know it or not–likewise, anyone who does not do these things, is not a follower of Jesus no matter how many times a week they go to church-and has no business calling themselves a Christian. You do not have to call yourself a Christian to be a Christian, you do not have to be initiated to be a Christian, and you certainly do not have to go to a Christian church to be a Christian. The sad truth of the matter is that the word, Christian, has come to mean, anyone who believes that Jesus was a real person -not a myth, anyone who owns a Bible, or anyone who has ever set foot in a church-and that is not what the word Christian originally meant at all. Jesus was all about loving your neighbor, helping the poor, healing the sick, and showing compassion toward everyone regardless of race, religion, or lifestyle. Keep in mind that Jesus’ closest friends consisted of a prostitute and her sister, a Roman tax collector (considered one of the evilest most sinful careers of Jesus’ time), a sin-filled sailor, and a thief-and Jesus never went anywhere without them–what a motley crew that must have been. Can you imagine what if homeless traveling street gang of thugs and whores lead by a radical peace preaching sorcerer showed up in your church today–how you would respond? Would you abandon you church and family to join up with such a group? If Jesus showed up today, the same way he did than, how many Christians do you really think would follow him? They’d run him out of town just like the people of his own time did-those poor fools-how many times have they condemned and cursed the very types of people that Jesus called his friends? You have heard the saying “What would Jesus do?”–Think about it–what would he do-really? How did Jesus really spend his time? How do modern “Christians” spend their time? How do you spend your time? Did Jesus sit on his ass in a church building moaning and groaning about all his aches and pains and woes, bragging about all the latest and greatest things he had bought for himself, weeping and wailing about how bad off he was and how he needed money and pity, gossiping about all the people who didn’t show up for church that day, and condemning everyone in the world that wasn’t a member of his congregation? Is that what Jesus did? NO! If you were in a Christian church that does any of those things than you can be sure that it is not the type of church group Jesus would call his followers. Did Jesus waste his time doing things that did not help anyone but himself? NO! He did not. I am ashamed of the evil definitions that people use for the word Christian today, and I am ashamed of all of those people who falsely claim to be Christians, when they haven’t the slightest idea what the word even means-they have corrupted Jesus’ good name, and I am toughly ashamed of them.
Jesus was a wonderful, kind, loving person, who sought to make the world a better place, and never wasted any of his time making excuses as to why he could not help others-he did not have time to make excuses because he was much to busy caring about others to think about himself. How many Christians spend their time the way that Jesus did? As Benjamin Franklin so rightly stated, how often do we spend our time doing nothing worth doing at all? All time wasted is time lost, that you can never, ever get back. How many times could you have done something good and worth while, but neglected to do so, because you were too busy doing something wasteful with your time instead? Think about Franklin’s words–”Procrastination is the Thief of Time, Year after Year it steals till all are fled-The Treasure of Time once lost, can never be recovered; yet we squander it as tho’ ’twere nothing worth, or we had no Use for it.”

Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
–Ec 10:20

How few Christians, take the advise of their own Bibles. Do they not know that by not helping others, that they are cursing others?
So why don’t you spend your time helping others? No, wait-don’t answer that -all you will do is make up some lame brained excuse. Excuses are a waste of your time. Not only are your excuses a waste of your time, but your excuses are also a waste of my time, so I don’t want to hear them-I have better things to do than waste my time listening to your excuses. All the time that you spend making up excuses about why you cannot help others, would better be spent in the act of helping instead. Think of how much time you would have left over to help others if you would just stopped spending so much time making up excuses. Fact of the matter is, people are thinking only of themselves, because they are devoid of simple human compassion. You cannot help others if you do not care about them, and you cannot care about others if you lack compassion. People lack compassion because they are desensitized to the feelings and emotions of others. How can they think about others when all they do is think about themselves? Our world is suffering from a severe lack of compassion towards others and an overly increasing amount people who require instant gratification and “Gim’me, gim’me, gim’me! Now, now, now! MORE! MORE! MORE! I’ll kill you if you don’t hand it over NOW!”
So, how do we correct this? Well, like everything else you start out small and work up to big, bigger, and biggest–expanding continually each year until there is no one left in the world for you to help. You probably think-No big deal, helping others will be easy-now wait a minute there-hold your horses-you may be surprised to discover that helping others it is one of the hardest things you will ever do-that’s why so few people ever get around to actually doing it. It is natural to care about one’s self-first and others later, if and only if you have enough time left over to think about anyone other than yourself. Women are usually naturally more compassionate towards others than men are are-this is because it is an instinctive reflex for females to care for their young, the elderly, and the sick ~so women will find the transition from a “me person” to a “you person” much easier than most men will. But this is not always the rule, as it is also women who are the most likely to grab after everything that everyone else owns, and they just have to have it too, not because they need it, and rarely because they even actually really want it, but only because they saw someone else with it and if that person has it than “I have to have it too”. Another common problem, in both men and women, is prejudice. I have heard many a Mormon who would only help the sick, poor, and homeless only if that person agreed to join the Mormon Church and be baptized (it’s against Mormon policy to help the “heathen Gentiles”{anyone not a Mormon}). I know of countless “good Christians” men and women alike, from numerous religions, who wouldn’t think of helping a Jewish persona Greek person, an Asian, a Frenchman, a Native American, a Mexican, or an African American just because of their race. Now here in Maine they’ll tell you that it’s not prejudice, it’s just Yankee pride, but I’m a Scottish/ Kickapoo /Cherokee 15th generation Native Maine Yankee who can trace my family all the way back to Thomas Rodgers-the first founder and settler of Maine, Admiral Sir Francis Drake and Captain John Drake, pirates who frequently landed in Maine, as well as to the Native tribes who were here first and while I’m very proud of my very long Maine Yankee heritage, I don’t see what that has to do with not helping other people just because they aren’t Yankees! As for all those who persist in saying that they cannot help others from another race, all I have to say is this quote from Benjamin Franklin:

It is an amusing Speculation to look back, and compute what Numbers of Men and Women among the Ancients; clubb’d their Endeavours to the Production of a single Modern. As you reckon backwards the Number encreases in the same Proportion as the Price of the Coat which was sold for a Half-penny a Button, continually doubled.

Thus, a present Nobleman (for Instance) is
1
His Father and Mother were
2
His Grandfathers and Grandmothers
4
His Great Grandfathers and Great Grandmothers,
8
And, supposing no Intermarriages among Relations, the next Predecessors will be
16

Here are only computed 21 Generations, which, allowing 3 Generations to 100 Years, carry us back no farther than the Norman Conquest, at which Time each present Nobleman, to exclude all ignoble Blood from his Veins, ought to have had One Million, Forty-eight Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventy-six noble Ancestors. Carry the Reckoning back 300 Years farther, and the Number amounts to above 500 Millions; which are more than exist at any one Time upon Earth, and shews the Impossibility of preserving Blood free from such Mixtures, and that the Pretension of such Purity of Blood in ancient Families is a mere Joke. Hence we see how it happens that every Nation has a kind of general Cast of Feature, by which it may be distinguished; continual Intermarriages for a Course of Ages rendring all the People related by Blood, and, as it were, of one Family. He that has neither fools, whores, nor beggars among his kindred, is the son of a thunder-gust.

~Benjamin Franklin

This is exactly what Jesus had tried to tell the world years earlier, but no one would listen to him either. Now we know from written historic records, carvings, and cave paintings that the world is at least 7,000 years old, some say closer to 10,000, and those who date the earth by using pre-historic fossils instead of by human artifacts, date the earth to be around 10 million to 100 million years old! Now wither or not the Creator put humans and dinosaurs on the earth at the same time is debatable, but we know of and can prove at least 7,000 to 10,000 years of human life on this planet. Now taking the age of the earth into consideration and add that to Dr. Franklin’s calculations, how far back in your family history do you think you’ll have to go, before you find out that, that person you won’t help for whatever reason, is actually a distant cousin of yours and you just didn’t know it? What kind of a person are you if you cannot help you own blood relatives? Regardless of race, religion, or color there is no one on this planet who is not related to everyone else, we are all blood relatives of each other and that is exactly why it is foolish to be prejudice against any race, because all races eventually, lead back to the same place, and everyone in this earth is a blood relative of everyone else.
For those of you who are so inclined to say that you can barely afford to care of yourself, think about selling two or three of your cars, and all of your extra houses, and if you’re not a fisherman you don’t really need that boat either; and what about all those clothes that you wear and all that jewelry? Then there is the cable TV. Why do you need to have so many channels? Hell, why do you even need a TV set at all? What good does it do for you to sit on your ass watching TV? Calculate how much of your free time you waste in front of the TV set and you will soon find that you have several hours each day that you could be using to help others. Maybe you ought to think a little more wisely about how you spend your money as well as how you spend your time. Here is yet another tidbit of good advise from Dr. Franklin:

As I spent some Weeks last Winter, in visiting my old Acquaintance in the Jerseys, great Complaints I heard for Want of Money, and that Leave to make more Paper Bills could not be obtained. Friends and Countrymen, my Advice on this Head shall cost you nothing, and if you will not be angry with me for giving it, I promise you not to be offended if you do not take it.
You spend yearly at least Two Hundred Thousand Pounds, ’tis said, in European, East-Indian, and West-Indian Commodities: Supposing one Half of this Expence to be in Things absolutely necessary, the other Half may be call’d Superfluities, or at best, Conveniences, which however you might live without for one little Year, and not suffer exceedingly. Now to save this Half, observe these few Directions:

1. When you incline to have new Cloaths, look first well over the old Ones, and see if you cannot shift with them another Year, either by Scouring, Mending, or even Patching if necessary. Remember a Patch on your Coat, and Money in your Pocket, is better and more creditable than a Writ on your Back, and no Money to take it off.

2. When you incline to buy China Ware, Chinces, India Silks, or any other of their flimsey slight Manufactures; I would not be so hard with you, as to insist on your absolutely resolving against it; all I advise, is, to put it off (as you do your Repentance) till another Year; and this, in some Respects, may prevent an Occasion of Repentance.

3. If you are now a Drinker of Punch, Wine or Tea, twice a Day; for the ensuing Year drink them but once a Day. If you now drink them but once a Day, do it but every other Day. If you do it now but once a Week, reduce the Practice to once a Fortnight. And if you do not exceed in Quantity as you lessen the Times, half your Expence in these Articles will be saved.

4thly and lastly, When you incline to drink Rum, fill the Glass half with Water.

Thus at the Year’s End, there will be An Hundred Thousand Pounds more Money in your Country.
If Paper Money in ever so great a Quantity could be made, no Man could get any of it without giving something for it. But all he saves in this Way, will be his own for nothing; and his Country actually so much richer. Then the Merchants old and doubtful Debts may be honestly paid off, and Trading become surer thereafter, if not so extensive.
Well, my Friend, thou art now just entering the last Month of another Year. If thou art a Man of Business, and of prudent Care, belike thou wilt now settle thy Accounts, to satisfy thyself whether thou hast gain’d or lost in the Year past, and how much of either, the better to regulate thy future Industry or thy common Expences. This is commendable. – But it is not all. – Wilt thou not examine also thy moral Accompts, and see what Improvements thou hast made in the Conduct of Life, what Vice subdued, what Virtue acquired; how much better, and how much wiser, as well as how much richer thou art grown? What shall it profit a Man, if he gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? Without some Care in this Matter, tho’ thou may’st come to count thy Thousands, thou wilt possibly still appear poor in the Eyes of the Discerning, even here, and be really so for ever hereafter.

~Benjamin Franklin

Helping others will not be easy at first, and few people who start out intending to help others, ever succeed in doing so-they find giving up to be much easier to do. The problem usually lies not in the helping of others, so much as the size of the project they try to undertake. It is natural human nature to think big. Thinking big is good-but, you must think big in a practical way. You cannot solve world hunger overnight, but that should not stop you from trying. Start small-feed wild birds, leave out food for a stray cat, buy an extra can of food when shopping and drop it in the box provided by your store on the way out, find a homeless person on the street and take him/her out to eat at a local restaurant, buy cases of food and take them to your local homeless shelter, volunteer to cook for the local soup kitchen. You may not solve world hunger, but you will be easing it in your local area. To start out you must begin small, first help out close to home and slowly expand your distance: help your brothers, sisters, and children first, today, now ~if you aren’t helping your family how can you expect to help strangers?
Here are 365 things that you can do to help others, friends, family, and strangers. Pick something new to do everyday, and you well are well on your way to being a better person and making the world a better place to live. Some of these things listed here may not seem to be helpful to others on the surface, however all of these things well help you better your own life and by having a better life you will have less excuses to prevent you from helping others. By getting rid of your excuses, you cannot say-”I will help them after…”If you do not get rid of the excuses you will never get around to helping others.

A time for introspection-
Bake something to give away-cookies, a pie, a cake, bread, and muffins, anything-give it to someone who would least expect it.
Beautify your environment-plant a flower, paint a fence, hang a painting, sing a song, rake the leaves, shovel the snow, pick up litter on the sidewalks, hang a curtain, sew a pillow, string some beads, -start with your room-move on to your entire house-then go outside-next move on to your neighbors-expand up and down your entire street-and keep right on going until you are able to add beauty to your entire town, maybe you’ll get the nerve to beautify your entire state. Everyone is always happier when he or she is surrounded by beauty-you will be happier, and you will make everyone else will be happier too.
Bring others together-become a peacemaker-if you see some one arguing-don’t think it’s none of your business -make it your business to find out why they are fighting and seek out a solution to their problem-help them make peace.
Check your bills carefully-nearly every bill sent to every person has at least one mistake on it-this can vary from anything as small as the misspelling of your name to overcharges of hundreds even thousands of dollars over charged by mistake. The sad thing is many of these mistakes go unnoticed because people simply look at the total on the bottom of bill and neglect to check the itemized invoice-this goes for cash register sales slips at the store too. Many people pay more money than they should have, and after you’ve paid the bill it’s to late to complain-the less money you spend needlessly the less stress you well have, and the more likely you will be to help others.
Cool another’s passions-if you see a fight about to start-don’t say it’s none of your make-make it your business to find out what the problem is and how it can be corrected-find out why they are angry and what it will take to sooth their heated tempers-become known as a peacemaker.
Express your ideas-put your ideas to work-keeping your ideas to yourself won’t ever help any body. Maybe you will get lucky and find out that someone else has the same ideas and together the two of you can get your idea in motion.
Fix up your personal space-clean your room-your house-your yard-your neighborhood.
Focus on family-don’t let there be anything in your life more important than your family-if your career is the most important thing in your life, then quit your job and get one that’s less important to you than your family is-if your house is more important than your family that is inside of it, then sell the house and get one that doesn’t hold so much of your attention. Are your friends more important than your family-I guess it is time to get some new friends. Is your church/religion more important than your family-maybe you would do better to stay home next Sunday and take your family on a picnic instead? Carefully evaluate every aspect of your life and get rid of everything that you spend more time on than your family.
Focus on ideas not words. Words are just words unless you put them to action-act on your words-be a doer not a sayer-put your ideas to action-don’t just talk about them-do them.
Give a gift to a friend, for no reason at all just to let them know that you care about them.
Give a gift to a neighbor, for no reason at all just to let them know that you care about them.
Give a gift to a parent/child, for no reason at all just to let them know that you care about them.
Give a gift to a relative, for no reason at all just to let them know that you care about them.
Give a gift to a stranger, for no reason at all just to let them know that you care about them.
Give a gift to a sibling, for no reason at all just to let them know that you care about them.
Hard work-if your aren’t sweating you aren’t working you’re just doing your job-do not confuse having a job with working-millions of people go to “work” everyday, yet they sit on their asses getting obese, and never do a bit of hard work at all-if you can talk while you “work” than you aren’t working very hard and you have a very unhealthy job. Exercise is not needed if you work-only people doing jobs need to go to the gym-if you aren’t sweating you aren’t working-if you aren’t working you aren’t healthy-if you aren’t healthy you aren’t happy-if you aren’t happy you won’t want to help others. That is the domino effect of not doing hard work. It hurts you and it will hurt all of those you could have helped but did not.
Keep a conservative approach to money-people constantly misquote Jesus’ teaching about money-Jesus never said that money was evil-he said that the love of money was the root of all evil-if you focus your attention on getting money, you will be neglecting something or someone that is more important than the money. Why do we need money? Think about it-what are your basic needs? -You need a small simple house-adequate enough to keep out the weather and a few simple blankets and pillows to keep you warm at night (I view beds as a frivolous and unnecessary extravagance)-you need good plain and simple nutritious and healthful fruits and vegetables to keep you strong-you need simple uncluttered unadorned plain basic clothing to protect you from heat, cold, and rain-and everything, (robes of long wearing strong fabrics well last you ten to fifteen years)-a car is only necessary if you plan to travel very far outside of your town, but can easily be done without–everything, absolutely EVERYTHING else is an added extra, an extravagance that you can do without. Re-evaluate how you spend your money, where you spend your money, and why you spend your money the way you do-you will find that practically everything you buy, you don’t really need and you can do very will without, this will kill all of your debts immediately and you will find yourself with lots of extra money left over and now that you aren’t wasting all of your money on unnecessary things you will find lots of people who you can help
Keep your passions at check-if you keep losing your temper you well never help anybody-if you are violent you well never help anybody-people well fear you and hate you-every time you feel yourself losing your temper, stop and meditate-find out why you are getting mad-is there a deeper problem that causes you to get angry at other things? Control your temper and your find it easier to help others.
Keep your passions at check -not every one is a sex object-most people don’t like others staring at them and lusting after them -it makes them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, ashamed, and can cause them to withdraw from society and hide from the opposite sex -if your stare at others in ways you shouldn’t, if you talk in a perverted way about people, if you fantasize sexual thoughts about people -then you have a serious problem and you are hurting at lot of people-until you get you passions under control you well never be able to help any body-you well simply continue to hurt people and they well begin to hate you.
Kindness from afar-be kind, generous and giving, but don’t brag and boast of your good nature-do your good deeds in secret-let people wonder who cared about them-become a “secret admirer” to them.
Let others know how you feel-find out how they feel-how can you help them feel better? Helping them feel better well help you to feel better too.
Make time for your family-a common complaint is-”I don’t have the time to…”-everybody is giving twenty-four hours every day of their life-how you choose to spend your time is totally up to you-if you don’t have time for your family there is no one to blame but yourself-so get your priorities straightened out-throw out everything that steals your time-if that means taking an ax to your TV than do it-if that means selling your car-then sell it-if it takes time away from your family get rid of it-that may mean no more gym ,no more hair stylists ,no more late nights at work-but that doesn’t matter-how you treat your family well affect how you treat others-if you are neglecting your family, how can you possibly find the time to help strangers?
Praise the good deeds of others-if you see someone doing something good and virtuous -congratulate them-let him or her know that what he or she have done has not gone unnoticed.
Present your ideas to backers-some ideas are just to big for you to get off the ground on your own-get out there and get help-find others with the same idea-together you well do great things to make the world a better place.
Put dreams on hold-if your dreams involve walking over others, taking advantage of others, or harming anyone in any way, than you need to reevaluate why you are seeking these goals-do you want power-control-a big name-prestige-big money? If you are reaching for these goals than you are in for a huge disappointment later on in life, when it hits you that you’ve wasted your life away seeking after material things that have no importance what so ever-only the lives of others matter-it is our goal as humans to take care of all life-to help all life-to protect all life-to do good to all life-and our goals should reflect on these things-if they don’t then you must stop and take a deep look inside of yourself and find out why you are putting so much importance on your own selfish desires at the expense of those around you.
Organize your financial records-you need to get out of debt if you want to have money left over to help others with-you can’t get out of debt if you don’t know where your money is going-so plan a budget-organize who spends what were and limit spending to the absolute barest minimum possible.
Resolve old family problems-you will never be able to help people to your fullest potential, if you have family problems lurking in the background-get to the root of the problem and find a solution that works for every body
Routine becomes productive-set up a schedule-know what must be done when-know
Sweet words and a soft voice turn away wrath and angry. Remember to always remain calm no matter what the circumstances-when someone is looking for a fight, do not indulge them-keep your temper, do not raise your voice, refrain from sarcasms, speak in a soothing calm manner. Do not let others draw you into their anger-instead draw them out of their anger and into your calm peacefulness. They will learn kindness.
Talk it out with family-talking with your family well strengthen your relationship with them-it well help you solve problems-it well help you to help others
Talk it out with friends-talking with your friends well strengthen your relationship with them-it well help you solve problems-it well help you to help others
Talk it out with the Great Spirit-don’t be afraid of others hearing you talk and not seeing anyone with you-they well say you’re crazy, yes, but who cares, that should not prevent you from growing spiritually and strengthen -ing your relationship with the Great Spirit-it well help you solve problems-it well help you to help others
Talk it out with strangers-talking with strangers may sound strange, but it well really help you and them-if you see someone in the store who needs help and you know the information they are seeking, don’t walk off and hope an employ will help them-go over to them and tell them what they want to know-they will be more likely to buy the product if another customer tells them about it-so you well not only be helping them but you’ll be helping the store to-this well strengthen your relationship with others and well give you the confidence to help more people more often-it well help you solve problems-it well help you to help others
Take charge of your finances-people always complain that they are to far in debt to help others-so get out of debt-stop spending-don’t buy one more single thing (except food to feed your family) until you are out of debt.
Visit the sick and homebound, they get lonely too.
Work through family concerns-don’t fight-don’t argue-talk peacefully-listen to everyone opinions-find out what the problem is-find out why they are concerned, why they are worried. How can you help ease their worries? How can you work together as a family to get to the root of the problem and correct it so that every one is happy and no one is made to feel bad?

A word of caution when it comes to giving money to charities: In 2002 a nation wide survey was done on 8,000 charity groups and Christian denominations that claim to be “charitable”, and the results were a dismal and quite shocking surprise to everyone including the group that preformed the survey. It was expected that many groups did not distribute the money as they publicly claimed and the survey was an attempt to sift out the true givers from the scam artists. But how few it would be was never expected at all .Of the 8,000 groups and churches surveyed (including such places as the Latter Day Saints/Mormon church, Children’s International, PETA, the American Humane Society, Green Peace, UNICEF, and countless other “givers to the poor”), only two (yes that’s two as in 1 and 2) only two charity groups gave more than 10% of the money they received to the poor, sick, and hungry -and these two where The Salvation Army at 85% going to the poor and Catholic Charities at 35% going to the poor. Of all the rest less than one hundred of the 8,000 gave 10%, about a thousand gave 7% (the Mormon Church was in this group), and a whopping more than 6,000 gave less than 2%! What a disgrace! What abuse of people’s trust! What an outrage! And nearly everyone of the charities in this study is owned by a Christian church, and it seems that the more “Christian” they claimed to be the less they gave-with the lone exception of the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities, it seems that the secular charities give more to the poor than the “Christian” owned groups, and charities for animals, pets, and wildlife give more to stray and endangered animals than charities for children, while charities for the elderly gave barely anything at all.
Therefore, what happened to the rest of the money-all those donations good-hearted people made to help the poor that didn’t get to the poor? The survey group was outraged by the shameless results that answered this question-a majority of the money went right into the pockets of the owners/administrators/presidents/prophets/ priests / Etc., and the rest went to either employee pay or advertising-the only exception to this was the Mormon church whose tithing money got divided into four categories: a whopping $9 million a year each and every year goes to the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley making him one of the wealthiest men in the world-this doesn’t include his medical, travel, and living expenses or his house and Lincoln and Cadillac limousines all of which are also paid for by the church members hard earned money-,75% of the tithing money goes to the building of Temples-giant elaborate sculpted and polished white marble and granite castle-like buildings, each gigantic one often covering dozens of acres of land and towering high into the clouds, around 7% went to the Church Welfare Program-which distributes food and other items to poor families, but only after the family has “proven” themselves “worthy” of receiving help-they must be “members in good standing, have paid a full tithe for at least two years, and holder of Temple Recommends” before they can become eligible for help, and the rest of the money about 12% went to building church buildings and meeting houses, bishop’s store houses (the common necessaries like pianos, organs, church furnishings, office supplies, travel expenses of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the missionaries, etc. are paid for by donations from the individual members of each building, providing that the members can afford to pay for them-if they can’t afford to pay to furnish a church building with materials that they mush by from Church Headquarters in Salt Lake than they forfeit their right to have a building and must rest a church building from another denomination until the members are wealthy enough to pay the church to furnish a building according to the Churches strict and rigorous standard. It should also be noted that the individual upkeep of the church buildings-janitors, gardeners, etc. is all done buy the members themselves-but only by those who have to “pay off” their debts to the Church Welfare Program. -I know this because I was just eight years old when my family had to cut, and haul the trees by hand off the Church’s land so they could add a parking lot in Cape Elizabeth-my uncle did the brickwork of the building itself -and as a teenager I was “assigned” by the Bishop to repair the leaking roof, plant the flowerbeds, write the newsletters, and decorate the Cultural Hall for all of the dances.)
Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My! Jesus warned to watch out for the thieves in the night, the wolves in sheeps clothen that would come preaching the gosple in his name-he fortold that they would decieve many and lead God’s people astray from the truth useing his name. Well that certainly sounds like the Christian churches to me and this survey only proves it.
One final quote from Doctor Franklin on the doing of good deeds, that deserves to be noted. Although it is worded in the perspective of Christian end times philosophy, it can easily be addapted to any religion that believes in some form of life after death:

Learning is a valuable Thing in the Affairs of this Life, but of infinitely more Importance is Godliness, as it tends not only to make us happy here but hereafter. At the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked, what Proficiency we have made in Languages or Philosophy; but whether we have liv’d virtuously and piously, as Men endued with Reason, guided by the Dictates of Religion. In that Hour it will more avail us, that we have thrown a Handful of Flour or Chaff in Charity to a Nest of contemptible Pismires, than that we could muster all the Hosts of Heaven, and call every Star by its proper Name. For then the Constellations themselves shall disappear, the Sun and Moon shall give no more Light, and all the Frame of Nature shall vanish. But our good or bad Works shall remain for ever, recorded in the Archives of Eternity.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Now that you’ve read it and reread it, think about it and meditate on it. This saying is not just true of the afterlife either–think about it–men and women thoughout history are remembered by how they treated others- – wither they were good and kind to everyone, like Jesus was or wither they were cruel and hateful, like Hitler was. How many people are remembered for what they wore, what they ate, how big their house was,how many cars they owned, who their friends were–it is for their treatment of others that they are remembered. People are remebered by who they were inside ,not for what they owned ,but for what they did–people that the world remembers are those who with no thought for themselves generously made the world a better place for everyone ,or those who sought after greed and power by the destruction of others. How do you want the future world to remember you? Do you want to go down in history as the good, the bad, or the forgotten?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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the Religious beliefs of witches

the Religious beliefs of witches

Most people think of Witches as though we were followers of some sort of a denomination of a religion and of Witchcraft as though it were the name an organized religious group. Neither is true. Witches are deeply spiritual people, but Witchcraft is not now, nor has it ever been an “organized religion”. Witches may choose to be followers of an organized religion, or they may be religous but follow no religion at all. Well meaning, but missguided people often ask things like, “What is the religious phylosophy of Witchcraft?”,”What initiations must I preform before I can become a Witch?”,”What laws have been set aside for Witches to follow?”,and other simalar questions. Usualy these people are either Christain or Jewish, and they word their questions in this manner simply because they have been taught by their own parents and religious leaders that Witchcraft is the “evil opposit” of their “one true” religion or that all Witches belong to The Church of Satan (Yes, there actually is a U.S. approved religious denomination that has this name, and yes it’s church members really do call themselves either Satan Worshippers or Followers of the Beast and yes they do worship Satan-so don’t be fooled by those who would tell you that Satan Worshippers aren’t real. Maybe they aren’t common, but they are never the less real. Also do not be fooled by those who would say that Witches and Satan worshipers are one and the same, because they are not. They are two very separate and very different things.).Because these people have grown up being told that Witchcraft was a religion, they simply beleive that it is, without question. As King Solomon said-teach a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not fall from it. This causes much confusion on their part when you try to explain to them that being a Witch is actualy just having a career, just like anyone else and not about joining a religion. Saying that all Witches believe the same things and follow the same religion is like saying that all hair stylests belong to one religon, and that religion is called Haircraft. See how utterly and stupidly silly that sounds! But this is what the average person thinks merely because that is what they were taught to think and that is what they will teach their own children to think, not because they are trying to mean or spiteful or anything, but because they simply don’t know any better because no one ever taught them otherwise. It is our job as Witches to correct that way of thinking in the world, but to do it in such a way as to do it without upsetting the peace, forcing people believe as we do, or sounding like we want people to join a religion. All to many times, Witches get so caught up in explaining what they believe in, that they end up preaching, just like a Christian minister, and make it sound so much like a religion that, people come away believing that it is. Truth is Witchcraft is a job like any other-and if you’re good at it,you might even get paid for your work, but that it not likely, as most Witches don’t believe in chargeing their clients. The confusion about Witchcraft being a religion, often comes from the fact that Witches are very spiritual and often deeply religious people. It is rare to find a Witch that does not belong to some religion, nearly all Witches are faithful church goers, but there is no one religion or church that Witches attend, and they can be found in all religions all over the world. 

 

What about the Wiccas and Wiccans don’t they proclaim to be a religion?  Yes, Wicca is a religion, and yes, many Witches do seem to be inclined to choose it as their religion of choice. But that does not mean that all Witches are Wiccas or that all Wiccas are Witches. There are a large magority of Witches who are not Wiccas or Wiccans and who would never dream of and couldn’t even imagian following the Wiccan faith. In fact Wicca is basicly limited to the United States and Great Britian (easily understood when you realize that the word wicca was invented in 1957 by the British Satan Worshipper, Gerald Gardener in a book that was only ever published in Great Britian and the U.S.)-Outside of these two countries Wicca is practicly unheard of-And of all the Witches in the world less, than 20% of them live in either of these two countries. Witchcraft is much more common in Africa, New Guinea, Egypt, and Hati-and not a one of these life long, heriditary Witches will have ever even heard the word Wicca, much less want to become a Wicca. Likewise there are many Wiccans who have no intension at all, of ever becoming Witches. Confusing isn’t it? I’ll make it simpler for you to understand:

Imagine that you have mistakingly walked into a large convension. At that convension there are a great number of doctors, and most of those doctors are pediatricians. Now when you first walk in you think to yourself that everyone here is a doctor, and then after looking around you than add that they are all pediactics. Now the first part of your statement is true-Yes,they are all doctors in that room, however they are not all pediactrics. You have merely assumed that because many of the doctors here in this room are pediactrics that that must mean that they all are. That is what is called a false assumption. Although a large majority of the doctors in that room were pediactric, worldwide there are realitivly few pediatric-in fact they are desperatly needed but,t here just aren’t enough doctors who want to be pediactrics. Likewise, there are many Witches in the United States who follow the Wicca faith, but the United States is meerly one small room in the world, and realitivly few Witches ever enter that room. There are several million Witches in the world, yet only a few thousand live in the United States.

 Now pretend you are at a Wiccan coven, and you say to yourself these are all Wiccans and they are also all Witches. Well, yes, they are all Wiccans, but are you really sure that any of them are actualy Witches? There will probably be only one or two Witches in that group, or you may be right, they may all be Witches; but of course it’s also possible, and much more likely, that not a single one of them are Witches at all! Once again you have made the same mistake of assuming one thing based on something else. This is the mistake most people make when they think of Witches. Often they have simply gotten Wicca and Witchcraft confussed one with another, because often a person in the United States who does one also does the other, but you must remember that that does not mean that every Wiccan is a Witch or that every Witch is a Wiccan.

I’ve always been told that Witches worshiped trees and the moon…is that true?          Oh, it is to laugh….I never cease to be amazed at the wierd things that people believe, we Witches do. No, as a general rule most Witches do not worship trees, flowers, water, the sun, moon, stars, fairies, cats, birds, fish, or any of the other countless creatures and things that I have heard people say that Witches worship. Now, granted, you will find a person ever now and again that does in fact worship trees, the moon, or other such things, but most often, these are Nature Worshipers and not Witches. Nature Worshipers are rarely Witches and can become extreemly offended if you told them that they were. Likewise, I’ve never met a Witch that wasn’t offended when someone called them a Nature Worshiper. I have heard of a few Wiccas and Wiccans who worship nature, but this is not very common, and I have never once heard of a real Witch that did. The United States does list Wicca as a nature religion. Keep in mind, though, that while Wiccas often like to use the title of Witch, very few Wiccas ever have been or ever will be Witches. Most Wiccas, simply do not have the stomach for Witchcraft. Now, of course, it is true that most Witches do spend alot of time in the Great Outdoors, yes, but worrshiping it? How silly can you get? You don’t realy believe that, do you? 

Well now, you are probably wondering, if they don’t worship nature than what do they worship? It may come as a surprise to you, but just like anyone else Witches worship their Creator, not the creation. And also like everyone else, not every Witch has the same views as to who the Creator actually is. It is commonly accepted as known that the Creator, the Supreme Being, the Great Mystery, the Holy One, the Great Almighty, and the Great Spirit are one and the same Being, but while some Witches view their Creator as a male being which they call God or Alha, most prefere to view thier Creator as a female being that they call Goddess, and there are still others who believe that there are two Creators-one male and one female, whom they call the God and Goddess. Other names for the God and Goddess included: Lord and Lady, Mother Earth and Father Sky, and literaly hundreds of others, depending on the individual’s race or culture.

Some of the confusion about what Witches worship comes from their spending alot of time with nature, and comparitivly little time with other humanes. (Hermitism is not uncommon.) Witches are very close to nature, they are careful to not harm, waste, or damage all things. They believe in “harm none”,and they often believe that if you cause any unessacery harm to the creation (animals ,plants, dirt, rocks, water, and of course other humans),that you will bring about the wrath of the Creator, who punishes and avenges seven-fold all harm done to any part of His/Her creation. Often Witches are veiwed by the rest of the world, as environmentalists, but it is rare to find a Witch that would say the same. Rarely do Witches get involved in “political issues” ;what they do, they do not so much to save the environment, but out of respect for the Creator and the things that the Creator so lovingly made for all to enjoy. Nearly all Witches are also Vegans or Vegatarians. They often feel that the Creator made the plants and animals for us to take care of. It is not uncommon for Witches to live on farms, in the forest, or near lakes, rivers, and oceans. Most Witches tend herb/vegetable/flower gardens and raise animals-domestic pets, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, farm animals, and wild animals, some cultivate orchards or vineyards. It is very rare to find a Witch that lives in the suberbs or city–if they do, they often use every inch of space to plant gardens, keep pets, or spend much of their time in the park. (Don’t let all those city-dwelling Wiccas confuse you–Wiccas often live in cities, but Witches rarely do. Do not confuse the Wiccas with Witches-they are not the same things at all. Wiccas prefer to live in the city where they can show off their fancy duds and wild makeup, Witches prefer to live at one with nature, not prance around in malls.) 

Wither you realize it or not, the creation of the universe, plays a major role in what each person’s religious beliefs are, as well as how they live thier daily lives. Although, many Witches disagree as to when and how the world was created, they all do seem to believe that it was created at some piont, by some form of Creator and that the Creator of the world is the deity that they worship. As a general rule, it is the Witch’s personal theory on the creation of all things that determines how they worship, when they worship, why they worship, where they worship, and the name that they choose to call their Creator by.  It may be, that this very personal connection that Witches seem to have with the Creator of all life that causes some people to falsely think that Witches worship the things of nature.

Witches don’t believe in God…do they?     Yes, all witches do believe in one form of the Great Spirit or another, each one with their own personal opinions; some believe in one God or Goddess, others believe in many gods. As a general rule there is no deffinate answer that will fit ALL Witches, because each Witch is an individual person and each individual person beleives just exactly what he/she feels is “The Truth” and therefor believes what they feel is best for them to believe at that particular time in their lives. Some well keep their ridgid unshakable beliefs throughout their lifetime, while others may change beliefs several times over a very short period of time. 

One thing that makes Witches unique in the world of religion, and remains particualy steadfast among most, but not all witches, is the right to beleive what one feels is best for them, without telling others to believe the same thing. There are two known exceptions to this rule however: Mormon Witches are one exception to this rule-they believe that their way is the ONLY way and if you are not one of  ”them” than you are a Gentile that has been decieved by Satan and that makes it their “sacred duty” to “save your soul from eternal damnation and bring you back to The Truth”. The Gardenerian Wiccans are the other exception to this rule-they let you believe what you want to believe right up until you are “initiated”,and from that point on you must do,say,and believe everything exactly as your coven’s High Preist/ess commands,which may or may not be the laws set down by Gerald Gardener. 

Wiccans and Wiccas usualy believe in,worship,and pray to both God and His partener Goddess,sometimes calling them Lord and Lady;some believe in only one God and no Goddess,while many believe in one Goddess and no God,and yet still others believe that there are many gods and/or goddesses. 

There are also “Christian” Witches that believe that God sent the Goddess to live among us in human form under the name of Mary (some call Her Sophia) so that She could give birth to Jesus the Son of God and the Goddess,so that we would have a Leader/King to follow. There are some “Chritian” Witches who believe that there were two sons-twins-one named Jesus and the other named Beezelbub or Lucifer (Satan or the Devil);they believe that one son was etirerly good incapable of evil,while the other was entirely evil incapable of good. And that because they are twins it is difficult to tell one from the other and that that is why so many people are decieved and “fall asrtay”. (This racical and contraversial belief was first invented and made popular by the Mormons in the mid-1800’s and was one of the reasons why “traditional Christians” hated them so much.)

All Witches are very spiritual people and do fit into the classification of being at least somewhat religious,just like every single other human being that has ever walked the face of the earth. Just like every one else in the human race,there are usualy considered to be seven differant “types” of Witches/humans/religions/belief systems. These differances are based on the deity that the indevidual chooses to worship,and are as follows:

#1.) Those who believe in one “male” God (His name and appearance varies from one culture to another,but He is always viewed as The Creator of all things).(Partiarcal deity)

#2.) Those who believe in one “female” Goddess (Her name and appearance varies from one culture to another,but She is always viewed as The Creator of all things). (Matriarchal deity)

#3.) Those who believe in both one “male” God and one “female” Goddess (Their names vary from one culture to another,but They are always viewed as The Creators of all things). (Paternal deity)

#4.) Those who believe in a Supreme Being or Energy Force that created all things but believe that it is neither male or female or that it is capable of being both male and female and niether male nor female at the same time. (Mystical or Mysterious deity)

#5.) Those who believe in several gods and goddesses,with varying oppinions as to who created what, and why.(the Pha

#6.) Those who don’t believe in any god,goddess,or other deity at all,and ether feel that there was no beginning and thee will be no end,or that all of creation created itself by one means or another.(the Atheist).

#7.) Those who want to believe in something or think that they may believe in one or more of the first five listed above,but are confussed and not sure yet, as to which one they believe or if they believe any at all this is usualy because they are waiting for some sort of “undeniable proof” ,miracle,or evidance of the existance of spirit beings and/or how things were created all together and therefor believe in nothing until farther rock solid evidancal proof  has been discovered and revealed to them.(the Agnostic-or one who doesn’t know)

Each of these groups can be farther divided into hundreds smaller groups according to the names by which they call the Deity(s) and the ways in which they believe that the world was created. Although,many Witches disagree as to how the world was created,they all do seem to believe that it was created at some piont,by some form and that the Creator of the world is the deity that they worship. As a general rule,it is the Witch’s personal theory on the creation of all things that determines how they worship,when,they worship,why they worship,where they worship,and the name that they choose to call their Creator by. Witches usualy believe that it is not important which religion you belong to because all religions all over the world are all worshiping the exact same Creator. Although each may use a differant name for the Great Spirit (God or Goddess) it is generaly believed that everyone (regardless of faith/religion/culture/etc.~Witches, Christians, Jews,and Eastern religions alike) is worshipping and praying to the very same Spirit Being no matter what name they choose to call it,or by what form (male,female, animal,Virgin Mary,fire,lightening,etc.) it chooses to reveal itself to the individual-most religions belive that the Creator can chang shape at will. It is also believed that this Spirit appears to each individual in the form that will be most easily accepted and trusted by the person seeing it,and that it is able to appear in any form it chooses because it is “pure energy”,that is naturaly without any “solid” form at all,and therefor able to take on all forms. It is often believed that there are several spirit beings: usualy it is believed that there is one “ruling” or Great Spirit/God/ Goddess that is responcable for the creation and protection of all things,to whom we pray to and worship, They also usualy believe that there are several “lesser” spirits/angles/spirit animals/messangers/ghosts/faeries/saints/etc., that help the Great Spirit and act as “go-betweens” or mediators between the human race and the Great Spirit. (No man is an island and most Witches believe that it is impossible for anything to survive of itself because all things have an opposite and therefor usualy belive in two”ruling”spirits-one male and one female, refered to them as God and Goddess,the Lord and Lady,the Heavenly Parents,Heavenly Father and Mother,Father Sky and Mother Earth,Spirit Parants,Spirit Father and Spirit Mother,Jehovha and Sophia,and many other variations). Many also agree that just as the Great Spirit is all good and all love that there is a opposite “ruleing” Evil One/Evil Spirit/Satan/ Bezeelbub/Lucifer/Devil/Hades/etc., who is all evil,all hate,and who also,has “lesser” spirits/fallen angles/demons/ devils/goblins/gargoles/ghosts/ghouls/poltergeists/etc.,who are sent to torment the human race with war,sickness, diasese,and disaster (however as far as I know there is no religion,Witch,Christain,or otherwise,that believes that the Evil One has a ruling companion or a “female Evil One”).

It is also often believed that upon dieing all beings (humans,animals,and somtimes even plants) return to their “natural” state~a spirit being;and that the “type” of spirit being you become after death from this life,is determined by how you treated others (humans,animals,and somtimes even plants) while you where in your “physical” form. It is usual believed that you either move on to become a good spirit/angle or an evil spirit/ghost. (This belief seems to be held by nearly every individual in the world regardless of culture,faith,or religion and as actualy the basic belief of most,but not all,Christian religons,who believe that you become an angle after death~either a servent of God to be rewarded in paridise or a servent of Satan to be punished in hell). Some Witches (and even some Christian and many non-Christian religions) believe that we live many lives,each life is lived on a differant “earth” and at the end of each life we either move ahead or move back depending on our spiritual progression in that particular life; ultimatly, they believe,that they will become gods and goddesses themselves,eventualy able to create their own “earths”,just like our Creator,made this one,which they will rule over,just as the Great Spirit “rules” over us (most of the Witches who believe this theory choose to become “Mormons” because it is the Mormon church that actually started this belief,in the mid-1800’s.). And there are others,who believe in multiply lives though reincarnation: being born over and over again-you are born,you live,you die,you are born on this same earth,once again as someone or something else,and you start to live all over again. Who or what you come back as in each progresive life is determined by how you lived your previouse life: if your lived a good life you may come back as a great hero or leader,if you lived an average life,you may come back as a loyal dog to comfort your greiving family,but if you lived a bad life than you risk comeing back as a moskeito,a fly,or a flea. (People who believe this will often give you leangthy accounts of their numerous “past lives”.)

Do Witches get baptised? That depends on the religious beliefs of the individual Witch. Most Witches do in fact believe in some form of ceramoniously washing away sins in one form or another-both the Christians and the non-Christians alike. Remember,too,that baptisim is not exclusive to the Christians-all cultures have a cerimonial washing simalar to “Christian baptisims”. Witches that go to a church that believes in baptisim (both Christian and non-Christian churches) do get baptised. However there is much argument amoung religions as to what is the correct way to baptise someone-some say to be dunked under water,some say to have water poured over your head,while others say that the water is sprinkle on-three are even Christians who say that “I don’t need to be baptised because Jesus was baptised,and his baptism washed away everyones sins,his and mine and that means there is no longer a need for baptisiam”-(if that were true everyone would be a saint and the world would be totaly devoid of all sin,crime,and evil).  Some religions,such as Houdoo,believe that you should begin each morning with a bath in Holy Water,to wash away any sins or evil energies left over from the day before,so that you can start each day,totaly new and free from sin. (A bath in Holy Water is always taken after your “regular” bath/shower and you “air dry” yourself so that you do not risk,washing or towleing away any of the Holy Water.)

So,should you get baptised? And if you do,how dose one get baptised? Now to find the answer one must go back to the origans of the word baptise. Here’s something to consider: when you get up in the morning and say to yourself-”It’s time to take a bath”-did you ever stop and wonder why you call it a bath? All words in the English language origianate from either Greek or Latin words of simalar meaning. Now,imagine that you live in ancient Greece and you would like to take a bath-you do realize of course that you wouldn’t be able to,because bath is an Engkish word that had not yet been invented. So want would you do? You would take a baptisim, instead. Yeh, that’s right,the Greek word for bath is baptise. To go one step farther,if you were to take the Greek word baptise and translate it into modern English,you would come up with the phrase “to dunk under,or to soak up,liquid”. So remember next time you dunk your cookies in milk,what you are really doing is baptising your food,if you were in Greece,that is. Now for all those poor confused Christians,who argue over the correct way to be baptised,let’s first consider both when and where Jesus lived,as well as the national language in Jerusalem at that time. Greece was in world power,up until about twenty years before Jesuse birth. Rome was a fairly new but,growing nation-it had just caused the death of Egypt’s last queen,Cleopatra,and was about to start it’s path to conquore the world,with it’s eyes set on the mighty Greek empiror,and the rich and prosperous land of Jerusalem,currently in Greece’s possesion. The Hebrew language was banned by the Greeks who planned on making all the world Greek  And what language did the Hebrew,Jesus speak,? You guessed it-Greek! At the time of Jesus’ birth Augustus Ceaser had just declared that Jerusalem was now under Roman rule-and the Romans had just won it away from the Greeks,and had not yet had the time to retrain everyone to speak it’s new language-Italian. Of course Jesus used the Greek word baptise-why wouldn’t he? Is it any wonder that when John the Baptist baptised Jesus,that Jesus said that baptism was “to come up out of the water to be born again and wash away your sins”? 

When Jesus asked people to become baptised to be saved,he never intended all of the bitter battles and fighting that religions would do over the right and wrong ways to be baptised. Everyone takes a bath to wash away dirt,but how few take a bath to wash away sin? That is what Jesus ment–everyone was so preocupided with washing away a little dirt that they thought nothing about washing off the mountain of sin that had accumulated over the years. He was saying that everyone who wanted to enjoy the pure life of true spiritual joy,must first wash away their sins. The public washing away of sins was symbolic to show the world that you where a new person,that you where no longer going to do the sinful things that you had done previously-you were telling the world that you had turned over a new leaf,you had laid down your old ways and taken up new ways,you were pleadging to the world as well as to the Great Spirit that you were from that day forth,going to give up everything that was evil and selfish and devote you life to being good and helping others. To be baptised and than return to your former sinful life was decribed by Jesus as “throwing pearls to swine” and “returning to sin as a dog returns to it’s vomit”.

Contrary to popular belief,Jesus did not invent baptism 2,000 years ago,nor is it exclusive to the Christians. People have been repenting and “getting baptised” at least since ancient Egypt,over 10,000 years ago,where the tradition began. If you noticed–John the Baptise was already known as “The Baptist” and had baptised hundreds of people,prior to baptising Jesus. Baptism was first known in Egypt,where the temple preists washed away their worldly sins in great golden bowls held up on the back of golden cows-(remember the golden cow that the Hebrews had built and that had angered Moses so much that he melted it down and made the people drink the molten gold–it was the same type of gold cow that held up the gold lotus flower shaped bowl that the preists washed in.).  This same golden cow-bowl was also used to wash the sins of the dead away,before they could be mummified. (This was known by the Greeks as baptism of the dead.). In ancient Rome the custom of washing away sins was also popular,only the Roman preists used a stickenly differant method–instead of a bathtub sized gold bowl resting on the backs of gold cows,the Roman preists had gold pichers in golden bowls,that a servant carried. While public baths and private bathtubs were common in Greece,Romans were “sponge-bathed by their servants,as placing all of the body in a tub of water was considered to be unsanitary and was believed to cause the spreading of diseases. The emporors,leaders,govenors,and preists of Rome always had a servant walking along beside them,carring this gold picher and wash basin-just in case the leader had to pass a law,make a judgement,or other such thing that in his consioncsne  he knew to be wrong or sinnful. After passing the “sinful” law or jugdment, he quickly washed the sin from his hands so that he would die free from sin. (Remember how Potious Pilate, publicly washed his hands after scentanceing Jesus to be crucified and yelled out into the angry mob “I am clean of the blood of this man,I find no falt in him-his blood is on your hands.”? He didn’t baptise his hands because Jesus had invented baptism just three years earlier,now,did he?

Why do some Witches wear,carry,and use crosses,but when asked,say they aren’t Christian?      A cross is a T-shaped object usualy made of wood,iron,stone,gold,brass,or silver and is used to drive out ghosts,demons,and evil spirits-contrary to what the Christians would like to have you belive,the cross is a very ancient symbol that has been used to drive out evil spirits for over 5,000 years and had it’s origains in ancient Africa and was/is widely used by African tribal witch doctors,preists,and medician men. It was very common amoung the Egyptians who called it the Ahnk,and made their’s with a small loop on the top of it. They were also widely used by the ancient pre-Christian Celts and Druids,both of whom can trace their origains back to ancient Rome,who adopyed the use of the cross from the Egyptians. It was the Romans who made the cross famouse, taking it’s use to new hieghts. The Romans errected giant wooden crosses,often as much as thirty feet tall,at the gates of all of their cities to prevent evil spirits and criminals possed with devils,from entering the city gates,and when they exicuted witches,heritics,zelots,and murderers they hung their bodies on these crosses to warn others that such people were not allowed in their village-this was known as death by crucifiction,as the victim were hung on the crosses while still alive and often died weeks later of starvation or was eaten alive by the vulters that came to roost on the crosses. The Romans were a deeply superstitious lot,terrified of the evil spirits that walked the earth–and it was for this very reason that Jesus was killed upon a cross-because the Jewish leaders and temple preists believed him to be a servent of Bezelbub (Satan),and knowing how fearful the Romans were of evil spirits,they took Jesus before a Roman counsel proclaiming that he was possessed with a devil that was telling him to proclaim himself empoer of the Jews and would soon come after Rome’s crown as well. Because of the wild tales told by the Jewish preists,the Romans instantly set out to rid the world of this terrible evil that had come live in and take over their community-and thus Jesus was crusified on a cross in order to drive out the evil spirit that possesed him out of the village.

A “Christian cross” is not a plain cross but is correctly called a Crucifix,not a cross and is a cross with the slain Lord,Jesus the Christ hung on it,like the “secular” cross it to is used for exorcisms and worn for protection from evil spirits,but is believed to be far more powerful than a plain “secular” or non-Christian cross,because of the belief that all demons,ghosts, and evil spirits are frightend of Jesus,because of his great spirtual conection with the Creator,and flee at the meer thought of him. 

Is it true that all Witches aren’t Christians?   No.In fact,most all Witches do actualy believe in following the teachings of Jesus,however there is much debate over “how” to believe in him; most think of him as a great teacher,many refere to him as the Galilain Prophet,and there are a few who believe him to have been the acctual Son of the God and Goddess and that They sent Him here to teach us how we are to live. The name of Jesus has been for many years misused by people claiming to be Christians. He is not Jesus Christ,but Yeshu the Christ(pronouced: yae-shoe).Jesus is the English translation of the name Yeshu and was not used until the 1500’s.The word Christ when translated into English means the Annointed One or Messiah,and is NOT His last name-when you say Jesus the Christ you are actualy saying Yeshu the Annointed One or Yeshu the Messiah and it sounds kind of funny when you ommit the “the” between His name and His title. Fact is anyone can be a Christ,and prior to Jesus  the word Christ was used to discribe any prophet,preist,or teacher who had been blessed and annointed with oil. The act of annointing their heads with oil was known as  ”christening”,and from that they forth that person became known as (name) the Christ, (name) the Annointed One,or (name) the Teacher. Now for one to be a true Christian,you must have been annointed with oil and called to teach or preach-that is what Jese did,and that is why people of his day called him Jesus the Christ. In the early Celtic/Causasian/European/Anglo-Saxon Church it ment anyone who does the same things that Jesus the Christ did-healing,preaching,ect. In the minds of the Causasian race today,the word Christian has been misinterpreted to mean anyone who believes in Jeses the Christ. 

As a general rule all Witches believe in Jesus the Christ,but have differing oppinions about him,which are as follows:

#1.) Those who believe that he was meerly a fictional character/hero/myth from an ancient fable used to teach children to be good. 

#2.) Those who believe that he was a very wise man and phylosopher,but that his teachings are outdated  and impractical by today’s standards.

#3.) Those who believe that he was a great teacher and strive to learn from his teachings. 

#4.) Those who believe that he was a great teacher and/or prophet and set the example of how we are all to live even today,and strive to live exactly as he would have lived had he lived in today’s world. What would Jesus do? is thier motto.

#5.) Those who believe that He is the Son of God and to be obeyed as our King.

#6.) Those who believe that He is the Son of God and Goddess,and is our spirit Brother.

#7.) Those who believe that He was not a man,but was actualy God Himself,come to live amoung us in human form.

As you see,Witches believe in God,Goddess,Jesus,etc.based on what each individual feels is “Right”,just like all other people do.There are Witches who call themselves Christian Witches,but generaly most Witches do not consider themselves to be Christians wither they follow the teachings of Jesus or not.The reason for this is that the title of “Christain” is usualy given to and used by people who do and say things that are totaly contrary to the teachings of the man that they claim to be following.Most people claiming to be Christians today not only do not live the teaching of Jesus,but they,like the Apostal Peter,would rather denounce Jesus than give up their way of life to follow Christ. For this reason most Witches who do chose to follow after the teachings of Jesus, prefere not to be refered to as “Christians”-they do not what to be confused with those who have corrupted the true meaning of the word.

Aren’t there “good Witches” and “bad Witches”?  Yes.This is where the “religious” asspect of Witchcraft comes in. Witches are either White or Black. White Witches are advocates of the Great Spirit,and devote their lives to helping others,healing the sick,and driving out evil spirits. A White Witch sees it as their duty to make the world a better place to live.They desire to follow the example set down by the Great Spirit-to love,to create,to heal,to spread joy,to make others happy,to bring peace,and to provide comfort. White Witches who specilise in healing the sick,lifting the curses and spells of Black Witches,casting “counter spells” to protect people from Black Witches,and preforming excorcisms (driving out ghosts and evil spirits) are called Witch Doctors. Black Witches are advocates of the Evil One and devote their lives to casting curses of sickness,distruction, revenge,and hate and they are often paid by clients to do so. Black Witches take delight in hurting people,they enjoy pain and torture,and are often Sadistic (followers of the teachings and writings of the Comt ‘de Sade). Vampireism,animal or human sacrifices,and cannableism are sometimes practiced or often promoted.

Do Witches worship Satan?  No,most witches in general do not worship Satan,the devil, Lucifer,or demons;in fact many Witches claim that they do not believe that such a being even exists! (There are a rare few who show up every so often who do in fact pray to and woship Satan or other evil spirits, however this is  rare.)Most Wiccans and Wiccas do not usualy believe that evil spirits of any kind exist,although this can vary. Other Witches have variouse differing opinions. Most Witches do believe that Satan,evil spirits and fallen angels,etc. ,exist;believing that everything has an opposite and the opposite of a kind good Creator,spirits,and angles is obviously an evil one.

Do Witches read the Bible?  Most of the anceint Caucasian/European ones did,and today nearly all  Native American Indian and Africa American Witches do read and follow the teachings of the Bible,but many Causaisian Witches in the United States and Great Britain today don’t;again it’s a matter of personal opinion and nothing to do with Witchcraft. All Voodoo,Vodun,Hoodoo,and Houdoun Hougans,Mambos,Witches,and Witch Doctors live religiousely by the Bible and never go anywhere without one-they also always wear a cruifix and/or rosary and spend many hours every day memorizing Bible verses. The Bible itself  is a Grimoire-in fact it is the world’s most powerful Grimoire. (A Grimoire,for those who don’t know,is a Witch’s,Wizard’s,Shaman’s,Wise Men’s,Prophet’s,ect. scroll,tablet,book,or diary,in which they write down spells that they have cast,methods,used, and the final results,spirit dreams and visions,family histories/ liniages/bloodlines,current events of the world that effect the writter’s life,visions seen,and instructions given to the writter by the vioce of the Great Spirit.For more on this subject,please see the chapter on Grimoires.

Most Witches also believe in and study all of the teachings of the ancients(the ones most often studied include: Confucius,Lao-Tzu,Budda, Jesus,Mohaumad,writings of the Hebrews,writtings of the ancient Native Americans, and the writtings of the Eygptians).

Are there any Witches in the Bibles? Yes,there are many Witches in the Bible,even though Christians have a hard time admitting it-to proud and vain calling themselves “choosen ones” ,to admit that God seemed to favor the Witches over anyone else. In the Bible Witches were refured to as Wise Men,Wise Women, Soothsayers,Magicians,Astrologers,Chaldeans,Cunning Women,Cunning Men,and Diviners. (A Soothsayer is an interpreter of dreams–a sooth is a dream that has prophetic meaning,while a sayer is an interpreter of forienge languages. Dreams were thought of as the language of invisable spiritsm,and thus needed translating.) The Bible disrcibes Jacob Isreal as a scorceror,Joseph as a soothsayer,Moses as a magician,and many others who the Hebrews and Christians regard as prophets,by other names meaning Witch. The most famous of all,(the most famous for being a Witch) was the Jewish born Babylonian Wise Man named Belteshazzar or Daniel. What follows is a quote from the King James Bible, regarding King Nebuchadnezzer’s decree to kill all the Witches in Babalon, and how four of them (Daniel,Shadrach,Meshach,and Abendego) called upon God to protect them and their fellow Witches from the King’s wrath:

Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:  Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego…

…And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.  Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.  And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.  Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.  The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.  But if ye show the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.  They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. 

The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.  But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof.  

The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.  And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.  

For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.  And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.  Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:  He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.  Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation.  

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:  That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.  Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.  Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:  And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:  He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.  I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.  

Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.  Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.  

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?  Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king;  But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;  As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.  But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart…

…Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

~Daniel  1:6-7 , 2:1-30 ,and 2:48

Christians find it very difficult to believe that God talks to Witches. Even when they read about it in the Bible,they try to pass it off as “Well,they weren’t realy Witches-all people who were differant were called wise men back than,that doesn’t mean they were Witches,but only followers of God are truely wise,all those false wise man are the real Witches.”  You will also notice,that all of the ancient Hebrew “prophets” that Christians think so highly of today,were in their own time,deeply persicuted,tortured,and often slain or stoned (exicuted) under the charges of being scorcerors. All through out history the number one charge against Witches has always been that they claimed to be able to talk to God,spirits,saints,or angles–and ironicly they are allways persicuted and/or killed by the very people who proclaim to believe that God is able to talk to his followers. 

Through out the years Christians have done their best to make people think of Witches as worshippers of Satan. At the same time,there have been many Witches in recent history who have tried to get revenge on the Christians,by denouning Jesus,simply because they are mad at the Christians who where first mad at them. It’s a visious circle that will never end as all as one side is constantly accusing the other side. Yet,all throughout history it is always the Witches that prevale and end up being praised as prophets and saints,by the Christians of the following generations. 

Witches have always been deeply spiritual and close to their Creator. For that reason,they are often the ones who God chooses to talks to because He knows that they are the only ones who are willing to listen to Him-everyone else is always to busy trying to be more rightous than everyone else,and forget to be spiritual and humble. While Jews and Chrtsians alike,have a long history of persicuting the prophets and wise men of the Lord,the Witches have a long history of always being the first ones to take notice of and obey God. Take Jesus’ birth for example. Probably one of the hardest things for Witches and Christians alike,to accept is the fact that the first people in the world to acknowlege and worship Jesus the Christ were Witches. As stated in this quote from the King James Bible:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.  When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.  And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,  ”And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel”.  Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.  When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.  And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.  And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

~ Matthew 2:1-12

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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Holidays, Sabbaths, and Other Celebration Days

Holidays, Sabbaths, and Other Celebration Days:

What I Celebrate and Why

It seems to be a common thing among young Witches today, to ask the question: “What holidays should I as a Witch celebrate? Should I stop celebrating the Christian holidays that I grew up with? Should I start celebrating the ancient Druid holidays? Should I start celebrating the ancient Jewish holidays?”

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. Like anything else, you must decide for yourself and do whatever you feel is best for you and your own family. Each and every Witch will choose or omit different days and will choose to celebrate in different ways and no way in which you celebrate will ever be right or wrong. There is no need to abandon the holidays you grew up with, nor is there any need to start celebrating any holidays that you don’t feel comfortable celebrating. All to often “new” Witches feel that they must abandon all of their families old traditional holidays and immediately replace them with what they like to call “Druid/Wiccan/Witch’s Sabbaths”. This is a common mistake made by many Witches, that has lead to much unhappiness and causes nothing but strife among family and friends, and which eventually leads to the abandonment of all celebrations altogether. This is a sad thing, but it happens all the time. Cooperation, compassion, compromise, and sticking with the old while slowly expanding to the new, is often the best cure. Don’t totally disrupt your families long held traditions-instead, find ways incorporate your old traditions with your new ones, and don’t forget to include family members in your plans-no one likes to be left out, no matter how much they may say they disapprove of your “new holiday”. 

When it comes to celebrating holidays, the most common mistake everyone makes–Witches and non-Witches alike–is that few people seem to know what a holiday even is!

So, what is a holiday, anyways? Everyone looks forward to taking a Holiday, right? You do realize of course that while you can take a vacation, it is impossible to take a Holiday. I wonder how many people would look forward to a Holiday after they found out what it really meant. Most of today’s unlearned, over-educated ,and unspiritual minds, will tell you that a Holiday is a time to take a vacation from your daily ways of life-a period of rest and relaxation-time away from work or school-a day to party-a type of festival-or other similar but just as wrong definitions. It would seem that the word Holiday has been misused for so long, that very few people today even know what the word means! If you want to take a vacation-than say what you really mean-you want to take a vacation, not a holiday. The word holiday is the modern day combining of the two words: Holy Day. But what about Sabbath-isn’t that the word that means Holy Day? The words Sabbet, Sabbath, and Saturday are all Hebrew words that translate into English to mean Holy Day. So it would seem that all of these words, no matter what you call them, mean the same thing. Holiday, Sabbet, Sabbath, and Saturday all mean Holy Day. Now what is a Holy Day? A Holy Day is self explanatory-it is a day set aside as one that is to be respected as Holy. But do you know what Holy means? Holy means: that which is sacred ,reverenced, or revered. So a Holy Day is a day set aside as a sacred day, a day to be reverent, a day to pray, a day to worship, a day to reflect on what it means to be Holy, a day to act as if you were a Holy being, a day to pay respect to the Creator. Now don’t balk and say that this sounds too Christian for you–remember that it was the Christians who copied the Witches. All Christian Holy Days are merely watered down versions of Witches Holy Days. Remember that Witches are very spiritual creatures–Holy Days were very special days, quiet days, restful days, prayerful days. Don’t be fooled by the Hollywood movies that depict the ancient Witches Sabbaths as wild festivals at midnight around huge bonfires–a festival or celebration is not a Sabbet or Holiday. If you want have a wild celebration, than you want to celebrate a festival, not a Holiday. While Holy Days, Holidays, Sabbaths, and Sabbaths and peaceful, quiet, prayerful days, festivals are times of dancing ,partying, celebrating, singing, and making merry-one should never be confused with the other, but sadly they usually are. I think that Doctor Franklin said it best:

`Tis not a Holiday that’s not kept holy.

                                                 ~  Benjamin Franklin

The following is a list of days that I personally celebrate, how I celebrate them, why I celebrate them, and ideas that I have heard of others doing that I would like to and/or plan to start doing. I’ve also included a listing of “common holidays” that I do not celebrate with explanations as to why I refuse to celebrate or acknowledge these holidays, and in some instances even boycott the holiday all together. Following this list is a sample calendar showing what my typical holiday calendar looks like.

This by no means is an “instruction manual” for what holidays you should or shouldn’t celebrate, rather it just explains what I do and why I do it, to give you ideas to use as a sounding board for your own. You can add and omit holidays for you and your family to celebrate as you see fit. 

All 12 Months:

The Full Moon:

The New Moon:

Friday the Thirteenth:

Birthdays of Family:

Birthdays of Each and Every Pet:

January

National Book Month:

National Eye Care Month:

1) New Year’s Day:

4) National Trivia Day:

5) Christmas(the original date before the Catholic Church changed it):

12) National Handwriting Day:

17) Benjamin Franklin’s Birthday(1706):

19) Edgar Allan Poe’s Birthday:

22) Answer Your Cat’s Question Day:

26) Benjamin Franklin Prefers the Turkey over the Eagle Day:

February

National Library Month:

2)Candlemas:

2) National Kiwifruit Day:

6)Christmas(original date):

14) Valentine’s Day(modern traditional): the day when lovers give flowers, cards, candy, and gifts to one another;   a modern day celebration ; “officially” started in the U.S. during World War II as an attempt to “bring back the old days”–the invention of greeting cards in 1830 inspired the tradition of lover’s exchanging cards and romantic letters was a popular year ’round pastime from the 1830’s until the 1860’s–World War II saw a revival of lover’s exchanging cards; during Victorian times in England “love lotteries” were common among rich young adults on this day-boys and girls drew each others names out of a hat and pretended to be courting each other for the rest of the year;  Valentine’s day is really only a combination celebration of both St. Valentine’s day and Lupercalia, although it is actually just the Lupercalia Festival with a new name in an attempt to make it a more “decent” festival and has little to do with remembering the murder of Saint Valentine, who had nothing to do with lovers at all.

14) St. Valentine’s Day (traditional): a quiet, prayerful holiday on which to remember those who died for what they believed in (martyrs); a day to be thankful that we today live in a land with religious freedom, without the risk of persecution and death at the hands of the government; the day on which the Roman Priest Valentine was murdered in 273 A.D. , for preaching the words of Jesus, and for helping many Christian families escape execution from the Roman soldiers

15) Lupercalia: ancient Roman festival, celebrating Februata, the goddess of sexual love; a cruel and brutal “lottery” festival during which all unmarried girls (some were women, but most were teenagers, and many were still very small children) were gathered together by the soldiers, and all of their names recorded and than put into a jar(urn) than each man of the village than took turns pulling names out of the urns, the girl whose name he picked was than his slave for the rest of the day to do with as he pleased-most of the girls returned home the next day severely beaten and raped–many died later that year during childbirth at less than twelve years old-due to the fact that their bodies were to young to handle the stress of pregnancy.

16)Thanksgiving Day(original date):

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March

1-5) Plant Tomatoes and Peppers(indoors):

1) Saint David’s Day: a day of music and dance to remember the priest who loved the national music of Wales

15 or 17) St. Patrick’s Day: see also Dabanala Wendo’s Day; originally a day to celebrate Christian religious freedom in Ireland; also a day to celebrate snakes or lack there of ;a day to celebrate the priest Patrick’s prayers for Ireland-that horrible snake infested island-prayers that ultimately resulted in all snakes being driven from the country; it is said that Patrick’s favorite color was green and that he always wore green because he believed it would protect him from all evils

15 or 17) Dambanala Wendo’s Day: see also St. Patrick’s day; Dambanal Wendo is the “Heavenly Father/God/Creator/Great Spirit” figure of the African peoples,(like God in the Garden of Eden) he has power over snakes and often appears in the form of a great green snake to scare away all other snakes; an African snake festival, that often involves dressing up like snakes, wearing green (Dabanala Wendo favorite color and the color of most African snakes),and feasting on large feasts(similar to the United States Thanksgiving Day feast); the similarities between this festival and the Christian’s festival St. Patrick’s day, including the date, cause much speculation as to the truth of the myth of Saint Patrick’s existence–he never was proven to be a real person, or to have ever visited Ireland. (it should also be notated that Moses is the only person in history to tell the Genesis Creation tale of Adam and Eve and the evil serpent that had to be driven out of the Garden of Eden by God–After fleeing Egypt, Moses was married to Zeephora, the eldest daughter of a black Ethiopian high priest from Africa-and Moses lived with this Witch Doctor/Priest and his family and tribe for thirty years before returning to Egypt, freeing the Hebrew people, and than wandering in the wilderness forty more years before beginning to write the Book of Genesis–it stands to reason that Moses’s Garden of Eden story was actually based upon the Danabala Wendo myth.)

April

Spring Equinox or Eostre(Non-Christian Easter): usually April 21-the first day of Spring; a festival, celebrating the end of winter and the coming of Spring-some view this as a quiet and reverent Holy Day for pray, while most view it as a day to feast, party and celebrate being able to come outdoors once again after being shut inside all winter–this is obviously a regional celebration that is only celebrated in regions with long, cold, snowy winters

Easter Saturday: not often heard of or celebrated; the festival day when Christians combine Easter and Eostre together, and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus as well as the coming of Spring

Easter Sunday-(modern version): a very common festival, probably the most celebrated Spring festival in the world today; like Christmas day, the day usually begins with children rushing from their beds at the crack of dawn, in search of their gifts, candy ,and presents which were supposedly left the night before by the Easter Bunny, the day continues like any other Sunday with people putting on their Sunday best and heading to church to hear a special Easter sermon, after church services this day of pomp, grandeur , vanity, and extravagance, is than celebrated by men, women, and children dressing up in expensive pastel colored clothing and parading down the street to show off their wealth to the world; the parades are often followed by re-enactments of Victorian tea parties, with such games as croquette, archery, egg hunting, and dancing; that night the party is followed by huge feasts of ham, turkey, cakes, candy, and chocolate-feasts often so huge that they make Thanksgiving festivals seem small by comparison; dinner entertainment often includes a “passion play” with actors re-enacting the last days of Christ from the Last Supper to the Resurrection-these “passion plays” may vary from a humble and spiritual play to a sacrilegious and mocking comedy; 

Easter Sunday-(traditional version): the holiday to remember the crucifixion of Jesus; this is a very quiet day of prayer and meditation; a day to reflect on what it means to be a Christian; a day to look deep inside of your heart and find out if you really are a Christian, to see if you, like Jesus, would stand true to your beliefs, unwavering-even if it meant that you would be tortured to death-as only a real Christian would do-anyone who would waver and run from the Roman cross is not a true Christian

17) Benjamin Franklin died(1790): a day to mourn our country’s greatest loss

May

1) Beltane:

27) Vincent Price’s Birthday(1911):

Memorial Day: a day to remember those who fought for the freedom of others; although most people feel that this means that only solders can be remembered on this day, that is not true-anyone who has ever stood up for the freedom of anyone else is to be remembered on this day

June

25) Anniversary of the Removal of Prayer and Bible from School:

July

4) Independence Day: the celebration that I view as the most important of all-a day to reflect on what it means to be free-a day of thanksgiving for our freedom of speech, freedom or expression, freedom of religion

        

August

1)Lughnasadh(Lammas):

13) My Birthday: I celebrate my own birthday, as a vacation day to spend with my bantams

21)(or longest day of the year)Summer Solstice or Midsummer:

September

Labor Day:

2nd week(exact day not known)Actual birthday of Jesus the Christ: few people are aware of this Holiday and this day is rarely celebrated by anyone, and has never been celebrate by a Christian religion; generally only celebrated by those who are the true followers of Jesus (rarely do they belong to a church denomination); this is often a quiet day of prayer and meditation, with none of the extravagant festivities that are usually associated with the birth of Christ

October

Harvest Month: not often celebrated anymore, due to the fact that very few families live on farms today; this was a month long vacation from school to allow students to help their families harvest the fields and prepare the food for winter storage

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31) Halloween:

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November

Election Day:

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Remembrance Day: Also called Veterans Day. A day when we remember those who died in the service of the country, a day to visit cemeteries and put flags on the graves of soldiers, police, and fireman. A day of silence and prayer for those presently serving the country today, a day to visit with soldiers who survived the wars, a day to remember what Hitler’s army did to the Jewish people during the Holocaust of World War II, and a day to remember not to be prejudice against other races to remember that love not hate is the way we should all live. A day to meditate on why wars are started and how it could be prevented.

Thanksgiving Day(modern traditional date):  the last Thursday of November; originally celebrated in the spring, as the day to be thankful that winter was over and spring had come; changed by Abraham Lincoln to combine it with the Native American Harvest Festival as a day to be thankful for a bountiful harvest and having plentiful food storage to last your family through the winter 



December

12-24) The Twelve Days of Christmas(Christian Version): The twelve days before Christmas. On December twelfth three boxes are placed by the front door-representing the gifts of the three Magi-anyone entering or leaving the house must put something in at least one of the boxes(money in one, food in the second, or clothing in the third),at least one new item must be put in each box, each day for the entire twelve days; on Christmas day the three boxes are taking and distributed to the poor, widowed, orphaned, hungry, and homeless 

25) Christmas(modern traditional date):  The day the Catholic Church declared as the official birthday of Jesus, as an attempt to stop people from celebrating Yuletide. Celebrated by hanging a gold or silver star in a window; making a huge feast of food and warm drink, than taking it and handing it out to the poor and homeless(Weaseling);burning incense-esp. frankincense and myrrh; giving gifts to remind people that the Wiseman gave gifts to the baby Jesus, and to remind people that Jesus was God’s gift to us; wishing people good will, joy, happiness, health, long life, and peace on earth. 

How many observe Christ’s Birth-day!  How few, his Precepts! 

O! ’tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.

~ Benjamin Franklin

20-31) Yule(Yuletide, Winter Solstice, the original Twelve Days of “Christmas”): This is a very ancient holiday that celebrates God’s triumph over evil spirits and Death(Christians say Satan),when the King(God) was defeated by death but reborn as the Divine Child(most people today call him “Baby New Year”)(No this does not represent Jesus as the Christ Child-this holiday was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ, and is the reason, the celebration of Christmas was so easy for the Celtic peoples to accept).Yuletide is celebrated by stringing red berries, burning bayberry candles, making wreaths of holly, cutting down and decorating a Yule tree, exchanging gifts, baking fancy cookies and breads, burning a Yule log, reindeer are considered sacred, and reindeer stag horns are hung over the fireplace

26) Boxing Day: Modern day Canadian version of The Twelve Days of Christmas-Christian Version; on the day after Christmas the family takes all the boxes that presents had come in and refills them: gathers up all leftover food from the holidays; finds all items no longer used or needed(clothing, toys ,books, tools, anything and everything), rewraps the boxes and then takes them out and gives them to the poor

 

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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Music and Dance:

Music and Dance:

Music has the ability to let one’s mind soar to new hights.

Dance: it’s what your body does naturaly when it hears music. Wither you move around or not doesn’t even matter–your heart and your blood start dancing inside of you,long before the rest of you starts to move. As soon as music starts,your brain wave patterns begin to fluctuate and flow in time with the music,and your heart soon gets the message,and beats in tune to your brain waves,this sends your blood flowing in time with the music through all points of your body,energizing your musles with the disier to move and stretch along with the music–this moveing and stretching of the muscles is what we call danceing. The rythm of your heart beats faster or slower depending on the music you are listening to,making your muscles want to move in fast or slow motion. 

Dance when your body tells you to–even if there is no music. Dancing is to your body what yawning is to your jaw–is releases stress and tension,it relaxes and soothes. Dancing is the healthiest for of excersic–as well as the most natural. In fact all forms of excersice from aroebics to yoga are based on natural dance. If your body wants to dance,just dance. Don’t worry if you “can’t” dance. You don’t have to obey someone elses dance steps. Make up your own dance,move around in soft fluid movements or jump around wildly,do some of both–it doesn’t matter what you do when you are danceing,as there are no right or wrong movements. Feel your heart beat,how fast or slow is it beating,-do what it does–your heart is your best dance teacher-not only will it tell you how fast or slow to move,it’s also the best judge of when you’ve had enough and should rest for awhile.

Don’t you dare let other people shame you out of dancing –the only reason they say anything is because they are jealious of your ability to not be bothered by what other people think about you–believe me,that it a rare gift that almost no one has and a quality everyone wishes they had. When people ask “Don’t you care what other people think?”–answer them with–”No,why should I care what other people think,about what I do with my life? It’s my life not theirs,if they don’t want to dance they don’t have to. This is a free country and right now I feel like danceing. If you don’t like it ,then go somewhere else,where you won’t see me dance and be bothered by it.” .

Don’t let disabilties stop you from dancing either–I once had a friend who had been born with spinalbidifia(??),who was in a wheelchair his entire life,born paralized from the chest down,but he never missed a single school or church dance,and in spite of the wheelchair,he joined in with every dance from the waltz to the bunny-hop–he also played basket ball and floor hocky with the both the church team and the school team. His health was often very poor,but neither that nor the wheelchair ever stopped him from doing the things that he liked to do best–danceing and sports. Last time I heard of him he was training to become a missionary and planned to help poor nations overseas. He had no time for self pity and woes–instead of letting his diability control his life–he took over,and refused to allow a disability to stand in his way,what he lacked in natural physical ability,he made you for with sheer will power and positive thinking–and you can do the same if you put your mind to it and never give up.

Now,suppose you want to dance,but you don’t know how,you don’t realy feel comfortable “following your heartbeat”,you’d like to take a few lessons to get you started on ideas to make up your own dances,but you just can’t afford professional lessons and you don’t have any freinds or relitives willing or able to teach you. What do you do? Well,I personaly would recommend that you try one of four things: Yoga,belly dancing,martial arts,or Richard Simmons’ workouts. All four of these things teach you to become aware of your bodies movements in methods that are easily converted to a dance. 

Take Yoga for instance. What do you think of when you think of Yoga? If you are like most people,visions of old men sit on the ground with their legs tied in a knot,well be the first thing you think of–and you’ll be right,well, sort of. Yes,many people-especialy preists and monks-do use Yoga,to help them while they meditate-and that is what you thought of. But,did you know that the ancient warriors used Yoga to train them in the art of war,as well? While the more common steps in Yoga are restful,relaxing,meditative movements–there are many livley and energizing steps as well–most of which are named after warriors,or active animals. And all Yoga steps,once you have learned them,can be quickened and customized to match the pace of your music. One of the best things about Yoga,is that although you can learn it in a classroom setting,it is actualy best if you learn it in solitude. Teaching yourself Yoga is quite simple,all you need is a video and/or a step by step picture book. (Most people learn faster with a video as you can watch someone else do it first,while a book may prove difficult as they rarly show you how to actualy get into each position). There are many videos out there,that will help you learn Yoga. Try one listed as “for beginners” or get a set that moves you from “beginner steps” to “advanced steps”. Similar to Yoga are the arts of Taoist exercise,Ch`i Kung,and Do`in.

Secondly you can try belly danceing–and no this is not limmited to women–Hawiian and Polinesian men dance the Hula right along side the women. Although not quite as easy to learn as Yoga,it is still realitivly simple to pick up on. First of all you need to know what belly dancing is,and what it isn’t. Like Voodoo dolls and zombies, Hollywood has a very differant definision of belly dancing than the native cultures who invented and preform it. When you mention belly dancing the first thing most people think of is Arabian and Turkish haram girls that look like they just walked off the set for “I Dream of Jeannie”. Well,first let’s find out what a Haram is. A haram is a room in the fancy house of a wealthy man–it is the equivalent of a English Victorian lady’s parlor– in other words,it was the lady’s sewing room,where all the wives,daughters,female freinds,female relitives,and female slaves and servant girls gathered at the end of the day to talk and sew and rest. There is no record of any haram anywhere ever being used for dancing or otherwise showing off in front of men. Fact is,men were not allowed to enter into a haram at all,as this was considered to be the women’s “sacred” place where the women could pray to Ahla undisturbed. Another thing worth mentioning is that the Arabians and Turks are Islamic–their women don’t dress like “I Dream of Jeannie”,quite the contrary-they are amoung the most heavily wrapped,shrouded,and covered women in the world-a tradition that has been around since the days of Ishmael son of Abraham by Hagar the Egiptian slave girl,some 4,500 years ago when he founded the religion of Islam. So,where did Hollywood come up with those famous belly dancing haram girls? Egypt. Wealthy ancient Egyptians had special dinning halls where they gathered to eat while naked slave girls danced to the music of a snake charmer’s flute. As for the Genie or Aladin style clothen,that comes from India,not Arabia or Turkey.You will even find that in the old movies from the 1930’s they actualy called the girls “snake charmers”,saying that the movement of the belly hyptnotized the snake–this is where the name “belly dancing” actually came from-Hollywood–no country or culture in history has ever had a dance by that name,it is purely an invention of Hollywood.

So,now that you know what belly dancing isn’t,let’s talk about what it is. Most cultures have a dance that is a form of “belly dancing”,that helped to inspire Holloywood.. The most famous of which being Hawaii’s Hula dance, followed by Tibet’s_________. There are other forms that can be found in China,Japan,India,Australia,Polinesia, New Guinea,Afica,Isreal,and other places. Belly dancing is a slow dance,with very little foot movement,some hip, shoulder,and neck movements,and alot of very intricate hand gestures,that tell a story-much in the same way as one would speak useing sign language. Modern “Hollywood” forms of belly dancing take bits and pieces of differant moves from differant dances of differant counrties-especialy the Hawian Hula-and combines them with movements from classical ballet and the Spanish Flamanco,to come up with a very elaborate dance,that is often acompanied by wearing middie tops,layered skirts,head veils,scarves,and lots of tinckling jewerlry. Modern belly dance is often full of very confussing dance steps,foot work,and jumps,and difficult for most beginners to learn,so it is not our focus here. 

When I suggest that you take up belly dancing,I speak of the traditional dances,from their native lands,which are realitivly simple to learn. If you wish to dance to tell a story,then you will need to go to the country and study the dance as an apprectice for many years,however if you just want to learn the basic movements,than you can easily learn them from one of the many instrution videos available. Find one listed as “for beginners” or get a set that moves you from “beginner steps” to “advanced steps”. Like Yoga,once you have learned the basic moves,then you can change them to fit your own personal style or invent your own.

Now we move on to martial arts–more difficult to learn belly danceing or Yoga–and although it is not impossible to teach yourself,many steps require the derect help of a teacher,but if you are learning martial arts to improve on your danceing and not your ability to defend yourself,you can easily skip over steps that require two people. There are countless forms of martial arts,most of them originating in Japan and China; which include such things as Karate,Judo,Kung Fu,T`ai Chi,Pa Kua Ch`uan,and Hsing I;  martial arts also includes the ancient art of warriors,Samurai,and Ninjas-these forms of the martial arts include: Budo,Iaido (which requires a good quality battle worthy sword),and the deadly Aikido. (A note about Aikido–this is a deadly art form of turning your hands into leathal weapons and is not legal in many states. Aikido is not very common in the United States,in fact the only time most people will ever see an Aikido movement is when watching reruns of Star Trek–pay close attention to Spock’s Vulcan neck hold–this actualy is a real step from Aikido,and when done correctly will kill a grown man in a matter of seconds,by cutting off the flow of oxagen to the brain. If you plan to study Aikido,check to make sure that it is legal to do so in your state–you can go to prison for studing this dangerous and often illegal art.) 

All forms of martial arts include many graciful movements that when learned can easily be transformed into dance steps. Taking up a martial art is best learned through hands on expiriance with a teacher,but can also be self taught with instrution videos,books,and tapes. Most people find it easiest to learn a martial art,after they have learned Yoga. Many times Yoga is used as warm up excersices before practicing martial arts.

And then there’s Richard Simmons. Now don’t laugh,I know that for a lot of people Richard Simmons seems to be thought of as a half crazed freak. Fact is,he is the best personal trainer you will ever have and he has the best methods for learning to dance. And guess what,areobic dancing is actualy danceing. Richard Simmons’ videos are intended for the “weight loss” people and dieters,but

The most important thing to remember about dancing is that,you move as you feel is right for you,not how others say you should. Now if you were in a ballroom dance compitition,or a ballarina on stage,than obviously you must stick to your coriographer’s moves,but I’m not talking about preforming in front of an audiace here. I’m talking about free-dance or spirit-danceing. Spirit dance,is not about dancing to get paid or win a prize,it is about letting your spirit soar like an eagle and moveing without thought to the dance. It’s about spinning and twirling, jumpimg and leaping, it’s about swaying gently to the breeze,tiptoeing gracefuly amoung the flowers,running joyouly along the riverbank,it’s about whooping and shouting and singing for joy. It’s dancing for the pure fun of it. If you are happy danceing will like you express your joy. If you are depressed or sad dancing will do wounders for lifting you spirit. If you are angery,frusterated,or stressed dancing will calm the mind and help release the tension.

Did you ever look at pictures of families from around the world? Try it sometime. You will probably notice,just as I did,that the families with the most possesions are never smiling,their eyes are cold and stressed,lines of worry and frustration cover their faces. Families from America,Europe,and developed areas of Asia and the Mediterianian,always look so tired and sad, they always seem to be unhappy,frustrated,angery,or stressed out. Oh,I know,it seems like they shouldn’t be;they are so well off,aren’t they? You may say “Well,that’s the price they had to pay for becoming millionares” ,but I’m not talking about millionares. Yes,there certainly are millionares in this group of people,but for every unhappy millionare there are ten-thousand average citizens,who,are just as unhappy. These aren’t all rich,wealthy people mind you,most of them are just average Americans. They have a nice house or apartment with a kitchen,a bathroom,and two or more bedrooms,they have a car or two or more,they have three meals a day and everyone loves to eat snacks,they have grocery stores,resturants,take-outs,police,hospitales,and schools,the children have all the latest Barbie dolls,action figures,and video games and the latest coolest clothen, everyone has shoes on their feet and more in the closest,the family subcribes to many magizines and comic books, they have at least one T.V.,a telephone,a computer–they have all of these things and so,much,much more,they should be happy shouldn’t they;on the surface they seem happy,aren’t they? Or are they just smilling blindly into the camera,praying that this is the last picture,so they can go back to their usual sour exspessions?

Now let’s look at the rest of the world. The families who are lucky to get one meal a day,while many don’t even get that much in a week,who don’t have a car and may or may not have a house-if they do it is usualy just two rooms and the family sleeps together on the floor,they don’t have a T.V.,many wouldn’t even know what a T.V. was,only the realy lucky ones get to have store boughten shoes,the children don’t have any toys and even if they did there is no time to play,everyone old enough to walk works hard gathering food,planting crops,tending animals, spinning yarn,weaving fabric,sewing clothen,carving tools,and all other manner of true hard work (these people are to busy working to even think about getting jobs). These people,are mostly thought of as liveing only in “third world contries” but,they are everywhere,in every country. They should be sorrowful and sad,right? They should be frustrated with their missfourtune,fighting and arguing all the time,they should be worried and stressed,right?  But, look at their faces-they are smiling,not those puny “I’m smiling because your holding a camera,but I still hate you and everything else” smiles that you see in America and Europe,but big joyful toothy grins,that can’t contain all of the joy bubbleing up inside of them. Look at thier children: no toys,hands worn and blistered from working dawn till dusk: are they fighting and arguing morning,noon,and night,like children in America and Europe? No,brothers and sisters,walk hand in hand laughing and talking and joking–big teenager brother spends more time with little toddler brother than other teenagers,not because mother says so,but because he truely enjoys spending time with his little brother–how many America families can boaste of such brotherly love in the home? Take a look at the neighbors: no fences,no hedges,no fueds,no one calling the police on each other,one family gives food to the one that is in need–how many American families can say the same about themselves and their neighbors? Look at the villages-an acre of land may house as many as fifty families each in their own small hut,none have their own lawn or garden–but just beyond the houses lies a large hundred acre field of vegetables,where everyone in the village helps work,and the harvest is divided evenly amoung them all-each person receiving the same amount as everyone else, without complaint. The same is done with food brought back by the hunters and fishermen. How many Americans would be willing to live in a village like this or share evenly with their neighbors,willingly and without complaint,so that everyone had an eaqual share? 

So,it would seem that those who have the most in material goods,have the least amount of family happiness,but how can that be? By all logic,those who have more should be happier because they have better lives,right? But,the question is–Do they realy have better lives? Their lives may seem easier,with less hard work,but is it realy easier? Let’s take a closer look at the American and Europian life style verses the Third World life style. First of all why does one have alot of goods,while the other doesn’t? Work,jobs,and money are the answer to this. While Third World families work long hard days and families work alongside each other all day long–American families spend realitivly little time together: parants send their children off to school,where they are taught everything except how to put in a good days work. While the children are in school expanding their minds and learning to be great,but lazy thinkers,the parants are busy doing jobs,that use no physical energy and quite frankly provide no pysical satifaction of a good hard sweat, simpily because they aren’t putting in a good day’s hard work. And why do they have jobs? To get money. Why do they need money? Well they did want an easier life didn’t they–so why do they have to have a job and make money? Because they are to lazy to build their own house,grow their own food,make thier own clothes,and teach their own children. They have to have money to pay the builders,growers,sewers,and educators,that are doing the hard work that they should be doing for themselves,but are to busy looking for an easy life,to work,and end up haveing to pay someone else to work for them. The result of this is stress-it statrs as finacial stress-because America is full of lazy people looking for an easy life,hard workers are hard to come by, And because there are more lazy people than there are workers,hard workers have to charge high prices if they are to meet all of the lazy slave driver’s demands. Thus the lazy slavers can’t sit back doing nothing as they had originally planned,now they must go out and get jobs to pay off the people they had hired,to do the work that they should have done themselves. This stresses them out,and they begin to first take it out on their spouse,who now becomes stressed as well,the children see the parant’s stress and they become stressed too. The result of all this stress is frustration and anger. They become angery at their families members,angery at their neighbors,angery at they people who they think are better off because they own more things,more cars,and bigger houses. Jealousy, argueing,bickering,and fighting soon start. People become depressed. People turn to alcohol,drugs,adultery, gambleing,violence,suicide,and murder. Fighting escalates until it turns into feuds between families,friends,towns, gangs,or even entire counrties. Fighting soon turns to wars. That is the American way,the European way,the populated Mediteranian way,and the populated Asian way. But is it the right way? Is it a happy way? Isn’t there a better way?

Now let’s look at the “Third World” or rural way,which was also the American way long,long ago: the cycle starts when a son moves away from home to build his house and raise a family; he chops the wood,mixes the mud, tans the hides,and drys the straw himself or maybe with the help of his father and brothers; he also carves and builds any funerture his family will need. The wife and children start breaking the soil,and planting the seeds, harvesting the crops,and tending to the family’s animals as well as cooking meals,sewing,weaving,hunting,and cleaning,while the men are hard at work building,carving,planting,harvesting,weaving,hunting,and fishing.  There is no need for schools as the parants teach their children at home,and the lessons vary from culture to culture and may or may not include the following depending on the local tradition: religion,law,history,reading,writing,math,farming, animal husbandry,cooking,sewing,and countless local trades and crafts. In some cultures the mothers teach,while in others the fathers teach,in some the mothers teach the girls while the fathers teach the boys,sometimes the grandparants are the teachers,but in most the mother teaches all that she knows and that father teaches all that he knows. Most of the teaching is done early on in life,as teenagers usualy stop studying “traditional” school work and decide what they want to do with their lives–wither it be weaver or warrior,cheesmaker or candlemaker,hunter or fisher,or whatever trades are in the village. Boys and girls aged 12 to 15 leave school work behind and go into apprenticship,learning everthing there is to know about their choosen trade. They grow up to become men and women content and happy with their lives,as they start building their own homes and raising their own families,and the cycle starts all over again.

Now you are probably saying to yourself,”This is all fine and good,and I’m glad those people are happy with their lves,and I know,your right Americas aren’t very happy by comparison,but that’s just the way it is,and you can’t change it: but what in the world dose any of this have to do with dancing?!?”  Well,I’ll tell you–a lot–in fact, this has everything to do with danceing or the lack thereof. Look at these two types of lifestyle one more time,this time look at entertainment,recreation,rest,and relaxation. How does the American style family rest? What do they do for recreation and entertainment? Think about this long and hard. What do they do? Realy? Do they rest? Do they relax? Do they ever actually do anything for recreation? Not really. They are to busy trying to be entertained by others to do thing themselves. What is America’s biggest form of recreation? Entertainment. How do Americans entertainthemselvs? They go to the movies to watch violent movies about crime,lust,and hate. Now maybe your one of those “saintly” Americans that only goes to PG family films. Let’s take a good look at the PG rated family movies out there: evil villians,sibling rivalry,violence,hate,murder,competition,rebelious teens,vile language, law breaking,disobidiance to parants,disrespect,lust,imorality,seduction,drugs,and adultery–and all that’s just from one Disney show that was “hot family favorite” this year. Now if you can’t even go to see a PG Disney movie without being exposed to such things,how bad a the rest of the movies out there? These movies may seem okay on the surface, with people rationalizing “Well they have to show all that bad stuff in the beginning so you know how much the person turned their lives around,otherwise they couldn’t have a happy ending.” . Come on now,you don’t really believe that,do you? Listen to the music of America–violence,hate,murder,competition,rebelious teens,cop hating, anti-government,vile language,disrespect,drugs,and adultery. And what about sports? Players hiring hitmen to cripple other player,players being arrested for such things as gambling,drugs,rape,wife beating,and murder. Players fighting on the feild,and cheating to win. Spectaters in the stands with guns shoting other spectators. Parants at elementary school games murdering other parants because their child played more time than the other child. The way America chooses to spend it’s “free time” says alot about the minds of the American people in general. People say “Well,that’s what to producers and musicains make,that’s just the way sports enthusists act.”–wrong again. The producers,musicians,and the players need to make money,just like everyone else in America,they have houses and families to pay for too,so they make what sells–violence,hate,and anger sell–so they give the public what the public wants,and they become rich by doing it. And sadly when an entertainer comits a crime–the adoring public would rather see them go free and unpunished,just so they can continue to be entertained. By surrunding themselves with songs,movies,sports,and video games that promote hate and violence–they are only fuleing the stress and frustration that is building up inside of them. You can’t fight fire with fire,all you will get is a bigger fire.

Let’s look at how the “Third World” and rural lifestyle seeks out rest,recreation,and entertainment. Now we already know that there aren’t any T.V.’s or movie theaters and not often are there any radios either,and sports teams just don’t exist. “Rather boreing” ,most Americans would say, “Those poor people,how can they possibly entertain themselves? ” Well,that is just exactly what they do. You answered your own question. They entertain themselves–they don’t sit around watching and listening to others having fun and enjoying themselves–they join in and have fun too. They play drums,harps,flutes,pipes,and what ever other instraments they have. It doesn’t matter wither or not they can play the same song twice,they play music,because they want to. They sing and yell. They may all sing a differant song at the same time,or they may sing together in harmony. They dress up in feathers or fancy robes,and most importantly-they dance. Sometimes they dances in strict methodical harmony useing a predetermined dance step,but most times they just do their own thing and dance as they please,without a care in the world. Most American’s look at this and say “How can they do that? If I was them I’d be so tired and exhausted from all that work they did all day,I wouldn’t be able to lift a finger,let alone dance.” Well,you just answered your own question once again–you see,illogical as it may sound,the more you work and the harder you work,than the longer you can work,the stronger you are and the more energy you have to do other things. Hard work is good for you,it’s what your body was designed to do. If you don’t work often,hard and long,you will lose you streangth and your energy,and you feel tired all the time,you’ll get lazy,and cranky,you’ll feel stressed and tense,angery and jealous–all because you didn’t work up a good sweat. You spent so much time doing nothing that your body is no longer able to do anything. Or to put it another way–the more time you spend sitting on your bum,the bigger it’s gonna get. If you wany more energy,you need to use the energy you already have. Your body can not make more energy until the energy you already have has been used up first,and the faster you use up your energy the faster your body will make more. The more energy you use the more energy you create. The result is,the longer and harder you work,the longer and harder you can play–and best of all you will soon discover that all that stress,anger,and frustration that you once had,will have dissapeared and been replaced with contentment, peace,and joy. You will be so full of joy that you won’t be able to just dance after work or during celebrations anymore,but you will find yourself danceing and singing as you work,and the more you work the more you will want to sing and dance,and the happier you will be.

 

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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Tithes and Offerings:Do Witches Pay Tithing?

Tithes and Offerings:

Do Witches Pay Tithing?

Ihave heard it said,that one of the best things about being a Witch/Wicca/ect. is that you can belong to a relogious group without being asked to pay money if the form of tithes,offerings,or love gifts. Now this may be true to some extent,for as far as I know there isn’t a “Wicca/Witch Church” out there that does ask for it’s members to pay tithing,although I have heard of some that require “yearly member’s fees”. I have often thought that if more people know that it was “free” to go to a “Witch’s Church” that nearly every church goer under the sun would be flocking to get in. But while everyone complains about the giving of money-how few ever actuly did give money to a church anyways? The problem with paying tithing,is not that people don’t like to give money to their church,so much as it is that they feel that the church is not useing the money properly after it gets it.

You are probably wondering why I have even brought up the topic of tithing at all. After all,I did just say earlier that Witchcraft was not a religion ,but rather a way of life,didn’t I? And to the minds of most people tithing is a “religious” thing right? Well,maybe that is what the Christian Churches would have you to believe but,the Christians didn’t start the practice to begine with so ,why should we be asking them for advise on something that they stole from someone else?

What does it mean to pay your tithes? Many people wonder about this,but most don’t bother to  find out about the origins of “paying tithing”,they instead prefere to believe whatever their pastor/ bishop/ preacher/preist/prophet tells them that tithing means.Unfortunatly,what modern Christian churches interpret tithing to mean is this: give 10% of all your money to us (the church and it’s leaders) and we will distibute it to were the need is greatest. In most churches,it would seem that the need is greatest in the local pastor’s pockets. The most shocking part of it,is that they even claim that this is what Jesus wants people to do!!! But is that what Jesus really said? No,quite the contrary. Jesus quoted the ancient Hebrew prophet Jacob (who later changed his name to Isreal). Now,let’s find out about Jacob Isreal,and what he had to say about paying tithing. Your in for a bit of a history lesson here,so let’s get on with it:

Young Jacob was not a very good man. If fact he was a very,very wicked man. He was a liar and a thief,a cheat,a sneek,and one hell of a fast talking scam artist. People didn’t like Jacob,people hated him,his own father disinherited him,and his twin brother sought to kill him; only his mother,Rebecka,ever stood up for him,regardless of his crimes. Than came the day when he tricked his blind father,Issac son of Abraham, into cheating Jacob’s twin brother,Esua,out of all of his inheritance,and had to flee for his life. Jacob was forced to escape into the only place where no one,including Esua,dared to follow him: the desolated wilderness of mile after mile of the hot,dry,burning Sahara Desert. He was lost and alone in a strange place,certain to die from heat,exhation,or thirst and was about to give up on life entirly,when one night he saw a vision of many winged spirit beings climbing and dessending on a great ladder that went higher up into the clouds than he could see. He saw that these winged angles were messangers sent by God to help the peoples of the earth and that each and every person had a special spirit being or gaurdian angle,to guide and protect them,that everyone was carfully watched over by God,that He forgot about no one-not even the animals, and that God loved everyone-even sinners worse than Jacob,and would forgive them of all of their sins if they would turn away from their life of evil,and strive to help those around them. Jacob was instantly filled with great joy,and began to praise and thank the Lord for forgiving him of his sins against his brother, Esua. Jacob declaired that from that day forth he would serve the Lord. To prove that he had given up his old ways of life he changed his name to Isreal and pleadged that he would give one tenth of all that he owned to the poor, the widowed,the fatherless,the sick, the orphanged,the crippled,the homeless,and all those who were unable to work and care for themselves. He spent the rest of his life serving God and helping others.Jacob/Isreal went on to become the most famouse of all the Jewish (ancient Hebrew) prophets;and was so highly respected by the Jewish people that they changed the name of the Land of Judeah (Jerusalem) to the Land of Isreal and began to call themselves the Isrealites.    

The Isrealite people followed Jacob Isreal’s example and once every seven days they took one tenth of all that they owned and distributed it amoung the poor and sick,etc. You must remember that the Isrealites were a very primitve normadic group of tent dwelling,travleing sheep farmers and that this was a time when very few people had money–most had never even heard of the concept of useing money–as they had not yet moved to Egypt,which is were they would learn of such things. When the people tithed all that they had, that is exactly what they did: If a man had ten cows,he took one and gave it to the widow next door. If a house wife sewed ten robes,she took one and gave it to the begger on the street.

The offering of tithes was done in segments of seven: once every seven days was for the smaller everyday things that could easily be given such as candles,clothen,small livestock,and food; once every seven months for the larger things such as beasts of burden,ox carts,and lumber; once every seven years for things that were really rare or hard to come by,such as perfums,gemstones,gold,coinage (money),and jewelery. This “seventh tithe” was aslo done in harvesting: every farmer had crops in sevens. A vineyard would have seven hundred acers of grapes,when harvest time came the husbandmen (harvesters) would pick only six hundred acres,leaveing the hundred acres closest to the village unharvested,so that the homeless,beggers,widowed,sick,and orphaned could come and pick food when ever they got hungry. This allowed the homeless to get food,while still seeing to it that “every man worked for his share”,or “no one got food without working for it”. Doing this ensured that those who really needed the food would come and harvest it themselves,while the lazy people-who were beggers meerly because they didn’t want to work -were not given food to promote them to be even more lazy.

You will notice that Jacob Isreal pleadged that he would give one tenth of all that he owned to the poor, the widowed,the fatherless,the sick, the orphanged,the crippled,the homeless,and all those who were unable to work and care for themselves and that he said nothing of giving money to preists,pastors,churches,or any other religiouse leadership. He did say to give to those who were unable to work,not those who were perfectly healthy,but lazy and unwilling to work,such as most of the world’s heathly strong bodied,perfectly able to work preachers,preists,pastors,and other religious leaders. And that,my friends,is the true meaning of tithing– to give one tenth of all that you own to those less fortunate then yourself. No matter how poor,sick,or missfortunate you may be,there is always somebody somewhere who is worse off than you and needs your help,and it is our duty as human beings (not as Christians-but as actual real live human beings) to seek out and help those who are worse off then ourselves-and that is what Jacob Isreal intended when he said that all men should pay a tithe to the Lord. It was his intention that by helping mankind,you teach them about God’s love for them,by your example,thus when you give 10% of your belongins to others,you show your Creator that you are willing to sacrifice your own material wealth,for the betterment of mankind.

So if Jacob Isreal started the tradition of giving tithes,but he didn’t start the tradition of giving money to churches,who did? When did giving a tenth of all that you own to the poor,change into giving 10% of your money to a church? Where does the giving of  ten percent of your money to your pastor or church come in? Well,the concept of giving money to a church official came about six to seven hurdred years after the death of Jacob Isreal,and was started by the adopted son of the Egyptian Queen Hapsheesupt-the Hebrew born Egyptian Prince/High Priest (Wizard,Magi,or Wiseman) later turned Hebrew Prophet-Moses-the same man who wrote the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses,and formed what is today known as The Twelve Tribes of Isreal (named after the twelve sons of Jacob Isreal).

Now before we find out how Moses changed the paying of tithes,we must first find out,what it is that happened,to inspire him to take such drastic measures,and change the laws of the Isrealites. And here the history lesson continues:

First let’s look at the changes that had taken place,since that night in the desert,when Jacob saw the ladder leading into heaven. Jacob Isreal had had twelve sons and many daughters (exact of girls number is unkown,but some histories speculate that Jacob may have had over fifty children-while only twelve where known to be sons,there are records of many more daughters who where not named and most likely sold while younger than teenagers as slave wives to travleing merchents–this was a common practice amoung the anceint Hebrews who veiwed daughters as a means of income–a good prime virgin{a girl aged ten to sixteen}would sell for several hundred head of cattle. Multple wives was a common practice to insure that a lot of saleble girls would be born to increase the local patriarch’s wealth. The killing of all male children after the birth of the first son,was also a common practice amoung the ancient Hebrew,this ensured that all of the patriarch’s wealth went to just one son. If a wife protested and younger sons did survive,they were disinherited by the father,and called son of the mother{this means bastard son or son without a father,and was considered to be such a shamful discrase that only one “son of a mother” was ever listed in the Bible: Jesus son of Mary}and recieved no suport/inheritance from the father after he died. This practice lead to contless murders–brothers killing brothers–and it was just plain easier to kill all baby boys born after the first son. Remember how Jacob had to flee for his life,after he cheated his older twin brother,Esua,out of his inheritance? This was a common thing in those days.).

Jacob Isreal had four wives who were named (there where probaly many more,but these four where the only ones to give birth to sons,and thus were the only wives considered to be worth anthing.) Jacob Isreal, was unusual in those days in that,he married for love. A barren/childless wife was a poor wife, who lived a life of misery–unloved,beaten,ridiculed,and was often tortured,and eventualy sold into slavery–Jacob Isreal’s favorite wife,Rachel the Beloved,however,had no children. Jacob Isreal veiwed Rachel as his only wife,calling all of the others concumbines (meer disposiable slave wives,whose only purose in life was to generate an income by giving birth to lots of saleable daughters.) Jacob Isreal was the wealthiest man in Judea and loudly,publicly,and vocaly mourned that his inheritance would fall into the hands of the son of a concumbine-he had ten grown sons,but none by Rachel,and he made very sure that they all knew that they were unloved and unwanted,because Rachel was not their mother. Many years past and Jacob was an old man when Rachel gave birth to her first child,Joseph. A few years later she died giving birth to her second child Benjamin. Jacob Isreal was distrut over Rachel’s death,but over joyed that his inheritance wouldn’t be wasted on the worthless sons of a concumbine. Joseph was treated like a prince-he never worked in the feilds-like his brothers had to do,he was taught to read and write-something his brothers had never been allowed to do,he wore fancy robes of many brilliant colors-his brothers wore rags that had been cast aside by the servants; the ten older brothers were outraged with jealousy and when Joseph was about twelve years old, his brothers tricked him into joining them at the town well,were they knew a caravan was coming to the village in search of young virgins to buy as slave wives. The brothers took Joseph’s bright colored robes and soaked them in goat’s blood,then dressed Joseph in rags and sold him to the caravan as a runaway slave boy. They then took the blood stained clothes to their father,telling him that they had found Joseph dead. Jacob Isreal mourned the death of Joesheph for many years,and then turned all of his attention to Rachel’s other son Benjamin,continueing to ignore the other ten sons,as he had always done..

(For those of you who don’t like the Bible,you should keep in mind that all traditions of all forms of Witchcraft trace their roots back to Africa and it’s largest and most famous tribe: the ancient Egyptians. Remember that Egypt is part of Africa,and that the Voodoo religion is based largely on the belifes of the ancient Egyptians,as interpreted by the tribes of southern Africa–and that all other forms of Witchcraft are based on the traditions of the ancient Voodoo religion. Voodoo is in fact the world’s oldest religion,and predates Moses by nearly 6,000 years. The story of Joseph is well worth studing,because without him,Witchcraft and Voodooism may never have left Egypt and would have been lost forever during the Roman invasions.–Both Joseph and Moses were AlKeems {highest ranking of all Voodoo high priests/Hougans.}). 

Joseph in the meantime was sold to a wealthy Egyptian,as a house slave. Joseph had the gift of being a natural born soothsayer-(an interpter of dreams) . In Egypt magi,wizards,wisemen,and soothsayers were highly respected and well payed. By the time he was a young man Joseph gained the trust of many Egyptians leaders as a speaker for the Lord of Dreams,and was eventualy hired by the Pharoh himself as the Chief of all the High Preists of Egypt (he was an AlKeem-a rare honor-a title given only in extrodinarily rare instances to the most fearful and powergful of high preists,it is so rare that only a handful of AlKeems have ever existed,and none has been known to exist in hundreds of years). He was second in command to the Pharoh himself. Before long a great famine-seven years without rain-stuck over all of Northern Africa, the Mediteranian,and Europe-millions of people died,panic drove people mad,mass murders,human sacrifice,and and for the first time in history,canabalism became popular. The primitive and savage anceint Hebrews found a new use for their countless daughters–the caravans had stopped trading cows for girls-with the famine men couldn’t afford to feed themselves,let alone buy an extre slave wife to feed. Food was desperatly needed so,cows became more valuable than virgins,as a result this extreem starvation,the sale of “freshly killed virgins” begame a new source of income for the Hebrew tribes. Hebrew preists and patriarchs began to practice———-(removing the intestines of still alive virgins and using them to predict the future and foretell when the famine would end). In the midst of all this bloody chaos Jacob Isreal heard a rumor that the famine,for some odd reason,had not hit in Egypt and sent his ten grown sons to buy food from the Egyptians,in order to save his daughters from being sacrificed by the half crazed,panic sticken people.

While in Egypt the ten oldest sons were reunited with their brother Joseph-who as it turned out,was the man that they had to go to,to ask for food. Joseph seeing the effects the famine had had on his brothers,went to the Pharoh and asked permission that his people be allowed to come and get food from Egypt. Soon, Jacob Isreal and his family went to Egypt,to live in the house of Pharoh with Joseph. Unfortunatly,they where followed to Egypt by their entire village,who in turn was soon followed by neighboring villages,each of whom were also followed by even more neighboring villages,and so on and so on…….Until, hundreds of thousands of Hebrews had invaded Eygpt-and soon there was not enongh food for anyone.

Now the Jewish people of today,like to weep and wale and moan and groan about,their ancestors’ days of slavery in Eygpt. They retell Moses’s tale of how evil the Egyptian were,over and over and over again, without ever once,studying Egypt’s ancient records,and their version of the story.

Egypt never was a very large country,it was actually quit a small country-very wealthy,but very small. In fact,with the lone exception of Moses’s Old Testament stories,there was no proof that the ancient Egyptians, even realy existed at all,until the mid-1700’s when a great sand storm swept across the Sahara Desert an uncovered the pyramids and the Sphinx. The Egyptian were a relativly peaceful tribe of farmers,they kept to themselves,tilled their lands,wrote their books,practiced their religion,and welcomes peoples of all cultures to come and live freely–it is known that Egypt had Pharohs of white,black,and oreintal races,in addition to those of Egyptian birth. 

The anceint Hebrews,on the otherhand,were a warrior race,famous for overthrowing,murdering,and vanquishing every land they moved into. The Hebrews had no native land of their own,where they originally came from is not known,they lived much like the Vicking tribes,waundering amlessly and plundering,robbing,and murdering every village they came too. Humane sacrifes and raiseing children as food were common practices amoung the savage Hebrew tribe. Wherever they went they brought death and destruction with them. 

Joesph was Hebrew,but he grow up amoung the peaceful Egyptians and had not lived amoung his native peoples long enough to be influence by their evil,murderous ways. Joeseph loved he’s father,and the Egyptian people loved Joeseph,so Joesph’s family was alowed to come to Egypt. But Jacob Isreal was the Herbrew patriach–to the Hebrews this was the equivalent of a king,so where Jacob Isreal went-the entire Hebrw nation followed. The Hebrew warlords had already desolated all of Egypts neighbors,and Egypt had only been protected thus far because the Hebrews hadn’t wanted to risk crossing the Sahara Desert-and now here they were,coming in droves to the land of Egypt. Fear struck into the hearts of the Egyptian people and drastic changes began to be seen. The Greeks in Egypt begane prepairing for war,building chariots and weapons–the Greeks had already been attacked by the Hebrews befor-they knew what was coming. The Egyptian peoples begane to folloe the Greeks example-and for the first time in history-the Egyptian prepaired for war.

Seven more years pst-foreteen in all,and the famine left the world and with it,all the nations that had sought shelter in Egypt went home. The Greeks went back to Greece,the Persians went back to Persia,the Asians went back to Assiria,but the Hebrews,were normads-they had no home of their own to go back to,and even if they had,why should they? Life was free and easy in Egypt-they didn’t have to work for their food anymore,what with all those good hard working Egyptian farmers working away on the shores of the Nile-why leave? Joesph married an Egiptian girl and lived about another forty years,and all the while his people,did noting,but get fat and lazy living off of the Egyptians. The Egyptians and their respect for Joesph made life easy for the Herbrews. The  Hebrews got out of shape and out of practice,and than somthing unexspected happened-Joesph died! After the death of Joseph the Egyptian people begged the Pharoh to get rid of the Hebrew swatters before they enialated the Egyptian race just as they had done every other race they moved in with. The Pharoh requested that the Hebrews leave peacfuly and go back home,but as usual the Hebrews proclaimed that they had no home land,that they were nomads and that they preferred Eygpt to any place else,ans refused to leave. The Pharoh,still respected Joesph,and the people stayed,but than the Pharoh deid,and a new Pharoh took his place,and the new Pharoh did not like Joesph. The new Pharoh had been for several years now ammasing a large army,of Greecian desinge. Although great warriors,the Hebrews had no organized military-Egypt’s new found military easily gathered up the Herbews and forced them into slavery. Because of the Hebrews poligamist lifestyle,and their tendancy to breed like rabbits,the Egyptians made it manditory to kill all male children born to the Hebrew slaves-they didn’t have to worry about the girls-the Hebrews cannabalism kept them well under control-but if they didn’t kill the boys the,there would have been no end to Hebrews in Egypt.

This bloody reing osf slavery and mass abortion lasted until the reinge of His Royal Magesty Queen Hapshesupt,Egypt’s only female Pharoh-she was the woman who found a Hebrew baby boy that had been hinden in a basket in the reeds of the Nile River,and adopted him,nameing him Moses. Hepshesupt put an end to the violence and the killing of Hebrews,she lived peacfully with all peoples of all races,just as the Pharoh of Joesphs time,but her reign did not last long,and her warrior son ??????soon became the next Pharoh-and ruled in a far from peacful, bloody reign. It was during this time that Moses fleed Egypt to Mt.Siani.??????? died in battle and the boy king Antukukamin(King Tut) took the throne at nine years old.

When King Tut’s was about fifteen years old,Moses returned to Egypt demanding the freedom of the Hebrew slaves. Moses had been raised in the royal palace as an Egyptian High Preist-after leaving Egypt,he lived amoung the black Ethiopian Voodoo tribes learning of their ways and traditions .Moses had the first interacial marriage recorded in written history,as he married the cheifs daughter,Zeephoora. Moses left Egupt a high preist,but retunred a powerful Voodoo wizard. Upon learning that Eygypt had crowned a child it’s new Pharoh,Moses quickly returned the Egypt. The Ten Plauges of Egypt were an attempt to frighten a small child who had only just recently been crowned Pharoh. It was the final “plauge” the death of Tut’s newborn daughter(only a few days old),that frightened the small boy into releasing the Hebrew slaves.And Moses lead the people out of Egypt.

Now you are probably woundering what any of this history lesson has to do with paying tithing-well a lot actually. The Hebrews had lived in Egypt about four to six hundred years,most of them had stopped calling themselves Isrealites,cannableism was widely practiced,human sacrifce of virgin daughters was a common ritual practiced by “every good Hebrew patriach”as their sacred duty,they all worshipped stautes and idols,and none of them belived that a Great Spirit esited at all. Moses,his brother Arron,and his freind Joshua where all apaulded by the lifestyle of the Hebrew peoples. Moses had grown up in the royal palace of Egypt,during a time when Ra (the One God who lived in the sun and was God over all gods) was worshipped,and all other gods and dieties had been abolished in Egypt. After leaving Egypt,Moses than lived with a Voodoo tribe,that believed in Dabanala-the Great Loa (the One God over all gods) who had power over snakes. (as you study ancient African religions you will find that belief in “the One God”,or  the “God over all gods” to be very common,lesser gods are actualy veiwed as similar to angles and not often worshipped). 

Moses grew up believeing in “One God”,but this was not a common concept amoung the Hebrews,who were mostly worrshippers of Baal,a Persian deity,that involved multiple deity worship. Like Moses,Jacob Isreal,had believed in one god,and Moses set out to restore the peacful teachings of Jacob Isreal. Moses told the people,not to call themselves Hebrews anymore-that they were to remember the teachings of the great prophet Isreal,and return to following after him and calling themselves Isrealites again. But unfortunatly,no one could remember who Isreal was or even how they had come to live in Egypt,so Moses wrote done the history of the Isrealites for Arron to read to the people. his history connsited of the boooks that are today called: Gennisis,Exodus,Leviticus,Deterunomy,and Numbers-the first five books of the Bible. Moses also wrote the Ten Commandments and the Laws of Moses,he set up a new government(the first real government the Hebrews had ever had),he abolished human sacrifice and cannableism, and the killing of babies (infantacid and abortion were very popular amoung the Hebrews).

Because it was a very difficult task of changing an entire culture,they went along with most things,but the people refused to give up the sacrifice of pure virgins. What had started as a means of food and income had grown to become a form of worship-the Hebrew people said that if the God of Moses didn’t require a blood sacrifice than He wasn’t a real God at all-and they refused to worship a god that did not require blood. So Moses devised a way for the people to believe that his God was realy God by telling them that sacrifice was okay,but not human sacrafice-instead animal sacrifice was required. So the people were happy-they could indulgd in their blood lust and still believe in the God of Moses. The people of Moses’ day never did really believe that the God of Moses was God,but they were content to live under Moses’ rule and obeyed him. 

However,more problems continued to arise….Egypt was a highly spiritual religious culture-the only race at that time to worrship deitys in buildings (temples,synagogs,churches,etc.) While liveing in Egypt the Hebrews had adopted the practice of worshipping gods inside of  a building,and told Moses that if his God was God,than why didn’t He require the people to worrship Him in a building? Where were they going to kill their virgins? Where were they going to burn their Egyptian candles and Eygptian incesss that they had brought with them? Poor Moses-here he was,out in the middle of the Sahara Desert with about four hundred thousand people,and all they can think about is “How soon are you going to build a place for use to murder our daughters?”. This is why they had to stop and wait while (forty years to be exact) while he sat on the top of Mt. Siani and wrote up his laws–he had to put an end to human sacrifice once and for all. Thus the Ten Commandments were written,and before long Moses began building a Tabernacle simalar to the ones he had once worked in Eygpt when he had been a high preist. Now this is important: Egyptian temples were gold plated,Egyptian preist were luxuriante silk robes,fur shawls,and lots of gold jewalry heavily laden with turqise,peridots,rubies,and other prescioue gems. All of this splendor and finery was paid for by the Egyptian people who came to the temple to worrship and left great piles of food,textiles,and gold to thank Ra for blessing them.Unfortunatly in the Sahara Desert,Moses didn’t have the treasures of Egypt to pay his temple workers. Egyptian temple workers were amoung the wealthiest people in the world. How was Moses going to convince the people that the Tabernacle was really a place of worship if the building wasn’t gold plated and the preist robed in silks and jewels? The people were already threatening to desert him and go back to Egypt,their pampered lives in Egypt was a constant memory (It makes you wounder just how the Hebrew slaves were really treated in Egypt,when you realize that they missed eating cucmbers and flesh and sleeping in beds-slaves in Egypt ate moldy bread,maggot filled beans,and sewer water,and they slept outside on the sand-If they were really slaves why were they eating good food and sleeping in beds?) Poor Moses,what was he suppose to do?He did the only logical thing he could do…He taxed the people to make wealthy-looking preists in a wealthy looking building. Now the Hebrews,lazy swatters that they were had no intention of paying taxes to Moses,however,paying a tenth of their riches to the temple preists-that was another matter. (If they really had been slaves in Egypt,where did they get all of their wealth?) The people gladly turned over one tenth of their money to build a gold plated Tabernacle and provide silk robes and heavy jewels for the preists. But they complained when they had to give a tenth of their food to a widow or an orphan. So Moses,reluctantly agreed that it was all right to stop giving a tenth of all that they owned to the poor and instead give a tenth of all their money to the preists to provide for them to sit back and live in the lap of luxery,without ever haveing to lift a finger.

And that’s how paying tithing to churches,preists,and ministers began. Not at all what Jacob Isreal intended six hundred years earlier when he asked people to give a tenth of all that they owned to those less fortunate than themselves in order to show people God’s love though example.This is what Jesus ment when he said that the Law of Moses was fullfilled: it had served it’s purpose,it had stopped the Hebrews from murdering their daughters,it had stopped them from worshipping statues,it had given them the desire to give a ten percent tithe-even if it was for the wrong reason-and the Law of Moses was no longer needed. Jesus tryed to tell people this but,not many listened to him,and the few that did listen got it all mixed up. When they questioned him he told them that if you love God than you treat every one as though they were your brothers and sisters and help them. He,like Jacob Isreal,told the people that when you cloth the begger it’s like you were given the clothes to God,when you feed the hungery it’s like you are giving your food to God,when you care for the sick it’s as though God was sick and you took care of Him-that is Jesus’s concept of tithing–and when asked about giving money,he said-give unto Ceaser that which is Ceaser’s and unto God that which is God’s–in other words money was to be used to pay your taxes to the government,what use has God for money? He also said give your alms (Greek word for money-remember, Jesus spoke Greek-not Hebrew) to the poor,the widowed,the hungery,the orphaned,the fatherless,the sick, the homless,and to the Levites who work in the temple,because none of these can work for alms to provide for themselves.You will notice that the only church official Jesus mentioned was “the Levite who worked in the temple”.The Levite(only one man in the entire world at any one time) was the guard who sat at the door to the inner room in the temple,to make sure that no one entered in to look at the Ark of the Covenant-the gold box that Moses had built to hold the two tablets on which he wrote the Ten Commmandments. The Levite started his job early-at just three years old he went to live in the temple,never setting foot outside again for the rest of his entire life. When the old Levite died the young one would replace him and a new three year old boy would be brought to the temple–this had been done ever since Moses’ day. The Levite relyed on the generousaty of the people for his survival–it was common for Levites to starve to death–he wasn’t even allowed to feed himself–he had to be feed by the preists. If the Levite got up from his seat he would be stoned to death by the preists-who veiwed the Levites movement as a sin against God .The Levite was the only church official that Jesus veiwed as unable to work to provide for himself and in Jesus’s oppinion was the only church officail that people needed to give a tithe to. It was Jesus’s oppinion that all other church officails were pefectly capable of getting a job,breaking a sweat,and working with their own two hands to provide for themselves and their family,rather than swatting money out of the church goers under the guise of “paying tithes”.

So,do Witches pay tithing? Yes,in the true sence of the word,they do. Witches help the sick,Witches help the poor,Witches help the homeless,Witches are known for giving money to children’s and anilmal charities,for giving food to homeless shelters and soup kitchens-that was Jacob Isreal’s defenition of tithing,and that was Jesus’s definition of tithing,so yes Witches do and should pay tithing,by giveing one tenth of all that they own to those less fortunate than themselves. If we all did this-than there would be no poor,no hungry,no homeless-as you can see we are far from this goal.We have a lot of work to do.  

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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Candles:

      Candles:    

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   Candles are used almost universaly by almost all Witches in all forms,as well as by many reiligouse groups of varying faiths,all around the world.Candles are used by some Witches,when casting spells so that the spell,charm,curse, hex,etc.will “travel” with the smoke from the candle empowered by the fragrant incesne either to the Great Spirit who sends it to the recipent,or to the recipeant directly without the help of any spirits.This method was first used by the ancient Egyptians,but it was later made popular by the Hebrew Old Testament Prophets who believed that God was not able to answer prayers that were sent without the help of candles and incense.(This is part of the Law of Moses–keep in mind that Moses was an Egyptian Preist for many years before returning to the ways of his Hebrew ansectors,many of his teachings which were supposidly commanded by God suspisioly mirror those that had been used by the anceint Eygptian Preists,Wizards, and Wiseman for thousands of years before Moses was born in Egypt or ever talked to God. It is questionable that the Law of Moses is anything more than what it says it is–laws written by Moses,and heavily influenced both by his life in Egypt and by his visions on Mt.Siani.. Other times candles are used to promote visions,enhanced by the strong heady fragrance of the candle smoke–this is especially true of candles that were made by mixing halucinagitic herbs with the wax. Sometimes candles are used for symbolic reasons such as: four candles to represent the four seasons or maybe there are four people who will be affected by the spell; or an orange scented orange colored candle is used when oranges (the fruit) are called for in the spell,but are out of season or for some other reason not available.

   Candles can be used in nearly every spell or healing session for nearly every reason.They are considered to be very powerful and can be used to enhance any ritual. They can also be used as a “ritual” on their own.

Candles can be used for one or more of the following purposes: 

           

            #1.) Burn fragranced/scented/air freshoner candles as an inexpensive alternative/substitute for essential oils and incense sticks.(see *Fragrances,etc)  

            #2.) Burn colored candles to promote the atmospher/qualities/moods that the candle’s color represents.(see *Colors)       

            #3.) Burn shaped/sculpted candles,shaped to represent whatever object is nessacery to accomplish your purpose.(see *Animals or *Symbols,etc.)    

            #4.) Burn any candle (plain,scented,colored,or shaped) whenever the addition of the fire element is needed.(a few Witches also use candles to represent the air/wind elemant)

                    *For more information on the meanings of various shapes,colors,fragrances,ect.,please see the following lists:                    

                                                                 Animals

                                                                 Colors

                                                                 Flowers

                                                                 Fragrances and Incense

                                                                 Symbols,Patterns,and Objects

        In the Chapter “Magic Spells and Hexes” you will find a complete list on reasons for casting spells,along with variouse items that can be used for each particular spell. Included in that list are the colors and aromatheropy/ fragrances that can be used with each spell. When incorperating candles into the spell,use a candle that is one of the recomended colors for that spell and is scented with one of the fragrances listed for that spell. You can buy colored and scented candles to match your spell,or you can buy unscented colored candles and annoint then with esssential oils,or if you have the time,space,and equiptment,you can make your own candles and color and scent them in any combination you want. There are many combinations that you can use. Here are some examples to help get you started. After trying these you can expirament with your own combinations too;try mixing and matching various colors and scents to compliment your spells,remadies,visualisations,and rituals. If you can’t find a colored candle that also has the correct fragrance,you can do one of two things:First,you can start from scratch boil,melt,and create your own colored and scented candles-many Witches do this exclusivly-they would never even think of useing a store bought candle,however this is not always practical and supplies can be quite expensive. Secondly,you can buy small colored,but unscented votive candles and “annoint” them with the desired essential oil-this is what most Witches today do. Remember to always write done in your Grimoire,everything you do,when you did it,how you did it,why you did it,what you used,and what the finial results were. Later you may want to repeat this same spell or you may want to share it with another Witch,and you won’t be able to rely on your memory to remember it totaly correctly,so make sure you write things down as you do them.

This is a list of common candle color and fragrance combinations that are used by many Witches,and that you may find useful yourself:

Color/Fragrance:     

Red/Apple:

Red/Bayberry:

Red/Cherry:

Red/Clove:

Red/Cranberry:

Red/Geranium:

Red/Frankincense:

Red/Hollyberry:

Red/Mixed Fruit:

Red/Patchouli:

Red/Peppermint:

Red/Pomergranet:

Red/Raspberry:

Red/Rose:

Red/Sandlewood:

Red/Strawberry:

Red/Tulip:

Red-Brown/Apple Cider:

Red-Bromn/Apple Pie:

Red-Brown/Sandlewood:

Red-Brown/Teakwood:

Orange/Apricot:

Orange/Frankincense:

Orange/Necterine:

Orange/Orange:

Orange/Patchouli:

Orange/Peach:

Orange/Pumpkin and spice:

Orange/Sandlewood: Use to promote inspiration

Orange/Tangerine:

Orange/Tiger Lily:

Orange-Brown/Ginger:

Orange-Brown/Sandlewood:

Yellow-Orange/Cantalope Melon:

Yellow-Orange/Frankincense:

Yellow-Orange/Mango:

Yellow-Orange/Patchouli:

Yellow-Orange/Sandlewood:

Yellow/Banana:

Yellow/Butter:

Yellow/Chamomile:

Yellow/Daffodil:

Yellow/Frankincense:

Yellow/Honey:

Yellow/Honeysuckle:

Yellow/Jasymine:

Yellow/Lemon:

Yellow/Lemon Balm:

Yellow/Pineapple:

Yellow/Sandlewood:

Yellow/Sunflower:

Yellow/Tulip:

Yellow-Green/Citrus:

Yellow-Green/Pear:

Yellow-Brown/Sandlewood:

Yellow-Brown/Spiced Pear:

Green/Apple:

Green/Balsam Fir:

Green/Basil:

Green/Bayberry:

Green/Lime:

Green/Mistletoe:

Green/Mint:

Green/Peppermint:

Green/Pine:

Green/Sour Grape:

Green/Spearamint:

PaleGreen/Cucumber:

PaleGreen/Melon(Honeydew):

PaleGreen/Mint:

PaleGreen/Patchouli:

Olive Green/Fennel:

Olive Green/Green Tea:

Olive Green/Olive Oil:

Grey-Green/Sage:

Dark Blue/Blueberry:

Dark Blue/Frankincense:

Dark Blue/Lemon:

Blue/Blueberry:

Blue/Lavender:

Blue/Patchouli:

Blue/Raspberry:

Pale/Sky Blue/Baby Powder:

Pale/Sky Blue/Chamomile:

Pale/Sky Blue/Frankincense:

Pale/Sky Blue/Hydrangea :

Pale/Sky Blue/Lavender:

Pale/Sky Blue/Lemon:

Pale/Sky Blue/Myrrh:

Pale/Sky Blue/ “ocean breeze or mist”:

Pale/Sky Blue/Peppermint :

Pale/Sky Blue/Vanilla: Use for relaxation,relieving stress

Grey Blue/Rainstorm:

Purple/Blackberry:

Purple/Frankincense:

Purple/Grape:

Purple/Iris:

Purple/Lavender:

Purple/Lilac:

Purple/Pansy:

Purple/Patchouli:

Purple/Plum:

Purple/Violet:

Pink/Apple Blossom:

Pink/Baby Powder:

Pink/Cherry Blossom:

Pink/Frankincense:

Pink/Freesia:

Pink/Geranium:

Pink/Grapfruit:

Pink/Guava:

Pink/Honeysuckle:

Pink/Lily:

Pink/Patchouli:

Pink/Peony:

Pink/Plum Blossom:

Pink/Raspberry:

Pink/Rose:

Pink/Sandlewood:

Pink/Stargazer Lily:

Pink/Strawberry:

Mauve/Frankincense:

Mauve/Geranium:

Mauve/Lavender:

Mauve/Lily:

Mauve/Magnolia:

Mauve/Patchouli:

Mauve/Peach:

Mauve/Raspberry:

Mauve/Rose:

Mauve/Sandlewood:

Mauve/Sweet Pea:

Brown/Allspice:

Brown/Anise:

Brown/Apple:

Brown/Banana:

Brown/Basil:

Brown/Brown Sugar:

Brown/Caramel:

Brown/Carnation:

Brown/Cedar:

Brown/Chamomile:

Brown/Cinnamon:

Brown/Cloves:

Brown/Cocoa(Chocolate):

Brown/Cocoa(Chocolate) and Peppermint:

Brown/Cranberry:

Brown/Fennel:

Brown/Frankincense:

Brown/Geranium:

Brown/Ginger:

Brown/Gingerbread:

Brown/Hazelnut:

Brown/Juniper:

Brown/Lavender:

Brown/Lemon Balm:

Brown/Musk:

Brown/Myrrh:

Brown/Nutmeg:

Brown/Patchouli:

Brown/Peacan:

Brown/Pine:

Brown/Raspberry:

Brown/Root Beer:

Brown/Rose:

Brown/Rosemary:

Brown/Rum:

Brown/Sage:

Brown/Sandlewood:

Brown/Sunflower:

Black/

Black/Blackberry:

Black/Frankincense:

Black/Licorice:

Black/Molassas:

Black/Patchouli:

Black/Pine:

Black/Sandlewood:

Cream/Allspice:

Cream/Apple:

Cream/Buttercream:

Cream/:

Cream/Chamomile:

Cream/:

Cream/Cookies:

Cream/Frankincense:

Cream/Gardinia:

Cream/Geranium:

Cream/:

Cream/Honeysuckle:

Cream/Jasmine:

Cream/Lavender:

Cream/Lemon:

Cream/Lemon Balm:

Cream/:

Cream/Musk:

Cream/Myrrh:

Cream/Orange:

Cream/Patchouli:

Cream/Peppermint:

Cream/Rose:

Cream/Sage:

Cream/Sandlewood:

Cream/Vanilla:

Cream/:

White/Baby’s Breath:

White/Baby Powder:

White/Chamomile :

White/Coconut:

White/Frankincense:

White/Gardienia:

Whitw/Geranium:

White/Honeysuckle:

White/”ice” or “snow”-a soft mint:

White/Lavender:

White/Lemon:

White/Lemon Balm:

White/Lily:

White/Lily of the Vally:

White/Milk :

White/Myrrh:

White/Orange Blossom :

White/Oriental Lily :

White/Peony:

White/Peppermint:

White/Rose:

White/Sage:

White/Sugar Cookie:

White/Vanilla:

Sliver/Sage:

Silver/Mint:

Silver/Rose:

Gold/Amber:

Gold/Fennel:

Gold/Frankincess:

Gold/Myhrr:

Gold/Patchouli:

Gold/Rose:

Gold/Sandlewood:

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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