Does one have to attend Church (any denomination) to be a Christian Witch?

No. I don’t think do. I used to think you could not be Christian if you did not attend a Church each week, however, events in my life have opened my eyes to the fact that not every one in church is a Christian and not every Christian is in a church.

I was born a Mormon. I’ve been a Witch since 1979. For my entire life until March of 2003, I attended Church services without fail, every single one of them, which meant I was in Church on Sunday from 9AM till Noon, back again for a few hours in the evenings, back again for classes held on Tuesday nights, back again for classes held on Friday nights, and to every activity which average 3 to 4 four hour activities per month. All in all I spent roughly 2,000 hours a year in a Church building each year for 30 odd years.

Of course, my Grandmother, married into the family, and was one of the rare few non-Mormons in my family’s history. She was a Seventh Day Adventist and a Kickapoo Weather Witch. (She was a Kickapoo N.A.Indian, Animal Rights Activist, SDA extremist, and a Weather Witch). I spent approximately 6 hours a day with her, from the age of 8 till I turned 17 (the year she died). I learned much of what I do witch-wise from her. . . not her teaching me, but just me watching what she did.

I grew up in the LDS (Mormon) church. My family can trace our history all the way back to the beginning (Joesph Smith lived in Maine, before his family moved to Vermont, before they moved to New York (where he than found the gold plates, wrote the BoM, than founded the Church). When I say my family goes back to the beginning of the church, I mean the VERY beginning, BEFORE the church was founded. As such, my family has a long and sorted history with the church, and when they finally followed Smith/Young West, the rest of his followers got lumped into one group known as “The Mormon Trail”, while our family being what it was, got it’s own trail named for us: “The Atwater Trail”.

Generations of Atwaters have lived through everything in Mormon history, and ended up, becoming famous for being the strictest, most fundamental, dogma controlling family in the entire church. In areas of Utah and Maine where our family still lives, other Mormons are known to point out: “What out, there goes one of the Atwaters, they’re all crazy.” or when they see me they say “Stay away from her, she’s an Atwater, that ones a Witch you know, cross her and she’ll curse you. You’ll be dead in a week.”

You see, the Atwater family didn’t change when the Church did. The most extremist of us, are classified as Orthodox Saints by other Mormons or Mormon Christ-Pagans, by non-Mormons. I’ll explain:

For example a Mormon Christo-Pagan would be calling upon the help of Familiars (angels, faeries, spirits, God) and use seer stones (crystals), just as Joseph Smith himself had done. Like Emma Smith they use herbs and ritual chants to heal the sick. Like Smith and Young, they talk face to face with angels, Jesus, and God himself. They still use the Blessing Cloths of the Saints, just as the early Prophets of the Church did. In keeping with the pre-1979 teachings of the Church, they are farmers, living off the land, homeschooling their children, avoiding contact with Gentiles (all non-Mormons), women do not wear pants, many dress “Amish like”, do not cut their hair, and do not work in jobs outside the home, and the family keeps it’s 3 year supply well stocked. They are known as the Orthodox Latter Day Saints, living the Church’s rule to the letter as it was originally taught in the 1800’s, not as it evolved in modern times. (and yes there are polygamists in my currently living extended family as well, which explain how there can be 264 of us alive right now — and this includes one odd ball aunt who has 7 husbands — she’s a feminist and figured if the men could do it, so could she.) (On a personal note, I too am one of the odd balls of the family, I live the life of a “Catholic Nun” – virgin married to Christ, and therefor shun the practice of polygamy and the practice of sex altogether — other Mormons call me “The Jesus Freak”.)

The problem comes in when the Gentiles get baptized into the Church and bring with them their worldly sins and wicked ways, with their public schooled children, their short haired worldly women, their unbelief in physical communion with angels, their anti-Mormon ideas about using seer stones, crystals, herbs, and blessing cloths being of the devil, and their obsessions with growing wealthy, watching TV and eating meat.

As more and more of these unsaintly Gentiles got baptized into the Church, their ways started having more and more influence on the teachings of the church coming out of Salt Lake headquarters, until in 1979, the Prophet enacted countless changes, in order that the church laws would be better adapted to the lifestyles of the Gentiles joining the Church. More changes went into effect in 1983, and still more in 1997, and finally again in 2007 when they actually edited the BoM to be more politically correct!!!!

I’m old enough to remember the church before 1979. I grew up in the “Old Church” before the change, in a family that was still living the very old church ways. I grew up in the Church when it taught “Live in the world not of the world”, in a time when you could tell a Mormon on the streets from every one else, because they looked, dressed, acted, and talked VERY different from the rest of the world. It’s been 30 years since the change in the way Salt Lake Headquarters runs the Church, and now, even the former Gentiles are allowed to have leadership positions, resulting in ever more changes as each year goes by. The LDS Church is quickly, becoming a secular den of people who are no different from the rest of the world, except for a rare few who still hold on the the old ways. God does not change – people change. God did not change the lifestyle of the Saints – false doctrines of man did. Like so many churches before it, the LDS Church has strayed by the way side and fallen off the straight and narrow path, it once stood so proudly upon.

Those like myself old enough to have grown up in the Old Church, didn’t change with the new ways. They still believe in living the same way as the Smiths did: as self sufficient farmers in personal one on one communion with the Spirit world. We spend our time in spiritual pursuits, rather than rushing to college and work. Rather than trying to manipulate the world around us, we live at one with it. Unfortunately this causes problems. This causes problems because the New Converts prefer the ways of modern man over the old fashioned ways of God.

The New Converts (those members who joined the church after 1979) have their own set of modern ideals about what the Mormon Church “should be” rather than what is was as Smith created it. The New Converts are quick to call themselves “Mormons” rather than “Saints”, claiming that “No one call REALLY live the life of a Saint in this day and age.” They scoff at the old members who still call themselves “Saints” and still live the life style of a Saint. The New Convert Mormons point at the Old Member Saints and call them “Witches”, pointing out that they wear a style of clothes not seen in 200 years, that God Jesus and Angels no longer speak one on one to Church members, that using Seer Stones like Smith did is evil, that the ritual herb healings of Emma were a sham, and that being a self sufficient farmer with no TV is just plain dull and old fashioned. (Do they actually believe these thing? If so, why than did they join a church that teaches AGAINST what they believe? Why do they follow Smith if the things he did are thought to be so wicked and evil when done by others?)

When the finger of Witch gets pointed often enough at the same member over and over again, (as it did with me) it soon becomes a habit of all members in the Ward (what Mormons call church buildings) to single out “the Witch” and spend their time bullying, teasing, and tormenting them, until finally “The Witch” becomes an inactive member, leaving the Mormon Church, because it is no longer the church Smith started but is now a Den of Thieves. (at least that’s what happened to me.)Mormons are known for their vindictiveness towards members they claim to be Witches, and once the violence got out of hand and the police had to be called in to protect me and my immediate family from other members, I knew I no longer belonged in that church.

By doing the same things Smith did, as well as the same things done by Danial and Jaboc of the Old Testament and Jesus and the Maji of the New Testament, by dressing in garb no differeant than that worn by Jesus, I am accused of practicing Witchcraft and being a Witch and told that I have no business being in a Christian Church. Odd.

After leaving the Mormon Church, I joined a Pentecostal Church, but left after 3 years, due to the fact that they too, pointed the finger of Witchcraft at me.

After so many years of being accused of being a Witch, the “Witch” (me) now seeks out other so-called Witches and tries to join up with them, not really knowing what it is a Witch is. Unfortunately, this proves disastrous, as the other witches, are quick to point out that “The Witch” is not a Witch, but a damn Christian, with no business being a witch. And soon the bullying starts again, this time the “Witch” is now being cast out by the witches, for being “A Christian”.

Well, after that pint, I realized, I had to find out what exactly it is that a Witch actually is, and so, in 2005, I went to the library and took out 57 books (via inter library loan) about Witchcraft and read every single one of them cover to cover. (Scott Cunniham’s books were the ones I liked best.)

In the end, I realized, that yes, all these people accusing me of Witchcraft were correct, I was in fact a Witch, without ever realizing it. I also concluded that I was NOT a Wicca and had a bit of a distaste for “high ceremonial magic” rituals. I also realized that most of my style of Craft was very “Voodoo”, esp my rampant use of Jujus (Voodoo Dolls), medicine bags (gris-gris), calling up Familiars/Faeries/Angels/Saints (Icon Magick), and my dressing like most Mambas (Vodun High Priestesses).

By 2006, I came to accept the fact that I was in fact a Witch, and had been since the 1970’s (before 2006 if you called me a Witch, I would have told you I was not, because I did not realize the things I was doing was Witchcraft, at that time I had thought of Witches along the lines of “Bewitched” or “The Wizard of Oz”.) The problem now was, that though I was inf act practicing Witchcraft, I was still very much the outspoken “Jesus Freak”, which made me an outcast among other Witches, who were saying I was not a Witch because of my extreme devotion to Jesus.

By living the “I am a lily” lifestyle Jesus lived, by constantly quoteing his words as part of my daily conversation, by preaching openingly to follow Christ and obey his laws, by dressing in garb no differeant than that worn by Jesus, I am accussed of being a Jesus Freak, and told by witches as being too Christian to be a Witch and have no business practing Witchcraft. Again . . . odd.

And that in the end is what it means to me to be a Christo-Pagan: A person who is called a Witch by Christians, but a Christian by Witches. One who is too witchy to be a Christian, but too Christian to be a Witch. Thus it is not an organized religious group, but rather an umbrella title given to people who are called Witches by Christians, and called Christians by Witches, making them an outcast of both not truly accepted by either, and forced to stand on their own without any positive support from a group and no one willing to fellowship with them. And even if the Witch does have a desire to attend Church, it may not be safe to do so due to the prejudices of the Christians. Odd, isn’t that the way every one treated Jesus while he was alive too?

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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