P - Patriarchy, Policy, and Pissing off Witches #paganblogproject

I'm going to be ranting about Patriarchy (witch a capital Penis), but I want to make it very clear before I start that I absolutely love and adore men. The men in my life -- my father, partner, ex-husband, son, friends -- are all questioning, egalitarian, wonderful men. They are part of what is right in our culture -- striving towards (and achieving) true partnership with women, each one enacting his/her Will, manifesting the Star within.

It is perhaps my beautiful view of the very real men in my life that makes me so perplexed and enraged when I encounter vestiges of Patriarchy, chauvinism, and male dominance in the world around me. I don't understand it. It is outside of my experience, and it feels like a betrayal -- a regression from the principals and work of my mothers and fathers over the last few generations.

Yesterday, I received notification that the major selling venue through which we have hosted all of Blade & Broom's wares has changed their product policy regarding anything that makes a "medical drug claim." In short, no seller is allowed to make any claims that "link a product to the cure or treatment of a health condition or disease. Medical drug claims are prohibited."

Okay, fine. It's a restriction for everyone's protection. We just need to throw in some CYA-language, right? Nope. They go on to say:

"Please note that this includes any historical references to medical drug uses for a given item, even if such claims are no longer widely believed. Furthermore, the presence of a disclaimer that the item is not FDA approved, will not make a medical drug claim meet our criteria."

How do I sell a tea without saying what it does? How do I list an herb without saying how and why it is used? The same questions can be asked about gemstones for healing, or poppets, talismans, candles, or other blessed items.

I'm angry with this listing service. I really am. This feels like Western medicine dominating and regulating herbalism and alternative healing. We've been here before, my friends. Midwives were restricted from their practice, and then punished, and then persecuted ... and then killed for heresy and witchcraft.

Am I over-reacting? Maybe not. It's been brought home to me recently thought I lost my teaching career because I published under my legal name while teaching in a conservative state. I'll never teach in a public school again because I'm a Witch -- at least not in Indiana. My partner, Natalie, lost her librarian post because we're openly gay. (She took bereavement leave for my grandmother's funeral last month, and they fired her for "excessive absenteeism." It was the first time she's taken off in 8 months.) There's a price for being loud and proud, and Natalie and I have already been paying it. I don't feel like I'm crying "Wolf!" on this new policy change.

Fortune teller laws still keep psychics and Witchy businesses on the outskirts of town in many places. How archaic is that? We have to label what we do "for entertainment" despite the fact that it comes from faith or belief. Tell the Baptists to write "for entertainment purposes only" at the bottom of their church signs, if you're going to make us do it! Your prayer is only as valid as my magic!

I'm a raging, Libran Witch, my friends, with a sword in one hand and scales in the other. I think I'm about to get active.