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"Please note that this includes any historical references to medical drug uses for a given item, even if such claims are no longer widely believed.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.

J- Justice #paganblogproject

As a Libra woman, Justice is an ideal that is deeply embedded in my core values. I mean DEEPLY. Obnoxiously, sometimes.

Wait. I should back up and start from the beginning, perhaps. Why would Justice matter so much to a Libra, you ask?

The constellations of the zodiac have not always been  set exactly as they are now. Space is expanding, and the stars are moving, which means that those lovely pictures have shifted a bit on us over the millenia. Libra is the only sign of the zodiac that is represented by an inanimate object -- the scales. Before we pictured those scales as independent, we saw them in the hands of the Virgin (Virgo), whose name is Astraea (or Asteria -- the Starry One).Yeah, I've written about Asteria before. She's quite important to me, too -- both as a Libran and as an Aphrodisian.

Asteria wields something else, as well -- the Sword (although as Virgo, this is always identified as an ear of corn). She is the Lady Justice.

The Theoi.com entry on Astraea reveals that the Ancients regarded her as the daughter of Aphrodite, which makes good and logical sense, given Aphrodite's stellar associations. It also makes good and logical sense when we consider that Libra in "ruled by" the planet Venus and is therefore under Aphrodisian influences such as a deep need for beauty, grace, harmony and romance. Librans also sincerely require Justice -- at least, this one does.

My nose gets seriously off-kilter when I sense unfairness, even when it's in my favor. I might like to be pampered -- and I do -- but I can't abide that special treatment coming at someone else's expense. My need for equality and Justice is deep-rooted, and as it turns out, it is an Aphrodisian value.