Two little interesting blips from the somewhat vanilla KansasCity.com site:
The first is a seemingly simple Q&A regarding the tenets and practices of wicca. It reads like other over-generalized PR fluff, but veers into steamy venues when the discussion ventures into open relationships. So, we go from this:
Q: Do witches worship Satan?
A: No. We can’t worship Satan because Satan does not exist as a deity in Wicca. Satan exists in Christianity, as an anti-deity.
Which is just hogwash and reductive to the point of being useless. What do you mean “We can’t”? and “Satan does not exist?” Ugh….
But then we go to this:
Q: Is a Wiccan marriage understood from the outset to be an open marriage?
A: No. It is not understood to be open. It is not understood to be closed. It is understood that that is a private issue between the two people in the marriage.
Which is awesome, because it shows once again that, yes, we all secretly think wiccans are polyamorous, which aside from assumptions making asses out of u and me, is not A.) too far off the mark, and B.) necessary indicative of something “bad.”
But, you know what else is awesome? Exorcism.
Citing a shortage of priests who can perform the rite, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are holding a conference on how to conduct exorcisms.
The two-day training, which ends Saturday in Baltimore, is to outline the scriptural basis of evil, instruct clergy on evaluating whether a person is truly possessed, and review the prayers and rituals that comprise an exorcism.
Oh to be present at that convention! Not sure how other people feel about this, but to me, exorcism is one of the last remaining potentially valid (if done “correctly”) veil-splitting esoteric practices left in our J-C-I.
Signs of demonic possession accepted by the church include violent reaction to holy water or anything holy, speaking in a language the possessed person doesn’t know and abnormal displays of strength.
The full exorcism is held in private and includes sprinkling holy water, reciting Psalms, reading aloud from the Gospel, laying on of hands and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Some adaptations are allowed for different circumstances. The exorcist can invoke the Holy Spirit then blow in the face of the possessed person, trace the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead and command the devil to leave.
You got that right!
THESE NEW OLD TRADITIONS 