From: lib1p@jane.uh.edu (Tammy Stark Blandino)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc,alt.pagan
Subject: Re: PAGAN, was You should be a Christian because (30 words max):
Date: 29 Dec 1992 12:45 CST
Organization: University of Houston
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: jane.uh.edu
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In article <1992Dec29.083237.3552@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com>, billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes...
>lib1p@jane.uh.edu (Tammy Stark Blandino) writes:
>> 
>> How do you explain those people with whom the craft has been passed down 
>> from generation to generation since before Gerald Gardener's birth?  I
>> know someone who is one of those people.  As a genealogist I can tell
>> you that even family stories hold keys and evidence to past events.  It
>> is a major lead to genealogical discovery.  All family stories have
>> elements of truth in them.  The trick is to seperate the facts from the
>> chaff.
> 
>There has been no documented evidence presented. All we have is claims
>by various people. If such traditions existed, you would assume that
>someone, somewhere, would have written something down. No such documents
>have ever been uncovered.

Yea right!  Like someone is going to write down something that could
get them killed.  Even today, If I go into the small towns that most of
my family live in here in Texas and admit that I am Pagan, the least I
can expect is to be spit upon.  The worst....property damage, physical 
damage...no its not legal, but when did legality ever stop a closed 
minded person with fear in his heart.  (I refer you to the KKK.)

Now lets step into the shoes of someone living in a time when It was
legal.....

Also, have you ever tried to do genealogy work?  If you did you would
understand the difficulty of proving that someone even existed, much 
less his/her professed religion.  And you want documented proof of
something no one would dare profess!   SHEEZ!

Go try some genealogy and MAYBE you will understand what it is I am
referring to.  Because it is obvious to me that you do not.


>> Where the hell did the ancestors of people who have had the craft
>> passed down get it if Gerald Gardener wasn't even born yet?
> 
>From all the evidence we have - they didn't get it, or have it. There
>is a lot of old folk medicine - however, that is not Witchcraft.
> 
>I, among many others (such as Margo Adler), would very much appreciate
>any documentation that would prove my above statements to be false.


Fine Bill, you cling to your evidence.  I however will cling to the
evidence of a family with craft traditions that I know (and I know
more than one).  You are right, there is a difference between folk
medicine and the craft.  Do you think I don't know the difference?

Hell, my highly Xtian aunt knows and uses folk medicine and "old
wives tales".  She cuts her hair by the phases of the moon "because 
it is one of those old wives tales that works".  She doesn't know
that what she is doing is lending credence to something she thinks
is devil worship.  

BTW, Who cares who's name you drop as supporting your point of view. If
you want to drop names I'm sure we could all come up with some high
falutin big wig well known and respected writer type that supports
our point of view.  We could even come up with a serious researcher
that does the same thing.

Tammy the geneaologist


Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc