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I feel a bit responsible for this topic, as I'm the one who found that article in the first place.

http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=22073899

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this topic, but school has started and I've been very busy.

I'd like to preface this by saying I man no disrespect to any Wiccans in this guild. Having said that, I lost my respect for a lot of Wiccans in oathbound traditions some time ago due to the rampant attitude of "I know secrets so I'm a better Wiccan that you. In fact, since you don't know secrets, you are't Wiccan at all". It's a playground "naana-nana-boo-boo" attitude and I have no patience for it. If you happen to be a member of an oathbound tradition, I simply urge you to, as the article says, "carefully evaluate your practices to see if your secrecy is still really necessary. If you determine that the secrecy really can no longer be justified, you need to abolish it." And I don't think Wiccan secrecy is at all justifiable.

So, without further ado, here is my two cents. Prepare for a bit of a rant.

Any religion that hides its practices from all but specially initiated followers automatically sets off cult alarm bells in my head. I mean, "join us and we'll share our secrets" is a classic cult hook. And it's suspicious, to say the least.

This is how Oathbound/secret/mystery traditions seem to me:

"Are you dissatisfied with your life/faith/general existence? Come join us! We'll share our awesome religious secrets with you and show you how to do spells and stuff, but you have to study hard and undergo a special ritual first. What does the ritual entail? Well, obviously we can't tell you yet. Its a secret. You must join us to find out."

(ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US! etc. Go watch Freaks, great film.)

I really, really hate to make any kind of comparison to Scientology, but ...well, does anyone remember when the high level Scientological (is that a word? It should be) secrets about Thetans and Lord Xenu and aliens and souls being dropped into volcanoes a billion years ago were leaked? Yeah. I'm amazed Scientology still exists.

Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard, an admittedly talented science fiction writer.

Gardnerian Wiccaa was created by a guy who got is inspiration from a very strange, sad, self-hating, drug addict who could have been a great man (Aleister Crowley) and an Egyptologist/Anthropologist who published a book about a supposed ancient pagan religion that persisted in Europe until the 1700s. Except, well, it totally didn't, because the author (Margaret Murray) was off her rocker and almost everything in her books were debunked by actual creditable academics as soon as they were published.

I mean, for all I know, some oathbound Wiccan groups could worship the Goddess by Her secret name of Zippity-doo-dah and the God by His secret name of Pneumotachometer. Unlikely, but possible.

Initiates to the Coven of the Sacred Order Of Lady Zippity-doo-dah and Lord Pneumotachometer will remain unaware of this and a lot of other things for quite some time. The deities will simply be called the Goddess and the God to avoid freaking the mundanes.

Er...I mean,

to keep their religious secrets under wraps so that they can snobbishly lord it over the uninitiated

Wait, no, that's no good either...aha! Got it! Ahem:

The deities will simply be called the Goddess and the God in order to protect the oh-so-sacred roots of their super-mega-awesome-too-good-for-most-mere-mortals-not-to-mention-Eclectic-Practitioners Mystery Religion. Yeah, that's it!

Of course, one they join the coven, initiates will be relentlessly teased with bits and pieces of so-called "sacred" oathbound lore until finally, one day, when they're absolutely desperate and brainwashed enough to believe just about anything um, that is, once they've studied hard enough and the Priest and Priestess of believe they are finally ready, there's a big ceremony in which the super-speshul-sacred knowledge is then at last revealed to them!

"And lo, one day the Great Mother who is called by the sacred name of Zippity-doo-dah and The Horned God who is called by the sacred name of Pneumotachometer will both come to our plane of existence and take their followers away in a broomstick-shaped spaceship powered by magic(k) while the deities ride ahead on magic(k)al flying rainbow-colored woolly mammoths that sing bawdy sea shanties and fart rainbows. So mote it be."

Okay, okay, I seriously doubt that's the case. Oathbound Wiccan secrets are probably a lot more boring that that. But hey, how would I know? I'm not an Wiccan, so I guess I'm not good enough to know the names of Wiccan deities. Even Eclectic Wiccans aren't good enough to know those names, so a poor Asatru like me has no chance.

I guess I'll never know those secrets. Oh, woe is me. I'll simply have to make do with worshiping Freya. And eclectic practitioners of Wicca will just have to worship the Goddess and the God by names of deities that can actually be proven to have had ancient followers and actually existed outside Murray and Gardner's heads. Oh, well. Sucks.

But I'm getting off-topic. That bogus prophecy about woolly mammoths and silly-named deities and spaceships that I literally just made up 22-odd seconds ago isn't any weirder than what Scientologists believe. And am I really supposed to believe that Gardner is a more creditable source than Hubbard? Really? At least Scientology is kind of entertaining. Oathbound Wicca just strikes me as pretentious and snobbish.

I very much doubt oathboud Wiccan secrets as silly as the Scientological ones, mostly because I doubt Gardner had half the imagination Hubbard had. I'm sure devotees of these oathbound groups take themselves and their secrets very seriously.

Then again, maybe oathbound secrets are that silly. How the hell am I supposed to know? Aparrently their religious knowledge is too dangerous to be revealed to us non-Wiccans because...um...well, I actually don't even know why the knowledge is so supposedly dangerous. Because no one will tell me. Because it's a secret. If I really want to find out I'll just have to join their cult religion. Then they'll be able to tell me. Maybe. If I have sex with their high priest. (Ew.)

On a side note, I'm finding more and more instances of homophobia and anti-gay sentiments in oathbound Wiccan groups. As an unashamedly heteroflexible female with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trangenedered friends and family, I find this very, VERY disturbing.

That is all.

I guess the idea of keeping secrets is a bit personal to me. I vividly remember people saying exactly that phrase to me on the playground in pre-school.

This is a little bit beside the point, and maybe a little too personal, but I was a very slow child. I lost my twin sister three days after I was born, and for the first six years of my life, my parents, teachers, and doctors believed that I was mentally deficient. It was not a happy time of my life.

I managed to struggle my way through kindergarten, but I had to repeat first grade. The first time around, I was bullied horrendously.

I remember when everyone in the class would get in line (as you do in grade school) to go somewhere, to the restroom or the playground or what-have-you, and my classmates would tease the people who were in front of and behind me, telling them "You're by Caitlin!".

They would say it in that nasty sing-song voice, the same way they would say "Nanna nanna boo boo" on the playground. As if simply standing near me was some kind of horrible curse. As if they would catch my "stupid" simply by being near me. I remember the looks of disgust, smugness, and self-contentedness in the knowledge that they were better than me, smarter than me, bigger than me. That I was worth less than them. That I wasn't even worthy to be in their presence. Gods, the expressions on their faces...

I remember feeling completely wretched and insignificant and literally, actually wanting to crawl into a corner and die so no one would make fun of me anymore. I honestly wanted to die rather than face my peers. I was all of four or five.



I always somehow felt as a young child that intellectual knowledge--especially reading, which I could not seem to grasp--was some sort of secret that I wasn't good enough to learn. I wasn't special enough. I wasn't smart enough. The fact that my classmates, and even some teachers, made me feel like I was completely worthless because I couldn't keep up with the rest of the students just reinforced this.

Perhaps that's why I'm so sensitive to people keeping religious secrets in an unfairly snobbish way, and people attempting to make themselves out to be be better than their contemporaries because they have access to something others do not have access to. In my view, it's bullying. As you can imagine, I cannot and will not stand any form of bullying.

I want to make it clear that I view the oathbound tradition, inasmuch as it includes the lording "secret knowledge" over other Wiccans, as a certain kind of bullying. As you can probably imagine, I have no patience for it.

I am neary always a calm person, nearly always the peacemaker in any situation. But bullying---bullying just enrages me beyond all reason or restraint. I won't stand by and watch it happen, and I absolutely refuse to let it happen to those I call my friends, not if there is anything at all that I can do.

Um...writing this is harder than I believed it would be. Okay.

The second time I went through first grade was in a new school and a new state. I had wonderful teachers and made friends that I still have to this day. And I blossomed. I was in an accelerated reading program throughout grade school, middle school, and high school, and at the top of my class in each grade. I aced several Advanced Placement classes, and I'm on a full scholarship now that I'm in college.

I currently volunteer as a reading tutor to grade-school students, and I have had several parents thank me personally for the encouragement and praise I gave their children. I never, EVER let anyone I tutor feel bad about not learning anything.

And I have never, and will never, make fun of anyone who knows less than I do. For Gods' sake, I still have nightmares about people calling me names and making fun of me. And I won't condone it.

So that's what the oathbound secrets strike me as. Bullying. Namecalling. Pretentiousness. Stupidity. Perhaps it did not start out that way, but that seems to be what it has become.

Initiated Wiccans vs. Solitaries. Initiates with a smug, superior, repulsive disposition, constantly saying "Nanna nanna boo boo, I know something you don't know, ha ha, that makes me better than you," to anyone who hasn't gone through whatever the hell it is they have gone through, which is probably utter bullshit to begin with. That kind of pre-school, immature, unreasonable, bullying attitude revolts and infuriates me.

I freely admit that I am probably over-emotional and angry regrading this topic. But I can't bring myself to apologize for it. To me, that sort of attitude is deeply, intensely, and personally offensive and repugnant, as well as simply cruel, unfair, and idiotic on a wider level.

It may be human nature to make ourselves seem important and special, but not to the point where you place yourself above anyone else because they know X and you know Y, or you have some kind of access to something they do not.

Urgh, it's impossible for me to make this point without getting emotional and having disturbing and uncomfortable flashbacks to my childhood, so I'll just leave it at this.

I guess I'm really just trying to justify my anger, defensiveness, and borderline-resentment of those in oathbound traditions. Not because I want to know what they know--I could not give two shits--but because their whole attitude and outlook is totally and inexorably abhorrent to me. I genuinely believe that that kind of outlook has zero positive value whatsoever.

Take from this what you will.

-Nerdy