The Ju Ju of War

[marct]

Hi Tom,

We have a somewhat significant presence of Wiccans here at Ft. Campbell. My previous experience with them has been that they are just lapsed Christians or someone who stopped going to church and/or always had some kind of nativist/paganist philosophy amenable to the love of nature (or something).

That's not that surprising given the prevalence of Christianity in NA societies . Most of my own data, back from my MA, indicates that there are a lot of ex-Jews involved in the neo-pagan movement - disproportionate to the demographics.

However, what I've observed locally is relatively good-looking Wiccan women working in the local coffee shops and retail stores proselytizing the soldiers who patronize the stores. Then, one soon starts to see Wiccan decals and things on the vehicles the soldiers drive to the stores. I must say I find the process interesting to watch. I would say that in an average week's time, about two or three soldiers get converted.

Proselytizing? Hmm, weird - that's usually not kosher in the Craft. Then again, I've seen similar things as well.

Now, I don't know enough about it to say if it's threatening or not. I've tried reading up and learning about it, but get all confused with the likes of Norse mythology and my hands full studying other, more threatening phenomena, but I'd love to hear your perspective on it, Marc. Perhaps they have some ju-ju that is of some value.

Norse mythology? That sounds more like Asatruar than Wicca in any of its forms. Actually, that wouldn't surprise me since I've know a couple of Asatruar who have been in the US forces since the 1980's (I've also known Craft people in the forces since the 1980's as well).

Personally, I think that a number of the neo-pagan movement have a lot of ju-ju to offer to he current fight. How they could help would require a major discussion . The simplest version is that if you can get people who know how to use what is generally called "magic" you can use them to operate against other people who believe in magic.