Lashes Of Fire

ב' בשבט תשס"ח
Imbolgen 2

I have to consider the question - was somebody trying to "handle the Jewitch" and the attempt went bad, falling out into the life of another?

In a previous entry, describing the hazardous jumping flame of my black ritual candle this past shabbat, I wrote:

This Shabbat, the black wax of my main ritual candle was cut quickly and completely down one side like a river cut into the wax (as the deep melted pool of wax drained from around the wick) to the candle holder (over 1-2 inches depending on the perspective of timeline) by the very high radically jumping and leaping flame connected to the wick’s fire. It happened so fast that I only noticed it as the melted black wax was already pouring down the side of my altar. The flame was so unusually high-jumping (I’d estimate it reached 6-9 inches at times), it was so furiously energetic, that I had put it out with a candle snuffer lest it reach over and catch fire the cloth which covered my crystal ball. After putting out the potential fire hazard, I stuck a fingertip into the melted, still warm but cooling, wax on the side of my altar cloth. I’m not sure why I did this. I just did it. I wanted to know the feel of the wax. What was the story it had to tell?

Now, three days later, this is in the news:

2 Girls Killed in 'Strange Ritual' Slaying in Iowa
Tuesday, January 08, 2008

DES MOINES, Iowa — A man has been charged with the stabbing and strangulation murder of his two stepdaughters in what police are calling a "spell gone bad" in the family's Sioux City, Iowa, home.

Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr. was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after authorities arrived at his burning home and found the girls in their second-story bedroom and blood on Harris, police said Monday.

Police Lt. Marti Reilly said Harris had been performing "some strange ritual" and told officers he cast a spell that had gone bad. Reilly said he could offer no other details on how the girls were killed.

"You're talking about people casting spells, spells gone bad," Sioux City Police Chief Joe Frisbie said at a Monday press conference, according to the Sioux City Journal. "Obviously, there is a lot more going on here than a straightforward homicide."

The fire, which started in the basement of the home, caused only superficial damage, Reilly said. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

Professor Helen A. Berger, author of three books on witches, told the Sioux City Journal she doubted anyone claiming to have killed children while casting a spell is a true practitioner of witchcraft.

"This is not a group that participates normally in violence, but it is a group that doesn't have firm boundaries, which means that anyone can make a claim to be a member," she told the newspaper.

Professor Berger speaks the truth. True witchcraft is not a violent craft, it is a nature-based spirituality. Nevertheless, there are sick people to be found among all religious or spiritual groups. Witches are not excluded from the ills that plague all humanity, and all religious groups.