{"id":678,"date":"2010-09-18T16:21:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T16:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/09\/speculations-on-christine-odonnell-and-witchcraft.html"},"modified":"2010-09-18T16:21:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-18T16:21:50","slug":"speculations-on-christine-odonnell-and-witchcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/09\/speculations-on-christine-odonnell-and-witchcraft.html","title":{"rendered":"Speculations on Christine O’Donnell and Witchcraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christine O’Donnnell, the “Christian” right’s candidate for US Senator from Delaware reports she dated a witch and  did so  “on a Satanic altar<\/a>.”  Very interesting at many levels beyond the likely possibility  that she made it up or embellished it beyond recognition.<\/p>\n

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Let’s assume for the moment there is some truth in her words.  What may have happened?<\/div>\n
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If this was a “Satanic altar” connected with the Church of Satan then O’Donnell likely had sexual relations with her “date” on the altar.  Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan sometimes used a woman on the alter for sexual rituals although as I understand it this was not regarded as appropriate for “dates.” Perhaps this is why masturbation is so bad in O’Donnell’s eyes.  If it is equivalent to adultery, then her own peccadilloes are not all that much bigger – and of course are now “forgiven.”<\/div>\n
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But I am reliably informed the Church of Satan<\/a> does not do blood sacrifice.  In fact they explicitly prohibit it, and O’Donnell said there was blood on the altar. Perhaps this was a home grown ‘Satanic’ group with which she associated?  If so, it must have been quite a “date” indeed – and had nothing to do with Witchcraft.  <\/div>\n
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But could her date have been a Witch and not a Satanist?<\/div>\n
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If she dated a genuine Wiccan, her story makes even less sense.  Altars are not “date” props.  We do not have picnics on our altars.  The cakes and wine that are often on the altar at the close of a ritual are not the stuff of picnics.<\/div>\n
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What of the sexual connotations in having a “date” “on” an altar? While the Great Rite<\/a> is sometimes used in Wiccan rituals, it is always done between experienced people serving as High Priest and High Priestess.  To do a semblance of such a sexual ritual on “a date” is akin to a Catholic having wine and cheese spread on a communion wafer or a Protestant masturbating to the Song of Solomon.  <\/div>\n
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O’Donnell also said she did not know it was an altar.  I simply have no idea how this makes sense. Altars are pretty obviously altars, or if disguised, they are not things upon which people sit, have picnics.  In addition, we Wiccans do not practice blood sacrifice, and so her reference to blood makes no sense in a Wiccan context.<\/div>\n
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If there is any truth to her story at all, my best guess is that she was attracted to a power tripper who used his alleged “magickal powers” to try and impress simple-minded women attracted by power that he was hot stuff.  (“Study with me and you’ll obtain magic powers.  Of course, to study with me you have to have sex with me.”) There are such creeps infesting the Pagan community.  They have as much to do with Witchcraft as pedophile priests and philandering ministers have to do with the spirit of Christianity.  <\/div>\n
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If this is the case, O’Donnell’s account is not very flattering regarding her discernment of men nor of her ability to resist the attractions of power.  For just as the so-called “magician” manipulates and uses women, the women falling for his line themselves are usually using him in their effort to obtain special powers.<\/div>\n
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Yet the story gets stranger.<\/div>\n
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As the Wild Hunt explained<\/a>, Christine’s sister Jennie <\/a>almost certainly has had experience with genuine Witches and other Pagans.  While Christine is vociferously anti-gay and a Sauronic ‘christian’, her sister is a supporter of gay marriage and apparently a lesbian.  This is not the only family with wildly different life-styes and beliefs among family members who are devoted to one another.  I think of my own family as another example.  But it puts Christine’s “witch date” story in a even stranger context, because members of her family probably did know what Witches and other Pagans did, and her description of her “date” does not fit.<\/div>\n
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All in all, I think she probably went out with a creep claiming to be a witch, using his claim as a tactic to have sex with attractive young women.  Since then she has embellished the tale to make it more exciting than it really was.<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christine O’Donnnell, the “Christian” right’s candidate for US Senator from Delaware reports she dated a witch and  did so  “on a Satanic altar.”  Very interesting at many levels beyond the likely possibility  that she made it up or embellished it beyond recognition. Let’s assume for the moment there is some truth in her words.  What…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nSpeculations on Christine O'Donnell and Witchcraft - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/09\/speculations-on-christine-odonnell-and-witchcraft.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Speculations on Christine O'Donnell and Witchcraft - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christine O’Donnnell, the “Christian” right’s candidate for US Senator from Delaware reports she dated a witch and  did so  “on a Satanic altar.”  Very interesting at many levels beyond the likely possibility  that she made it up or embellished it beyond recognition. 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