h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here is a spell to bring long life. Would this be a "legend" or "myth"?
Please note: __witchcraft is evil__!!

Find a nice big elm, oak, or maple tree, and bury a penny among its roots. Chant the following to the tree.

"Ancient tree
I offer thee
This mortal coin
As gift and sign:
Guard my fate
Both soon and late,
And let my rust
Grow green at last."

Set the burial with a stone, and don't go back there (if you can help it!!) until four weeks - a lunar month - has past. Then, dig up the coin, and if it has changed to green, "the forest's years will be your own".

By the way, I'm not a witch, and I don't practise magick (anymore). I just have books. Just had to make sure you knew...

Also...

Lavender is a good herb to use in spells for longevity.

.....as are other herbs including red cedarwood, guta kola, rosemary and sage.

....as are rocks including agate, fossils, jade, and petrified wood.

Witchcraft is evil!?? Ok, maybe the practices... but Wicca has some very good, fundamental beliefs... Respect everything, treat others as you would be treated, because everything you do comes back threefold.

It seems familar. Kinda like some teaches in the Bible. As well as that idea about karma. Herrmmm...

It's evil if you're Christian - which I am. It says in the Bible not to practise "divination or sorcery" -- Oops. I went through a phase during which I practised magick. And don't I know about the threefold thing *pulls face*

Don't say stuff like this again, it's horrible. For someone calling witchcraft evil, you Christians invented the most evil thing you could imagine - the Devil!

Hold on, If witchcraft is evil why did Saul consult the Witch of Endor? And while we're at it it says in I Cointhians verse Chapter14 verse8 (or there abouts) that it is shameful for a man to have long hair or a woman to have short hair. This is obviously silly and more Christians should read to book they claim to live by. I'll quote scripture till their heads fall off. Good stories buy ultimatlt empty, just like the Celestine Prophacy.

I think the lady was only reflecting on the view _some_ Christians have that witchery-- or in general, the use of "powers" or practicing the occult to one's advantage-- is bad.

Christians really didn't invent the devil, either... I learned in school anyhow(American education, so it could be incorrect) that Puritans adapted the Pagan's happy-go-lucky Pan into Satan, a cloven-hooved, horned personification of sin. Essentially, a favorite in one religion was painted red and given a bad rap to promote a dire need to comform to another theology.

It's not so much who did what to who, and when and where, how and why. What's in the past is in the past. It doesn't matter(to me, certainly) what religion anyone chooses to practice or refuses to follow. It is how you live. And how we learn to understand one another.

( If I'm a little too kind and diplomatic, it's because I've been awake maybe a little too long today )

Of course it doesn't matter what went on in the past, they only burned millions of witches. Bring back the Lions, I say.

Witchcraft is wrong because it creates false idols (you pray to deities, and the elements are treated in the same way as gods). That's a *big* no-no in the Christian belief.

Plus - this has gone slightly off topic. It's not supposed to be a religious debate; it's meant to be about longevity.

I know it's off topic a bit, but how can the deities that were around so many years before Christianity be false?

It's your johney-come-lately that's the false one.

If you don't want a religious debate, don't slag off other religions.

I'm not so sure about witchcraft being evil, even though I profess to be a practicing Christian. We have a very dear family friend who's supposed to be a natural white witch - the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She does have hindsite and foresite, and can scare you silly while you're visiting for tea, telling you about "things" she's seen.

My Grandma, who lived to be 92, used to say that if you give someone a heartache, you'll receive it back tenfold. Anyone seen that happen? I have.

Witchcraft, (the craft of the wise, a nature based religeon) is Evil (a concept that does not occur in nature). MMMMMMMMMMM. Well lets look at this remarkbly intelligent statement shall we. What is Evil?
Is it the burning of 9 million defenseless old woman, burnt at the stake for knowing a few herbs to help difficult child birth? is it the pope giving his support and blessing to the Nazi's extermination of 6 million jews, 2 million Romani (Gypsies) and countless other coloured or disabled people? or possible the destructions of entire cultures and thousands of years of their knowledge, cultures like the Aztec or the other tribes of south america? if u think these planned acts are evil we agree. the christian church is an openly evil organization and if u are a follower of this particular cult offshoot of judeism, u are a supporter of evil. now, Witchcraft! following a god and a goddess, no evil there. wishing a good life, health and happyness on everybody regardless of creed or persuasion, still ok. using the power of our minds to try to promote these emotions of benign love, nope, no evil yet. ok well lets look at the darker side of witchcraft then! in the same way i believe i can heal or bring luck to my friends with the powers at my disposal, so do i also believe that i can bring harm with them. a practice that is anathema (that means bad) to those who follow witchcraft. but if i chose to do so, that would be me that is Evil, witchcraft is no more good or evil than electricity or in direct disregard to my earlier argument, Judaism and its cults. Unlike christianity that activly supports the evil acts of its followers, Witchcraft leaves all responsibility in the hands and hearts of its practicioners. one rule governs all Witches and all Pagans! SO LONG AS IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT THOU WILL! we believe that every action we take will cum back to us threefold. now if believed that, how evil would u act in reality?
finally u have to remember that Christianity and its parent political, sorry, religeous movement have a discernable starting date. The canaanites and Hyskos who were the proto jews took their entire belief system from the Egyptians and changed a few names. Paganism is proven to have been around since mankind came outta the trees in one form or another. so the statement about Witchcraft being similar to teachings in the bible or of Karma is insulting. They got their ideas from the old ways.
if u think this is a rant, just study a little history, it wont take much. of course, if u are a christian, DONT! no intelligent person can learn about history and remain as a christian
in summery, Witchcraft CANNOT be evil, but its practicioners can be! depends on YOUR guidelines for evil. I've listed some of mine and i know when i get judged, wether its by my Goddess or by Jehovah (a canaanite storm god that the old testament sez lives in the Ark of the Covenant) I know my soul is clean, i've never done anything that i consider evil. and this comes from my own sense of whats right and whats wrong as taught to me by my parents, not from a 2004 year old book of rools that get edited every other century to suit who ever is in power.

it also sez in the bible that Jesus was a necromancer, raising dead bodies back to life. even witches consider that pretty sick. not to mention the various other characters such as the three Magi? u know what a magi is dont u? and Jacob translating dreams.the list is quiet long. for a storm god who wasnt invented untill very recently, your god got a lot of rools. do what i say not what i do. this Jesus guy, dont believe in teaching by examples does he?

go mina go mina go mina
but i know ive heard that thing about the lions somewhere b4

and u think the crucifix and cross, religeous symbols for a long time b4 christianity, aint false idols?
btw while we on the subject, the romans crucified people on large X's not on up right t shaped mandalas!

longevity?
be remembered as a good friend, a good person, an honourable person, and if u are lucky enuff to be gifted with children, as a good parent
thats the best sort of longevity!
wishing u all blessed lives, even the sheep
and a blessing from us Romani actually means something so dont throw it back in my face
love Spikey

Spikey, or Researcher 148884, you have made some very excellent points, observations I could not come across on my own at this point in my life-- I am still learning, and doing so happily.

But please don't think that just because someone calls themselves a Christian means they are not willing to change. The impression that you felt that way came in out in a previous statement you made, along with a feeling that all Christianity must be evil if they choose to conform to a religion that had leaders who allowed genocide.

There are, of course, some very dumb people who have had or do now have power over others. But many times those weaknesses are not pointed out to people who love them very much. Ignorance begets ignorance, so please forgive sheep for not knowing as much as their more discerning fellow beings.

Also, I'd like to indicate that I was the one who made a slight comparison between Wiccan beliefs, ideas of Karma, and some creeds of the Bible. I didn't mean to imply that the LESSONS are similar, but that moral codes are shared in pan theologies, many a time, but society is quick to overlook any common ground, and find something to fear in another person's belief system. Ignoring all the fables and mantras of each culturally different religion, you'll find some core values that everyone would do well to adopt.

How you live, I feel, is more important than why you live that way. So long as you bring harm to no other. I've given a good look over(limited though it is) to Wiccan, as well as Buddhism. In one source, I found a statement that observed the two were similar, on the basis that neither adopt the Christian god(well, duh...), and that they believe in respecting their world, looking inward as well as outward for guidance, etc...

What's your view on that!?? And thank you for the blessing.

Mina, I did not mean those idols were false. I meant that they were false according to the Christian religion, because they are not Jesus or God. The second commandment is, is it not, that you should worship no other god but God himself.

*hides behind Dragonfly*

*sighs* I just tried to add some information to an entry and this is what I got..

lisa and dragonfly, touche, i deserved that!
i guess i had a rant, easily incensed at seeing the Witchcraft is evil tag. i guess i was a little unkind, but i stand by the facts.
i do appologize for the sheep remark.
i am just the angry voice in the darkness that has the same knee jerk reaction to predudice that others have when they hear works like witchcraft and paganism.
u may slap me if u wish
spikey