Marty – as always, thank you for your wonderful contribution… I’ll get you a new broom stick to fly on. 😉

That said, “Wiccaphobia” is an interesting one. What are people who suffer from “Wiccaphobia” actually afraid of? The reality of what a witch is or can be or the nonsense drivel that the Puritans and their allies concocted about Witches and Witchcraft. I have had endless conversations with people about witches and witchcraft and at no point has the person I’ve been talking with had the slightest hint that they are actually talking to a Witch.

For the record, there isn’t space for a cauldron in the new flat I’m moving into next month (I’m going to be living in Cardiff), I do not have a black cat (although my girlfriend’s cat “Mittens” and I are in a state of war because he insists on being a right pain in the bum every time my girlfriend asks me to feed him and or look after him while she’s out) and I do not go out on moonlit nights to dance naked. I visited Edinburgh Dungeon with my sister recently and they had this mock trial thing going on and my sister got called up and she was accused of witchcraft. Close boys, I thought to myself, but no cigar.

I am, perhaps, being flippant. I do not mean to be. But “Wiccaphobia” is interesting because it seems to be one of those phobias which is based on a nonsense perception of something rather than on the reality of something. If you are afraid of spiders, you know what a spider looks like. You’re overly sensitive and or afraid of it but you are in touch with the reality of what a spider is even if you’re not in touch with the reality of the danger that spider represents to you or anyone else. But with “Wiccaphobia”, it is highly unlikely that many sufferers will know and or be in touch with the reality of what a witch actually is so it is pretty safe to assume that what they are “afraid of” is a nonsense perception and doesn’t actually exist.

I have heard and answered the call of the Goddess. For me, that is the route of my Paganism and my identity as a Witch. I didn’t choose to become a Pagan because it’s popular or because I thought it would make me more powerful or give me power over anyone else. I didn’t look at Paganism’s creed and ethics and say to myself: “you know what, I agree with most of that”. We’re not talking politics here. The Goddess spoke to me and I heard her. That doesn’t mean I think I’m better than anyone else. I don’t think I’m right and others are wrong and I’m not here as some sort of messanger or prophet. This was a personal, private thing. A communication between my God and me.

There’s no hard and fast rule about what a Pagan is and there’s no hard and fast rule about what a “Witch” is either so someone suffering with “Wiccaphobia” could end up being afraid of pretty much everybody so perhaps it is for the best that their fear be concentrated on some lunatic idea about what a Witch is. Perhaps I should get my black hat out.

I can understand and appreciate why certain sections of certain religions would be afraid of Witches and Witchcraft. We’re a much older faith than they are and we celebrate the divine power of women which threatens an awful lot of their attempts to pervert messages of love, compassion and peace to serve their private agendas. But, outside of that, what exactly is it that makes people scared of “my people” (they are not my people but I didn’t really have the right words to express what I wanted to say)?

We’re an incredibly private faith, we have very strict ideas about what a bad idea preaching is, we believe that any action or intention to harm another will come back to harm us three times worse, we love and celebrate nature, we do our best to be compassionate and understanding to other people, we celebrate different cultures, we try never to judge people….what exactly is so terrifying about us?

Personally, I think there’s such a long list of phobias because psychologists and their ilk like to take every opportunity to tell the world about how clever they are so they dig up latin names for things and parade them about the place.

I am not for one moment dismissing the seriousness of phobias. I’ve spent a lot of time recently talking to people with social anxiety and, in many cases, the anxieties and phobias are crushing these peoples lives piece by piece. I’m just interested in the subject.