The Path of A Christian Witch

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From the gender pay-gap to taboos around menstruation, there are still prescribed ways around how women are expected to behave. So women harnessing their own power sounds a bit dangerous to a world that’s still largely structured by patriarchal norms.” The Screwtape Letters consists of a series of letters from a senior demon to a junior tempter, advising him in his pursuit of a human soul. The Letters had originally been published weekly in a Church paper called The Guardian (not the same as the British national newspaper), before being collected as a book.

Joy's death was hard for Lewis to cope with and tested his Christian faith. He kept a record of his thoughts and feelings throughout the grieving process, and published it, using a pseudonym, as A Grief Observed. (So many people recommended the book to Lewis to help in his own grief that at last he was forced to admit he wrote it.) I pray to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit every single day, many times a day. I am comfortable in the knowledge that God hears my prayers as does the Goddess and both are constantly working to help me create the best life possible for myself and my family. The third book in the 'Space Trilogy' is called That Hideous Strength and set on Earth. It describes and extrapolates what Lewis saw as the evil ideas in contemporary science, personified in an organisation called (with heavy irony) N.I.C.E. CHRISTIANS continue to be cautious about witchcraft, even fearful. Dr Richards is critical of those who distance themselves from it. “There’s a kneejerk reaction to the word ‘witch’ or ‘witchcraft’ in certain circles . . . Some Christians say, ‘I don’t want to find out that because it might contaminate me.’” She believes that some Christians misinterpret what pagans do. “I have had to talk to vicars and churches where they’re very upset by pagan activity and cursing: it is usually just anti-social behaviour.”

Lewis claimed the civil marriage ceremony, quietly performed in a registry office, was a purely legal measure to allow Joy to stay in the country. Nobody is quite sure of their feelings for each other at that stage, but shortly afterwards some news arrived that changed everything. Joy was diagnosed with advanced cancer and did not have long to live. Lewis realised he loved Joy and decided to make their marriage public. The ceremony was performed around Joy's hospital bed. When she was able to leave hospital, Joy, Douglas and David moved into the Kilns. I recently did an in person reading on a young woman of about age 19 who was clearly struggling with something. She had come in with a friend but was a bit hesitant, withdrawn. I finally looked at her square in the face and said, “It is ok to have Pagan and Wiccan beliefs and still believe in God.” Until that moment, not a word had been said about her beliefs or God or any of that. But, as soon as I said those few words, her eyes welled up with tears and the water works began. I do not where or whom the message came from, but I knew she had to hear it. Domestic animals, though, obviously had something like a personality. Lewis thought that when humans tamed animals, in accordance with their God-given dominion over them, the animals became more themselves.

Lewis came to university in 1916 during the First World War. Although as an Irishman he would not have had to serve in the army, he wanted to do his part. He signed up and was sent to the front. Lewis's time as an army officer affected him profoundly, as it did most soldiers, but one friendship changed his life. Edward Moore was a fellow Irishman with whom Lewis served. The two young men seem to have made an agreement that if either of them did not come home, the other would support his family. Lewis was sent home with shrapnel wounds. Moore was killed and left behind his mother Janie and sister Maureen. There are no rules here. No dogma. No ancient traditions or rituals to follow. There’s just you and your own beliefs. To me this is everything. While notions of the feminine sacred re-emerged in the 1970s, she notes that today’s teenagers are “deliberately targeted” by shows such as the American TV series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (the reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch), and reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Harry Potter series, and the female characters in Terry Pratchett’s novels present individuals who are able to overcome their problems through magic. Lewis's concern did not end at animal pain that was inflicted by humans. He saw the whole of nature as cruel, with animals killing and eating others to survive. His theology explained human pain by way of humanity's fallen state, but animals had committed no sin. Lewis reasoned that humanity's fall had brought animals down to a fallen state too.And she says not everyone agrees with the distinction: she cites a witch based in Salem, a hub for US witchcraft, who said: “If a witch can’t curse, they can’t heal.”

Common theme: Encouraging light in times of darkness. This light is represented in various ways: the unconquered sun, the star of Bethlehem, Jesus as the light of the world, or simply by the ritual use of candles. The trend appears to have crossed the Pond, albeit in less politicised and attention-grabbing form. The industry monitor Nielsen Book Research says that UK sales of books on mythology and the occult have doubled in the past five years, while sales of books in its “Alternative Belief Systems” category have risen 13 per cent in the same period — double the growth of general book sales. The very first element of Narnia came to Lewis when he was sixteen. He saw in his imagination a faun (a mythological creature like a man with goat legs) carrying parcels in a snowy wood. The image stayed with him, and many years later it found a place in one of his stories. MANY witches, or Wiccans, are known as “solitary practitioners”, who meet for rituals, festivals, or moots (meetings). Jean Fowler, the softly spoken voluntary pagan chaplain at Edinburgh University, describes what solitary practice may entail: “Perhaps meditate, have a small altar with something that’s sacred to them, candles, incense, even music . . . It’s very much an individual path. No one ever told me grief felt so like fear," reads the opening sentence of A Grief Observed. "I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing." It is an honest account from a mourning widower: Lewis did not flinch from recording the times when his faith was tested. By the end of the book he had made his peace with God.While we can certainly call on Jesus to assist us, we can also call on the energy of the Christ Consciousness or Christ Light to activate and work within us, helping us to become more Christ like, embodying the energy, love and light of the Christ energy. C.S. Lewis converted to Christianity while teaching at Oxford University, but his love of books and myths had been present since his childhood. Soon after his conversion he wanted to evangelise, and it was not long before he thought of combining religious enthusiasm with imagination in his works of Christian fiction. The first frontier