Witchcraft-and-the-Gay-Counterculture-1

Hence there arises the need for political resistance. For thesake of our survival, we will need allies. Our natural allies – peoplewho have been victimized by industrialism just like us – are women,Third World people, the poor, the unemployed, the unemployable,and the insane.Although America is controlled by straight-identified, upper-classpeople, these classes do not control the rest of the world,and the rest of the world is now on the verge of revolt. It is in ourinterest to give support to (and demand support from) victims ofindustrialism throughout the world. And it is in the interest of theinternational movement against imperialism to get our energy, criticisms,and input, especially concerning matters of sex and the family.A difficult struggle lies ahead in forming these alliances. Many Leftleaders are men who come from a hard, masculine tradition withinindustrial socialism. But what is the alternative to cooperation withother oppressed people?The industrial patriarchy has maintained itself in power bymeans of the most incredible violence, as we have seen in previouschapters. Witch-hunts, torture, and genocide have been regular featuresof the patriarchy’s arsenal from the age of Constantine to theage of Richard Nixon. These tactics have been effective. I personallydoubt, therefore, that mere good intentions, education, and abovegroundorganizing will ever be enough on our part. Do we reallythink that such things can stop a civilization that wiped out thewitches? Or murdered the Indians? Or sent Jews and Gay people tothe ovens? Or bombed Vietnam into the Stone Age? Or infiltrateddomestic protest groups and assassinated their leaders? I doubt it. Idoubt that we will ever stop the patriarchy until we fan out like virusesin the body politic, when the time is right, carrying our secretweapons, and striking without warning against ruling institutions,and the politicians, industrialists, warlords, and academics that runthem. Many will undoubtedly disagree, but without a revolutionaryunderground, I fear we will again perish like burning faggots.I admit that violence against other human beings is a terribledesecration of life. But what are we to do in the face of the atrocitiesof the patriarchy, when our backs are up against the wall. Trust in liberalism?Pray? Give up? Every important above-ground movement forreform in the U. S. during the past decade has either been annihilated orco-opted. When we read The Pentagon Papers or follow the Watergatescandal, it’s not hard to understand why.Violence among humans seems to be worst when it is institutionalized(as in a standing army). Then it becomes the basis of thesociety’s economy. It becomes self-perpetuating and self-justifying.In addition to the death and destruction it causes, it re-enforces amasculinist character among the people. This is not the violence I amtalking about, but rather the hit-and-run spontaneous violence ofautonomous anarchist collectives. Not against the general populace,148The history of the word “faggot” reveals the intimate connectionbetween Gay men, heresy and witchcraft. Both witches andheretics were regularly burned on bundles of sticks called “faggots.”In the popular speech of the time expressions popped up like “fireand faggot” or “to fry a faggot,” suggesting that the victims themselveswere called “faggots.” “Faggot” even became “the embroideredfigure of a faggot, which heretics who had recanted were obligedto wear on their sleeve, as an emblem of what they had merited”(Oxford Englist Dictionary). The word “faggot” comes from the Latinfagus, which means beech tree. Fagus in turn derives from the Greekphagos or phegos, which originally meant any tree bearing edible nutsor fruit (in Greek, phagein means “to eat”). In classical Greek, phagosespecially referred to oak trees. Burning witches and heretics onbundles of faggots may have originated from a religious link withtrees (especially beech and oak) – which were sacred in pre-ChristianEurope. The old fairy tree near Domremy where Joan of Arc firstheard her voices was a fagus tree.Margaret Murray offers an interesting interpretation ofthese clues. In 1921, Murray, a professor of Egyptology at UniversityCollege in London, unsettled conventional historians with thepublication of The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (still available as apaperback). Murray approached the subject as an anthropologist: shecollected transcripts from witch trials (mostly from Britain, wheretorture was rare), went through the evidence for common themes,and compared the results with existing mythological and archaeologicalknowledge of early Western Europe. Murray claimed that“witchcraft” was a lingering pre-Christian religion and that variouspagan cults continued to exist underground until recent times. Inexamining the evidence about Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, sheconcluded that both were members of such a cult – a suppositionwhich clarifies many strange incidents surrounding them.In addition to Murray’s view, we have seen that Joan of Arcand Gilles de Rais were probably Gay. Of course, our evidence, likemost historical evidence concerning sexuality, is circumstantial. ButJoan was certainly not an orthodox Christian: she refused to recitethe Lord’s prayer; she viewed transvestism as a religious duty; sherejected the authority of the church; she accepted deification in herown lifetime; she admitted to sleeping in the same bed with anotherwoman; and she boldly asserted her womanhood. Similarly Gilles deRais was well known for his sorcery and suspect for sodomy.Most “respectable” historians (usually straight males) haverejected Margaret Murray’s views. But straight historians provide nocontext for understanding Joan, Gilles, or Gay history. Their writingsmainly concern the straight-identified ruling classes and ignorethe people. What we need instead is a people-oriented context forGay history, especially in relation to heresy and witchcraft. In whatfollows, we will create such a context by exploring certain themes of25