Witchcraft-and-the-Gay-Counterculture-1

Ashtoreth or Astarte in Palestine; Tanit in Carthage; Ma in Cappodocia;Aphrodite in Cyprus; and Isis in Egypt (Showerman, 247;Lethbridge, 19). Roman writers were well aware of this Mediterraneantradition. For example, in Apuleius’ The Golden Ass (2nd centuryAD), the hero Lucius prays to the moon, calling her ReginaCaeli, “Queen of Heaven,” a title later given to the Virgin Mary.When Lucius falls asleep the goddess appears to him and reveals hertrue power:Look, I have come, Lucius, moved by your prayer. I am themother of the nature of things, the mistress of all the elements,the original progeny of the ages, the supreme divinity, queenof the departed souls, chief of the deities of heaven, the manifestationin one of all the gods and goddesses. By my commands,I regulate the bright vault of heaven, the health-givingsea breezes, the bereaved silence of the dead. The whole worldvenerates my single name in many forms, with varied ritual,with a name linked to many others. And so the Phrygians –the first born of all humans – call me Mother of the Gods atPessinus; native Athenians call me Cecropean Minerva; thesea-tossed Cyprians, Paphian Venus; the Cretan archers, DianaDictynna; the tri-lingual Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; the Eleusinians,the most ancient goddess Ceres. Some call me Juno,others Bellona. Here I am Hecate, there Rhamnusia. And bothEthiopias, which are illuminated by the beginning rays of therising sun god, as well as the Egyptians, who are strong in theteaching of antiquity and who revere me with special ceremonies,call me by my true name – Queen Isis (Apuleius, BookXI, Section 4).In both Asia Minor and Celtic Gaul many statues of Artemis(or Diana) have been found with a singular feature: they showa woman with many rows of naked tits and surrounded by animalfigures (Turcan, 49). In some stone-age caves, groups of stalagmitescan be found, such as at Pech Merle, that are painted like tits withpictures of animals around them. The statues of Artemis are similarto these strange figures and “must embody echoes of that sameancient Mother of the Animals whom we can first identify in PechMerle” (Rawson, 15).During the early days of Christianity, Artemis was worshippedin the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. Her cult was one of thechief impediments to the missionary effort there of Paul of Tarsus.The new testament book of Acts describes the severity of the strugglebetween two religions. The pagan worshippers of Artemis riotedagainst Paul, shouting “she whom Asia and all the world revere maysoon be stripped of her magnificence” (Acts; 19, 23-29) .The people of Asia Minor worshipped Artemis with sexualrites that included homosexuality. For this reason most of Paul’s de-36MAGIC AND REVOLUTIONWhat is revolution?Many of us answer this question by rote. As if somebodypushed a button, we feed back the “right line” we’ve been taught inour particular school of thought.The rote response is bad because it makes us overlook manythings we take for granted. For example, almost all of us are lockedinto the habit of seeing everything through patriarchal eyes. We carrythis tunnel-vision around with us even when we allow ourselvesflights of revolutionary fantasy.In the past, many revolutionaries, on coming to power,falsely believed they were starting a new order. Often all they reallydid was re-establish the old patriarchal order under a more efficientor humane management. In my opinion, this has been the fate of thetwo most important progressive forces of the past few hundred years:liberalism and industrial socialism. In what follows, we will take alook at each of these two movements in view of what we’ve foundout about Gay history. In doing so, I believe we will see the need fortranscending both.Historically, liberalism has been associated with the bourgeoisie.It was originally the ideology of European merchants andbusiness owners in their revolt against the landed aristocracy andthe monarchy. Today it is preeminently the ideology of educatedmembers of the middle class and of reform-minded members of theprivileged professional classes. Spokespeople for modern liberalismare often connected to schools and universities. Their great hope isfor reform through education and peaceful compromise.Liberalism has had a good record in ending some forms ofoppression. It has been of great benefit for those oppressed membersof society who have been able to adjust to middle-class lifestyles. Inthis respect, it has especially helped upwardly-mobile people from alower middle-class background.But for those who cannot or will not adjust to a middle-classlifestyle, liberalism has had little to offer. The United States has seentwo-hundred years of basically liberal institutions and a great host ofliberal leaders and programs (recent examples being the New Deal,the New Frontier, and the Great Society). Yet despite this liberal tradition,the United States today is a corrupt garrison society, living offthe exploited labor of non-white people throughout the world andviolently repressive within its own borders of Gay people, women,Blacks, poor people, Indians, and Mother Earth.The great flaw of liberalism is that it accepts the basic valuesof Western culture as that culture has been handed down from gen-137