Pagan's response
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to "Setting the Historical Record Straight"
(Oct. 16).
Mr. Newsome misunderstood my point about our Scots-Irish forebears and
the uses of magic. In my brief address to the Sylva town council (to
whom I am grateful for supplying a fair forum), I did not say Wicca,
a modern Earth-based religion, was practiced by the rugged and resourceful
folk who came to our beloved mountains. Many families in this area,
my own included, were staunch Methodists who nonetheless divined the
weather, had precognition of future events (sometimes called the Sight),
practiced herbal healing and midwifery and other folkways that are cross-cultural
peasant practices often called witchcraft.
That my generation has chosen to harken back to the tribal spiritualities
of the British Isles - spiritualities documented in early Roman and
Christian writings - and wed our spiritual practice to our folk heritage
can hardly be surprising. One has only to peruse that excellent compilation
Carmina Gadelica by antiquarian Alexander Carmichael to benefit from
the charms, spells and prayers that the British natives used since the
earliest times, adapting them to suit the times when church or state
changed to something unfamiliar.
They have survived because they work - even in today's world - and are
the medicine and ritual of common folk from that age to this. Some people
refer to it as "Appalachian Granny" magic but the fact is
most of us hillfolk know someone who can cure burns or speak away warts
or stop bleeding by reading a verse from the Bible. These folkways are
also practiced by modern Pagans, of which Wiccans are one branch.
As we learn more about the people and events that made us who we are,
we find that the historical record has a lot of twists and turns, like
a mountain road. It can take us to some surprising places and we can
learn much about who we are by honoring the ancestors who made us possible.
Byron Ballard
Coalition of Earth Religions
Asheville
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Why do children lack scholbooks?
To the Editor:
It has recently come to my attention that the children in the sixth
grade at Scotts Creek School do not have enough spelling books. They
have to have their class and then do their work at school so that the
next class can have spelling lessons out of the same book. I do not
understand why our children do not have books to bring home to study
and use for their lessons.
I am a grandparent with full custody of a sixth grader. I have already
reared two children who graduated from the Jackson County Schools. My
children always had books and most of the supplies that they needed.
I am very concerned over the fact that the children are now required
to supply so much to the school and then must do without books. I know
that some officials in Jackson County have salaries over $100,000 a
year and others are very close. I can appreciate wanting to make a living,
but what has happened to the system that our children's education is
jeopardized because there is not enough money to even buy books.
Jackson County has had scandal after scandal in the last few years,
but I fail to remember anyone even mentioning anything about a lack
of supplies and necessary educational materials.
I would appreciate an answer to why our children do not have sufficient
materials for their studies.
Linda D. Sellers
Sylva
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