About Me: A Heretic's Heart
The often maligned word "heretic" (since the mid-fourteenth-century) is derived from the Greek noun hairesis—which ultimately gave rise to the apposite Greek noun, hairetikos—meaning "to choose"; it signifies a personal choice. But, it was used during the Middle Ages to criminalize any local sects—even folk-traditions and surviving strands of extent Pagan worship—that the "official" Church deemed a threat to their control of the local consciousness. However, it was also employed throughout the New Testament, rather ironically, to categorize the Pharisees, the Sadduccees, and even the Christians each as a sect of Judaism. Following the originally-intended denotation of the term "heretic", what follows is the story from a heretic's heart...
Wade is a Gay, male, Pagan-Witch of a decade standing that was called to serve the Irish Earth-Goddess, An Mórríghan, at Lughnasadh (2002). Although, he maintains that he would have been a practicing Pagan-Witch even throughout Elementary School, had he known that it was a viable alternative; but it's exposure was not as prolific as it was during the latter half of the 1990s. Despite this fact—true to his Piscean nature—he was enamored with ancient Pagan scripture (which seemed more interesting to him than the dreadfully dull religious teachings into which he was indoctrinated by birth) and various aspects of the Occult, despite the constantly oppressive comments made by his family during these early years (comments that still sometimes persist).
Still, he eventually made time in his life for the Goddess (to employ the generative nomenclature)! In fact, due to the synchronous events experienced throughout his young life he believes that he was born to be a Witch; that he was destined to serve the Old Gods!
It was during the very early 90s that his family "flirted"—like a social butterfly—with the LDS Church (Mormonism), which probably had the opposite effect upon him than was certainly intended by the Missionaries.
According to the Tenets of the LDS Church one is regarded as the Christian god's biological children, with Jesus being their literal brother. Furthermore, Mormon eschatalogical (after-life) beliefs hold that if one lives a relatively Holy life they will be rewarded by residing in the presence of their god: an ethereal planet that shines as bright as the sun, with two lesser plants existing for persons that have been judged according to how they have lived, each of which shines as bright as the moon, or as bright as a star, respectively. But, if one so-chooses, they may leave Jehovah's presence to found their own planet and spawn their own children. However, this requires procuring a female mate, which was thought to be the Mormon god's wife when he, at one time, lived a corporeal existence. In other words, their god is supposed to have lived on some other planet far before our Earth emerged from the birth pangs of the Big Bang (or Brane Theory, if one follows Quantum Mechanic)! Apparently, however, these teachings have now changed, probably at the whim of more recent Prophets within the LDS Church.
Of course, before being indoctrinated into some of the latter Mysteries of the Mormon Church, and having a basic under-standing of biology at that time, Wade began to pose some very spiritually-advanced questions to the Missionaries, which they were clearly not comfortable answering: "Does 'God' have a wife?" Their answer proved life-changing: "We believe He does, but we don't pray to Her; He loves Her so much that He does not reveal Her name to us so that mankind cannot disrespect Her by taking Her name in vain." Nuts to that! he thought. So, despite the Missionaries' fervent objections, he began to pray to the Goddess (in whatever name he knew Her by) from that night onward.
And, so his journey to the Old Religion began... Of course this process was made all-the-more easy thanks to his education in comparative mythology and Religious Studies.
Consequently, he has since held the position that Missionaries (regardless of the denomination) ought to be banned from evangelizing in order to "convert" the beautiful "primitive", or still extent pagan religions, that proliferate this planet! it would be a true shame to see them extinct. Missionaries are, after all, one of the greatest threats to native culture, and a scourge to the Anthropologist! Albeit this is a controversial position, he would fully support any legislation to this effect that would be put to a vote.
Wade maintains a generally busy schedule writing a number of pagan-themed articles (which have been published in the U.S. and abroad). However, he also plans to publish two books in collaboration with author and High Priestess, Anna Franklin (England); while a number of solo-projects are currently in their very early stages. He is legally-ordained Pagan Clergy within the state of Iowa, and is working towards a position as volunteer Chaplain in a local Hospital and Prison Ministerial programs.
However, politically-speaking, Wade is a dyed-in-the-wool Socialist; he reject the imperialistic notion of class-distinction as detrimental to the well-being of humanity.
He continues to study medicinal herbalism (donning the mantle of "Healer" as his Medieval coevals did), as well as physiology and how the organs and fluids function in conjunction with various herbal remedies. He will soon be studying as an Appren-tice under Herbalist, Trilby Sedlacek (Iowa's only certified Herbalist from the American Herbalists' Guild). Until then, he is content to grow medicinal and ritual herbs in his Witch's Garden which he uses to cook nourishing meals, brew Potions, and yield fragrantly-scented infusions.
As a Witch, crafting Potions is his greatest passion!
But, it was his own health-needs that ultimately lead him down the Path of the Healer. In late February of 2000 he was finally diagnosed with Ménière's Disease [abbr. MM] when his ENT [Ear, Nose & Throat Dr.] referred him to the specialist Vestibular Disorder dept. of the Hospital at the University of Iowa City. The diagnosis came after a battery or nausea-inducing tests to ensure that he didn't have a brain tumor, or some other medical condition. Sadly, this is a syndrome with no known cause, and no known cure; he has been afflicted with it since early Jr. High School—only one in one-hundred patients is ever diagnosed with MM before the age of 18, and there appears to be some genetic component to it; however, there is no known cause nor cure for this dreadful syndrome, which has been known to lead to dispare and depression. (For more information, please consult the hyper-link, above.)
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