As we lead up to tonight’s Modern Witch show where we’re going to once again addressing the questions and concerns about the US American Council of Witches with some of our guests (hopefully for one of the last times…but we’ll see) I wanted to share what has happened since our attempt, yet again, to get some questions answered by either Kaye Berry or the Council.  As you know we (Devin and I, as media, not individuals with any personal axe to grind despite what some might think) sent an email to Berry, the Council, and all known Council members on Sunday, and we have not heard anything back other than Berry saying her lawyer would look at it and then she’d get back to us.  Apparently a lot more went down as a result of that on Monday, and we’ll be talking about that on the show tonight, but there have been some changes, changes that I think are positive ones!

US American Council of Witches is no longer listed on WitchVox as a 501(c)3 organization.
This has been one of the biggest issues that we have wanted to get some answers to.  Being a Pagan 501(c)3 organization is a bit of a big deal with regard to credibility and legitimacy.  It also says a lot about what happens to money that is donated to the group, whether it’s given freely by individuals, groups, covens, etc, or whether it’s solicited through websites and other promotional means.  Below you’ll see a screen shot of their WitchVox listing from Saturday, November 12, 2011.  (click to see full size)

And here is their listing as of today, November 15, 2011. (click to see full size)

Things to notice…

1. Kaye Berry is no longer the Key Contact listed
2. No longer listed as a 501(c)3 or an incorporated organization
3. The Facebook page is no longer in the listing
4. There is no description for the group and what they’re doing
5. The date of formation has changed from 1974, the year the original Council gathered, to 2011 when this new and separate group came together

Also note in these images that the URL is visible and it is the same URL, so the post was just updated and it’s not a new or different post.

These, to me, are all positive changes!  This shows that someone, whether it’s Kaye Berry or someone else within the organization, is stepping up and getting things in line with the truth and not leading the Pagan community on with false claims!  Bravo, really!

This is the only big visible change so far.  The Temple of the Phoenix page, one of Berry’s URLs, still has the US American Witches Council page up, still with no info and only a Paypal donation button that when clicked still points to another of her businesses, Mother Nature’s Emporium.

They have hidden their notes section with all the Council Member info on their Facebook page.
One step forward two steps back, in my opinion.  This is interesting because previously this was quite the “meat and potatoes” of the page, giving the only insight into who was behind this.  Now all the names have been stricken from the (public) record, so to speak, and there’s no telling who’s involved.  To be fair, I think this is wise.  Clearly they weren’t in a position to share this with the public yet since members are added and removed so quickly and truly it never should have been shared at this point (but then I don’t feel the group should have gone public yet in the first place since it clearly wasn’t ready for prime time, but that’s just me).

They have also changed their Facebook page info multiple times in the last few days.  The latest and most notable change was the removal of the list of supposed sponsors of the organization.    We know of at least one church sponsor, Church of the Living Earth out of Columbus, Ohio who has pulled their support because of the questions and lack of answers surrounding the organization.  I commend Michelle Griffin and her organization for handling their decision with such grace.

But they are still deleting comments.
Yesterday Storm Faerywolf commented on one of their posts, but after about 45 minutes it was deleted with the usual lack of response and attempt to emulate the disaster clean up crew SERVPRO and make it like it never happened.  (click for full size)

Storm is our featured guest tonight on The Modern Witch and we’ll be discussing this with him along with our originally planned topics of discussion, which will include the Feri Tradition and Storm’s work with Blue Lotus Reiki.