So last night on The Modern Witch, Devin and I decided to talk a bit about the whole controversy surrounding this reformation or re-imagining, if you will, of the 1974 Council of American Witches.  This has become quite the crazy situation, going from a group that was supposedly being asked to form in order to update the US Army Chaplin Handbook to eventually just saying they were coming together in hopes of being able to help local and state governments work with and understand the Pagan community.  There is a lot of stuff in between those two steps, and I’ll address some of my thoughts in a minutes, but the reason I wanted to write this post was because I had a couple people email me saying that they felt my thoughts and opinions surrounding the new Council were “too harsh” and “lacking the optimistic, positive energy that the Pagan community so desperately needs.”  In part because I want to address those charges, but also because I just wanted to bring the topic to the table for discussion, I thought I’d write a bit about my thoughts and views here for those that didn’t catch the show (and even for those that have no clue what this is all about in the first place).

First, a little history…
If you’re unfamiliar with the American Council of Witches from the 1970’s, don’t beat yourself up about it.  A lot of people have no clue who or what they were but many people are familiar with “The 13 Principles of Wiccan Belief” that this group put together in 1974.  It’s been published in various books over the years, spread around the internet, and even used as educational material both in and outside of the Pagan community.  I first discovered it sometime in the mid-1990’s when I first read Silver Ravenwolf’s “To Ride A Silver Broomstick”.  On page 5, in a section titled “What Witches Are Made Of” she presents the brief history of the group and then reprints the Principles stressing “Take time to read it, word for word.  Don’t scan it.  Each year you should reaffirm these beliefs in some way…”  The Principles are helpful, and the original intentions behind their creation was to help educate and inform the public.  Later on, because of the efforts of Council head Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, president of Llewellyn Publishing, the Principles were incorporated into the Army Chaplin Handbook.  The group ultimately disbanded in the same year for many of the reasons that you would image a group of 73 Pagans might have trouble with in a group like this; it was hard to reconcile the ideas and beliefs of so many different traditions into a single, cohesive group.

Enter the US American Council of Witches
Then earlier this month the word started to spread around the internet that the group was reforming, so to speak.  Jason Pitzl-Waters posted a brief interview on his blog, The Wild Hunt, on October 12th with Pagan author and musician Kenny Klein who was, according to the now changed Facebook page that the group has, was supposedly acting in the role of PR Rep.  In the article Klein talks about how some of the goals of the group included revising the Army Chaplin’s Handbook and redrafting the original set of Principles.

The big sticking point here was how and why the group was apparently coming back together.  Klein, and the groups (again, now changed) Facebook page stated that the group was forming at the request of the US Army in order to do this re-write of the Pagan elements of the Chaplin’s Hanbook.  Klein stated that the group was coming together at the Army’s request, possibly from a request made directly to Pagan elder Oberon Zell, who are part of the original Council.  Somehow this then went to a woman by the name of Kaye Berry, a psychic from Illinois (who seems to like going by the name Mz. Kaye or Rev. Kaye, depending on the circumstances you’re talking to her in), who was acting as the spearhead of this new group which was going by the name of US American Council of Witches.  Their Facebook page prominently featured a PayPal donation button, asking the community for financial help in order to get things off the ground, and sending out requests to various people in the Pagan community asking for people to become part of the Council.  A list of names, bios, and faces began to accumulate on their page, featuring everyone from “Mz” Berry herself, Oberon Zell, and Kenny Klein to lesser known individuals who were joining up…to the Witch from “Wife Swap”.

The Council was also starting to sound like a general interfaith council at one point from some of the descriptions.  It would be open to Pagans, Wiccans, Witches, non-Witches, polytheists, and the like.  The “more the merrier” mentality was starting to signal some possible concerns among some people in the community.  Their Facebook page also featured laundry list of spiritual and religious traditions that it wanted to help represent.  Thelemites, Cabot Witches, Nocturnal Witches, Eclectics, Druids, Neo-Pagans, Neo-Wiccans, and just about everything in between.  This is then followed by a list of all US states with a set of two numbers next to them saying that they have “sent notices to these groups in these states.”

But what is really going on?
Everyone was so excited about the thought of a big, happy group of Pagans getting along that people began donating money and spreading their press release to promote the group, all the while not realizing that there were a lot of big questions that needed to be answered.

1. Who is Kaye Berry and why is this woman the person who is heading this group and its efforts?
2. How are the other “Council members” being chosen?  Who’s picking them?
3. Why is there a need for donations at the onset?  What is the money needed for?
4. If people are going to be giving donations, is this group a 501(c)3?  Or is this “for profit”?
5. What groups and individuals are being contacted in the different states and what is this that they are being contacted with?
6. Exactly WHO is this group claiming to represent and in what capacity?

Part of the mission statement for the groups states, on their Facebook page:

“The goals set forth will include: a set of common Traditional Principles, a revision of the Army’s Manual, a document for law enforcement, the various Government Bodies and a possible revision of The Thirteen Principles of Belief.”

But it was now coming out that the military never made a request for a revision (Berry would admit this herself after the other version of the story was spreading around) and the idea of a “set of common Traditional Principles” was making people of various traditions express some concern and worry.  Things that may be high on the list of “Traditional Principles” for a group of Santeria practitioners may not be the same as those of a group of Cabot Witches, or Eclectics, or Neo-Wiccans, etc.  So how would this happen in a way that wouldn’t result in an epic collapse of the group?

So we wanted to get some more info from the source…
Devin and I were both finding out some really interesting things about what was happening behind the scenes and we wanted to try and get some answers.   So Devin sent Kaye Berry and email asking her if she would come on to the show on Tuesday to just answer some of these basic questions.  We never heard back from her.

But in between sending that email and the show there were more interesting developments.  Now the US American Council of Witches was dividing up into three separate groups, but all seemingly with the same mission statements and intentions of being resources for information and education to the communities, states, and government with regard to Paganism.  Now there was the US American Council of Witches, the American Council of Pagans, and the American Council of Natural Earth Religions. Both the American Council of Pagans and American Council of Natural Earth Religions have the following as their (I’m guessing temporary) mission statement:

“We shall gather together in interfaith dialog, to draft a set of Common Principles, Mission Statement, Purpose, Compiling an interfaith manual to be used by government officials, state officials, county officials, including the police and chaplain’s involved with prisons and jail systems.”

The Wild Hunt would run a news brief follow up to the original interview with Kenny Klein that was simply a statement from the US American Council of Witches that read:

“I wish to clarify one point. We were never notified by the US Army to revise their manual. We have been contacted from several Federal and State’s to create a manual/guide for them to utilize when dealing with a person who falls under the: Pagan/Wicca ~ Natural Earth Religions. We shall use the Army’s Manual as a guide only. A copy of which will be distributed to ALL Services(Navy, Marines etc…, ALL Federal Government offices, Every State Government office, ALL Federal prison’s, ALL State’s prisons, ALL County’s Jails(in each state), ALL Chaplains in ALL the Hospitals in all states…….. So we are looking at around probably 10,000 books/manuals/guides. We are probably underestimating ourselves. A complete listing will be on our web page when it is operational.”

But again, exactly WHO is contacting WHO and asking for this information; and exactly WHAT information needs to be addressed?

Shortly after this the Facebook page changed.  All names and bios were removed, the three groups were now out there for people to check out, and the group was suddenly “taking a break” in order to answer all the emails it was apparently buried under.  They even put out the request for volunteers to help answer their email (!!!) and, naturally, they got some help and as of October 25th they claim to be “all caught up”.

And then, in what seemed like damage control, things changed…
I did a little reading around the original group’s Facebook page (since this is all they have, there is no website as of yet), looking for some more info.  The PayPal button doesn’t seem to be anywhere anymore, however on October 18th a comment to the status update stating there was a donation button said:

“This money that you donate will be for expenses, web site, stamps, envelopes, printing material. You have the right to know where your money goes. Right now we have a sponsor that will match donations dollar for dollar. This offer will expire Nov 1st.” October 18 at 2:33pm

All the bios and info about the members were removed from the main page but you can still find them in the Notes section for the group.  The only person that seems to have been given an “official title” is Kenny Klein who is listed as Public Relations.

Also on October 18th was a status update stating that a “new press release” was in the works.

So what was, or more to the point, is, my beef…
Again, it’s wanting more transparency, more answers, more clarity, especially from a group that from what seemed like inception was shamelessly asking the community for cash donations to help its cause.

In a lot of ways this is already appearing to be a PR nightmare from the start.  There was a rush to get support before having things organized, it’s barely even walking and it’s already divided into three different groups (with one person commenting on the American Council of Pagans page that being “more pagan than wiccan, I like this council” which, to me, only illustrates more of a point of how nuts this might get).

I’m also wicked curious to know about their 501(c)3 status that they claim to have on their WitchVox listing.  As someone who was involved with a Wiccan church that went through the process of getting that status, I can tell you it is NOT easy and takes MONTHS, at best, in order to satisfy the requirements and to get this status.  So I find it hard to believe that this group formed and got their non-profit religious status in a matter of weeks.  The splitting up of the group alone would be enough to put that status (legally) into question.

Don’t wait for some big “Council of 13”, be an advocate yourself!
Like I said last night, and I say it again here, I think that people coming together to create small, local groups in their own states that can help be contacts to local and state police and governments are FAR more necessary and needed than large posturing groups of people who have a very nameless, faceless appearance and who’s inability to get on the same page is just illustrating the point that getting a bunch of Pagans together really IS like herding cats.  Many states already have advocacy organizations in place.  Do a search online or on WitchVox, contact any groups in your local area, and see if there is something in place that you might not be aware of and see how you can help and get involved!  I honestly believe that these kinds of organizations are going to be far more viable in the end.  A small group of people trying to help out their local communities or states will stand much more of a fighting chance of making strides toward understanding.