Liber ab Familia (Book of Familiars—Condensed^1211
communicated messages between the Witch and Satan can be found here, in the
familiar’s communication between anyone who would listen and the natural world of
which we are part but which the Church desperately sought to separate from. Remem-
ber, the Church State of the Burning Times taught that their God was supernatural
and widely opposed the concepts of gods and goddesses that had developed naturally
alongside humanity. That Church opposed nature and the explanation of natural law
(science) and attempted to snuff it out at every turn. The discovery of natural laws, like
the Earth is round and in orbit around the sun, was met with execution. Science was
then lumped in with the Church State’s boogieman because their word satan comes
from the Semitic word for adversary (sometimes incorrectly cited as Ha-Satan). Cer-
tainly any creature that spoke to us of all things natural would be viewed as adversarial
(satanic) to their supernatural (“Of or relating to existence outside the natural world”)^2
God and the heavens in which he ruled.
In embracing animals and the natural world in which we belong, we become the
adversaries of any power structure that would think otherwise. When we stand and say
no, you may not pit dogs against each other for amusement and betting, we become the
adversaries. When we say yes, we will punish you for organizing cockfights, we become
the adversaries of any power structure that would think otherwise. We are winning,
and times they are a-changing. Promoting such events is now illegal in most of the
civilized world. Yes, when the fight organizers are brought to court they quote the
Christian Bible in defense of their actions. Yes, the punishments are far too low in the
opinion of many, including myself. But these things will also change with the changing
of our society’s group consciousness. This is where Wicca and religions with similar
ethics comes in. By conducting ourselves in accordance with the ethics that we arrive at
by exploring the mystery of our religion, we find that those ethics manifest in our ac-
tions and in our words.
Think about those folk who organize dog fights and cock fights. More and more,
their rants cause folk to become sickened. More and more, people turn away from the
old Church State style of Christianity in disgust and perhaps more importantly, more
and more Christians are accepting the idea that the translation of the word ‘dominion’
would have better been ‘stewardship.’ I say more importantly because no matter what
one claims their religion to be, no matter what word they use or what they do in church
or ritual, what matters is what their soul tells them that religion is and what they do in
between church or ritual. Let’s face it, most of us live in a Christian society and hope to
do so peacefully. But it is impossible to do so with a Wiccan soul if that society contin-
ues to subscribe to medieval ideas that the animals exist for the amusement of men. So
as that predominantly Christian society transforms its view on animal rights, we fall
from the position of adversary, we become less ‘satanic,’ and in that transition we are
instrumental in bettering the lives not only of humanity, but of all who share this world.
You see, the agents of the power structure are now on our side. Where once they
sought those who would dare befriend our connections to the natural world, today law
enforcement seeks those who would harm these critters without cause such that they
can be brought before the courts—the power structures—and punished for their crimest WB Chap 12.p65 211 7/11/2003, 5:55 PM