Social worker is a witch

[kal]

will people ever get over the fear of pagan's
During the day Fiona McColl is a senior child protection officer and assesses youngsters who may be at risk of abuse.
But at night she swaps tips about spells with warlocks and sorcerers on website Dark Renaissance.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006110511,00.html

[KaidaMidnight]

Not anytime soon I'm afraid. :(

[kal]

if you do your job well
its nobody else's business what you do with your spare time

[Rurik]

Well we can't have our kids being exposed to ANY alternate lifestyles now can we. :rolleyes:

[Astara Seague]

I have to agree if you do your job well who cares what you do in your spare time unless of course it harms your own clients, which no true witch would do, I am a counsler ...and a witch:ghost: :broomride

[MysticWitch]

if you do your job well
its nobody else's business what you do with your spare time

I agree

[Alanea]

if you do your job well
its nobody else's business what you do with your spare time

Totally, Totally, Totally agree. It's just so sad that there is still so much fear. As far as the article, you have to assume that there's a lot she said to help her cause that the reporter left out. But, that's "news" in general.

I respect her employer for not adding fuel to the fire.

[Rurik]

Of course it would help if we could get rid of all those wannabewiccans who go around saying they'll put a curse on everyone, that'd get rid of some fear and free us from being considered a joke by a lot of people.

[smckim]

It saddens me to say, but I don't think it will change. As long as there are ignorant people in this world we will have this problem. People fear the things that they don't understand.

[kal]

Of course it would help if we could get rid of all those wannabewiccans who go around saying they'll put a curse on everyone, that'd get rid of some fear and free us from being considered a joke by a lot of people. i second you on that one
the media has a lot to answer for also
they love to fan the flames of intolerance

[WitchCraftWeaver]

Hmm, so it's ok to go to the PUB after work, get tanked up on Dark Ale and mow down innocent people as you drive home drunk?

I'll take my chances with the Witch thank you very much, at a minimum she's got ETHICS and I'm Sure she's probably a very nice person and very good at her job.

[David19]

I don't think people in Britain care whether someone is a wiccan, a witch or whatever, only fundamentalists (and they're not a majority).

As a side note, i don't like the way she' says 'i'm not a bad person, i'm not a satanist' in the same breath, it's not like Satanist's are bad people, most seem cool (except for the anti-Semitic, neo-nazi Joy of Satan).

[Chesna]

I am also a Social Worker- and like this lady work in Child Protection..and I am a WITCH!!!! But i am still in the broom closet so many do not know..but I thnk my spirituality has helped me deal with the horrible aspects of my job!!!

Chesna

[Rurik]

:hehehehe: I've actually had people try to exorcise me because they thought I was possessed just because I wore a pentagram, splashed me with holy water and shouted "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!" So I splashed them with the water I was holding and shouted "THE POWER OF THE GODDESS COMPELS YOU!" I've NEVER seen a bible thumper so mad before, but that's what they get, I won't try to force my religion on anyone, but if they try to do it to me I won't hesitate to push back harder, and I know a LOT more about religions than most of them so I can defend my case much better than they could ever dream.

[smckim]

Of course it would help if we could get rid of all those wannabewiccans who go around saying they'll put a curse on everyone, that'd get rid of some fear and free us from being considered a joke by a lot of people.
Yep the "Blessed WannaBe's" The one's that want attention, and one way to get it is to go around freaking people out, talking about cursing them and worse! I think Hollywood feeds them plenty of crap for them to use in a destructive way.

[BlueMoon13]

Hmm, so it's ok to go to the PUB after work, get tanked up on Dark Ale and mow down innocent people as you drive home drunk?

I'll take my chances with the Witch thank you very much, at a minimum she's got ETHICS and I'm Sure she's probably a very nice person and very good at her job.
Oh no! Not the DARK ale?!?:awilly: :awilly: _inabox_

[Rurik]

Yep the "Blessed WannaBe's" The one's that want attention, and one way to get it is to go around freaking people out, talking about cursing them and worse! I think Hollywood feeds them plenty of crap for them to use in a destructive way.
Like the move Cursed or whatever from a few years ago, or An American Werewolf in London. (which I do love even though they called it a pentangle instead of pentacle or pentagram)

[michiganwiccanman]

:hehehehe: I've actually had people try to exorcise me because they thought I was possessed just because I wore a pentagram, splashed me with holy water and shouted "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!" So I splashed them with the water I was holding and shouted "THE POWER OF THE GODDESS COMPELS YOU!" I've NEVER seen a bible thumper so mad before, but that's what they get, I won't try to force my religion on anyone, but if they try to do it to me I won't hesitate to push back harder, and I know a LOT more about religions than most of them so I can defend my case much better than they could ever dream.

I think Rurik is my new personal hero lol.

[Rurik]

I think Rurik is my new personal hero lol.
Can I be your personal villain instead? It's more fun, of course I just like doing my evil muahaha laugh. ^_^

[Meadhbh]

Or that whole Craft issue. Years ago someone said something about the whole attention seeking thing that still cuts to the point. The more they talk about to random people the less they know. Its never the "normal" pagan/wiccan that people see. Its always the dress in black and claim to drink the blood of babies while hexing every thing that moves. Since their the one's out there with the attention people never stop to think that the person sitting next to the above mentioned person, wearing a jeans maybe pagan and have it together a great deal more than the little attention whore screaming their pagan from the roof tops.

[WitchCraftWeaver]

Oh no! Not the DARK ale?!?:awilly: :awilly: _inabox_


Yeah, you know, its the beverage :achug: of choice for ALL followers for the Dark Side...:rotfl:

[michiganwiccanman]

Can I be your personal villain instead? It's more fun, of course I just like doing my evil muahaha laugh. ^_^
Can't go wrong with the evil laugh =)

[Green Fairy]

if you do your job well
its nobody else's business what you do with your spare time


though i wish all of society lived that way, though for some reason people feel the need to know everything that is going on in a person's life

[Toby Stimpson]

I am studying socuial work at a canadian college in Toronto, and we have always been taught that our personal beliefs are not to be brought into working with our clients. If they do then you are being very unprofessional...I'd be speculative on how the newspaper came to know about her personal life. However, there are, atleast in the Canadian social worker code of ethics a whole section protecting one's personal beliefs from discrimination. But rememebr also this is a British magazine, London magazine at that...and Britain and North America are VASTLY different in some areas, especially in culture and society.

Namaste

Tobias

[Cindlady2]

Of course it would help if we could get rid of all those wannabewiccans who go around saying they'll put a curse on everyone, that'd get rid of some fear and free us from being considered a joke by a lot of people.

HOW TRUE!!!
Too many (especially the young) seem to want to treat Wicca/Paganism as either a fashion statement or act of defiance. These 'foe' witches are often the ones that shed a bad light on the rest of us!
Don't get me wrong, I've helped many serious young people find a path, but I've also turned down as many who were wanted it for all the wrong reasons.

It would be so nice if people didn't think our religion reflected (negatively) on how we do our jobs or raise our family!

[ValD]

I am studying socuial work at a canadian college in Toronto, and we have always been taught that our personal beliefs are not to be brought into working with our clients. If they do then you are being very unprofessional...I'd be speculative on how the newspaper came to know about her personal life.
She posts on forums and has a blog (http://reflectionsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/). So either somebody 'outed' her, or some reporter was reading the same sites.
She sounds like an interesting lady - not at all fluffy.
She's also a Canadian!

BTW, the Sun is a national newspaper, not a magazine.

[Green Fairy]

i love the fact that in some way her employer spoke up for her, in saying that what happens outside of work is their private lives

[Infinite Grey]

Though a little sarcastic, perhaps in that the journalist didn't believe the story was quite news worthy, I saw nothing wrong with this article. I mean, the workmate voiced an honest opinion, and you'll have to admit that there are a lot of ignorance surrounding some pagan's attitudes towards Christians. I see nothing sad about it, except people making it more than what it was... I light article

[Toby Stimpson]

She posts on forums and has a blog (http://reflectionsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/). So either somebody 'outed' her, or some reporter was reading the same sites.
She sounds like an interesting lady - not at all fluffy.
She's also a Canadian!

BTW, the Sun is a national newspaper, not a magazine.

Hehehe I concede....newspaper not magazine ;). Hmmm, interesting blog...that is hers I take it? Really though of what ive learned and if she was taught social work here as well in Canada she would have been conditioned to keep her own beliefs seperate from her practices. Not everybody knows this though unfortunatly...and unless the woman in question comes in and decorates her office with pentacles and pentagrams, or breaks confidentiality and self disclosure her employers should have no problem with it, well apart from the obvious reason that she shouldnt have any problems at all.

Namaste

Tobias

[Toby Stimpson]

She posts on forums and has a blog (http://reflectionsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/). So either somebody 'outed' her, or some reporter was reading the same sites.
She sounds like an interesting lady - not at all fluffy.
She's also a Canadian!

BTW, the Sun is a national newspaper, not a magazine.

Hehehe I concede....newspaper not magazine ;). Hmmm, interesting blog...that is hers I take it? Really though of what ive learned and if she was taught social work here as well in Canada she would have been conditioned to keep her own beliefs seperate from her practices. Not everybody knows this though unfortunatly...and unless the woman in question comes in and decorates her office with pentacles and pentagrams, or breaks confidentiality and self disclosure her employers should have no problem with it, well apart from the obvious reason that she shouldnt have any problems at all.

Namaste

Tobias

[NiftyWings]

I'm also a Social Worker. I do case management for the Welfare to Work program, and half my caseload is a special assignment....the "crossover" cases, which are families who are on cash aid and also have an open Child Welfare case.

I don't flaunt my beliefs, but don't make a special effort to hide them, either. I have small pentacles hanging at my desk....one is beaded, the other is twigs and wire. I have several different pendants that I wear to work: a pentacle (which I keep under my shirt when meeting w/ clients), a goddess, and a yoni carved from amber. Nobody's ever given me a hassle. I know we have fundies at my office, but either they don't notice, or know better than to give me any grief about it.

And Rurik? WE'RE NOT WORTHY!! WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!

[Earthy]

When i read this in the paper, i had to laugh at such ignorance.
So what..she's a witch..i hardly think that means she's going to take these vulnerable kids and sacrifice them in a woodland ritual!!!!
the media loves to twist things i'm afraid, and with stories like this, how is anybody going to understand.

[BeigeAllen]

Welcome to the difference between theory and practice:

Theory:if you do your job well its nobody else's business what you do with your spare time
Practice:if you do your job too well, your coworkers will make it their life's mission to dig through what you do in your spare time looking for something they can use to make themselves look better since you are showing them up

[Djiril]

One thing I'm wondering about:
Fiona also claims to be “very close to her inner badger” and writes helpful titbits to other witches. These include: “Although easily mistaken for candy, holly is quite poisonous.”
Now this must be taken out of context, but is holly really mistaken for candy that often?

[NiftyWings]

One thing I'm wondering about:

Now this must be taken out of context, but is holly really mistaken for candy that often?

Just speaking for myself here, but I have never had the urge to eat holly. Maybe it's a warning for folks with young kids? If you bring holly into the house to decorate for Yule, little ones might be tempted to eat the pretty berries.

[morningstar2651]

She struck me as a tad bit fluffy. I did some searching - it looks like "Dark Renaissance" is listed as a goth group, not a religious group. Also, their website was hosted on geocities, but I'm not finding any links that work.

She could have at least chosen a respectable publication. A tabloid!? I just read her blog. She rants about the bad journalism...yet she choose to interview and she supports speaking ones mind (though, apparently, only if you're in agreement with her).

[Gypsy flower]

I have to agree if you do your job well who cares what you do in your spare time unless of course it harms your own clients, which no true witch would do, I am a counsler ...and a witch:ghost: :broomride
and a d***** good one too!!!