Peter Solheim's secret life


The exception, not the rule.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see this one. Usually when someone ties witchcraft to a crime, someone in the press tries to make witchcraft and Paganism part of the crime. That's why it is important to look at someone's individual actions.

Ronald Hutton, professor of history at the University of Bristol and author of books on paganism and witchcraft, told the court an "extraordinarily large and impressive" store of ingredients used for spells and potions were found in Mr Solheim's attic.

Mr Hutton said more than 40 books were found on different aspects of magic and witchcraft.

'Very unusual'

He told BBC News: "What was so remarkable about the collection of things found in Peter Solheim's attic was that it was a vast assemblage of ingredients for casting spells, with almost no relevance to religion at all.

"It was all about power, about his ability to exert his will over others and over other things."

Some of the spells he was attempting to cast involved trying to seduce women and trying to harm his enemies, he said.

"It is very, very unusual to find someone interested in witchcraft purely as a means of personal gain and for selfish reasons.

"I have met literally thousands of modern pagan witches and the deceased man's trial is the first I have ever encountered that actually practised what might be called bad magic, or in old fashioned terms, black magic."

The ethics of magic and magical practice are a lot more involved than most of my readers here will want to go into. Let's just say that of the people who know what they are doing, most of them have no interest or reason to use what they know on the random person. Any more than a martial artist will go around kicking ass for no reason, or a stock car racer will blow the doors off everyone on the highway just because.

Most Pagans I know would go out of their way to help police nail someone who uses witchcraft or Paganism as an excuse for predatory behavior. That has been done in the past, ad-hoc networks thrown together to track someone down.

Oh, Ronald Hutton is probably one of the best experts in his field. Great writer too.

Hat tip to The Wild Hunt Blog.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - July 6, 2006 at 04:34 AM  Tag


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