Politics & Witch Wars, Growth

This past week has been one of revelations, new friendships, trials and exposure. Lots of people who have never heard of FWTI or myself, personally, have stumbled across my blog, read my entries and gotten to know me back list away from the din of political wrangling.

However, all of this new, intense attention caused a Dragonstone Family Coven member to point out that none of these new eyes actually know me. It was suggested the time might be ripe for an introduction.

First thing you should know is I hate politics and witch wars. I have never seen any good come out of either. That being said, I am politically active. Last Presidential election, my son and I drove voters to the polls all day. I held signs espousing my various opinions. In fact, I have held a lot of signs at rallies and taken a lot of stances on various issues of one kind or another.

Obviously, I do not shy away from an opinion just because it might be controversial. My mother tells people I was born with soap boxes on my feet as a point of explanation.

However, I do hate politics and witch wars because the din they cause is confusion. The issues get reduced into who is cool or right at the moment and who is the nerd or wrong at the moment. It becomes about people personally, not the actions that they do. It is the action after all that tends to be harmful. I hate politics because it reminds me of high school and college. It was never about an issue that mattered just about the specific kind of nastiness humans can create when they are ruled by judgment of others. Here I am well over thirty years old and still the old nastiness survives.

Currently there is a knock down drag out witch war occurring between AJ Drew and The Frosts. It has degenerated into name calling, back stabbing and basically the best damn soap opera going. It certainly has kept lots of people glued to their computer screens reading the latest blogs and gleefully snickering at the cheap shots and insinuations being flung about like monkey poo. While we watch the poo fly, once again the focus is being detracted from the victims and innocent, the real issues are abandoned.

I abhor child molesters, rapists and abusers of all kinds. I have a degree in psychology and have spent hundreds of hours of my life with battered women and adult survivors of incest. My hatred of people teaching others how to become a pedophile or justify any form of pedophilia far out dates the past few weeks. My manuscripts first chapter gives specific examples I have personally had within the Neo-Pagan community regarding sexual misconduct disguising itself as Earth Based Spirituality. My disgust is generated by the physical, emotional and mental destruction these acts cause.

If you want to know what makes this a hot button issue, go and sit with a woman whose parent infected her with HIV or who was forced to face abortion issues because of her pregnancy by her father. Sit with adult children who struggle with parenting today because of the mental, physical or emotional abuse they endured at the hands of their own family. The statistics tell me that if you were to choose to sit with someone who had had these experiences one out of five of the women and one out of seven or eight of the men would be sitting alone, contemplating their own pain, their own private horrors typically unseen by others and never spoken of.

What makes this even more horrifying is that we are talking about ritualistic abuse. Abuse conceived, planned and purposefully carried out in the name of Goddess and God. In the name of Gaia, our mother, in the name of Great Spirit, our Sky Father, in the names of Isis, Adonis, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna, Morrigan, Cerridwen, Freya, Shakty, Hauthor, Rhiannon, Raya, Mach, in the names of these blessed and Holy Goddesses, young girls are laid down, molested, given over to intercourse by adults who have been charged with their psychological and physical development and well being.

I believe there are few who read this that are not mortified by that. I don't think that many who have disassociated themselves from AJ Drew would believe that this behavior is right, good or healthy. It is hard, though, to focus on these smallest victims when insults are being hurled left and right. It is hard to take a stance when there is a feeling of a Witch Hunt atmosphere in the air.

I understand. The real issue can quickly get lost in the din of political maneuvering.

However - don't throw out this issue! Look at your own children and think about the root issues at work here. You know adults who have been pressured to have sex for "spiritual" reasons. One of the women I most admired was raped as her first degree initiation, a scar that she has spent years recovering from. She was an adult when this occurred, not some small child whose social and psychological development is on going. I am not foolish enough to think she is some unusual occurrence.

We have an opportunity to grow beyond ourselves. To raise above the poo flinging and into a higher level of consciousness and behavior. We can say: Of course we despise pedophiles and any publication that gives written instructions on how to carry out such acts. AND while that is true, it is also true that name calling, belittling and bullying have never actually won any fights worth fighting. Think carefully about how people like Jim Jones and Charles Mansion won over converts. Think about how when you isolate people you make them vulnerable to the very predators you are trying to keep them from.

I do not believe a rejection of one group of poor behaviors is an acceptance of another group of poor behaviors.

Dia is her own Man er Woman er Priestess,
FWTI is Run By a Board of Directors


My name is Lydia M. Crabtree. My craft name is Lady Adialawyddan Dragonstone. However, if you call me Lady outside of circle I am likely to laugh at you. (Except for Sharon who has called me Lady all my life. It's a Southern thing.) Nobody calls me Lydia or Adialawyddan (good luck pronouncing that). Everyone calls me Dia, just, Dia.

I am my own person. I have never had opinions that I blindly accepted from others. I am sure there are past teachers who could vouch for my unwillingness to just agree. Some of the greatest and most important spiritual discoveries I have personally made have come when I was walking down roads where others dare not tread. They have come when I was willing to explore opinions and beliefs that others would glimpse briefly at and dismiss. This is me. I will not stop doing this. However, no one should ever mistake an agreement I may have with someone with an absolute espousal to every belief professed by a person or group.

Case in point, my son is a Cub Scout. I think Scouting is one of the greatest organizations for making young boys into men. Cub Scouting doesn't recognize Wicca as a religion. Further, Scouts have a stance regarding homosexuality that I do not agree with. However, I continue to participate and financially support Scouting. My son has gained so much and by my participating I demonstrate the strength of my own religion. This is a lesson in diplomacy.

We all hold a small portion of the truth. Some of us are holding a smaller portion than others. Sometimes the portion of truth we may have is overshadowed by a lack of emotional discipline or the acts of pure harm we cause. However, that doesn't negate the small truth they may have gained.

So if you THINK you know what I really believe, think or espouse, perhaps you should email me and find out. Chances are what you think you know is only a small fraction of reality. I would assert this is probably true for most people.

I am the co-founder of Family Wiccan Traditions International. However, my opinions are my own. The Board of Directors run FWTI. They do so by vote. One vote for one Board position. There are currently nearly 8 persons outside of myself who vote.

What I write, what I think, what I do is not an endorsement by Family Wiccan Traditions International. I am a woman who had an idea that has been taken over by others and is now being tended by all of us.


FWTI was founded on some simple premises.


Each Family Coven is different and their beliefs and ideas will be different. FWTI is an organization that doesn't penalize people for differences. FWTI views the various family traditions out there as a source of strength that will permit earth based spirituality to grow and develop in ways that have only been dreamed of until now.

FWTI does not believe in the need for intercession. No coven, grove, group, person or association is necessary for a Family Coven to find and cultivate their own spirituality. In fact, FWTI believes that parents SHOULD NEVER give up the spiritual leadership of their own Family Coven to anyone but the God and Goddess. FWTI has been teaching these type of ideas since 2001 when the website first went live. It was a response to the experience of myself, my husband and many others to traditional craft.

FWTI believes that families should put their Family Coven first. The outside community will wait, what is important is the family you live with, ever how family is defined.

FWTI believes the role of community is practical support. Food when people are sick or there is a death or birth. Babysitting services for a single mom who needs some time alone or for the new parents who haven't slept in three months. Energy for healing, manifestation of the Family Coven's needs and for thanksgiving of all the Family Coven has already been blessed with. Community is for fellowship - NOT dictatorship. Community shouldn't be about laying out some specific dogma of practice. Community should be about learning and growing from one another. This is best accomplished by experiencing the differences that reveal the different truths each Family Coven possesses.

When these truths are brought together the understanding we are capable of having grows exponentially.

And - this is just my opinion. What FWTI was founded on and how it has changed and developed are two different things. You could always ask the other Board members what they think FWTI is about. I know they each have their own opinion.