Why Fireside Wicca is kid friendly (open-to-public pagan ritual)

Something that surprises some attendees is how “kid friendly” Fireside Wiccan Community Church is.

Because some parents in this community have been told by other leaders to leave their kids at home.

No matter how well-behaved your kids are, some “non-parent” will be upset with them.

Given I have no kids that I know of, why does the idea of barring kids offend me? Simple, I was a kid.

Some context: My Gardnerian aunt, Victoria Josephine Ramalia, was openly a witch. Taught me stuff. Made me question the role of witches in the world. Encouraged me to someday be a public figure.

“Why are the Christians allowed to display their Ten Commandments at the court house while I am told that showing off our Horned Lord is totally unacceptable and a societal sin?”

As in I don’t remember a time while my aunt was living, that this question wasn’t in the Kool-Aid.

This idea only disappears in my maternal family when my aunt is murdered for being polyamorous.

It is when my mother is desperately trying to discredit me and my father that the idea of Christianity being the sole legally protected religion becomes part of the worldview that I must believe. USA! USA!!!

Once I escaped Small Town America (don’t judge them harshly for my mother), I was honest with others.

I told pretty much every witch I met my first couple years back in Denver that my aunt taught me stuff.

I learned not to. By the time that I met Maggie Moonstone, I had buried that Fun Fact in an unmarked grave. If rumor be true, there developed a long line of pagans who were boycotting the open ritual community because of Maggie’s unacceptable political position about the place of children in Wicca.

What was unacceptable about it? Just listen—everyone can see the problem . . .

“If we do not expose our children to our religious beliefs, how will they know that it’s an option later?”

Basically, if you are a gatekeeper, someone who believes that all newcomers must pass a strict set of Purity Tests to be considered worthy of even learning of the existence of Wicca, then you’re anti-child.

Why? Simple. Based on the idea that one can only be fully cut off from magical energies by those who brought them into the Craft, if your relatives did it when you were a kid, then She Who Must Rule can’t tell the Goddess to cut you off from the Craft—no, only your relatives can fully exile you from Wicca.

It was only when Maggie’s daughter left the open ritual community, that I started to retell my own tale.

Which made my service on the board of a certain unmentionable Wiccan community church a living hell.

While me and Maggie are trying to encourage the presence of children, two other board members would privately tell every parent that their kids were too disruptive and for the sake of others should stay home. After all, it was a religious service for adults—far too dangerous to expose kids to, right?

Of course, this divides up Denver’s pagan community into the Righteous Public Leaders and parents.

Here is the deal—my friends have kids—therefore, me and Khari are kid friendly. In fact, if you bring your kids to our event, we will put them to work, helping us perform the ritual. Apprentice, they will.