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The FAQs of Life. If this is the first time you've accessed a Wiccan/Pagan/Magical/Occulty website, can I just say one thing: you've picked one of the worst places to start. I mean, you're very welcome and we'd hate to put you off continued browsing and all but, unlike 98 percent of all such websites, this one doesn't go into all that preliminary 'No, we don't worship Satan', 'No, we don't kiss goats' bottoms', 'No, we can't levitate nearly as well as Fairuza Balk in The Craft' stuff. Why not? Well, partly because, as mentioned, 98 percent of all Witchy/Pagany sites handle this very nicely already. You really can't cyber-spit on the WWW without hitting a Wiccan FAQ, trust me. Have a rummage. The other reason is that we tend to feel that, by now, the world really ought to be getting the message about the nature of the (real) Craft and other Pagan religions and Magickal practices. Jewish sites don't seem to feel the need to explain that members of their community don't go in for extracting pounds of flesh from business associates or teaching small boys how 'to pick a pocket or two'. African-American sites exhibit no need to discuss 'natural rhythm' or a partiality for watermelon. These groups, and many others, have found that the time has to come when the constant battles against puerile misinformation need to be traded for the assumption of your right to be treated respectfully. 'Course,
you might still get the occasional bottle flung at your head but
that's life on Earth basically, isn't it? Speaking of which ...
Burning Issues. If this is something like the four hundredth first time you've accessed a Wiccan/Pagan/Magical/Occulty website, you might notice the complete lack of slogans of the 'Never Again the Burning Times' variety. This omission has little to do with arguments about historical accuracy, actual body counts or what the late Margaret Murray was on. It's about the fact that a phrase like 'Never Again the Burning Times' is actually a trifle daft considering they never stopped. Perhaps the legal assassination of any old duck with a penchant from reading their tea leaves is a thing of the past, but people continue doing appalling things to people. Not wanting to sound like an old cynical trousers, but no amount of online sloganeering is going to do a scrap of good for those lives cut short in the Middle Ages, is it? Nor is it likely to make a psychopathic wannabe Witch-burner stop in his or her tracks should you be unfortunate enough to attract one's attention. The esoteric community doesn't really need its own private holocaust to mourn. The one raging over the last few millennia ought to be enough for anyone and shows no sign of abating. People vs people. Perhaps some small benefit could come from, if not replacing, at least supplementing the Burning Times banners with a small link to, say, Amnesty International. Here
endeth the pontification. And finally: WARNING - This site contains biological accurate imagery which some viewers might find overstimulating. Inevitably, given Shadowplay's mythic, Wiccan and magical subject matter, some of the artwork you might encounter on this site depicts the external bits of the human (and Faerie, Elvish, etc) form in pretty much their entirety, ie including those portions an unauthorised airing of which might well get one arrested in Piccadilly Circus, depending on the disposition of the relevant constables. The Editors of this site would like to apologise to our more sensitive readers for this and, indeed, the highly awkward and embarrassing nature of the human (etc) anatomy. Other distressing places such skycladophobic readers might wish to avoid include: the Louvre Museum, the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, any future sequels to Woodstock, a lot of really nice beaches, the Cistine Chapel (well, virtually all of the Vatican, Italy and Greece should be approached with apprehension), Pagan and New Age gatherings, their own bathrooms and, of course, the womb. Another alternative, of course, is getting over it <>.
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