This is a public service announcement. Casting agents, producers and Hollywood writers are currently creeping through the Internet looking for the next ‘High Priestess from Hell’ or ‘Pagan Centered Chaos’ to exploit. They want you! They want to put you on TV and exploit you, your family, your friends, your community and your coven.

I wasn’t real sure how prevalent this was until I was contacted through the Family Wiccan Traditions International website by a casting agent, this agent was looking for ‘alternative families’ to bring a more ‘diverse representation’ of persons to his show.

Let me cut through Hollywood speak for you. He was looking for a more sensational group of persons to exploit and help the ratings for his show. Having seen the recent success of other reality shows and their exploitation of earth center spirituality, he was trolling the waters of the Wiccan, Pagan and witchcraft Internet sites to do find more.

I have to admit it. I called him. Not to accept or entertain his offer but to remind this agent that in America people are still getting persecuted for their religious choice especially when it is an earth based, witchcraft spirituality. I expressed my complete disgust with casting agents and shows continuing to troll the waters of my sacred religion in the name of sensationalism and ratings. He couldn’t believe I contacted him to tell him this. Basically he suggested I was wasting his time and he wasn’t going to stop looking for that next Wiccan, Pagan or Witch to exploit. And by the way, could I please send an announcement to my email lists about what he was looking for?

After hanging up with him, I stewed in my juices for awhile and then realized that for reality shows to have the opportunity to make Wiccans and Witches look like morons, well, Wiccans and Witches have to participate!

So I would like to issue my own casting call. I would like to cast Wiccans, Witches and Pagans in the role of smart, savvy people. I am looking to caste a High Priestess who can look into her crystal ball and predict re-runs and harm being done to her family, her community and her coven years from now. I am looking for that witch who realizes that if witchcraft is about personal power then signing away your rights to a producer is counter intuitive. I am looking for that pagan who can look back on the movies and series Hollywood has produced, “The Craft,” “The Charmed Ones,” and understand that these things are only setting back our slow plod toward equality NOT helping it.

I am looking for the person who will look at the most recent shows that have brought on alternative families to boost their ratings. Do some research and find the letters of explanations done in the after math of these shows airing. One High Priestess explains that the producers sensationalized what happened, did creative editing and even orchestrated things that happened, facilitating conflict to improve the shows story line.
 

Where is the Priest who won’t write that type of letter because his discernment told him to expect that? The Priest who knew that breaking down the barriers of hate, distrust and misconception are best broken by an honest life lived not 15 minutes of life lived in the spotlight.
 

I am not real sure how likely it is that we will find sufficient persons to fill these roles. It is my fear that common sense is having an elicit affair with ego and birthing a desire for recognition and power. In a pagan, Wiccan world where our Big Named Pagans are much closer to touching than most cultures leaders are, the envy and desire for that type of adoration grows like kudzu taking over an oak.

In order to successfully gain the role I am suggesting, you have to learn how to read the script. You have to get through what is written on the page, to what is being said by the author. The initial script I got appealed to the desire to have my religion viewed to a wider audience and gain some wider acceptance. During my audition, the director specifically suggested that by having someone affiliated with my group on the show, my group would benefit through free publicity and exposure to a large audience.
 

Now to get proper casting you have to be able to read through the lines and audition from your center. When I read the script initially, I understood an undertone of being gently tugged on to see if I was pliable like a sheep. Fortunately, I have not been a sheep for a long time so the role didn’t immediately fit. When I did my live audition, publicity and fame were the first things I was asked to act upon. Being the minister of a group that is new, the fleeting idea of free publicity appealed to me. However, to appropriately act the scene, I had to call on my past experience. I had to remember that an entire group got decimated by a realty show and since that is not the type of publicity I really want for a new group, I was able to act appropriately. I hung up.

That is how I got the role. True there won’t be any sensational tag lines like “Silver Headed Wiccan Mama is Being Steam Rolled by her Little Gnome!” Of course, my little gnome won’t ever have to be picked on at school for having a ‘silvered hair vixen witch’ for a mother either. Yes, I have taken the role I was born to play, a Mother Priestess, the woman looking after her children, her family and her community before entertaining her ego or desire for recognition.

I am asking that this casting call be distributed far and wide. Use the Internet to our advantage and tell all the Wiccans, Witches and Pagans you know that the big bad wolf is looking for the next Little Red Riding Hood. Let them know that the script actually is calling for a complete undressing and misrepresentation of Red. Let them know that there is another role they can take instead.

Just hang up and show the Wolf how witches really behave!