Reclaiming "Warlock"?

[NachtSorcier]

I have seen evidence, though very little, that some male practitioners of witchcraft and Wicca are reclaiming the word warlock and using it to describe their practices.  Their reasoning is that while the Old English "warlocke" was used to refer to an oath-breaker or traitor, the original Norse or German "ward-lokkur" meant "male conjuror or sorcerer," and the "war" meant exactly what it says: it was a warrior who used magic to assist them in battle.  So, it seems that some males are reclaiming the word warlock to distinguish them from female witches and some are using it to describe their warrior-like magical efforts.

What do you think of this?  

Personally, if witch and warlock are essentially the same thing with different gender connotations, I'll stick with witch, unless I find a very good reason to call myself a warlock.  Perhaps I will describe myself as a warlock in the future, but it will take some soul-searching first.  I do consider myself somewhat militant, and I have no problem using magic to intervene if my community is suffering major strife.  For example, if somehow it were once again made illegal to be gay and those persons who are out of the closet were being imprisoned, I sure as hell would use magic to try to change that.

Anyway, who knows?  It's certainly something to think about.

--Christophe

[Beith]

I'm not sure.... I do think the 'warrior' link can be useful to describe some practices, maybe some women would want to use that too!

That could get confusing  :wink:

What would have to happen is the same thing that happens with the word  'witch' - there has to be a huge reclaiming campaign for the word, which as been misused for centuries & has lost it's original meaning for most people.

[RedRonin]

No skin off me.

A person can run around referring to himself as a grapefruit if he so desires.  Still not going to make him a citrus orb.

It sometimes gets to the point where prationers are more worried about thier handles than actually living their lives.

"I'm a half-Druid Shaman with a side of Greek, no Roman, a Messopotamian edge and a side of Celt."

Pagan Starbucks at your service........

[NachtSorcier]

I thought so too, Ronin.  As I was reading all these reasons for reclaiming warlock, I thought "Well ok, those are ok reasons, I guess, but shouldn't your abilities be more evident in your actions than in your title?"  To each his or her own, I guess.

[TheBriarRose]

Is that whole Celt or 2%....

You want whipped with that?

Try our new compilation fusion jazz-opera disc  and would you like a caramel banana walnut tofu muffin with that?

[RedRonin]

Is that whole Celt or 2%....

You want whipped with that?

Try our new compilation fusion jazz-opera disc  and would you like a caramel banana walnut tofu muffin with that?

OOOooooooooohhhhhhhhhh............................

You've got that down........

[TheBriarRose]

I live 30 minutes south of Seattle...Home of Starbucks.  I have 3 Starbucks within a 10 mile radius of my house...one of which is a drive through.....

[Zenon]

caramel banana walnut tofu muffin...  :hmm


tofu in a muffin?  isn't that a crime?

[TheBriarRose]

nah..the tofu *is* the muffin....

Seattle people are strange

[Brenin]

A person can run around referring to himself as a grapefruit if he so desires.  Still not going to make him a citrus orb.

I don't know why that made me laugh so hard, but it did.  I think that's my favorite quote now...

[Shadow]

As far as "reclaiming" it, they never owned it in the first place.

I'm with Chuck on this one.  I think a bunch of people want to own a title, I say let them call themselves whatever they want, but don't expect me to worship the ground they walk on because they have a high opinion of themselves and need their egos stroked.

As for Starbucks, I'll just stick with a Vente cup of regular brewed coffee thanks.  Preferably Asian Pacific, the stronger the better, lots of cream and sugar.

[NachtSorcier]

I've never really seen evidence that these people want respect for using a word that most people in the community frown upon.  I think their point is that they're trying to show others that warlock isn't as bad a word as everyone seems to think.  We've all heard guys flip out when asked if they're a warlock.  Sometimes they even go into a nice little rant about it.  So, I think it's more of an educational thing than a "Hey look at me!" thing.  Or at least that's what I get from the material I've read.

[Beith]

Tofu muffins......

Yech!

[RedRonin]

There's a widely differential meaning to it, though, depending on the persons involved.

Let's face it, most of the rubes on the street only know of warlocks as Maurice from Bewitched in the 60s or evil witchy types from Charmed.  Those of us more on the "inside" tend to lean toward the less desirable definition.  Something as simple as "witch" gets a gamut of responses just as easily.....just a matter of the focus group on hand at the time.

Ultimately, it's a matter of the person and their view of the handle they wish to hang on themself.  And at that point, it shouldn't be all too relevant to them what another person thinks of it.

[Jennie]

"Warlock" is, in linguistic circles*, generally accepted to be derived, not from the Old English word "warlocke" (was there even such a word in Old English?), but from the Middle English "warlawe" and "warloghe", meaning liar or traitor, which in turn derive from the Anglo-Saxon/Old English "waerloga", which is a compound of "waer", meaning faith, and "leogan", meaning "lie". "Waer" is closely related to the Old High German "wara", meaning truth, and the Old Norse "varar", meaning solemn vow.

"War", incidently, derives from the Middle English and Old Norman French "werre" and the Old High German "werra", meaning strife or conflict. It has absolutely nothing to do with "warlock".

It doesn't appear that there is all that much to reclaim.

*which involve an entirely different form of spellwork than Pagan ones

Bright blessings,
Jennie