Teaching Children the Craft: Weather Witchery & the Environment

In this ongoing series, I share insights and make proposals regarding teaching children the Craft. My hope is that you, the readers, will join me by using the comments section. Please make comments, ask questions, and engage in dialogue with me and each other. My hope is that fruitful communication will benefit us all in the form of a Craft curriculum for kids of Witches everywhere.

Rowan is now profoundly aware of the weather around him and now has names for some of the more common things relating to weather: sun, clouds, wind, rain, fog, hot, cold, and wet, among others.

Given that he loves water and the cold (just watch the boy jump in the ocean, over and over regardless that his lip is quivering and his legs are icicles!), I am wagering that winter will be a fun time around here, playing in the newly discovered snow (he has never seen it in person before).

First pumpkin carving

As I teach Rowan about the natural world, I am also sharing with him the ways that humans and Witches can change the natural world (for good or ill). Litter is a bad thing, but picking it up changes the destruction someone else did. As a conscientious human and Witchlet, I am teaching him to leave the environment better than he left it. He is already super eager to help. And that is the precise attitude a budding Witch should have!

Water baby

But Witches also can have some control over things like weather. And while it is tempting to change it to suit our whims- we should only do so when it won't be a greater hardship. For example, in Oakland where I used to live, we were subject to droughts. To my mind, changing rain to sun in a climate like that would not be beneficial, so I never did it.

Now I live in Appalachia and there is plenty of rain, so much that the river often floods and destroys homes. I have been playing with cloudbusting and moving weather patterns since my arrival. This past weekend, I worked to move a storm that had an 80% chance of bumming us out on a neighborhood scouting trip to Columbus (our future home). Mission accomplished! And I plan on teaching my son this skill (and corresponding responsibility) as well.

What lessons are you teaching your kids about the environment and their control over it?

Save West Virginia!

I have been to West Virginia a few times and have always been impressed at just how beautiful it is. The mountains and wildlife there are unlike anywhere else, and the Appalachian culture, which contributed much to my and other folks' Witchcraft traditions, is one I greatly value.

This is what mountaintop removal looks like.

But West Virginia (and all of Appalachia) are in peril because of coal mining and in particular, coal mining companies outlandish greed. Coal mining has had an uneasy history in this region- providing much-needed jobs to poor communities and also taking the lives of the poor that work in the mines (be it through black lung, cave-ins, accidents, explosions, or company thugs killing those that try and organize for better working or living conditions). Many people in the United States don't realize if it were not for the efforts of coal mining unions, we would not have the 8 hour work day. We owe a lot to these working people, even if we do not face their struggles or do their particular jobs.

Lately, the struggle in this area has been the outrageous practice of mountaintop removal, which has devastating effects for generations to come.Women, in particular, have been instrumental in fighting this environmental scourge. And it is no longer environmentalists versus the coal miners who live there, either. These forces have banded together against coal company greed.

So what can you do, especially if you do not live nearby?

• See for yourself what mountaintop removal looks like.
• Sign a petition to revoke Massey's energy charter.
• Read, pass on, and possibly write your story if you are from that area.
• Write your Congresspeople and Senators to express your feelings. Passing the Clean Water Act will allow some enforcement against these practices.
• Join Reverend Billy and the Church of Earthalujah when they come near you!
• If you use Chase Bank or UBS Bank, ditch them and tell them why. These banks lead the charge for mountaintop removal. This includes using their credit cards.
• Sign up for ongoing action alerts.
• Fight this kind of stupidity.

I leave you with my favorite song about this issue, Hazel Dickens singing They'll Never Keep Us Down:


It's a sing-along!

United we stand, divided we fall
For every dime they give us a battle must be fought
So working people use your power the key to liberty
Don't support the rich man's style of luxury

There ain't no way they can ever keep us down
There ain't no way they can ever keep us down
We won't be bought, we won't be sold
To be treated right, well that's our goal
There ain't no way they can ever keep us down

We've been shot, we've been jailed, lord its a sin
Women and children stood right by the men
We've got a union contract that keeps the worker free
They'll never shoot that union out of me

They'll never shoot that union out of me, oh no
They'll never shoot that union out of me
Got a contract in our hand signed by the blood of honest
men
They'll never shoot that union out of me

The power wheel is rolling, rolling right along
The government is keep it going going strong
so working people get your help from your own kind
Your welfare on the rich man's mind

Your welfare on the rich man's mind
Your welfare on the rich man's mind
They want the power in their hands just to keep out of the workers hands
Your welfare on the rich man's mind

They'll never, never, never keep us down
They'll never, never, never keep us down
The cheat, rob and kill but we'll stop that big wheel
They'll never, never, never keep us down