How To Reduce Your Business Insurance Premiums By Up To 10%

Do you get cold calls from insurance agents wanting to help you save money? How many times do you just say, “No thanks. I’m happy with my current broker”?

Studies of the insurance industry indicate that at any given time only about 3% of companies are unhappy with their insurance agents. That means that all the insurance agents who want to expand their book of business have to constantly look for those 3% of companies who are ready to make a change.

The sad fact is that most of the remaining 97% of companies could probably decrease their business insurance premiums by up to 10%. That 10% savings is an average. A small percentage of companies are already getting the best deal possible. I have only rarely seen insurance carriers decline to compete with existing policies.

While you may be happy with your current broker, rest assured your current broker is ecstatic with you. You represent money in the bank to him. He may even be charging you additional “placement fees” on top of earning a standard 5-10% commission. If you agreed to the fees in the first place, cool. But some agents become so complacent they just start increasing costs for their long-time customers.

The worst possible way of reducing your insurance costs is to ask 2 or more agents to compete for your business. Unlike manufacturers or distributors who can reduce costs and offer discounts, insurance agents don’t have much wiggle room on price. All they can do is cut their commissions. While that may seem okay to you, what you really want is for the agents to reduce the total premiums.

Do the math. If you’re paying $250,000 a year on business insurance, would you rather save $25,000 (10% of the premium) or just part of $25,000 (the agent’s commission less whatever he is willing to give up)? If you take the 10% premium reduction, the agent automatically gives up 10% of his premium, which is equivalent to only 1% of your overall cost. By working with the agent, you save more money but he doesn’t lose nearly as much commission.

That’s a win-win scenario.

When you send 2 or more agents out to get quotes, they immediately lose their ability to negotiate on your behalf with the entire insurance market. They cannot leverage the various underwriters against each other. Like it or not, you are in no position to negotiate for the best deal. You may think you are, but you’re not. Agents are at their most effective when they can work with all the markets available to them.

Now, the second worst possible way of reducing your insurance costs is to assume that the broker you’ve been using for 10, 20, or 30 years is getting you the best possible deals. Long-time brokerage relationships usually occur between friends and relatives. The only way to check their work is to give 1 other agent or broker free rein every 2-3 years. And then you should take the better deal, because your friend or relative will get the wake up call and come back with a great deal the next year.

Companies often hold back information when they ask new agents to quote for them. They wrongly believe the agents can compete simply by trimming their commissions. In fact, when you refuse to disclose information, the underwriters that the agents work with pad their premium estimates. You automatically increase your premium by keeping your secrets.

Even your current agent cannot get you a reduction in premium if you expect him to use the same information year after year. Sure, you provide financials at audit time and your agent knows your current premium. But there is a lot more information that goes into getting the best possible premium for General Liability, Professional Liability, and Products Liability. When underwriters see incomplete submissions, they do one of two things: they either close the book and work on something else or they just assume the worst possible scenario and figure a higher premium.

So when your trusted agent comes back with 3 quotes and 4 declines, remind yourself that you could have gotten 6-7 quotes if you had just provided full information on a timely basis. And the odds are pretty good that your quotes would be 3-15% lower than what you see if you gave the underwriters what they asked for.

The flexibility is really with the underwriters, who have to estimate how much risk of loss your company is incurring. When the underwriters are kept in the dark, they either assume the worst possible risks on your behalf, or they just refuse to quote for you. Many agents send submissions to 6-10 markets and consider themselves lucky to get 2-3 actual quotes.

Can every agent leverage the market for you? Probably not. Many agents lack the experience or the incentive to do that. Successful agents with happy clients, if they do their own market submissions, often don’t engage in full market research. They don’t leverage their relationships with underwriters to get them to compete for your business. In fact, many agents just let your carrier renew you automatically, investing a minimum of effort in finding better deals for you.

It’s important that you talk to a new agent every 1-2 years. Pick one who demonstrates a reach into the markets for each of your coverages. Ask them, “If I were to let you exclusively quote on my coverages, how many markets would you negotiate with? If I give you all the information you need, how much information will you ask for?”

Ignore any agent who names fewer than 5 markets for General Liability or Products or Professional Liability, unless all the agents you talk to name the same handful of markets.

Ignore any agent who says, “I won’t ask you for much information”.

If an agent says, “We work with 1,000 markets”, ask him to give you a list of 10. Give him 24-72 hours to give you a list. Many agents, when they are cold-calling, are not able to give you a reasonable list of markets on the spot. They should be able to, but each industry has its own set of carriers. Some industries have many carriers, other industries have more.

Ask that cold-calling agent to send you a fax listing the carriers he can quote with for each type of coverage you carry. Ask him to provide A.M. Best ratings for those carriers. A- or higher rated companies are the most financially stable. You commit yourself to nothing by getting a 1-2 page fax listing carriers. The agent should ideally keep that information handy anyway.

When you make the decision to test a new agent’s ability to work for you, give that agent letters of authorization to request loss runs (claims history) for the past five years directly from your insurance carriers. If you go ask your current agent or broker for the information, they will delay sending you the information long enough for them to go get quotes from their best markets. While you may feel this is in your best interest, it’s not.

Your current agent has the opportunity every year at your renewal time to seek out the best deals possible for you. If he isn’t negotiating with the underwriters to the best of his ability for you, he’s had his chance. Let him compete on the competence of the other agent you’re talking to. This is your bottom line. Find out how much that long-term relationship is really costing you.

Let the new agent get the loss runs. It commits you to nothing, but it gives him the flexibility to seriously negotiate with any underwriters who may be interested in acquiring new customers.

And let that new agent look at your policies. Show them the premium. Underwriters usually increase premium estimates when they don’t know how much you’re paying for current insurance. No one increases their premium just because they know you’re paying X. You’ve already charged them to reduce your premium by up to 10%. They won’t get your business if they cannot save you 10%.

That’s the only real flexibility you have when dealing with insurance agents. Tell them, “I pay $500,000 for insurance. If you can save me $50,000 and keep or improve my coverages, I’ll give you my business.”

Maybe they can save you more than $50,000. Maybe they can save $100,000. You won’t know for sure, but you’ll either get your 10% savings or you’ll know that — for now — your current agent is doing as good a job as anyone else. And that is worth a lot of money in my book.

How To Respond To An eBay Buyer’s Complaint.

At some point in your eBay selling life, one of your customers is going to send you a complaint. As long as you respond to it properly, however, it’s easy to keep a complaint from turning into a crisis.

Respond Immediately and Grovellingly.

Someone might complain to you directly, or they might do it through eBay. Whatever happens, you need to email them immediately. Here’s a template to use:

“I have just received your complaint and I would like to say that I am very sorry you aren’t satisfied. If you would like, I can send you a [replacement/refund] for the item, as part of my ‘no questions asked’ guarantee. I apologise again for our mistake.”

Whatever you do, don’t start making excuses for yourself. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t get around to posting it yet because I’ve been busy at work and I’m going on holiday next week…” - no-one cares. If the buyer isn’t satisfied, then you screwed up, and you need to apologise repeatedly and do everything you can to make them happy again. Besides, is it really worth your time to go through eBay’s long-winded dispute process when all it’s going to do is alienate your customers?

This an attitude that will give you a massive advantage in eBay selling, for the simple reason that many smaller sellers are confrontational, unhelpful and out for every penny they can get. If buyers are rude to you, it’s just because they’re used to dealing with rude sellers.

Responding politely, promptly and being willing to do anything for your buyers will mark you out as different. It’s so rare that you might even manage to turn your complaining buyer into one of your most loyal customers!

Let People Phone You.

Don’t insist that everything is done with email - allow frustrated buyers to phone you and have a chat about their item. The chances are that they will never have talked to a human voice before about an eBay complaint, and will be even more impressed with anything you offer them to solve their problem.

Neutralise Negative Feedback.

If it really comes down to it and your complaint ends up as a piece of negative feedback on your record, make sure you post a response - and don’t make it something like “buyer was impossible to work with, avoid”!

Instead, post an apology, and detail what you did to put things right, for example: “Very sorry for the scratched item, I have sent a replacement”. You may also find that some buyers leave feedback before you have the chance to put things right, in which case you could write a phone number in the response space, or something like “I have emailed you about a refund”.

This will let anyone looking through your feedback see that not only are negatives very rare, but the few that there might be aren’t really worth counting.

In the next email, you’ll learn how to turn your shipping costs into a profit center.

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

Hitler - Bush

Hitler received a legacy from his Rothschild relations in Vienna where he and his father before him had studied. The De Medicis agent named St. Germain had established a solid schooling system for the occult in Vienna. You hear a great deal about Hitler and his weird sexual relations.

There is so much about Hitler and his occult handlers which one must understand in order to see why the Germans tried at Nuremberg were not allowed to talk about occult programming and esoteric mind control. Here is something important that includes the Cistercians and some of Hitler’s handlers. I do indeed include the Dulles Skull & Bones family with the Bushes who were named in the funding of Hitler and trading with the enemy issues surrounding Prescott Bush. There is a great deal in the following quote from a Holocaust site which we must deal with in this book.

“1893 February 24 Guido von List lectures on the ancient cult of Wotan and its priesthood to the nationalist Verein, “Deusche Geschichte.” List claims that this extinct religion was the national religion of the Teutons before it was destroyed by Christianity. In time, this ancient priesthood will form the basis of his entire political mythology.
1893 April 7 Allen Welsh Dulles is born in Watertown, New York.
1893 July 31 Adolf Josef Lanz, age 19, becomes a novice at the Cistercian monastery in Heiligenkreuz on the present Austrian-Hungarian border. Lanz was born in Vienna on July 19, 1874, but later claimed to have been born at Messina, Sicily, on May 1, 1872. To mislead astrologers, he said.
1895 January 24 Sir Randolph Churchill (1849-95), father of Winston Churchill, dies. At the time of his death, his estate owes Nathaniel “Natty” Rothschild and Rothschild’s Bank more than 66,000 pounds, a huge sum at that time. Had this been generally known, it would have caused a major scandal since he had always shown great favor to the Rothschild family and its various business interests. (The Churchills)
1895 The Sphinx, one of the most powerful advocates of the Germanic occult revival, ceases publication. It had been published since 1886 by Wilhelm Hubbe-Schleiden, founder of the first German Theosophical Society at Elberfeld in July 1884.” (1)

Conor Cruise O’Brien gave a speech to a group of international performing artists which I hope the readers of this book will be encouraged to find. In it he notes the influence of the Wagnerian cult that is pre-Christian and yet might be true Christianity as Hitler would have argued. We will have to maintain an open-mind if we are going to understand rather than trivialize the forces at work that still run this world. I hope we can improve on it because I fear the lack of ethics in an age of rampant technological power capable of ending all life on earth is soon upon us. Here is a little of that speech.

“In the case of Hitler, the phrase ‘the cult of Wagner’ is not a mere figure of speech. This was a cult in which he believed as fanatically as any devotee has ever believed in supernatural revelation. The depth of his commitment to the cult is apparent from what he did early in 1923 on the eve of the most important decision of his life to date: that of whether or not to head a rebellion against Versailles, in Munich. In preparation for that decision the daemonic devotee repaired to the great shrine of his faith, at Bayreuth, in northern Bavaria. There he consulted the oracles, custodians of the shrine, Winifred Wagner and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Winifred was the composer’s daughter-in-law; Chamberlain the great English apologist for imperial Germany. Both were passionate nationalists; Chamberlain had been one of the first proponents in the service of the generals of the myth of the Dolchstoss, in the closing months of the First World War. Both warmly encouraged the project Hitler was considering. Hitler returned from Bayreuth with his mind made up.

The Bierkeller Putsch of 1923 has been trivialised in retrospect, like so much in Hitler’s career. It has been depicted as a ludicrous failure. This is to misunderstand its nature which falls within the performing arts, in their larger sense, and is also near to those arts in their narrower sense. It was never intended as a serious revolt in the literal and military sense. It was a symbolic revolt, resembling to that extent, and in that respect, the Easter Rising seven years before in Dublin, Ireland and indeed it also resembled that earlier and distinct revolt in being closely linked to the performing arts. The Wagner of Dublin’s Easter Rising was W. B. Yeats (A near alchemist of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn who became its head man after Crowley was booted for his purposeful conflicts.}. His virulently nationalist play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, performed in 1902 by Maud Gonne, had been an inspiration for the generation of the rebels of 1916. This was a thought that troubled Yeats on his deathbed when he wrote: Did that play of mine send out / Certain men the English shot?” (2)

You may have heard about the media coverage of the Wright Brother’s flight and how it took three years before Scientific American stopped trying to debunk it. You may already know about the early 20th Century Patent Office Official who declared ‘everything that could be discovered was discovered’. You may even know about the Paris Academy of Sciences official who throttled the presenter of the phonograph claiming he was a ventriloquist. These things are funny in a way, but they are not unusual. Unfortunately you are going to have to think if you read this book. You will have to ask yourself how stupid we have been to allow a lot of lies to pass for truth.

How does one find out what a religion or national identity is about? You can ask the people who live or believe and follow the system to inform you. But if you rely on that alone you will invariably get a lot of hype and unexamined beliefs. We all know the various Abrahamic religions have sects that hate and wage war upon each other but it is not so different in other areas of belief which people like to think is wisdom or knowledge. The same thing is true with history. I can attest to the fact that the Flat Earth and Bible Narrative fictions have an enduring impact on what people think about history. People actually believe there was a time when mariners thought the earth was flat - I kid you not. They think they know these things because they read them in accredited books from professors who hold forth on the subjects they study which are narrow in focus. Seldom do these teachers keep up to date with other fields of endeavour.

The truly amazing thing to me is the extent to which people defend the myths and fictions of history. Even when presented with facts and artifacts, people still want to believe in some alien influence rather than human ingenuity. And the really funny thing is they call someone who presents the facts and evidences of that advanced human culture by terms like Conspiracy Theorist. I wonder how we will ever get past these myths if people are not willing to learn the facts. There are all manner of people saying they are Druids, Wiccans and other sorts of people who claim their view of history is true - it is not just the major religions. The facts should do the talking rather than wishful thinking cults or imaginary aliens. Let’s just forget all the dragon people and Chanes myths and know they were useful myths that kept people in line and start looking at reality for a change.

It was long before the recent X and Y genetic research came to my attention when I had already written many books using other disciplines that showed the secret trading Empires that empowered the Divine Kings and other debauched and immoral organizations. Corporatism as defined by Chomsky is not new by any stretch of the imagination. His work is a necessary read for anyone wanting to know the structural deficiencies of our oligarchies.

Sir John Davies was one of the paladins of the Stuart king of England who crafted a new Bible. The Stuart/Jacobin intrigues of war and aristocracies are just one aspect of an interesting alternative history that might make sense of why prejudices were fostered rather than collective pride and joy in learning and growing as a human family. Sir John was the Attorney General of Ireland under James I and he observed:

“There is no nation of people under the sun that doth love equal and indifferent justice better that the Irish, or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves, as they may have protection and benefit of the law when upon just cause they do deserve it.” His Master of the Court of Wards, Sir William Parsons said: “We must change their (Irish) course of government, apparel, manner of holding land, language and habit of life. It will otherwise be impossible to set up in them obedience to the laws and to the English empire.”

In doing my book on Custer and Keogh (An Irishman that our family legend says we are related to. It is the name of my paternal grandmother.) I was drawn back again to one of the themes of my first published book called Diverse Druids. The commonality of many Mystery Schools that form the basis of all religions and secret societies is what we need to address in greater detail due to their political deceits and serious soul-grabbing efforts. The Jacobins or Jacobites and Johannites or other names for those who say they know the real Jesus or the truth he was taught are so numerous as to make your head spin. What can I say about the Essenes when I see they have Knights Templar or when I know Crowley is quoted by Martinists who form alliances with Rosicrucians while negating the Phoenicians they acknowledge were important to their historical genesis?

The people who tell the legends about the Pale Prophet being Jesus as he came to America and trace this to modern Catholicism are making more myths. There were many Pale Prophets because many people came to trade and live in the Americas when Europe was under medieval control of Divine Kings and the like. It had been going on long before Jesus too. I will only include a little on Quetzalcoatl/Verachocha/Kukulcan/Xolotl and the Prince of Palenque again to illustrate this point. It will also include a description of some ‘blood sports’ rituals that carry on to the present day Skull & Bones people so keep a barf bag handy.

Maybe I cannot do all I sense is important to achieve if we are to break down the barriers these religions and their inner sanctums are so often found engaged in building. Zarathustra and his Magian Sarmoung or the Tarim Basin’s Mt. Meru are all part of what must be seen in antiquity. We must try to de-mystify the religious experience and make it unnecessary to follow others in seeing or feeling our soul.

We have seen the institutionalized support of Divine Kings in the last two centuries. In far earlier times these Nobles had to answer to the people to a far greater extent. Marjorie Kelly is the author of The Divine Right of Capital and she is on this track or train of thought. Noam Chomsky says global corporatism and the frauds they create or the assassins in government that do their bidding, while being given new technologies paid for by taxpayers, is the greatest threat to life on earth. This book will endeavour to pin the tail on the real donkey. Don’t be surprised if that ‘ass’ is in the mirror. It takes about eight per cent of the voting stock to control a company and get the bulk of the cash or assets working for you. Why do we allow Enron, Dole and Anaconda to dictate the foreign policy while letting other cronies milk the market for all they can? Most people have not even heard about the Physiocrats who some scholars say was the first economic school.

You will hear more than you want to hear and it might make you feel sicker than watching the news on Faux TV where the owner brazenly admits his employees are not allowed to report anything he doesn’t agree with. That Rupert Murdoch ‘fella’ really deserved the Congressional approval of his special tax status when he moved to the US. I kid you not. I think he did. In a world where the super-rich can locate anywhere they want it only makes sense to bid for them to come to your country and spread some of that cash around wherever you are.

There are times when I find the same people are being studied or admired and even leading the Jacobin or Martinist cults and yet they are fighting each other. Does this speak to someone above them who plays them for fools? We have been told a lot of things in ‘his’-story that served the purposes of those who kept us in the dark (for AGES). When you see that Sitting Bull and Black Elk are influenced by the Catholic inner sanctum Masonic people such as Malachi Martin writes about, you begin to wonder if his name and Martinism is connected with the Luciferians he writes about. This Martin was a Vatican professor who advised three Popes.

How much of the intrigue surrounding the abuse of religion was known to Pelikan, the eminent scholar of Yale University, is a matter of conjecture. He certainly would have known about Prescott Bush and the other Skull and Bones people named in court proceedings for trading with the enemy. He most certainly would have known about the Rockefeller involvement in the family of Jesus or Merovingian group that includes the Rothschilds and Kennedy family. And he should have known a lot more about the man (Rothschild illegitimate that Hitler’s father was) who called himself ‘the torch-bearer for Jesus’. I have delved into the matter of esoteric teachings most of my life. I am sure there is a great deal I will never know about the von Neumann he spent time with in Vienna. You must ask yourself why Old Joe Kennedy and the Brown Bros./Harriman/Bush and the later Bilderbergs of Prince Bernhard or the Beacon Hill Mob of Rockefeller/Rothschilds were supporting Hitler and Stalin both.

Here is part of a review of Hitler’s Secret Book which was his follow up to the well-known Mein Kampf. “… akin to Machiavelli’s Il Principe, it’s the sequel to Mein Kampf and should be read right after it, it’s even better when you think of it. It’s simply amazing what this brilliant man accomplished in his short lifespan; such an explosion of creativity in so many fields, and yet a man of action. The case could also be made that the Third Reich he founded, after many twists and turns, and with another name (European Union), is still growing and expanding… let’s hope a national Russia purged from Trotskys, Khodorkovskys and Berezovskys joins the EU some day; so that the great territorial expansion in the East ‘on the largest scale’ Adolph Hitler spoke about can finally take place, for the benefit of all European nations.

…The reason is very simple; everything he wrote and planned came true. It’s powerful stuff and it’s something to learn from. History was Hitler’s favorite subject and that is clearly on display in Hitler’s Secret Book in which he discusses the South Tyrol problem. It displays his excellent grasp of history and the reality of power politics in the 1920s. It does not matter what you think of feel about the Nazisread this book, you will learn a lot.” (3)

Author of Diverse Druids

COlumnist for The ES Press Magazine
World-Mysteries.com guest ‘expert’

Single and Thriving: 5 Secrets For a Happier, More Fulfilling Life

If you’re single and dissatisfied with the way your life is going, you can turn things around by seeing your situation from a new, more positive perspective.

Many single people are stuck in a “victim” mentality, feeling as if outside forces are conspiring against them to make them miserable. But to break free of that mindset and begin living a happier, more fulfilling life, you have to be mature enough to accept responsibility for your own destiny.

Accepting responsibility for the way things are going sounds scary, but the fact is that this new perspective is incredibly empowering. It means that you can control your future by how you think and what you do today. While that may seem quite obvious, most people never put that principle into practice. Here are five secrets that can help you break free of your present situation to create the tomorrows you’ve always dreamed of.

1. Live life now, instead of postponing it until you get married.

Consciously or subconsciously, many single people think their life can’t be happy until they meet and marry the person of their dreams. Unfortunately, the calendar is turning for all of us. Instead of putting your life on hold, start exploring the possibilities that are open to you right now–today. Be bold. Sample new interests and experiences. Start in small ways, and slowly if you must, but break your inertia and start doing. Not only will you enjoy your life more, but you’ll also become a much more attractive person in the process.

2. Rethink the way you value yourself.

You are not less valuable as a person because no one has chosen you for marriage yet. You have intrinsic worth as a person regardless of your job or marital status. Don’t let friends or society dictate your importance. Being married is no more “normal” or “acceptable” than being single. Remember that it’s the goal of advertising to make you feel dissatisfied or incomplete. Don’t fall for it.

3. Find something you can be passionate about, besides your career.

Jobs come and go, and if you invest too much of your emotional capital in your employment, you’re setting yourself up for a fall. Besides, you are not your job. You’re you, an independent, worthwhile person who happens to work at your job. Whether it’s working on a political campaign, supporting a charity, or enjoying a hobby, a passionate cause will enrich your life–and just might help you meet your future spouse.

4. Be grateful and appreciative for what you have, not depressed over what you don’t have.

A sure way to make yourself miserable is to be jealous toward people who seem to have more or be more than yourself. But we often overlook the good things in our life that we should be thankful for. Focusing on lack and constantly complaining about it turns you into a whiner, a person that people avoid. On the other hand, being grateful for your health, job, and all your material blessings makes you feel fortunate. Gratitude and happiness are inseparably bound together.

5. Live with a sense of expectancy.

If you develop the habit of expecting good things to happen to you instead of bad, you’ll find that pleasant surprises will suddenly start occuring in your life. Whether you call it the law of attraction or answered prayer, this phenomenon is one of the greatest joys of life. You can turn your life completely around when you meet each day by looking for something positive to happen. You can’t make beneficial things occur just by wishing for them, but if you cultivate the habit of recognizing the good experiences, you’ll soon see that they far outweigh the negatives in your life. Focusing on the right things is key to being a happier, more fulfilled person.

Jack Zavada is a baby boomer single who has authored four novels and over 5,000 magazine and newspaper articles. His work has been translated into 43 languages. His web site is http://www.inspiration-for-singles.com.

Witchcraft & Christianity

Why Do Some Christians Fear Witches?

During my 28 years as a practicing Wiccan, or “witch” if you prefer, I have had occasion to ask myself this difficult question many, many times. With the recent political controversy over the United States Army permitting pagan services to be held on military bases in Texas and around the world, the question suddenly has more than its usual immediacy for me and for my brothers and sisters in Wicca.

First, let me get the usual questions out of the way. Wicca is a real religion, born in the 1950s as a recreation of the Old Religion of Northern Europe, which some believe dates back about 25,000 years. In the mid-1980s, the U.S. Courts accepted Wicca as a legitimate religion and granted us 1st Amendment rights and freedom from taxation. So the point is moot, really. The same U.S. Constitution that protects Christianity protects our religious freedom - and a good thing, too. We are the fastest growing religion of the 20th Century.

We do not believe in an evil deity, and would not worship one if we did. We do not practice human or animal sacrifice. The most sacred commandment our religion demands of us is to harm no one. If you think about that last statement carefully, it pretty well covers most of the Biblical Ten Commandments - the important parts, anyway. Even more important, we do not attempt to convert our friends and neighbors to Wicca. Our faith teaches us that when they are ready for what we have to teach, they will seek us out.

What about me, personally? Am I a New Age nut? Well, that depends on what you mean. I’m an environmentalist, certainly. I am also a feminist. On the other hand, I do not do illegal drugs of any kind. I am a computer technician working for one of the largest employers in the United States. I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. I am an aspiring science-fiction writer and screenwriter, actively peddling stories and novels to the publishing industry in New York and motion picture scripts to Hollywood. I am a licensed pilot and a licensed aircraft mechanic. I am a licensed private investigator. My favorite hobby is reading physics textbooks, and I apply such knowledge to my science fiction. I am a veteran of the United States Air Force, the United States Air Force Reserve, and the Texas Army National Guard, and during the time I served, I held a top-secret security clearance. I served my country well and was honorably discharged. I’ve been arrested only once in my entire life, as a 17-year-old runaway, and I’ve had a grand total of three traffic tickets in almost thirty years of driving. In what way am I such an evil and dangerous neighbor?

Why have I been forced to practice my religion in secret for most of my life? Why, during my active duty years (early to mid 1970s), was I forced to record “No Pref” on my dog tags? Am I a pacifist? Hardly! Women have never been drafted in the United States, so why would I have enlisted voluntarily (and during the Viet Nam war!) if I were a pacifist?

Why does publishing my real name on this article cause me to risk the loss of my job, vandalism to my home and my car, harm to my animals (and children if I had any)? Does this make any sense to a rational human being?

Where does the knee-jerk hostility to the word “witch” come from?

Not from the word, certainly. “Witch” is a corruption of “witcraft,” or “craft of the wise.” In fact, my religion is sometimes called “The Craft of the Wise,” or just “The Craft.” There is nothing sinister there. Do we practice magic? Yes, most of us do. Do we have supernatural powers? Of course not. Oddly enough, those who believe the practice of magic is so evil are often those who most sincerely believe in faith healing. Just think about that honestly for a moment, and try to explain the difference to me. I’m waiting . . .

Let’s get back to the Craft of the Wise. During the Christian Inquisition, nobody really knows how many accused witches were burned at the stake. It is known, however, that a number of village wise women were accused of witchcraft and burned for curing fevers with nasty stuff like moldy bread. Were they followers of the Old Religion? Probably - although I wasn’t there, and I honestly have no idea. Were they wise? You bet they were! Did you ever hear of penicillin? How many centuries of medical knowledge were lost because of a bunch of frightened priests?

So where did the idea come from that we were (and are) Satanists?

The most obvious answer is that the moldy bread cure worked, and was unexplainable. A number of other herbal and common sense remedies were surprisingly effective, as “alternative” medicine is re-discovering today. The only way the church could admit these cures worked (and it was a little too obvious to deny) without admitting this was a really good thing was to make the claim that the women practicing these cures had made a pact with the Devil. Heavens, they couldn’t be physicians! Medicine was firmly in the hands of the priests, and the practice of medicine was expressly forbidden to women. At the time I write of, formal medicine consisted mostly of applying leeches to the sick.

Were the village wise women the only problem? No. During this early medieval period, when the Christians were converting Northern Europe at sword point, a lot of dirty tricks were played. The country folk, whom we believe to be the ancestors of modern Wicca, worshiped a Goddess we consider the Mother of Life, and a God we call the Horned Hunter, or God of Death. For us, death is merely a door to rebirth, so there is nothing at all fearful for us in a God of Death. In an effort to make non-Christianity something horrible, the monks who drew the medieval Biblical illustrations “borrowed” our Horned Hunter when they drew depictions of the Christian Devil. You needn’t take my word for this. Any educated person knows that the Greek Pan predates Christianity by some considerable period of time. Take a good look at a drawing of Pan in your nearest encyclopedia. Look familiar? He should. You’ve been looking at him in biblical illustrations dating back to your first Sunday school. Pan is the Greek form of our Horned Hunter. They are one and the same god. Read your mythology. Pan was never evil, just playful.

If all that weren’t enough, Exodus 22:18 was horribly mistranslated in the King James Version of the Christian Bible. The original “Suffer not a poisoner to live among you” became “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Some pretty bloodthirsty fundamentalist preachers want to enforce that mistranslation literally, even today. In August of 1999, Rev. Jack Harvey of Killeen, Texas, was quoted as stating publicly that all witches should be killed. He organized a “March Against Wickedness” for that Labor Day Monday in Killeen (which flopped pitifully), and I believe he was hoping and praying it would erupt into real violence, because he advised members of his congregation to carry guns, in case some of us witches decided to snatch his kids.

Can you spell “bizarre?” We would never, of course, kidnap children, but could someone please explain to me why we are supposed to want them? And, in particular, why we would want his offspring? I thought the idea of sacrificing Christian babies was discarded when the Nazis falsely accused the Jews of it. This is more of the same bigoted excrement.

In terms of our current century, Hollywood hasn’t helped us much, either. Sick, twisted individuals who worship evil have always existed, and sadly, I’m afraid they will for a very long time to come. They pervert the Christian cross by inverting it, and sometimes, they invert our sacred symbol, the pentagram, as well. Hollywood directors just can’t seem to get it right, though. They consistently show evil ceremonies prominently displaying the pentagram right side up.

When the pentagram is displayed properly, the symbolism is that of a man standing upright within a circle, meaning uprightness and spirit over flesh. In other traditions, the five points represent the four elements (fire, air, earth, water) surmounted by aether - or spirit. In any case, spirit is on top. Needless to say, the symbolism of an inverted pentagram is obscene to us, just as the symbolism of an inverted cross is obscene to you if you are a Christian. Because most Christians have seen movies in which evil ceremonies were presided over by an upright pentagram, they are upset and frightened when they meet a Wiccan wearing one. That’s understandable enough, but it should be corrected by education.

Other reasons for fear again date back to medieval times. The reasons have mostly been forgotten, but the fear remains. During medieval times, life was unpleasant. In fact, it was downright horrible for the peasants. Christianity taught the peasants that it didn’t matter, that the material world was to be shunned in favor of a reward in the Christian Heaven. Wiccans did not, and do not, agree. I can still remember my first teacher telling me that it would be difficult to cultivate my spiritual nature until at least my basic physical needs - as in food, shelter, warmth - were met. We are taught that achieving success at another’s expense is wrong (remember we are permitted to harm none!), but success in itself is actually a virtue. In medieval times, daring to hope and work for success was dangerous thinking. It might even have led to a collapse of feudalism. So the Christian hatred of that tenet of Wicca was one part envy, one part fear.

Another envy/fear combination had to do with the fact that Wicca is fun. The Old Religion is filled with laughter and playfulness. Our ceremonies are wonderful parties, full of happy tipsiness and flirtation. By comparison, medieval Christian practices were rather grim. Somehow, the Christians who were trying to convert us had to convince us that slipping off into the woods for a bonfire and a roaring good time wasn’t such a good idea. Do what they would, though, they couldn’t get us to give up our fun. Quite logically under the circumstances, they “borrowed” from us. The use of song and chants in ritual (although why the church couldn’t manage happy song, I can’t say), incense (borrowed from Mithraic ritual)- even some actual elements of ritual itself. You can hear echoes of our cakes and ale ceremony in Christian Communion. Oh, I don’t doubt that Jesus of Nazareth had bread and wine during his Last Supper! That’s as may be, but I don’t think the contents of his last meal became a central part of Christian ceremonies until Christianity clashed with the Old Religion in Europe.

Where did Jesus get the idea in the first place? Mithras, who died following a ritual meal of bread and wine? Or the cakes and ale of the Old Religion? Scary question, isn’t it? For the record, I believe it was Mithras, as he was the secret god of many of the Roman troops occupying Palestine at the time of Jesus of Nazareth. Nevertheless, enough Roman troops were European “barbarians” that it is just possible that some elements of our faith were known to Jesus himself.

20th Century Christian practices never struck me as being a barrel of laughs, either. Wiccans are still having fun. So there is bound to be some ongoing envy, if not outright fear.

Please do not misunderstand. I am not bashing Christians! Those who practice their faith honestly have no part in this hatred and fanaticism. Most are decent men and women, and I am proud to call many of them my friends. When the Rev. Jack Harvey called for a Christian boycott of the Armed Forces over this pagan worship controversy, Rev. Pat Robertson had the courage to publicly withdraw from the boycott and state it was wrong. I refer only to the dignified lack of humor in the Christian faith as it has been practiced down through the centuries. It does not speak to my heart at all.

Also, if I am to be completely honest, I must admit that pagans aren’t completely innocent in the dirty tricks department. The so-called Cult of Mary, which existed within Roman Catholicism for so many centuries, was actually a secret form of “safe” Goddess worship.

I wonder how many Christians know how many of their holidays were originally ours?

Samhain, our New Year celebration, when the walls between the worlds are at their thinnest and our beloved dead walk and feast among us, became Christian All Hallows or Halloween. One ceremony used by pagans to encourage a rich crop (although not at Samhain, which is after the harvest) was the sweeping of brooms over the planted fields. To early Christians watching from a distance, it must have looked like the witches were riding on the brooms or trying to do so. Since Samhain was known to be the witches’ most important holiday, witches riding on broomsticks became the symbol of Halloween. Not so surprising at all.

Yule, or the winter solstice, when we celebrate the birth of the Sun God to Mother Earth and Father Time, was borrowed for the birthday of the Christian Jesus. Most Christian scholars agree that Jesus was actually born in the spring. The Yule log, the tree, and even the Nativity Crche were originally pagan customs. If you have Wiccan friends, and you thought they were only protecting themselves by displaying a Nativity Crche at Christmas, you were wrong. We had Nativity Crches long before you came along to convert us!

Imbolc, our festival of light, when we celebrate the start of the Mother’s return to us, along with the birth of new lambs and flowers awakening under the snow, became Christian Candlemas.

Beltane, our famous (and infamous) fertility celebration when we leap the bonfires in joy at the arrival of summer, became May Day, famous for playful fertility celebrations throughout the Christian world.

Lammas, or August 1st, when we celebrate the fruitfulness of the land - well, how many Christians have celebrated the rich harvest to come down through the centuries?

There are many, many more examples of “borrowing.”

And therein lies the real root of the problem.

The thing a few fanatical Christians fear most of all is being forced to admit our kinship, because after nearly 2,000 years of borrowing, we aren’t so very different anymore.

About the Author

At a tiny 5′1″, Kathryn A. Graham is a licensed private investigator, pilot, aircraft mechanic and handgun instructor in Texas. Also a prolific author, she has written numerous articles, short stories and a science fiction novel. http://www.kathrynagraham.com/

Funny wedding toasts - add some quick humor to your toast

So you’re going to a wedding. Whether you’re the father, best
man, or what have you, you’re going to give a wedding toast.
Wedding toasts are short one liners and are something along the
lines of: “To the Bride and Groom - may your following years
together be filled with much happiness and joy.” But, that’s
pretty plain and dry - not very funny. With a little humor we
can create some pretty funny wedding toasts.

Funny toasts are not at all hard to write. Just make sure you
don’t over do it and come across looking like a jerk at the
wedding. So let’s quickly throw together some funny wedding
toasts to say…

1.) To the groom: “May you have many happy nights…taking out
the trash.”

2.) To the groom: “Congrats. Your bride is very lovely - but
what happened to that cute chick you were with last week?”

3.) An old one but a favorite: “To our wives and lovers -
hopefully they never meet!”

OK, so those aren’t the most funny or clever toasts ever, but I
came up with the first two in a matter of minutes. The point is
that you can bring some humor to the wedding by writing some
funny toasts.