HERE’S another tale for the You Couldn’t Make It Up archives: a 36-year-old Wiccan woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot while giving thanks … for a run of good luck.
Katherine Gunther, of Lebanon, Indiana, pierced her left foot with the sword while performing the rite at Oak Hill Cemetery.
According to Worldwide Religious News, Gunther said she was performing a ceremony that involved the use of candles, incense and driving swords into the ground during the full moon.
The light couldn’t have been too good, for Gunther drove the sword into her foot instead of the ground.
She ruefully said:
It wasn’t the first time I performed the ritual, but it was the first time I put a sword through my foot.
She immediately pulled the sword out of her foot, and her companions took her to Witham Memorial Hospital, where she was kept for treatment for two days.
No charges were filed, according to the local police. But the Wiccans were warned that being in the cemetery after visiting hours constitutes trespassing.
Wicca is a nature-based religion based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons. Most conservative Christians have a horror of Wiccans, noted for their absence of discrimination.
Many teenagers are repulsed by the current level of discrimination within some Christian churches in the areas of gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, and marital status. They see Wicca as being more tolerant, more accepting of diversity, and promoting a higher standard of morality than many Christian denominations.
And, of course, there’s something sexy and edgy about wielding swords by the light of the moon …
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The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 26th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Is this is the mediaeval equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot? And do ‘New Age’ religions really have to try so hard to be as ridiculous as the mainstream ones?
July 27th, 2008 at 2:08 am
Heh.
there’s something sexy and edgy about wielding swords by the light of the moon …
In this case, pointy, as well as edgy.